‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Finale Takes Jarring Turn — and Ends on Massive Cliffhanger

As quickly as it began, the “Squid Game” Season 2 binge is over — and the wait for Season 3 begins.

Hwang Dong-hyuk’s Netflix sensation returned on December 26 after more than three years, plunging Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) back into the world of deadly children’s games played by desperate adults competing for money. The initial episodes caught up with him three years after winning the games featured in Season 1, now using his money and resources to find the Recruiter (Gong Yoo).

In his Season 2 review, IndieWire’s Ben Travers noted that “Hwang does a fine job justifying Player 456 re-entering the arena, but he struggles to justify how Gi-hun goes about putting an end to these battle royales.” This is probably the main frustration once G-hun rejoins the game: He has no plan. After saving as many players as possible during Red Light, Green Light, his inside knowledge of the games is quickly rendered useless when new ones are introduced. He can’t convince all the players to stop playing because there are always those who want to stay, and he can’t access the rest of the island because he’s locked in with the other contestants. But if he could do any of these things, again: What was his plan? How does stepping back into his green tracksuit ultimately serve the higher purpose of ending the games once and for all?

A great TV show once told me: “With enough money and determination, you can find anyone.” This is neither here or there with Season 2 out and Season 3 firmly on the way, but surely Gi-hun could have used his wealth to do more than fill a room with guns and hire people to patrol train stations? For a man so deeply affected by what he experienced in the games, his decision to go back is impulsive at best — but serves something even higher than the story: the bottom line. “Gi-hun’s fierce convictions about the Squid Game come and go with the needs of ‘Squid Game’,” Travers explains. “Viewers want to watch the games, and for a while, Gi-hun has to shut up and play.”

And he does — for a while.

The War

‘Squid Game 2’No Ju-han/Netflix

Let’s not waste more time wondering why Gi-hun waited as long as he did to incite a revolt against the guards (all hail Netflix!) and focus on what happens once he does. He tells a select group of allies to hide under the beds during the inevitable violence that will break out at bedtime, hoping that they survive the carnage long enough to pose among the dead once the guards enter. While being scanned for signs of life, they attack the guards and steal their guns.

The show’s turn to militarized warfare is more jarring than most TV and film gunfights, perhaps because of how the games deliberately infantilize players. Everything they experience is a scaled-up version of childhood: wearing matching clothes, following rules about bedtime and mealtime, and, of course, the games themselves. The violence is visceral and crude, and the deaths are sometimes accidental. The guns make everyone adult again and firmly divide those who can use them from those who cannot.

The Casualties

‘Squid Game’No Ju-han/Netflix

A handful of players and seemingly dozens of guards are killed in ensuing battle, while Gi-hun leads a group toward the control center that includes Jung-bae (Lee Seo-Hwan) and “Young-Il” (Lee Byung-hun) — aka In-ho aka Front Man in disguise — Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul), Kyung-seok (Lee Jin-wook), and Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon).

The rest of the unnamed players with them die throughout the episode, ratcheting up the stakes for those we know better. Dae-ho served in the military like Jung-bae, but the gunfire rattles him immensely. He volunteers to grab ammunition from the dormitory perhaps just to get away from the sound of bullets, but as he heads back toward it, he can’t bring himself to go. It’s one of the more surprising and potent twists in the episode, and the main reason the rebellion is stifled shortly after. Kyung-seok’s final moments are tensely drawn, the possibility dangled that the guard facing him could be No-eul (Park Gyu-young) and he’ll be spared to go home to his daughter — but whoever it is shoots him in the chest, and Kyung-seok crumples.

On any other show, I’d accuse this finale of the “Game of Thrones” problem, so named for the eponymous anyone-could-die-at-any-moment TV show that didn’t kill off a single major character for the final few seasons, ostensibly to keep their fans coming back for more. The “Squid Game” Season 2 finale protects the pregnant Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri), mother-son players Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim) and Yong-sik (Yang Dong-geun), and Hyun-ju. But this is “Squid Game,” where that many people living to see the next season actually goes what is expected, and certainly what is prescribed for their fate. “Squid Game” Season 1 introduced an entire cast of characters who audiences lost painfully throughout its duration, and “Squid Game 2” keeps most of them alive — for now.

There is still heartbreak in the finale, as Gi-hun watches Jung-bae killed right before him, shot by Front Man to show him the price of “playing hero.” The only thing Gi-hun had to lose in the games was taken from him — his friend’s death explicitly blamed on his actions. The old Gi-hun, the one that Jung-bae brought out at moments, may finally be gone for good.

The Enemy

‘Squid Game’No Ju-han/Netflix

Characters didn’t know much about In-ho before Season 2, and after these seven episodes he’s still quite a mystery — and deadlier than ever. This is a man who survived the games, but that doesn’t mean he approached them the way Gi-hun did and wasn’t a ruthless killer even with a number on his back. He lies with ease while posing as Player 001, at times relishing the game he’s playing with Gi-hun (this man loves games!) while betraying a begrudging respect for his de facto opponent.

It’s no shock to the audience when he kills a player during the games, or even when he poses as part of Gi-hun’s rebellion and allows so many masked men to die (while risking death himself). Even though Season 2 opened the door into who the soldiers are and what drives them, questions loom about what would drive someone to take this job, and what makes them qualified.

After shooting two of the other rebels, he switches to the staff radio channel and says something subtitled as “Let’s wrap it up,” with Lee’s performance demonstrating this character’s level of control, even in a situation as deadly and chaotic as the one unfolding around him. He doesn’t question the guards’ loyalty or fear being found out. He and Gi-hun both entered the game spontaneously, and this merits the same question: What was his plan? Jung-bae’s death can’t have been part of some master scheme, even if it was a smart time for In-ho to return to being Front Man and send Gi-hun a message. Did he learn anything new about Gi-hun that will end his crusade? Why enter the game at all? Did he really just do it for a vibe, because he loves to game?

That Last Scene

Episode 7, “Friend or Foe,” ends abruptly, with Gi-hun sobbing next to Jung-bae’s body as the female announcer declares Player 390 eliminated. But after a quick scroll of credits, there’s one more scene. A few players — or at least, people in tracksuits numbered 096, 100, and 353 — approach Young-hee, the giant doll that watches over Red Light, Green Light. There’s a lot of background chatter that suggests more people present, and a male doll of the same size and style. The light switches from red to green, and that’s it. The area sure looks like it’s indoors, unlike the staged outdoor setting of Red Light, Green Light, with Young-hee suspended from the ceiling like a museum piece. The only certainty is that this isn’t part of the games, and it’s the closest thing we’ll get to a Season 3 teaser for quite some time.

“Squid Game” will return for a third and final season in 2025.