We waited more than three years for Squid Game Season 2, which was so bingeable that we're already speculating about Season 3. And there are a lot of things we'd like to see resolved before the Game is over.
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00:00We waited more than three years for Squid Game Season 2, which is so bingeable that
00:04we're already speculating about Season 3.
00:07And there are a lot of things we'd like to see resolved before the game is over.
00:11Spoilers ahead!
00:12The games are arguably the biggest part of Squid Game's appeal, and Season 3 wouldn't
00:16be complete without them.
00:17Now that Gihan's Rebellion has failed and the O-Voters likely outnumbered the X-Voters,
00:22the games must go on.
00:23If you stuck around to catch the post-credits scene at the end of Season 2, you know the
00:27creepy, red-light-green-light murder doll will be back.
00:30And this time, she's bringing a friend, a creepy boy doll named Cholsu.
00:33You can also see some railroad crossing lights flashing red and green.
00:37Could it be red-light-green-light 2.0?
00:40Run for it!
00:42Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
00:46If you look past the action at the walls of the dorm, you can see decorative illustrations
00:50of players swinging from the ceiling, which suggests that we'll see a high-stakes game
00:54of monkey bars in Season 3.
00:55And behind the bunk beds, the wall has a checkerboard pattern, suggesting some sort of life-size
01:00board game with players as pieces, in case you haven't grokked the series' metaphor by
01:04now.
01:05Believe it or not, Gi-Hun still doesn't have a clue that his new friend Player One, the
01:09guy he knows as Oh Young-Il, has betrayed him.
01:11I'm sorry, Gi-Hun.
01:13It's over.
01:15At the end of Season 2, he believes Young-Il died a heroic death during the Rebellion.
01:20When the truth comes out, it'll rock Gi-Hun to his core, but will it finally be the thing
01:24to break his spirit?
01:25Or will it spur him to fight even harder?
01:27Given that Gi-Hun and the frontman are so central to the show's conflict and its ideological
01:32implications, it seems inevitable that the two will face off in Season 3.
01:35But this is Squid Game, so something else that's inevitable are more unexpected twists.
01:40I'll do whichever one you think, Yoon.
01:42How did you know my name?
01:45How devious was the player formerly known as Wan?
01:48Was he messing with Gi-Hun's mind all the way back to that moment when he nearly blew
01:51the spinning top challenge?
01:53You ruin everything!
01:54You're worthless!
01:56Hang on, the frontman is left-handed, which we know from the end of Season 1, when he
01:59shoots Jun-Ho.
02:00So when he nearly gets his team killed by winding the top with his right hand, that's
02:04strategy.
02:05But since that time, has the frontman genuinely started to doubt himself and maybe even sympathize
02:09with Gi-Hun?
02:10Anything is possible.
02:12By the end of Season 2, Kim Joon-Hee is still alive, and according to Joom-Cha, very pregnant.
02:17It would be pretty unfair to viewers to let the series end without Joon-Hee giving birth,
02:21but that's dangerous under any circumstances.
02:23What happens if she goes into labor in the middle of one of the games?
02:26Or perhaps even worse, at night in the dorm, when the players are hunting one another?
02:30Oh.
02:31How are you feeling, Joon-Hee?
02:32I'm alright, thank you.
02:34We're all really glad to see you.
02:36But even if she does give birth to a healthy child, what then?
02:39Will the pink guards take the baby away from her, or will Joon-Hee be expected to play
02:42the games with an infant in her arms?
02:44Will he or she then be player 222 and a half, or 457?
02:49Perhaps the sight of a Squid Game baby will inspire at least some of the players to rally
02:52around Joon-Hee to keep her and her child alive.
02:55A child is, after all, a symbol of hope.
02:57In fact, some viewers have speculated that if Gi-Hun dies, it will be to save Joon-Hee
03:01and her child.
03:02Alright, buddy, we're all counting on you.
03:05Oh.
