Three years after the first season shook the world, fans are devouring the second season of Netflix's "Squid Game"...and one character's arc seems to have left some pretty underwhelmed.
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00:00Three years after the first season shook the world, fans are devouring the second season
00:04of Netflix's Squid Game, and one character's arc seems to have left some pretty underwhelmed.
00:10Spoilers ahead!
00:11For those who've been anxious to learn what happens after the cliffhanger finale of the
00:14show's groundbreaking first season, season two is depressingly light on satisfying answers.
00:19One of the strongest aspects of Squid Game season one was the storyline of Hong Joon-ho,
00:24a police detective who goes to great lengths to investigate the disappearance of his brother,
00:28Hwang In-ho.
00:29If you missed it, after hearing Song Gi-hun telling another officer about his experience
00:33on the island, Joon-ho begins to suspect that In-ho may have been a victim of these deadly
00:37games as well.
00:39He stows away on a transport ship, disguises himself as one of the guards running the games,
00:43works his way up to the VIP room, and directly confronts the game's enigmatic master orchestrator,
00:49the frontman.
00:50The two face off against one of the island's cliffs, trading shots to the shoulder, one
00:53of which sends Joon-ho tumbling over the edge to a potential watery grave.
00:58But before his fall, Joon-ho learns that In-ho is alive.
01:01He is the frontman.
01:03"...In-ho, let's go."
01:08The second season reveals that, fortunately, Hong Joon-ho is rescued after falling to what
01:12easily could have been his death, and is taken back home to recover with his family.
01:16When he's finally back to full health, he declines to rejoin the major crimes unit or
01:21reveal the identity or location of his brother.
01:23Instead, he takes the job as a traffic cop, where the lines between truth and lies are
01:27apparently much clearer.
01:29"...The evidence in our department is always very clear.
01:32Huh?
01:33Not wearing a helmet, going over the limit, ignoring a signal."
01:35Only another chance encounter with Song Gi-hun snaps him out of his disengaged state, and
01:40the two men decide to work together to take down the organization.
01:43But Joon-ho still deliberately hides that he knows the frontman's true identity.
01:47Frustratingly, a third episode twist creates a massive character problem relating to Joon-ho's
01:52place in the second season.
01:54In-ho plays the dual roles of frontman and undercover contestant.
01:57He's taking over the Player One spots, so Joon-ho cannot be involved in the island's
02:01games whatsoever.
02:02He knows In-ho is the frontman, so he'd spoil the arguable retread of Season 1's secret
02:07betrayal storyline.
02:08When this becomes apparent after the initial In-ho reveal as Player One, it seems as though
02:12the season will relegate Joon-ho to a secondary but still relevant story wherein he and his
02:17crew of mercenaries investigate the island from outside the games.
02:21His actual role in the season winds up being even less meaningful, though.
02:24There are several episodes in which he doesn't even appear.
02:27What makes these choices and much of the plot of Squid Game Season 2 so confounding
02:31is that the first two episodes actually set up a very compelling web of storylines that
02:35could naturally interweave with one another over the course of seven episodes.
02:39But the series instead chooses to divert a mind-numbing amount of time to the absurdly
02:43slow-moving games, the intrigue of which is rarely novel, even when it comes to the relationships
02:48between new contestants.
02:49Honestly, Hong Joon-ho's story, even when given the proper amount of focus it would
02:53require to work, would still be unsatisfying.
02:56Like Song Gi-hun, he is given the exact same role to play in Season 2 as he had in the
03:00first — a covert infiltrator attempting to make his way through the island to better
03:04understand its purpose.
03:06A more thorough explanation would probably yield scenes far too similar to better ones
03:10from the first season.
03:11One can't help but wonder what might have been, had the show dared to keep Gi-hun on
03:15the outside and send Joon-ho in to confront, compete with, and redeem or defeat his brother.
03:20In the show as it exists, though, every cut to Joon-ho's meandering crew is groan-inducing.
03:25Hopefully when Squid Game returns for a third season, he'll be able to step back into a
03:29more prominent role that surprises and rewards fans who want him to have a satisfying character
03:34arc.