The second season of Squid Game holds on to its momentum thanks to the superb opening of the first episode, and propels the series in a new direction as Gi-hun’s quest to bring an end to the titular game begins. Previously, after winning Squid Game, Gi-hun is revealed to have used his resources to launch a search for the Recruiter in the hopes of getting crucial intel about the game ring, whereas Hwang Jun-ho had continued his search to find a way back to the island where games were conducted in order to expose the secretive controllers and reconnect with his brother. By the end of the first episode, Hwang was able to track down Gi-hun’s motel, where he was forced to play a game of Russian roulette with the Recruiter, which ultimately resulted in the death of the Recruiter. In the second episode, the duo of Gi-hun and Jun-ho join hands in pursuit of a common goal, and a brief glimpse of the plight of an unfortunate participant is shown—with a twist at the end.
Spoilers Ahead
Gathering Strength
As the episode begins, Gi-hun finds an invitation card inside the Recruiter’s pocket, which reveals details about a rendezvous spot in a nightclub—where the Front Man is supposed to meet the Recruiter on Halloween night. The recruiter had apparently brought a captive Woo-seok with him to Gi-hun’s motel, and after entering the motel, Jun-ho rescues him. Moments later, he finds Gi-hun with the dead recruiter, and a misunderstanding leads him to detain Gi-hun—and Woo-seok intervenes by knocking the former detective out.
As Jun-ho regains his senses, he informs Gi-hun about their past interactions, and he finds common ground with Jun-ho after learning about his motivation. However, Jun-ho doesn’t reveal the fact that it is, in fact, his brother, In-ho, who is the Front Man of the Squid Game. However, he realizes that, working together, he and Gi-hun have a better chance to learn much more about the game ring and destabilize it. Woo-seok appears to be in a vengeful mood, given how he and his boss were forced to play the deadly game by the recruiter, which resulted in Mr. Kim sacrificing his life for him—and Woo-seok eagerly joins hands with the duo. Gi-hun trusts them enough to show them his prize money from the game, which had been allowing him to prepare for a war against the ones at the helm of the game, as he shows through the last couple of years he has trained and has accumulated weapons and firepower to take on the enforcers of the game in the future. In no time, Woo-seok gathers a number of elite ex-military, former members of the armed forces, as Gi-hun and Jun-ho plan to visit the Halloween event at the specified nightclub and capture the Front Man by staging an ambush. Gi-hun gets a tracker implanted in his tooth, which will allow his team to keep track of him.
New Recruit and Emotional Burdens
The second episode focuses on Kang No-eul, a North Korean soldier/defector whose fate somewhat mimics that of the late Kang Sae-byeok, as she wants to reunite with her only family, her newborn son, and even goes to the same broker for help whom Sae-byeok had approached in the first season. A reserved, taciturn No-eul works as a creature mascot at an amusement park to make ends meet, but all her earnings get spent on her search for her son. As hopes of finding him grow slim, No-eul finds emotional connection with a young kid named Na-yeon, who turns out to be the daughter of the amusement park artist and is revealed to have blood cancer.
No-eul’s miserable plight makes her a suitable candidate for the Squid Game, and as you’d expect she receives the iconic calling card from one of the enforcers at night. It seems a bit odd, as this is not how the recruitment process takes place, but by the end of the episode, we learn the reason for the change of pattern. Whether No-eul would have accepted the offer had she not witnessed Na-hyeon getting transferred into the hospital after a medical emergency and gotten to know that the kid’s father doesn’t have enough funds for her treatment remains in question. But as No-eul ultimately decides to try her luck in the game to earn for the child and prepares to leave for the island by entering a designated chamber in a freight container, it is revealed that she is not a participant of the game. She is in fact joining as a masked enforcer. Adverse circumstances force people to commit atrocities beyond comprehension, as is seen throughout the course of Squid Game, and No-eul will have to engage in some despicable acts as well for the sake of protecting a life.
The episode also showcases the estranged family dynamics Jun-ho shares with his mother, who blames herself for In-ho’s supposed death, not knowing that he is alive and has gone down a dark path. In-ho had given one of his kidneys to save his stepbrother Jun-ho’s life, and Jun-ho’s mother regrets not showing up when In-ho’s wife was on her deathbed. On the other hand, Gi-hun’s family life is in a mess as well, as there is little to no chance left for him to reconcile with his daughter and wife, and for this he has only himself to blame after he decided to turn his back on the prospect of a happy family life for the sake of this mad pursuit of the game controllers. However, he keeps a vigilant watch over those who lost close ones in the game, Sang-woo’s elderly mother and Kang Cheol, Sae-byeok’s young brother, who are living together happily, finding a family in each other.
Why Did Gi-hun Decide to Replay Squid Game?
Nothing goes according to plan on Halloween as Gi-hun enters the club with Woo-seok by his side. Woo-seok gets knocked out as masked enforcers use a taser on him, and Gi-hun is taken into a limo—where Front Man speaks to him through a speaker. Jun-ho and the rest of the team tail the limo, but after a while, one by one, all the pursuing vehicles are immobilized by masked snipers positioned atop high rises.
Gi-hun speaks with the Front Man, and both of them clash over their ideological conflict. Like the recruiter, the front man holds the opinion that ‘trash’ needs to be cleansed and justifies the atrocities of the game in the guise of uniform diktats, equality, the greed of the participants, and all other silly excuses the controllers of the game probably use as well to make a case to continue their entertainment. To prove his point—that participants who are forced into an uncontrollable predicament during the game can opt for a better option if given the chance, that they are not ‘trash’ as considered by the controllers of the game, and also to infiltrate the ring from within—Gi-hun decides to ask the Front Man to recruit him into the latest edition of Squid Game. In a way, this is beneficial for the game, as well as a former winner betting it all to rejoin the game, which will surely prove to be a much more entertaining affair for the VIPs, which is why, after a moment’s contemplation the Front Man decides to accept Gi-hun’s offer. As Gi-hun is knocked unconscious by the anesthetic gas inside the limo, the driver appears to be none other than Front Man, In-ho himself. Jun-ho, knowing that Gi-hun has decided to return to the island by rejoining the game, opts for plan B—taking the cavalry to the island following Gi-hun’s tracker for an all-out secret assault.Â
