As rapidly because it started, the “Squid Recreation” Season 2 binge is over — and the look ahead to Season 3 begins.
Hwang Dong-hyuk’s Netflix sensation returned on December 26 after greater than three years, plunging Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) again into the world of lethal kids’s video games performed by determined adults competing for cash. The preliminary episodes caught up with him three years after profitable the video games featured in Season 1, now utilizing his cash and sources to seek out the Recruiter (Gong Yoo).
In his Season 2 evaluate, IndieWire’s Ben Travers famous that “Hwang does a wonderful job justifying Participant 456 re-entering the world, however he struggles to justify how Gi-hun goes about placing an finish to those battle royales.” That is in all probability the primary frustration as soon as G-hun rejoins the sport: He has no plan. After saving as many gamers as doable throughout Crimson Mild, Inexperienced Mild, his inside data of the video games is rapidly rendered ineffective when new ones are launched. He can’t persuade all of the gamers to cease taking part in as a result of there are at all times those that wish to keep, and he can’t entry the remainder of the island as a result of he’s locked in with the opposite contestants. But when he may do any of these items, once more: What was his plan? How does stepping again into his inexperienced tracksuit finally serve the upper objective of ending the video games as soon as and for all?
An amazing TV present as soon as instructed me: “With sufficient cash and dedication, you could find anybody.” That is neither right here or there with Season 2 out and Season 3 firmly on the best way, however certainly Gi-hun may have used his wealth to do greater than fill a room with weapons and rent folks to patrol practice stations? For a person so deeply affected by what he skilled within the video games, his resolution to return is impulsive at greatest — however serves one thing even greater than the story: the underside line. “Gi-hun’s fierce convictions concerning the Squid Recreation come and go together with the wants of ‘Squid Recreation’,” Travers explains. “Viewers wish to watch the video games, and for some time, Gi-hun has to close up and play.”
And he does — for some time.
The Warfare
Let’s not waste extra time questioning why Gi-hun waited so long as he did to incite a revolt towards the guards (all hail Netflix!) and concentrate on what occurs as soon as he does. He tells a choose group of allies to cover beneath the beds in the course of the inevitable violence that can escape at bedtime, hoping that they survive the carnage lengthy sufficient to pose among the many useless as soon as the guards enter. Whereas being scanned for indicators of life, they assault the guards and steal their weapons.
The present’s flip to militarized warfare is extra jarring than most TV and movie gunfights, maybe due to how the video games intentionally infantilize gamers. All the pieces they expertise is a scaled-up model of childhood: carrying matching garments, following guidelines about bedtime and mealtime, and, in fact, the video games themselves. The violence is visceral and crude, and the deaths are generally unintended. The weapons make everybody grownup once more and firmly divide those that can use them from those that can’t.
The Casualties
A handful of gamers and seemingly dozens of guards are killed in ensuing battle, whereas Gi-hun leads a gaggle towards the management middle that features Jung-bae (Lee Web optimization-Hwan) and “Younger-Il” (Lee Byung-hun) — aka In-ho aka Entrance Man in disguise — Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul), Kyung-seok (Lee Jin-wook), and Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon).
The remainder of the unnamed gamers with them die all through the episode, ratcheting up the stakes for these we all know higher. Dae-ho served within the navy like Jung-bae, however the gunfire rattles him immensely. He volunteers to seize ammunition from the dormitory maybe simply to get away from the sound of bullets, however as he heads again towards it, he can’t convey himself to go. It’s one of many extra shocking and potent twists within the episode, and the primary cause the rebel is stifled shortly after. Kyung-seok’s remaining moments are tensely drawn, the likelihood dangled that the guard dealing with him could possibly be No-eul (Park Gyu-young) and he’ll be spared to go house to his daughter — however whoever it’s shoots him within the chest, and Kyung-seok crumples.
On another present, I’d accuse this finale of the “Recreation of Thrones” downside, so named for the eponymous anyone-could-die-at-any-moment TV present that didn’t kill off a single main character for the ultimate few seasons, ostensibly to maintain their followers coming again for extra. The “Squid Recreation” Season 2 finale protects the pregnant Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri), mother-son gamers Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim) and Yong-sik (Yang Dong-geun), and Hyun-ju. However that is “Squid Recreation,” the place that many individuals residing to see the subsequent season truly goes what is predicted, and positively what’s prescribed for his or her destiny. “Squid Recreation” Season 1 launched a whole solid of characters who audiences misplaced painfully all through its period, and “Squid Recreation 2” retains most of them alive — for now.
There may be nonetheless heartbreak within the finale, as Gi-hun watches Jung-bae killed proper earlier than him, shot by Entrance Man to indicate him the value of “taking part in hero.” The one factor Gi-hun needed to lose within the video games was taken from him — his buddy’s demise explicitly blamed on his actions. The previous Gi-hun, the one which Jung-bae introduced out at moments, might lastly be gone for good.
The Enemy
Characters didn’t know a lot about In-ho earlier than Season 2, and after these seven episodes he’s nonetheless fairly a thriller — and deadlier than ever. This can be a man who survived the video games, however that doesn’t imply he approached them the best way Gi-hun did and wasn’t a ruthless killer even with a quantity on his again. He lies with ease whereas posing as Participant 001, at instances relishing the sport he’s taking part in with Gi-hun (this man loves video games!) whereas betraying a begrudging respect for his de facto opponent.
It’s no shock to the viewers when he kills a participant in the course of the video games, and even when he poses as a part of Gi-hun’s rebel and permits so many masked males to die (whereas risking demise himself). Although Season 2 opened the door into who the troopers are and what drives them, questions loom about what would drive somebody to take this job, and what makes them certified.
After capturing two of the opposite rebels, he switches to the employees radio channel and says one thing subtitled as “Let’s wrap it up,” with Lee’s efficiency demonstrating this character’s degree of management, even in a scenario as lethal and chaotic because the one unfolding round him. He doesn’t query the guards’ loyalty or concern being discovered. He and Gi-hun each entered the sport spontaneously, and this deserves the identical query: What was his plan? Jung-bae’s demise can’t have been a part of some grasp scheme, even when it was a sensible time for In-ho to return to being Entrance Man and ship Gi-hun a message. Did he study something new about Gi-hun that can finish his campaign? Why enter the sport in any respect? Did he actually simply do it for a vibe, as a result of he likes to recreation?
That Final Scene
Episode 7, “Good friend or Foe,” ends abruptly, with Gi-hun sobbing subsequent to Jung-bae’s physique as the feminine announcer declares Participant 390 eradicated. However after a fast scroll of credit, there’s another scene. A number of gamers — or at the least, folks in tracksuits numbered 096, 100, and 353 — strategy Younger-hee, the large doll that watches over Crimson Mild, Inexperienced Mild. There’s a whole lot of background chatter that means extra folks current, and a male doll of the identical dimension and elegance. The sunshine switches from pink to inexperienced, and that’s it. The world certain appears prefer it’s indoors, not like the staged out of doors setting of Crimson Mild, Inexperienced Mild, with Younger-hee suspended from the ceiling like a museum piece. The one certainty is that this isn’t a part of the video games, and it’s the closest factor we’ll get to a Season 3 teaser for fairly a while.
“Squid Recreation” will return for a 3rd and remaining season in 2025.