"Squid Game" Season 2 has deadly games, tense shootouts, and inventive set pieces galore {guh-LORE}, but it's also filled with lines of dialogue that take on a whole new meaning once you've navigated the follow-up's many twists and turns. Warning: spoilers for all of Season 2 ahead!
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00:00Squid Game Season 2 has deadly games, tense shootouts, and inventive set pieces galore,
00:05but it's also filled with lines of dialogue that take on a whole new meaning once you've
00:09navigated the follow-up's many twists and turns. Warning, spoilers for all of Season
00:152 ahead.
00:17Right out of the gate, heavy lines are exchanged between Song Gi-hun and the enigmatic frontman.
00:22Picking up from the cliffhanger at the end of the Season 1 finale, Gi-hun chooses to
00:26leave his plane to America, and by extension, his family, to chase after the orchestrators
00:32of the games. He makes sure the frontman knows of his intentions to hunt him down no matter
00:36the cost.
00:37How about you stop running your mouth and show yourself? Stop hiding like a rat.
00:42In Squid Game, characters are constantly compared to animals in a way that dehumanizes them.
00:47Moments before, in the same conversation, Gi-hun tells the frontman,
00:50Listen carefully. I'm not a horse. I'm a person.
00:58Gi-hun also calls the mysterious unnamed recruiter a dog, and Hwan-Joon-Ho is referred to at
01:04one point as a pig. Interestingly, the VIPs who enjoy the games at the end of Season 1
01:09do so through animal masks, in a way dehumanizing themselves to make it easier to watch such
01:14a grotesque spectacle.
01:16In the season premiere, Gi-hun experiences a nightmare in which he is visited by the
01:20frontman at the Pink Hotel.
01:22Player 456, looking for these?
01:27He's holding the decapitated heads of Cho Sang-woo and Kang Se-byeok, players 218 and
01:3267, respectively. They're his closest friends from the first game, and the last two players
01:37to die before he won.
01:39Though simple, this line calls into question what Gi-hun is actually looking for in the
01:43investigation, and lays out both his inner conflict and one of the season's core ideas.
01:48On the one hand, Gi-hun believes he's shutting down the games because it's the right thing
01:51to do β playing the hero, as the frontman will ultimately mock in the season finale.
01:56But there's also an aspect of Gi-hun's quest that is embroiled in guilt, arguably more
02:01than he realizes.
02:02Gi-hun places all responsibility for the lives lost in his games on the frontman and his
02:07co-conspirators, but this season seeks to challenge that by honing in on the responsibility
02:11he debatably shares for returning to the games after knowing the stakes.
02:17One of the more surprising storylines sees Gi-hun team up with Sunshine Capital, specifically
02:21the vicious debt collectors who once tormented him. Having repaid his debt to them, Gi-hun
02:26then starts paying the men to aid in his search for the frontman. This search begins with
02:30an aggressive hunt for the recruiter, who is found in a public square offering struggling
02:34people a choice between a lottery ticket and a bread roll.
02:37Maybe he's not so bad.
02:39This line, said at the beginning of an obviously cruel game, reflects similar games played
02:44by real people at the expense of author's dignity. This form of charity is seen all
02:48over social media, where the powerful coerce vulnerable people to make tough choices, embarrass
02:53themselves, and get used for content creation, all while being seen by many as acting with
02:58genuine kindness.
03:01As the Sunshine Capital men watch the recruiter play this banali, evil game and subsequently
03:06destroy the bread before the eyes of those who needed it, the same question is on everyone's
03:11Why? Why go through all this trouble just to end it this way?
03:15We get a clue through the recruiter's line before he begins to stomp on the bread. He
03:19says,
03:20"'I'm not the one here who wasted this. That was you people.'"
03:26On the surface, he's talking about the bread, but the subtext here sure seems reflective
03:30of his view on the games themselves. In a season all about the nature of personal accountability
03:35in exploitative systems, the recruiter reveals his own fascinatingly messed-up internal logic.
03:41He isn't responsible for anyone's death, whether inside the games or out. Competitors and homeless
03:46people alike threw their own lives away in his eyes, turning them into trash, as he describes
03:51them later during his confrontation with Gi-hun.
03:54As to why the recruiter goes through this seemingly self-imposed ritual, it's likely
03:58he needs this reaffirmation of his worldview in the same way Oh Il-nam sought similar comfort
04:03through the game he played with Gi-hun in his final moments. The game and the ultimate
04:08proclamation are the recruiter's ritual to maintain his own sense of reality, based on
04:12the moral code of personal freedom of choice.