03:06That would be the ultimate way to show that Gi-Hun has evolved and is no longer willing
03:11to sacrifice innocent lives for the good of the many.
03:15While it seems like Player 246, Park Gon-Seok, is killed after Gi-Hun's failed rebellion,
03:20there's reason to hope that he's still alive, and might eventually be reunited with his
03:23terminally ill daughter.
03:25Wait, please don't shoot.
03:27I have a sick daughter at home.
03:30It's unclear where exactly the pink guard shoots Gon-Seok, and the camera conveniently
03:34cuts away before we actually see Player 246's body.
03:38Although Season 2 never confirms which pink guard pulls the trigger, there's fan speculation
03:42out there that it's Number 11, Noelle.
03:44Maybe she intentionally gave him a non-lethal shot and plans to help him escape.
03:48It makes sense.
03:49Noelle knows Player 246 and his daughter from outside the games, and is drawn to their situation
03:55because she, too, knows what it's like to have a young child whose chances of survival
03:59are slim.
04:00The baby was one year old.
04:02How could she survive in North Korea without her parents?
04:04While it may be impossible to save her long-lost daughter, it's not too late for Gon-Seok and
04:09his little girl.
04:10We would love to see a happy ending to this particular story in Season 3.
04:14One of the memorable twists in Season 2 is the reveal that a mother and her son have
04:18both joined the games, hoping to help the other with the prize money.
04:21This storyline immediately raises a haunting question.
04:23What if one or both of them doesn't make it out alive?
04:26While either of them dying would be horrible, perhaps the saddest outcome would be the death
04:30of Yong-Shik, forcing his mother, Jum-Cha, to go on without him.
04:33Jum-Cha takes a moment in Season 2 to imagine this unthinkable scenario.
04:37Even if I did make it out, I'd have nothing to live for anymore.
04:42While Season 2 teased this possibility, it feels almost inevitable that it will play
04:46out in Season 3.
04:48While this ending would be tragic, it would give Yong-Shik a chance to redeem himself.
04:51"...Yong-Shik, don't you dare!
04:55Don't do anything stupid, okay?"
04:56After voting to continue the games despite his mother's warnings and nearly leaving her
05:00behind in the game of Mingle, Yong-Shik could make up for his past mistakes, even if it
05:04means sacrificing his life to save his mother.
05:07It would echo Season 1, in which Gi-Hun joins the games to help his mother, but can't save
05:11her, even when he wins.
05:12"...It's okay.
05:13I'm alive.
05:14I made it.
05:15Are you alright?
05:16Are you hurt?"
05:17If Yong-Shik does die, hopefully his mother will find the strength to go on, and maybe
05:23invite the surviving players over for dinner.
05:26As of Season 2, Gi-Hun still hasn't been reunited with his daughter, Ga-Young.
05:30He never got to say a proper goodbye.
05:32He tried calling her just before re-entering the games, but lost his nerve.
05:36And while Kang-Chul, the late Sae-Byung's little brother, is in a much better place
05:39than he was before his sister joined the games, safe in the care of Sang-Woo's mother,
05:43his story doesn't feel finished.
05:45"...Sir, do you know my sister very well?"
05:49"...We're good friends."
05:52Season 2 goes out of its way to show Gi-Hun paying a broker to find Chul's mother and
05:55smuggle her across the border.
05:57So even if Gi-Hun doesn't survive Season 3, it's possible that the broker will at least
06:01succeed in reuniting Chul with family.
06:03"...I kinda owe this to Sae-Byung after all.
06:07I'll do everything I can to try and make it happen."
06:09Meanwhile, given that the frontman keeps telling Gi-Hun that he should've gotten on
06:13the plane to visit his daughter, it's pretty clear that storyline isn't over either.
06:17"...You can hide all you want, but I swear I'll find you."
06:21It would be great to see Gi-Hun with his daughter again, but if he ends up sacrificing himself
06:26to stop the games, then we want to at least see Ga-Young discover just how much her daddy
06:29has done for her.
