Caemeron Crain
The following contains spoilers for Squid Game Season 2 (written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk)
In thematic terms, I wasn’t sure that Squid Game needed to extend beyond its first season. It’s true that the Season 1 finale leaves the door explicitly open to a story about Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) trying to end the games, but insofar as the games are clearly an analogue for late capitalism, we know in advance that this will be futile.
Season 2 presents us with the futility of that struggle. Its first two episodes center around Gi-hun trying to find the Recruiter (Gong Yoo), and we’re told that this search has been going on for two years. Finally, Gi-hun finds him and they play a rousing game of Russian Roulette. Since they agreed not to spin the barrel of the gun between each round, the Recruiter knows that following the rules of the game will lead him to shoot himself in the head on his final turn, but he does it anyway. He could have shot Gi-hun instead, but that would have been cheating.
It’s clear that the Recruiter believes in the rules, and believes that the deadly games he has been involved with are fair because they follow these rules. This is exemplified in how behaves at the park in “Bread and Lottery”—people chose lottery tickets so no one gets the leftover sandwiches. Those are just the rules.
In contrast, the actions of the Front Man/In-ho (Lee Byung-hun) over the course of Squid Game Season 2 show that the rules are just a façade when it comes down to it. They aren’t binding on those with real power; they serve to create an illusion of fairness for those who are being exploited. There is no morality, only power and grace.
I want to be clear that I’m not endorsing this view, though it is increasingly hard to reject it in the face of world events. I would contend that morality exists, metaphysically if you like—the problem is that no one cares. Or, better, the one who cares is bound to seem like our naïve friend Gi-hun.
Gi-hun’s intiial plan to end the games seems to be to try to kidnap the Front Man. When that doesn’t work (because of course it doesn’t work), he shifts to the request to be put back in the games, which are about the begin. His plan here would seem to hinge on the tracker he’s hidden in a fake tooth in his mouth, which should enable his team of mercenaries to find the location of the games.
That doesn’t work because these people are professionals. They find and remove the tracking device while Gi-hun is unconscious (because of course they do), so Gi-hun has to try to figure out what to do within the structure of the games.
The first game is Red Light/Green Light, as it was in Season 1, so Gi-hun warns everyone that if they’re caught moving they will be killed, and further works to make sure as many people survive as possible. Then, he calls for a vote to end the games, which you’ll recall was successful in Season 1.
It isn’t this time because In-ho shows up as 001 to cast the deciding vote in favor of the games continuing.
In one way, this parallels what occurred in Season 1, particularly since we know in retrospect that Il-nam (Oh Yeong-su) created the games and had inserted himself as 001 that time around. But, whereas Il-nam took part in Red Light/Green Light, In-ho has not done so. We clearly see him watching the action of that game from his suite, just like in Season 1. He’s decided to insert himself because of how he saw things go.
That in itself is a violation of the rules that are supposed to structure the Squid Game, but what’s further striking is how In-ho casts the deciding vote, undermining any sense that this process has been democratic. It’s not just a tyranny of the majority problem that we confront here, but one where the man in charge has put his thumb on the scale. The question is why.
We know from Season 1 that In-ho is a former winner of the games. I speculated in my Season 1 write-up that he has to be telling himself that the games are fair, given this history and his current role in running them, but Season 2 makes clear that I was incorrect. His truth is rather that there is no justice, there is no fairness—there is only power and grace. He wants to teach Gi-hun that lesson.
If In-ho were merely concerned with how Gi-hun disrupted the first game, he could have had him killed pretty easily during the game itself. Gi-hun was moving when he wasn’t supposed to be, after all, even if he was covering his mouth so the motion detector couldn’t see it. All the Front Man would have had to do was give an order to one of the snipers to take Gi-hun out and it’s hard to see how anyone would have questioned it.
Instead, he enters the game as a contestant, with the immediate goal of becoming Gi-hun’s friend. He’s affable. Gi-hun likes him, and so do we. He seems to have his head on straight. But I think all of the guards know who he is and that they aren’t allowed to kill him. I wonder how things would have gone if Gi-hun hadn’t attempted his rebellion, or if In-ho saw that move coming.
The chaos in the barracks was certainly predictable. It happened in Season 1, and it seems clear to me that it is part of the overall plan for the games, initiated by giving the players metal forks that can be used as weapons.
This time, though, Gi-hun’s plan is to use the fracas to turn the tables on the guards. He and his friends (including In-ho) manage to do this effectively. They get their hands on guns and start killing pink soldiers left and right. But, of course, when it comes down to it, they are outnumbered. Plus, In-ho secretly betrays the group, pretends to die, puts his Front Man outfit back on, and kills Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan) while asking Gi-hun if he enjoyed playing the hero.
Again, In-ho wants to teach Gi-hun a lesson. You could say he wants to break his spirit, but more than anything he wants Gi-hun to admit to himself that he should have gotten on that plane, that humanity is inherently ruthless, and so on. There is no morality, only power and grace.
That’s how Season 2 ends, and it’s hard to be optimistic about the prospect of Gi-hun managing to destroy the games in Season 3. His rebellion has failed, and the group he has searching for the island isn’t having any success in finding it.
It is worth noting that this group is led by Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), who is In-ho’s brother. I don’t know that there is much cause to hope for this ultimately swaying anything, though. It certainly didn’t in Season 1. Plus I think that Captain Park (Oh Dal-su) is working for the bad guys.
What could be more interesting in Season 3 is the role that No-eul (Park Gyu-young) might play as the story progresses. We’re introduced to her in Season 2 in the outisde world, as a worker at a theme park who has lost her child while escaping North Korea, but we ultimately learn that she’s a pink soldier in the Squid Game.
It’s easy to see all of the death that ensues from Gi-hun’s failed rebellion as par for the course, but we should maybe be wondering how the guards feel about it. That’s not really supposed to be part of the job!
If there is any hope for a “happy ending” in Squid Game Season 3, I think it would have to hang on these employees (or some of them) turning on their masters, in solidarity with the players. After all, the pink soldiers are being exploited, too.