04:15The recruiter's view of personal responsibility eventually comes back to bite him when he
04:20comes face-to-face with the barrel of a gun. The ironic thing is that he had a way out.
04:25When given the gun for the last time, he could have easily just shot his opponent, but that
04:28would have been breaking the rules β not only the rules of the game, but of the worldview
04:33that has seemingly guided the recruiter's entire life, shattering that illusion was
04:37apparently more terrifying than death itself.
04:39In the aftermath, when his body is discovered, Gi-hun has some cold words for Jun-ho.
04:43I wasn't the one who fired the gun. We played a game and he just happened to lose.
04:49To some extent, Gi-hun shares certain parts of the recruiter's worldview. On top of that,
04:54it also calls back to the end of Season 1, when Cho Song-woo died by suicide in order
04:59for Gi-hun to win. With the amount of guilt Gi-hun clearly carries being haunted by Song-woo's
05:04spirit as another character later defines, it's possible he's been telling himself this
05:08line since long before the recruiter died.
05:12With the help of Hwang Jun-ho and their mercenary contractors, Song Gi-hun finally gets what
05:16he's been after β an audience with the frontman, sort of. Once again, their confrontation is
05:21reduced to a phone call, this time in the back of a limousine.
05:24The frontman's voice comes from a speaker hidden inside a pig. It appears to be identical
05:29to the piggy bank that hangs over the contestants in the games. It also might be a sly nod to
05:34the fact that he's secretly a former police officer β or pig, as one of the characters
05:38would call him.
05:39Did you really think you could end the game like this? With one little gun?
05:43This touches on an idea that will become central to the season once Gi-hun re-enters into the
05:48games β voting as a mode of action versus violence.
05:52We have to end this right now so we can get out of here alive! Everyone!
05:58At the end of the season, when Gi-hun finally chooses violence after several disappointing
06:02elections, an undercover Hwang In-ho, a.k.a. the frontman, subtly calls back to this taunt
06:07with a question.
06:08How are you going to fight them? After all, they've got guns.
06:14Well, it turns out he's not too shabby with a gun, either.
06:18When we first get back to the games, one of the newcomers is Player 44, Son-nyeo. A
06:23self-professed shaman, she immediately gravitates toward Gi-hun and somehow deduces that he's
06:28being haunted by the dead. Whether or not she's genuinely psychic, this line clearly
06:33stirs in Gi-hun's memories of Chosung-wu and Kangsae-byeok β because of these ghosts.
06:38She also correctly surmises that Gi-hun is not exactly there by choice.
06:42You didn't come here of your own volition.
06:45This line positions Son-nyeo as one extreme with regard to the season's central theme
06:49of choice. To her, choice does not exist, only destiny. But it also points to the fact
06:54that here, one's freedom of choice can be undermined by the system they exist in, calling
06:59into question whether or not the freedom to choose really exists at all.
07:04On the other end of the spectrum is Player 100, Im Jong-dae. With the massive debt of
07:0910 billion won β nearly $6.8 million β it's implied that he carries the greatest personal
07:14debt of anyone in the games. However, when this is brought up by one of the guards during
07:18the orientation, he speaks proudly of his burden.
07:21They don't give all 10 billion to just anyone! You have to work in the bank leagues for them!
07:27With this comment, he aims to elevate his superior status among the other contestants
07:31who accept his framing and treat him as a smart businessman. It also deflects accountability.
07:36His debt wasn't a moral hazard, because he was a wealthy businessman in what's allegedly
07:41a merit-based society, and not just some average poor person.
07:45But the truth is that he's in the same predicament as everyone else, and he's also a significantly
07:50worse person. By leading the charge for the games to continue, he's forcing more vulnerable
07:54people to take accountability for his financial mistakes. No matter how deluded he is, he's
08:00not better than anyone. But he is uniquely detestable.
08:04When Gi-hun willingly sends himself back into the games, he does so because he's secretly
08:08concealing a tracking device in one of his molars. Or at least, he thinks he is. In theory,
08:13this tracking device would allow Jun-ho and the mercenaries to find the island even easier,
08:18though to do so they unfortunately enlist the help of the duplicitous Captain Park.
08:22As they head toward the beacon, emitting a signal from a nearby island, Park shares with
08:26Jun-ho that he's actually familiar with the island. He says,
08:30These days, nobody really goes out there except to fish on shore.
08:34With the twist in mind, this line slightly reveals that Park was probably the one who
08:38hid the molar implant after it was removed from Gi-hun's mouth. It's eventually found
08:42on the island with a fisherman, fitting in a box of literal bait, at which point Park
08:47is safe on the boat where he cannot be identified by that very fisherman as the culprit.
