Just A Squid Watching Through the Window
I think it was safe to assume that very few fans of the first Squid Game series (season 1, for my fellow Americans) felt that subsequent seasons/series (series referring to the entire arc being told in Korean television, as their shows are often formatted as more-or-less self contained “one-and-done” as opposed to the American ongoing narrative structure) could top the original. After all, there were so many exterior factors that contributed to making Squid Game 1 a success— not the least of which was that it was released during the Covid pandemic– a time when people were stuck indoors clamoring for anything new to consume, regardless of its country of origin. The original series, while being almost entirely void of compassion, did end on a strong note: we saw our beloved Seong Gi-hun (player 456) survive the games and collect all of the prize money, offering him the chance to ride off into the sunset by hopping on a plane bound for L.A. to reconnect with his daughter. However, the second he turns back around and deboards the plane, you just had to know that the likelihood of him being given that chance again would be slim to none. And that’s exactly where season 2 picks up– with us following Gi-hun on what is to become a quest of retribution, with the end goal being to once-and-for-all put a stop to any subsequent games.
The premise of the second series is built on solid enough ground to provide fans a worthwhile trip back to the island, even if deep down we know that the likelihood of feeling “paid off” by the series’ end is highly unlikely. Any serioholic knows that, while it is damn hard (maybe even the hardest part truthfully) for any show to even reach its conclusion, it’s equally as difficult to stick the landing. How many shows have been virtually ruined by their final seasons or endings? That is my biggest gripe with the second series– the payoff is less-than stellar. Not allowing the end to diminish everything else though, there is a lot of good, if not great even, components to the second series, ensuring that legacy/lore are not disrupted/tainted enough that you would lose large swaths of fans requiring almost complete redos with tons of fan service to bring them back (looking at you Dexter).
I suppose we should get the ugly business out of the way first: the ending of the second series, specifically the final 2 episodes (“○△□” and “Humans Are…” are not amazing. The final game, “Sky Squid Game” is supposed to harken back to the original final game, just with more bodies; however, I never felt that the more bodies equated to more chaos, as it was fairly obvious from the jump who the final 2.5 competitors would be. Making the final game somewhat predictable really caused the show to limp into its final episode, and resulted in what I feel is the single weakest episode of the entire show (“○△□”). The finale itself is also a huge problem in that it is so unsatisfying for multiple reasons, chief among them Gi-hun’s completely predictable death. As mentioned in the introduction, you had to feel like the chances of Gi-hun surviving were not great going into the finale, and the plot device of making Jun-hee’s baby a participant in the games really sealed his fate. Despite understanding that this is completely in line with Gi-hun’s character, his sacrificial death is still a complete bummer. And don’t even get me started on the entire series 2 character arc of Det. Jun-ho revolving around a repeat showdown with his brother, then having the scene simply be him screaming “why” at In-ho. Our boy deserved much more of a final reckoning than that!
I would be remiss if I didn’t give show creator/writer Hwang Dong-hyuk two small ounces of credit concerning the ending though. First, having the final confrontation between Gi-hun and Myung-gi all take place prior to the pressing of the final buzzer ensures that the tension that (I felt) was missing from the rest of the final game is restored. The second master stroke was the closing scene starring Cate Blanchett as the L.A. Squid Game recruiter. I DO NOT believe that they didn’t know about the upcoming American version of the series for a single second, which is fine because that single scene did way more to get me hyped than I was upon initially hearing about it, so good on the team!
Now, onto what I felt the second series did better: the games themselves, and the characters. Starting with the games, aside from the aforementioned Sky Squid Game, I felt that they were just as entertaining and engaging as the original series. I loved that Red Light, Green Light makes its return to kick off the games; of course it is far less shocking when you already know what the game entails, but it is still cool to see arguably the most iconic of all of the games (and certainly the most recognizable) come back. The second game up, the six legged pentathlon, is one of the less exciting games of the second series; however, it does a wonderful job further establishing the characters and beginning to reveal the alliances that will propel the rest of the series forward, so no harm no foul. It is during the third game “mingle” where the cracks in the players’ humanities really begin to show, as numerous major players are forced to compromise their moral codes in efforts to not only survive themselves, but to also save their friends.
Following the botched rebellion that ends season 2, the next game to be played ends up being one of my favorites of all of the show’s games; “Keys and Knives”– a twisted version of hide-and-seek. This game produces what I feel is hands down the best episode of the second series, and maybe the best episode of the entire show,“The Starry Night”. There are so many converging plot points and character developments that end up culminating in this specific episode that it truly is one of the most intense throughout the entirety of the show; it’s almost depressing that this game isn’t the penultimate game, because despite the next game being good, it pales in comparison to “Keys and Knives”. “Jump Rope”, the actual penultimate game, echoes back to the glass panelled bridge crossing game from the original games. It’s a cool game, but it can’t really reclaim the tension from either the aforementioned original game nor the previous “Keys and Knives”.
The second major upgrade for me with the second series, and I will admit this might simply be a recency bias, is that it did a much better job building up the supporting characters. While I must say that I feel both series do have too many characters to ultimately pay attention to, I did feel the second series had more fleshed out characters each little things here-and-there to differentiate them. I can really only remember about five of the characters from the first series, and that’s including Gi-hun, In-ho, and Jun-ho, who all return. Especially with concerns to the actual players, there are a lot more this batch to root for: Gi-hun’s companion Jung-bae, the pregnant Jun-hee, the mother/son duo of Geum-ja and Yong-sik, the loveable loser Min-su, and one of my favorite characters of the entire show: the trans former military Hyun-ju. Even the antagonist characters in the second series are more memorable, with honorary mentions going out to rapper “Thanos”, religious zealot Seon-nyeo, and guard #11 No-eul. I would argue that by better fleshing out all of these characters’ backgrounds given more episodes to work with, the second series keeps viewers a lot more emotionally invested throughout the entirety of the games themselves.
I’ve seen the meme that is making the rounds– the one where seasons 1 and 2 are compared to the legs and torso of a beautifully drawn stallion, whereas 3 is compared to the lazily drawn head, and I don’t think that is completely fair. There is still enough here with the second series to at least draw a better head, despite them not sticking the landing. There is no doubt in my mind that Squid Game on the whole will go down as one of the all time great TV shows, especially considering its cross country breakthrough status.