In the three years since Squid Game turned Netflix’s greatest property, it’s been straightforward to overlook simply why it was so standard to start with. The unflinching story of sophistication battle that mixed iconic visuals, schoolyard video games, and a nihilistic view of humanity, has largely been buried beneath ill-conceived actuality reveals, influencer knockoffs, cartoon-ish cell video games, and all method of name tie-ins. Just forward of the present’s return for season 2, Netflix outlined a staggering array of Squid Game collabs, masking every part from Call of Duty to Domino’s to Crocs to Johnnie Walker. If you actually wish to, you should buy Squid Game-branded beef jerky.
Luckily, whereas Netflix appears to have forgotten what Squid Game is definitely about — or, extra seemingly, was merely blinded by greenback indicators — collection creator Hwang Dong-hyuk actually hasn’t. The second season doesn’t discover plenty of new territory thematically however, as a substitute, cleverly expands the Squid Game universe whereas providing up a thriller that performs out like an much more brutal remix of the unique.
The new season picks up just a few years after the occasions of the primary, during which Seong Gi-hun, higher often called participant 456 (Lee Jung-jae, who adopted Squid Game fame with a starring function in Star Wars and his directorial debut), gained the preliminary video games. That meant he earned a ₩45.6 billion prize but in addition needed to reside with being the one survivor from a bunch of 456 folks.
Season 1 ended with Gi-hun not solely getting wealthy but in addition studying that the aged Oh Il-nam, participant 001 (O Yeong-su), was truly the creator of the video games and that he and a bunch of fellow ultrarich people used the homicide and mayhem purely as a technique to relieve their boredom. In the final moments of the season, Gi-hun had a option to make: get on a airplane to reconnect together with his estranged household, or keep and do one thing in regards to the video games. He doesn’t get on the airplane.
The second season sees Gi-hun in a really completely different place. He’s spent the previous few years remoted and paranoid, planning use his wealth to close the video games down for good. First up: truly discovering the place they happen. By paying a community of criminals to systematically search Seoul’s subway system, he ultimately finds the salesperson (Gong Yoo), who you’ll keep in mind because the man in a swimsuit who challenges strangers to a recreation of ddakji and is excellent at slapping. The hope is that by discovering him, they’ll be capable of find the mysterious island the place the video games go down.
But Gi-hun isn’t the one one in search of them. Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) — the detective who went undercover in season 1 to seek out his brother who was collaborating within the video games — is equally obsessed, working with a neighborhood fisherman to scour the waters for the island. Eventually, the 2 be part of forces and set a plan in movement, just for Gi-hun to be pulled again into the video games as a contestant as soon as once more.
The first few episodes don’t truly contact on the video games themselves a lot — and as a substitute present a deeper have a look at the remainder of Squid Game’s unusual world. That means studying much more in regards to the mysterious and unflappable salesman, who appears to take a perverse enjoyment of terrorizing the poor and destitute. There’s additionally some perception into the guards who patrol the video games. We be taught that they aren’t all that completely different from the contestants themselves: determined folks doing determined issues within a monetary system that has failed them.
A couple of episodes in, the present pivots again to the video games and begins to look very acquainted. There are inexperienced tracksuits, armed guards in brilliant pink jumpsuits, and an enormous piggy financial institution that fills with money as extra folks die. But slightly than rehashing earlier occasions, these episodes are like a remix of season 1. The video games have been modified up, and since Gi-hun is the one returning participant, there’s an entire new forged. And, like within the unique, there’s a fantastic mixture of compelling tales, with characters who’ve been pushed to the brink and left with few different choices.
That consists of an anticipating younger mom seeking to begin a brand new life, a trans lady who wants cash for gender-affirming care, and a mom and son who each signed as much as repay his playing money owed, tragically unaware the opposite had additionally joined the video games. There are some nice new villains as effectively, like a purple-haired rapper who’s having the time of his life amid the bloodshed, and a cold-hearted crypto influencer who misplaced himself — and his viewers — all types of cash. And as soon as once more, there’s an undercover member of Squid Game administration who’s attempting to control the video games from the within.
The video games really feel completely different this time due to Gi-hun, who does every part he can to each save folks whereas enjoying and persuade them to go away after the match is over. After every recreation, all of the surviving gamers can vote on whether or not to proceed, and these moments of counting a whole bunch of X’s and O’s are extraordinarily tense. But greed pushes folks to make the incorrect selection time and again, and it’s onerous to not get disheartened alongside Gi-hun. But for most of the gamers, demise in a schoolyard recreation is preferable to what awaits them on the skin. Gi-hun has his work reduce out for him convincing the opposite contestants that their actual enemy isn’t one another however the system that put them right here preventing over cash. Things ultimately culminate in a bloody bloodbath that pushes Squid Game additional into horror than it’s ever been.
From there, the present races to a conclusion that lastly guarantees to shake up the video games themselves — nevertheless it by no means truly reaches that huge second. Instead, it neatly units up the third and remaining season that can hit Netflix in 2025. While the cliffhanger (and the next wait) could also be disappointing, it’s a reduction that, in contrast to seemingly everybody else, Hwang and his workforce haven’t overlooked what made Squid Game so particular to start with. Season 2 might not be the large shock the unique was, nevertheless it makes up for that with intelligent twists on the components and storylines that hit even bloodier notes. Even higher: the promise of a conclusion that is aware of the place it’s headed.
Squid Game season 2 begins streaming on Netflix on December twenty sixth.
