The second season of “Squid Game” was released on Netflix on Dec. 26, over three years after the release of season one. Like the previous season, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk wrote and directed all episodes. Lee Jung-jae returns as the protagonist Seong Gi-hun.
The plot takes place three years after where season one left off, with Gi-hun devoting himself to ending the games instead of flying to the United States to be with his daughter. Similarly, Hwang Jun-ho is determined to find the island where the games are located. Viewers were also able to see the perspective of a pink guard, Kang No-eul as Guard 011.
Gi-hun and Jun-ho team up to find the games and the Front Man. Gi-hun decides to return as Player 456 again while Jun-ho loses track of his location. However, Gi-hun is not entirely alone in this year’s games because his old friend Park Jung-bae is a player too.
New characters arrive this season with unique and complex motives. Viewers are introduced to a famous rapper, a crypto influencer, a pregnant woman, a shaman, a transgender woman, a mother-and-son duo, and many more personalities. Gi-hun is unaware that the Front Man, Hwang In-ho, disguises himself as Player 001, a tactic mirroring what the creator of the games, Oh Il-nam, pulled in the previous season.
Gi-hun attempts to warn the players of how the games work and encourages them to vote to leave. However, his efforts fall upon deaf ears. Many of the games were also different from Gi-hun’s attempt, causing players’ frustration and skepticism towards him.
After red-light green-light, contestants played the six-legged pentathlon consisting of five smaller children’s games: ddakji, biseokchigi, gonggi, spinning top, and Jegichagi. Another game was mingle, which requires players to enter rooms in groups based on the announced number. With a time limit for both games, many players were eliminated after failing to make it to the finish line or reaching a room with the correct number of people.
Surviving players continue to vote to stay in the games to increase their share of the prize money, a change from season one. Another rule change is that players must wear their recent vote on their jackets, which creates alliances and division among the players.
The season’s ending leaves the plot open for continuation, creating suspense for season 3, the final season set to be released in 2025. Fans inferred from the pictures on the walls that the next games may involve monkey bars and human chess. A short teaser in the post-credits showed a girl doll, Young-hee from the red-light green-light game, with a boy doll which is inferred to be Cheol-su.
Season two received overall positive reviews, although Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus said the season “[loses] the element of surprise, some absolutely diabolical challenges and a knotty moral outlook keep this sophomore season thrilling.”
The season also drew criticism from South Koreans for casting Choi Seung-Hyun, more commonly known as T.O.P, for the role of Thanos the rapper due to his 2017 marijuana conviction, although his history was not held to such scrutiny in other countries. In addition, there was criticism for casting Park Sung-hoo, a cisgender male, to play Cho Hyun-Ju, a transgender female ex-soldier. Hwang has stated he wanted to cast a transgender actress but faced difficulty due to Korean society’s disapproval of LGBTQ+ people.
“When we researched in Korea, there are close to no actors that are openly trans, let alone openly gay, because unfortunately in the Korean society currently the LGBTQ community is rather still marginalized and more neglected, which is heartbreaking,” Hwang said.
In addition to portraying the experiences of marginalized identities, Hwang has also stated he wanted to explore the role of the police. “I see it on the global news that the police force can be very late on acting on things,” Hwang said. “There are more victims or a situation gets worse because of them not acting fast enough.” Hwang managed to accomplish this goal by portraying the struggles of Guard 011, players who were ex-Marines, and the stress of policeman Jun-ho working alongside loan sharks.
Similar to the first season, season two continues to critique capitalism and the struggles of organizing against capitalism. With players like Gi-hun attempting to overthrow the system, infiltrators like the Front Man, and the lack of resources, revolutionaries are held back. Revolutionaries’ efforts have also led to the deaths of its supporters, shortening overall support.
This season also explores the themes of the illusion of choice, greed, and democracy. Whether a character is choosing between bread and a lottery ticket or between voting to stay and voting to leave, the individual chooses between an ounce of hope or settling for short-term gratification inside of a harsh reality.
The season’s cliffhangers leave the viewers with more unanswered questions and hope for the survival of the remaining characters.