06:31Despite the best efforts of Gi-Hun and Joo-Ho, nobody believes them about the games, which
06:35allows them to go on indefinitely.
06:37Perhaps in Season 3, Joo-Ho will finally get the evidence he's looking for.
06:41However, getting the truth out may be easier said than done, considering that the VIPs
06:45are some of the richest and most powerful people in the world, and they've gotten away
06:49with these atrocities for decades.
06:51Even if Gi-Hun does expose the games to the world, it still might not change anything.
06:55The frontman may have a point when he says the outside world is just as cruel as the
06:59games.
07:00When faced with the truth, the world would turn a blind eye, just like most people turned
07:03a blind eye to the homeless man in the street at the end of Season 1.
07:06If the world doesn't change, the game doesn't end.
07:10Still, we can dream, can't we?
07:12Although a happy ending seems unlikely for such a bleak story, it would be a hard-earned
07:16victory.
07:17Seeing Joo-Ho finally bring back proof of the games and have his I-Told-You-So moment
07:21would be satisfying indeed.
07:23While it would be a blow for fans of the characters, narratively speaking, we have to admit we'd
07:27kind of like to see Gi-Hun become the frontman in Season 3, or at least we want to see him
07:31seriously consider it.
07:32In a sense, he's already well on his way to the role, using people as pawns and sacrificing
07:37some of his fellow players in order to create a diversion.
07:40Maybe Season 3 will take a step further, with In-Ho offering Gi-Hun his position.
07:44It's terrifying to think that Gi-Hun might be in such a dark place by then that he actually
07:48accepts the offer.
07:49Will you go back to living like useless trash, running from your creditors, or will you take
07:55action?
07:56The idea might seem far-fetched, but there are several ways it could happen.
07:59In-Ho could force a job on him, placing Gi-Hun in a position where he needs to decide who
08:03lives and who dies, even though he doesn't want to.
08:06Or maybe Gi-Hun becomes so disillusioned by society that he decides In-Ho is right.
08:11The games are ugly, but they give desperate people something they need.
08:14"...people suffered from inequality and discrimination out in the world, and we're giving them one
08:20last chance to fight fair and win."
08:22Perhaps that's what the frontman's endgame has been all along.
08:25Regardless of how it plays out, Gi-Hun will definitely face a choice in Season 3.
08:29Hang on to his faith in the goodness of humanity, or start seeing the world through the frontman's
08:33eyes.
08:34After having seen In-Ho betray Gi-Hun at the end of Season 2, we wouldn't blame you for
08:38assuming that he's beyond redemption at this point.
08:41"...Now, witness the consequences of your little game."
08:46However, if you consider that In-Ho is a former player who's come from the same place as Gi-Hun,
08:51and add in the fact that he did actually do some kind things during Season 2, then a change
08:55of heart in Season 3 doesn't seem out of the question.
08:58Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-Hyuk has argued that, even though In-Ho is trying to destroy
09:02Gi-Hun's faith in the goodness of humanity, he respects Gi-Hun's boldness for returning
09:07to the games and is curious to see if Gi-Hun might prove him wrong.
09:10Hwang told The Hollywood Reporter,
09:12"...he really sees what he let go of and what he lost when he sees Gi-Hun."
09:15Secretly, he might even want Gi-Hun to fight on.
09:18"...The only reason I'm telling you this now is because I want to try and save everybody."
09:21Maybe if Gi-Hun helps as many players as possible survive the games, it will change In-Ho's
09:25mind.
09:26Hwang has compared the Front Man to Darth Vader, and it's easy to see the similarities
09:30— not just the black mask and deep voice, but also the way he serves as a foil.
09:35The person Gi-Hun would be if he'd gone down a darker path.
09:37In fact, just like Vader, he's actively trying to lure Gi-Hun down that dark path by using
09:42the games to try and break him.
09:44As such, it's possible that, like Darth Vader, the Front Man will realize he's made a mistake.
09:49Maybe he'll even sacrifice himself to make things right.