“Squid Game” season two delivers an inky return

“I’m going to find you. No matter what it takes”. Picking up where the first season left off, we’re re-introduced to a determined Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-Jae), hellbent on finding the “front man”, the main antagonist and organizer of the games. Spending the last three years hunting down clues of the game’s whereabouts, Gi-hun seeks retribution; fixated on bringing the games that he emerged from as the solitary victor and survivor to an end. In episode three, Gi-hun finds himself back on the island competing once again alongside hundreds of players, including his childhood friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan) from season 1. With his friend and newly formed alliances, they play multiple games, eventually causing an uprising. With only seven episodes–two fewer than the first– “Squid Games” cuts to a heartbreaking cliffhanger, leaving the series in strategic suspense.

Communication and complaints rapidly spread about the “Squid Games” continuation, with many arguing the similarity of the first season to the second. In a way, the feeling of repetitiveness is inevitable; knowing what the games would entail, we don’t have the initial shock of horror and intensity of the games that was accompanied by the first. But even though season two doesn’t exceed expectations, it excels in consistently offering what made the first season so enjoyable. The second installment also comes with heightened tension and comical use of both classical and modern music, which helps create a sense of irony in serious scenes. “Time to Say Goodbye” roaring in the background as the “recruiter” (Gong Yoo), shoots himself in the head. “Fly Me to the Moon” playing as Thanos (Choi Seung-hyun) dances while people die around him in a game of “red light green light”. With countless iconic scenes, for a sequel, season two is the absolute best version of what could have been made. Calling the second season a disappointment just because it felt “similar” to the first doesn’t do it justice.

Character development was noticeably better in this season as well. From familiar tensions between the players, with bullies like Thanos, to fresh characters and dynamics including a mother-son duo and a transgender former special forces soldier, the show was filled with interesting characters, each with their backstory. The complex and likable characters, and the deaths of characters big and small, carried a bigger weight in our hearts.

In an interview with Netflix, Lee Byung-hun, who starred as the front-man and player 001 in the second season, explained the feelings associated with being on the set.

“Honestly, every time we went on the set for each game, we were all speechless. It was so grand and amazing, like stepping into another world. The patterns and decor felt straight out of a fairy tale, but the things happening in there were so brutal and ruthless. That contrast was really interesting,” he said. “In a way, I think the mix of these beautiful spaces with such cruel events is what gives Squid Game its unique style and appeal.”

Cruel deaths and bloody gore, with everything from organ harvesting to being peppered with bullets and stabbed were a regular occurrence in the show. While the intensity of some scenes may turn away viewers, the series’ message isn’t supposed to be light. By showing the magnitude of violence and cruelty involved in the games, it succeeds in further amplifying the eeriness and message of anti-capitalism in the series.

The structure delivered by the show itself is also much like the Hunger Games theme and storyline. Both lead characters return to participate in the games in the sequels, and the underlying message of the shows are about the disparity between the rich and poor, the exploitation of the vulnerable for entertainment, and ultimately a message to our current world, where the rich have the biggest luxuries.

With the third season set to release later this year, we just have to wait, perhaps playing newfound children’s games, until all of our lingering questions are resolved.