BY: CARESSE LIANG / STAFF WRITER
The second season of the internationally acclaimed Squid Game returns to take viewers back into the playground, as it focuses back on the heavy stakes that the show introduced in season one.
Compiled in just seven episodes, the Squid Games continues its usage of trust, deception, and the unexpecting comeuppance of death to reel viewers into this twisted, rich-people entertainment filled with greed.
Watchers are immediately brought to Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), a now revengeful, guilt-ridden individual, traumatized from the deaths of his fellow allies from last season. While his striking pink hair doesn’t stay for long, his determination to end the games primarily withstands throughout the season.
Along with him, he recruits Huang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), an intelligent and brave police officer who is currently trying to hunt for his missing brother, Inho—the one who specifically participated in the Squid Games.
Together, with the help of money and the fortunate luck of being a cop, they both hunt for the secret island that hosts these events—albeit, without much luck. This dynamic duo is shown in episodes one and two, titled “Bread and Lottery” and “Halloween Party,” respectively.
These two episodes were interesting, to say the least. While I got to see these characters again, the main spotlight was held onto the Squid Game salesman (Gong Yoo)—or just The Recruiter—and his dark backstory. It’s surprising how a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors can induce such heightened anxiety and fear—with the addition of Russian Roulette.
Enthralled with both the Recruiter and the island, Seong Gi-hun eventually finds himself back in the games—with the help of a shady man named Front Man (Lee Byung-hun). While he’s ominous and cunning, season one revealed the Front Man to be Inho, who shot Jun-ho into the cold ocean. How cold.
However, Gi-hun is not alone. With some familiar faces coming back into the spotlight, so has the introduction of newer characters that fans have come to enjoy.
While they all share the same struggles of debt and shame, many fans have acknowledged the presence of various characters.
As quoted by IGN, “a former YouTuber in trouble for slinging faulty crypto (Im Si-wan), his pregnant and savvy ex (Jo Yu-ri), a mother-son duo looking to collectively pay off gambling debt (Kang Ae-shim and Yang Dong-geun, respectively), a young former marine (Kang Ha-neul), and a menacing former shaman (Chae Kook-hee).”
While there were a lot of new people to root for, there were two that primarily stuck out.
Cho Hyun-ju, a transgender woman who looks to use the prize money to find asylum in Thailand, and Thanos, a broke rapper who wants to use the money to pay off his cryptocurrency debts and openly uses drugs to achieve this.
My personal favorites were Cho Hyun-ju, Jang Geum-ja (the mother), and Kim Jun-hee (the pregnant ex). I personally felt that they had striking personalities that prevailed against the domineering presence of the men and proved that they stood a chance of winning the games. I was pleasantly satisfied with how each character was portrayed and I’m glad they lived.
From the beginning of episode 3, Gi-hun finds himself face-to-face with the same framework of Red Light, Green Light—if you lose, you die. Miraculously, he saves more people compared to the previous playthrough.
However, being a hero is not always the case in these shows. In episodes 4-7, viewers found themselves encountering a plethora of plot twists and scare tactics. To add to the tension, a new device was introduced: voting.
In short, after each game, players will vote between staying in the games or leaving and dividing the accumulated prize money among themselves.
Now, I thought of this as a beautiful showcase of how the hunger for riches and desire can possess someone’s mind. Choosing between staying alive with some money or withstanding a chance to win against 456 people for a whole wad is merely about our own personal motives.
Season two of Squid Game serves itself on a clean plate, but there are some cracks. I found it lackluster compared to the previous season. Now, I loved the way it used backstory and interpersonal relationships to build sympathy for these characters, and as always, the set design is vibrantly unique against boring remakes.
It comments on how greed corrupts both the rich and the poor, the evil and the good, and withstands itself against the unfortunate cause of death. It comes together as players hunt each other in order to survive and win the ₩45.6 billion (or $31,335,467) for themselves.
Nonetheless, I felt that every game and voting sequence was overextended and repetitive. I liked the concept of the new games, Mingle and Six-Legged Pentathlon, but they continue the same framework that Squid Game wants to be: a deadly competition that seems to have no end.
Even the director and creator, Hwang Dong-Hyuk, commented on the production of this season.
He told Variety, “I had no intention of doing a second season,” famously quoting that he lost nine teeth making the season. But, he felt immensely under-compensated for the first season, which made him come back to finish the show for both season two and the future season three.
Overall, I’m not frankly moved by the second season of Squid Game. I feel that it was made to make money and satisfy corporate companies. They could’ve done a better job by changing the voting process a little bit more and showing more ways Gi-hun can destroy the games internally.
Rating 7.5/10
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