Squid Game will forever be an iconic Korean TV series, this is because it is a shift from romantic Korean dramas to Hollywood standard production filled with blood, horror and uncertainty of survival.
First released in 2021, it was Netflix’s most-watched TV series and the most-watched program in 94 countries. It is the first non-English work to be nominated for Outstanding Drama Series.
The second season of the show was released in December 2024, with the third season coming this year.
Season One Recap
Set in a capitalist South Korean system of government. Squid game season 1 revolved around 456 players in a game. These players were crippled by financial debts and sought a way out. This they were to do by playing children’s game at an unknown location for the price of 45.6 billion won.
They were all introduced to the game by a recruiter, who engaged them in a sort of warm up game. After which, he gave them a card. The entire game is organised by a foreman and backed up by foreign investors.
What was supposed to be a friendly game of hard work, skill and luck became bloody, wrapped in greed and the innate human desire to win at all costs.
The main character, Player 456, Seong Gi-hun is a gambling addict who manages to survive on what he gets from his mum while piling up debts. Scared by the thought of losing his mother to a terminal illness, he becomes a participant in the squid game. Little did he know that the rule of the game entails that the failure of a participant means death.
Making it to the end of the game as a lone survivor, Gi-hun takes home 45.6 billion won alongside guilt, and the memory of how 455 people he had shared a room with had died horribly.
Squid Game Season 2 Recap
At the end of season 1, most viewers were content with the ending of the show, even though unanswered questions hovered around. For example, what does the future hold for Gi-hun? Will the game continue? What would Gi-hun use the money for?
But Netflix said, “Hold on, we will answer all your questions with two new seasons.” So everyone looked forward to it, and in December 2024, immediately after the Christmas celebration, the second season dropped.
With so much anticipation and excitement, everyone flocked to Netflix and this is what season 2 had in store:
Player 456 Searches For The Recruiter
Enraged by how the game ended and desperately seeking vengeance. Gi-hun starts a search for the recruiter. Gi-hun searched for him for 3 years until they crossed paths. This led to the recruiter killing himself but not before leaving Gi-hun with information on how to get to the foreman.
Player 456 Returns To The Game
After a failed attempt to kill the Foreman, Gi-hun requests to be put back into the game with the plan of destroying it from its root. Back in the game, Gi-hun tries to convey to the new players the dangers of the game to bring the whole thing to a close.
New Game Rules
In season one, the rules were that if a player loses a game, he dies. If the players all come together to put a stop to the game, the game automatically comes to an end. In the second season, the rules are tweaked, losing still leads to elimination but now at the end of each game, there will be a vote, if the majority of the players agree to end the game, the amount of money accumulated so far would be split among the surviving players and the game ends.
New Games
Having a past participant (Gi-hun) in the game meant the games had to be changed. After Gi-hun briefed the players about the rules of the first game “red light, green light”, the game became compromised as more people than expected made it to the next stage. This made the organisers introduce a new set of games.
Financial Crises
Almost every player in the game is in a crippling financial situation, soaked in debt and running away from loan sharks. Their situation is so bad that they’d rather die playing a game where the odds of survival are stacked against them than go home and face their money problems. This made it easy for the organisers of the game to manipulate them into participating in the deadly game.
Psychological Manipulation
The organisers of the game employed psychology to maintain control over the participants. They did this by intentionally depriving the players of sleep, making them irritable and prone to aggression. The idea of voting to stay or leave was also intentional. It created a rift, created two opposite groups of individuals, those who wanted to stay and those who wanted to leave, it made them enemies of each other.
In the scene where they took a vote and there was a tie, the vote could have been re-done immediately but the organisers said to wait till the next day and equipped the players with weapons, a fork at dinner. Alongside the high tension, the anger of each group against each other was at its peak. Players who wanted to continue the game attacked their opposition with the fork, to reduce their opponents and have a better chance at winning the vote the next day.
Lastly, the idea of allowing the players to vote to determine their fate was a calculated move. It created FOMO (Fear of missing out). Players thought if they left, they would lose the opportunity to win more and this kept them in the game. Eventually, it made them see their opposition as enemies of their future wealth.
Modern Characters
Season 2 has a modern approach as it includes modern characters like Player 333 who is a young tech-savvy guy who ventured into the world of digital finance, Bitcoin, like youths do today.
We could tell that he was a king in the game as he had successfully convinced player 230 and player 124 to invest in a coin that later flopped and drove them all into debt. This is a contemporary reality as most youths are currently experiencing this.
Human Greed
In the squid game, we see that greed is the root of so many evils, it drives the players to betray their morality and attack themselves. Those who were physically stronger attacked the weaker players because the more players eliminated, the prize money for each person increased.
The Revolution
At the end of season 2, Gi-hun calls for a revolution against the organisers of the game. Joined by his friend and some other players, they attacked the game’s security officials, collected their guns and fought their way to the administrative buildings. As they proceeded, their plans began to fall apart.
Ratings 9/10
Final Thoughts
Netizens were skeptical about a sequel to Squid’s game when it was first announced. Nobody wanted the perfect series to be milked and become valueless as most series today. But with this second season, Netflix has proven that this TV show will not die in their hands.
With a great storyline and an amazing cast list, the series has retained its title of one of the best to grace television. It is currently Netflix’s third most-watched series with an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Now, we eagerly await season 3.
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