Watching Squid game Season 2, you can tell that most of the seasons were not part of the original series. Between the fan-service-filled subplots and the shamelessly set-up for Season 3 (due to premiere in 2025), it feels like a very responsive seven-episode set. It's by no means bad television—we're getting compelling new characters and new twists, filled with the show's iconic, colorfully funny plot—but Season 2 is a mediocre chapter that underpins a strong start and (hopefully) happy ending.
Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) returns as the show's main character, battered and hardened by his time in the games. It has been three years since he won, and he has dedicated his life and the money he won to bringing down the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) and those who run these games. Unfortunately, his success is limited.
Meanwhile, police officer Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun), another survivor from Season 1, has resigned from official channels to investigate the games and his brother's involvement in them. He has been searching the sea for a mysterious island that holds games, but he has had no luck. So when he and Gi-hun cross paths again, they agree to meet to take down the games. However, a tense meeting with Front Man leads to Gi-hun returning alone—which means he has to play his way out again. However, this time, he is determined to save as many players as possible and destroy the games from within.
Gi-hun's co-stars run the gamut of credit and morality, and for better or worse, Season 2 expands the scope of the supporting cast and their characters. First, there's Gi-hun's old friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan), whose money problems have reached a fever pitch. Gi-hun finds a version of his former self in Yong-sik (Yang Dong-geun), a hopeless gambler joined in the games by his conniving mother Geum-ja (Kang Ae-sim). This year's edition has one (this) popular one too: crypto influencer Myung-gi (Yim Si-wan), a target of outrage for his bad investment advice and modestly successful rapper Thanos (Choi Seung-hyun), who has few fans. inside. Season 2 also focuses on Hyun-ju, a transgender woman looking for money to start her new life in a more accepting environment. Her character is played by a cisgender male actor (Park Sung-hoon), which may be controversial for American and other international audiences, but the inclusion of her storyline is important to the Korean production. Also, the show includes a scene where Hyun-ju is welcome to join the other actresses in the women's bathroom, which is a hell of a lot more progressive than some stateside shows are willing to be.
There are still plenty of players and figures the show is holding onto in its second season, all with varying importance and ultimate benefit. Squid game puts as many pieces on his chessboard as possible, but it is clear early on that this game will not be decided in Season 2. It is not until the third episode that Gi-hun re-enters the games, for example, in the first two episodes he has fully set up his performance to disrupt the game. The Recruiter (Gong Yoo) returns in this first half of the season, getting a shoehorned backstory that seems to have been created based on fan feedback. But Gong Yoo delivers a delightfully consistent performance, and The Watcher establishes an important moral metaphor with one of his performances that serves as the centerpiece of the season, so it's not all fan service.
Things change when Gi-hun pulls out his Player 456 tracksuit again, but the pace is uneven as the show heads toward a season finale that doesn't offer much of a resolution. The rule of majority voting takes a big role in this, with Front Man and others. adding a new clause to the player's contract: if the players vote to leave the game, they will be able to leave with the prize money already collected, divided equally among those who are still alive. So the vote becomes a central part of the show, which is repeated. It's an interesting moral dilemma, risking your life and making sure others die to get a few more dollars in your pocket, but despite this difficulty the shocking decisions and betrayals hit you as hard as they did in Season 1.
All to say that Season 2 feels more “part one” than its story, and that's partly by design. Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk says that he “originally envisioned Seasons 2 and 3 as one story,” but found that they resulted in too many episodes; instead he decided to split the story into two seasons. As a result, this seven-episode series is almost on hold and there's no point—Season 2 is a means to an end we haven't seen yet. The cast is top-notch (Lee Byung-hun is truly impressive as the ever-increasing Front Man), the performances still deliver hope and horror, and the people behind the camera know how to make this high-concept high-wire device work as well as it can, but it's just not satisfying at this point.
