Heavy spoilers ahead for “Squid Game” Season 2.
“Squid Game” Season 2 was a bold direction for the Netflix phenomenon. The season addresses head-on that the show’s audience is now familiar with its concept. So, rather than trying to shock viewers with new surprises or reveals, it leans into repetitiveness, replicating the same twists as the first season and even repeating one of the games.
And yet, it works because Season 2 is all about the feeling of inevitability within the framework with the show. Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk weaponizes the fact that audiences craved more “Squid Game” and makes them regret it, delivering a much crueler and bloodier season. It starts with the new change to the games’ format. You see, in Season 2, the 456 players participating in a series of deadly schoolyard childhood games for a chance at winning ₩45.6 billion have a way out. After each round, the participants are given the chance to vote on whether they want to keep playing or split the money already earned (which increases with every dead participant). It brings the players’ greed and horror to the forefront, as the players are literally voting with their lives.
The second season then ended with a shocking shootout and an attempted revolution among the Squid Game participants. Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), in particular, manages to team up with some of the other participants to steal guns and fight their way to the control center of the games. Unfortunately, they’re betrayed by the Front Man (Lee Byung-Hun), who executes Gi-hun’s friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan) while Gi-hun watches in horror.
Now, fresh images from the upcoming third and final season of “Squid Game” have revealed exactly what happened to Gi-hun after that. The good news is that he’s alive. The bad news is Gi-hun has been handcuffed to one of the dormitory beds and seemingly forced to keep playing the death games.
Gi-Hun is back for another round of the games
Was Gi-hun ever going to just die off-screen in between seasons? Hell no. Of course, the big surprise isn’t that Gi-hun is alive, it’s that he’s currently handcuffed to a bed. This seems to indicate that the Front Man and the games’ organizers are hellbent on forcing Gi-hun to play in the next game, and they know if they let him out of their sight for a second he will try to escape again. It makes sense though; Gi-hun on his own is not going to be able to disrupt the games and has already failed at an uprising once.
Season 3 of “Squid Game” has many questions it needs to answer before the series comes to an end — the most pressing one involving the discovery that Player 001 is actually the Front Man. In Season 1, Gi-hun only found out one of his fellow participants had betrayed him after he won the games, but in the wake of the foiled rebellion, will everyone else just ignore what happened and keep playing until they die? Hopefully, Gi-hun will find a way to weaponize his knowledge and end the games once and for all — preferably by the show finally having Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) locate the island where the games take place.
“Squid Game” Season 3 will premiere June 27, 2025, on Netflix.
