Despite being released three years after its first season, fans of Netflix’s “Squid Game” showed equal, if not increased, hype for the sequel, and after releasing all seven episodes on Thursday, Dec. 26, “Squid Game Season 2” skyrocketed to first on Netflix Global Top 10 and amassed 68 million views in its debut.
Even though the season aired during Sunny Hills’ winter break, the excitement over the show was apparent before its release, during the break among friends, and after the return to campus, where students could be heard discussing the plot during lunch or class.
Season 2 manages to live up to its predecessor’s praise, once again balancing comedy alongside seat-gripping tension and thoughtful themes, making it an equally exciting watch.
The new installment of the 2021 show follows the protagonist Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae, “Revolver”), also known as Player 456, in joining the Squid Games for a second time with one mission in mind: to finally put them to an end.
After deciding not to board the flight to see his daughter and calling the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun, “Concrete Utopia”), the overseer of the Squid Games, Seong Gi-hun says he will not forgive the Front Man nor forget the atrocities he’s witnessed, sparking his path of revenge.
While recurring character detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon, “The Midnight Romance in Hagwon”) continues his investigation to find the Front Man, who was revealed to be his brother in the first season, Seong Gi-hun forms new yet uneasy alliances in the games and uncovers secrets about those in power. Internal power struggles among the pink soldiers within the organization and their morals conflicting with their actions add further tension, leading to a climactic rebellion where Player 456 and his allies attempt to take down the system.
However, unexpected betrayals and shocking twists leave the fate of the characters uncertain, setting the stage for the next season.
From the first episode, “Bread and Lottery,” director Hwang Dong-hyuk manages to replicate the first season’s humor while also addressing societal issues. Arguably, the most iconic scene occurs in this episode when loan sharks Mr. Kim (Kim Pub-lae, “Tale of the Nine Tailed”) and Woo-seok (Jun Suk-ho, “Love Next Door”) are on the hunt to find The Salesman (Gong Yoo, “The Trunk”), a recurring character who was seen in Season 1 playing Ddakji — a traditional Korean children’s game where players throw pieces of folded paper against each other to flip the opponent’s card over — with strangers.
When Mr. Kim and Woo-seok eventually find The Salesman, he’s at the park, offering the homeless the choice between receiving a piece of bread or a lottery ticket. When nearly all the homeless choose the lottery ticket and receive nothing, The Salesman walks up to the middle of the park and throws the rest of the bread on the floor before jumping on them, sending pieces flying into the air.
Not only is this scene hilarious, but Hwang manipulates it to express man’s greed and blind desire for money, and The Salesman uses this experiment to show how the people themselves choose to play the games, just like how they willingly choose a gamble over necessity.
This idea of choice is stressed even more when players receive the opportunity to vote out of the games entirely multiple times. Despite being given the chance to save themselves, the majority decides to continue as the prize money increases with every game, showing that they are playing out of their free will.
The director successfully continues to drive this humor alongside thematic depth by Episode 5, “One More Game,” through the new game Six-Legged Pentathlon, in which five players are tied together by their legs and must complete five games in five minutes and continue to keep viewers engaged till the seventh episode where they are left with a cliffhanger leaving them wanting to know more about what will happen to Seung Gi-hun.
Still, the pacing of the second season can feel a little rushed, with only seven episodes compared to the nine that Season 1 aired, and some viewers may feel that the cliffhanger ending is unfulfilling. With Season 3 announced to air in June 2025, Season 2 feels like it was all about forging a background for the third season to continue the series.
Despite this, with such pensive themes and the juxtaposition of comedy and tension throughout the seven episodes instilled through characters, viewers are left craving more.
Personas like Thanos (Choi Seung-hyun, “Big Bang: Still Life”) — a famous rapper who grapples with a drug problem and can often be seen goofing off in almost every game — offers novelty and entertainment.
From pushing other players during Red Light, Green Light to dancing while in a life-or-death situation, Thanos’ erratic behavior makes the show both interesting and unpredictable. The audience can simultaneously laugh at the character’s antics while also feeling apprehensive about what he might pull off.
Alongside a greater dose of comedic relief in Season 2, Hwang still gives the audience a chance to empathize with and grow fond of the characters.
Viewers might especially form a soft spot for characters such as transgender woman Jo Hyeon-ju (Park Sung-hoon, “Drama Stage”) or the older, sweet lady Jang Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim, “A Virtuous Business”) with their kind yet fierce personalities.
As a conservative nation, South Korean media rarely showcases transgender characters, nonetheless, in such a large show like “Squid Game.” But based on what the director shared with the media, the series’ fans will agree with his decision to push the buttons as it brings more awareness of gender issues that the culture faces today.
Although the traditional-minded Jang Geum-ja was initially unaccepting of Jo Hyeon-ju, they create a tight bond as they fight through life-or-death games, promoting empathy and acceptance toward the transgender minority.
The show also keeps the classic game of Red Light, Green Light showcased in Season 1 but replaces the rest with a fresh set of nostalgic children’s games for Korean viewers, with Six-Legged Pentathlon and Mingle, which require players to group up and enter rooms following a predetermined number. These additions bring forth a new exciting change from Season 1.
In fact, Season Two brought even more variation, with the audience getting a chance to see the perspective of the pink-suited, masked shooters in the game who are responsible for eliminating contestants. With the addition of Kang No-eul (Park Gyuyoung, “A Good Day to Be a Dog”), a former North Korean soldier who was recruited to be a shooter instead of a player, aspects like how the shooters dispose of the bodies and even tension among the pink characters are shown.
The parallelism between the seasons further exemplifies this dramatic irony. Seong Gi-hun is forced to relive his past as he desperately tries to warn the other players of what will happen if they keep playing, leading them through games such as the Red Light, Green Light.
However, his attempts are futile when the majority ignore him and choose to continue playing, and the audience is reminded of the brutal deaths in Season 1 and how a similar fate is bound to be repeated. Player 456’s failure in attempting to stop the games depicts the extent of mankind’s greed and also people’s desperation to luxuriously, even if it means risking their lives.
The audience can also see another parallel from Season 1 with Player One. In the first season, Oh Il-Nam (O Yeon-su, “Invited”), who was Player One, was revealed to be the creator of the Squid Games. Similarly, in the new season, the Front Man, who introduces himself as Hwang In-ho, joins the games himself as Player One, which Seong Gi-hun fails to catch.
These two power figures taking the same player number and joining the games reflect the overall connected nature between the seasons and create subsequent dramatic irony, making Season 2 equally as intriguing to watch as the first season.
With its new characters and final cliffhanger, the installment truly leaves the audience thirsting for more. Even though Season 2 feels more subdued with a less dark atmosphere than Season 1, “Squid Game” does an amazing job of balancing that humor with the show’s main themes and ominous tone, emphasizing once more how it’s not always fun and games.
