‘Squid Game’: 5 Burning Questions from Season 2

[Editor’s note: The following article contains spoilers for “Squid Game” Season 2, including the season finale.]

There are cliffhangers, and then there’s “Squid Game” Season 2, which left viewers in the middle of the games, in the middle of a rebellion, and the middle of Gi-hun’s (Lee Jung-jae) fresh agony after watching a friend die in front of him.

Viewers will have to wait another year to find out what’s next — but that’s nothing compared to the three-year wait between Seasons 1 and 2. Director Hwang Dong-hyuk filmed the final two installments of Netflix‘s award-winning drama together, and knew the ending before even going into production.

Even so, “Squid Game” has a lot to wrap up in Season 3, so while it’s fresh: let’s talk about some of our biggest burning questions for the third and final installment.

1. Will Gi-hun ever learn the Front Man’s true identity?

One of Season 1’s biggest twists was that the Front Man behind the black mask is Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun), a former winner of the games and brother of detective Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon). In Season 2, the Front Man’s big reveal was at the end of Episode 3, when he entered the games undercover as Player 001. It’s still unclear what he hoped to achieve — to be fair, he may just love chaos — but despite himself, he bonded with Gi-hun, betraying a strong fascination in the man who wants to end the games for good.

After faking his own death in the finale (via radio) and shooting Gi-hun’s best friend in front of him, In-ho resumes his post within the games and his position as Gi-hun’s greatest enemy. When will Gi-hun learn that the man he bonded with as a player is actually the ostensible puppet master of it all? Will he ever learn, and how? And will Jun-ho come clean that he knew for years, and that his brother is the one who shot him?

2. How do the Games proceed?

With multiple votes to end, an open rebellion, and the return of not one but two former winners, 2024’s games were nothing if not eventful. Surely the VIPs and anyone else invested in the process and its outcome will be more insistent than ever that the games continue — but what about the remaining players? Will they vote again — or even be allowed to? Or will they be punished for what Gi-hun and his friends tried to do in the Season 2 finale?

3. Who is the fisherman?

Wi Ha-joon as Hwang Jun-ho in ‘Squid Game’ Season 2No Ju-han/Netflix

Season 2 introduced Captain Park (Oh Dai-su), seemingly an everyday fisherman who found Jun-ho in the water after he was shot by his brother on the island — but the finale revealed that he’s actively sabotaging Jun-ho’s search for the island, and probably has been this whole time. Who is this man really? The fact that he even found Jun-ho means he was close to the island and potentially already working as its guardian. He didn’t think twice about killing a man in order to save his cover, which places Jun-ho and his entire team in immediate danger moving into Season 3.

4. What about the little girl?

Season 2, Episode 2 introduced Na-yeon (Park Yabom), a sweet little girl dealing with a long-term illness for which her father hopes to win money in the games. But as of the Season 2 finale, father Gyeong-seok (Lee Jin-woo) was shot — not in the arm like Jun-ho in Season 1, but in the chest and ostensibly fatally (and “Squid Game” is better than using the same twist twice). The guard who killed him may or may not have been No-eoul (Park Gyuyoung), but either way, we know that she has a soft spot for the little girl — and misses her own child, who was last seen in North Korea.

5. Will all of the players make it out alive?

It’s a foregone conclusion in “Squid Game” that most of the characters we meet and grow attached to will meet sudden, violent ends. But that wasn’t the case in Season 2, even if it was arguably a half season — and if Gi-hun succeeds in his mission before the games conclude, he could save a lot of those who remain; like mother-son duo Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim) and Yong-sik (Yang Dong-geun), fellow rebel Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon), ex-marine Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul), and the pregnant Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri). Or we could be forced to watch them all die horribly!

“Squid Game” returns for its third and final season in 2025.