Lee Jung-jae returns as Gi-hun in Squid Game season two for another go at the competition, minus the new red hairstyle he was wearing at the end of season one. (Supplied: Netflix)
When season one of the South Korean thriller Squid Game hit Netflix in 2021, the dystopian horror captured imaginations around the world.
It became the first Korean drama to shoot to number one on US Netflix, as well as in 94 other countries, including the UK and Australia.
Squid Game would go on to surpass fan-favourite Bridgerton, becoming the streaming service’s most-watched series at its launch.
Immensely popular with critics and the public at large, Squid Game went on to take home a clutch of Emmys, Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globes and more — with lead actors Lee Jung-jae and Jung Ho-yeon, and creator Hwang Dong-hyuk also cleaning up.
Now, Squid Game returns for a highly anticipated season two, and while it has lost the surprise factor of the first season, there’s still plenty of drama in store.
In a twist of irony for a show that’s a bludgeoning criticism of capitalism, Hwang told the BBC that money was the main motivating factor behind his decision to return for a second season.
The show became a stark representation of the issues at play in the SAG-AFTRA strike, with both Hwang and the South Korean actors being paid an up-front fee instead of receiving residuals. Squid Game made the streamer $US900 million, but the people who brought the show to life saw none of that profit.
Catch me up on season one. What’s this show all about?
Season one of Squid Game was as explosive and captivating as it was shocking.
Exactly 456 cash-strapped contestants wanting to turn their lives around signed up for the chance to win a life-changing amount of money.
One of those people is Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), a divorced gambling addict, who can’t afford to buy his daughter a proper birthday dinner, let alone support his out-of-work elderly mother.
After being approached one night by a mysterious man, Gi-hun decides to enter the Squid Game.
Arriving at a secretive facility staffed by masked people, the players are in competition with each other — although sometimes they do have to work together — for a cash prize of 45.6 billion won (about $50 million).
Disarmingly, the challenges they face are a series of childhood games, like Red Light, Green Light and Tug of War.
The twist? All these tasks are deadly, with the aim of the game being to survive while the other 455 players die, leaving you to take home the winnings. In fact, the prize money only grows as players die. Squid Game becomes a high-stakes game of survival of the fittest.
How did Squid Game Season one end?
As you might expect, a majority of the characters met an untimely end in season one, including failed-but-morally-redeemed businessman and Gi-hun’s childhood friend Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo), North Korean runaway Sae-byeok (Hoyeon) and Pakistani migrant/precious baby Ali (Anupam Tripathi).
Gi-hun emerges from the bloody trauma as the reluctant victor, and is thrown back into his regular life with a gold debit card containing his winnings. Alas, he returns to his mother’s house to find her dead on the floor, having passed away while he was still competing in his games. And during that time his daughter moved to LA with his ex-wife and her new husband. Gi-hun slumps into nothingness — existing, but barely touching his winnings.
That is until he is called to the bedside of Il-nam (Oh Yeong-su), the elderly man who played and “died” facing off against Gi-hun in a game of marbles.
Another twist! He didn’t die, and in actual fact, Il-nam reveals himself to be the creator of the brutal games. He tells Gi-hun that he wanted to experience the games for himself, risk free, before dying safe and comfortable in his hospital bed.
Radicalised by this information and sporting a new red hairstyle, Gi-hun is about to board a plane to try to fix his relationship with his daughter when he sees something disturbing: the mysterious salesman who recruited him for the Squid Game trying to recruit a new contestant.
Knowing the fate that awaits this man, Gi-hun intercepts. He doesn’t get on the plane. For him, the game isn’t over.
Speaking of people dying but maybe not actually, fans were certain that Jun-ho — the detective hot on the creators’ tails who was shot off a cliff by his own brother, The Front Man, who also happened to be the 2015 Squid Game winner and is now working for the game — is alive.
Hey, Squid Game might be a universally lauded critique on cutthroat capitalism, but it’s still a K-Drama.
What can you expect from Squid Game two?
So will he destroy the barbaric system from within, or finally be chewed up by its cogs?
As reluctant as he might be about it, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk is back writing and directing all seven episodes.
And the fans were right! Jun-ho is back, and his brother The Front Man too, so look out for an escalation to their high stakes family drama.
Oh and don’t worry, Young-hee — the terrifying giant doll that decides who lives and dies in Red Light, Green Light — is also back!
There will also be a host of new players entering the games for the first time in season two: including a former successful YouTuber who lost all of his money in a crypto scam, as well as the money of his subscribers; a gambler buried in debt, and his elderly mother who enters the game to help him; a toxic masc ex-marine with great hair; and a transgender woman and former soldier who is competing to pay for gender affirming surgery.
How does season two compare to season one? [Season two spoilers ahead]
Part of the beauty of the first season of Squid Game was the lack of expectation.
You are told early on that players will be eliminated, but it’s only when you are already deep into episode one that you realise elimination equals death.
That shock factor isn’t there with season two, of course. By now, you know what it means to be eliminated, so some of the thrill is inevitably gone.
The first few episodes of season two do manage to step it up a notch, lulling the viewer into thinking the creators might have managed to beat the shocks of the first season, but that feeling peters out after a while. Season two is far more character-driven, with lots of new faces with complex backstories. Some of these work, some don’t. The storyline around the transgender woman Hyun-ju in particular felt ham-fisted, like a gratuitous attempt to look progressive.
The best scenes revolve around the salesman and The Front Man. This season sees sequences that will prove lethal for one, while placing the other at the centre of the action — with some astonishing reveals that make it impossible not to keep watching to find out what happens next.
And while season one had a satisfying ending (some may say jaw dropping) that wrapped up the story neatly while also dropping some cliffhangers, season two wasn’t given the same treatment — instead trying too hard to set up for the third season.
Will there be a third season of Squid Games?
Yes!
Hwang announced back in August that there will be a third season of Squid Game, but that it will be the last.
“The fierce clash between [Gi-hun and Front Man’s] two worlds will continue into the series finale with Season three, which will be brought to you next year,” Hwang told Tadum, so there’s a hint that both characters survive season two (thanks for the spoilers, Hwang).
Considering season two is being released in the last week of 2024, you can expect a little bit of a wait for the final season.
When does Squid Game season two come out?
All seven episodes will drop on Netflix at 7pm AEDT, December 26. Perfect timing for a Boxing Day watch.