08:52After Episode 3's twist reveal, the next episode sees Hwang In-ho and Song Gi-hun confront
08:58each other face-to-face for the first time. Though Gi-hun is none the wiser, he's in the
09:02presence of his arch-nemesis. In-ho, on the other hand, immediately endears himself to
09:06Gi-hun despite his own yes vote in the initial election, telling him that he voted to stay
09:11because he believed Gi-hun could help them survive.
09:14After the first game, I thought I was gonna quit. And then I saw you.
09:19Already In-ho is laying the groundwork to destroy Gi-hun's heroic sensibilities, which
09:23don't exactly jive with his own callous sensibilities. For this plan to reach its full effect, though,
09:29he needs to also undermine Gi-hun in the eyes of the other players, so he waits until
09:33Gi-hun is surrounded by scared contestants and insists that Gi-hun must know what the
09:38next game is.
09:39Sir, you know what's next, don't you?
09:43As a consequence, when the next challenge turns out not to be the Honeycombs game, the
09:47other players blame him and rally around figures like Im Jong-dae, who will continue to push
09:52the games forward.
09:55As Kang Noeul refuses to stand aside and allow the organ harvesters to do their work,
09:59they begin violently intimidating her, first by forcing entry into her room and assaulting
10:04her.
10:05The f-----g commie's got a lot of fighters!
10:08Noeul is a North Korean defector and, as such, has been derisively branded a commie by her
10:13enemies.
10:14The divide between North and South Korea has created deeply anti-communist attitudes in
10:18the capitalist South. It's not uncommon for politicians, such as South Korean President
10:23Yoon Suk-yool, currently facing arrest for his failed attempt at enacting martial law,
10:28to label political enemies as communists in order to rally support against them.
10:34Midway through the season, surviving players are starting to dream of life outside the
10:38games, including Chung Jung-cha. She's already planning a dinner party and inviting everyone
10:43from her team to join. In the process, she finds out that her new friends all surprisingly
10:47live, at max, a half-hour away from her.
10:50How on earth do we all end up living so close? That can't be a coincidence. This is fate!
10:55She's right. It's probably not a coincidence at all. It's more likely that the recruiters
10:59spend most of their time in poorer neighborhoods, intercepting potential contestants via public
11:04transportation like the bus Hyung-choo could take to meet up with them.
11:09In Thanos' crew, a smaller storyline develops around the relationship between the soft-spoken
11:14Park Min-soo and his surrogate big sister, Sae-mi, as they head into the third and final
11:19game before all hell breaks loose in the dorms, Sae-mi warns Min-soo against trying
11:23to fit in with Thanos' crew, because he isn't like them and, from her perspective, shouldn't
11:28want to be. He's at risk of dying in the games and needs to vote with her against them.
11:32You won't last in a place like this.
11:35In the following game, Mingle, Min-soo sadly proves her wrong when he turns his back on
11:39her in order to secure a place in Thanos' safe group of three. She survives also, having
11:44found a group of two to join, but clearly loses faith in Min-soo as a person. That said,
11:49it's debatable that Min-soo saved them both, as they could just as easily have wasted time
11:54wandering with other inseparable groups of two who refused to make the cutthroat sacrifices
11:59Thanos did. This line also winds up being darkly ironic, as Min-soo outlives Sae-mi
12:03during the XO massacre.
12:06In Gi-hun and In-ho's group, Mingle poses less stressing moral dilemmas, at least at
12:11first. When a number is called that requires them to exclude one member from safety, In-ho
12:15readily volunteers, disappearing in the crowd. He emerges afterward unharmed and is left
12:20somewhat ambiguous as to whether or not he actually found a group or was simply spared
12:25by the guards due to his status. In the middle of this, there is potentially a clue that
12:29if he wasn't outright avoiding the consequences of the game, In-ho was possibly made aware
12:34of upcoming numbers.
12:36If we have to form groups of six next round, then we won't need anyone else."
12:41It's not the next round, but two rounds later, the game does, in fact, require everyone to
12:45get in groups of six. If In-ho took advantage of the opportunity to disappear to get advance
12:50information on the upcoming number, he kept that info close to his chest, and the misleading
12:55joke about the baby being number six appears to have been a smokescreen to help further
13:00sell his fake identity.
13:02One of the most heartbreaking storylines of the season is that of Geum-ja, who entered
13:06the game to pay off her son's debts, only to find him in there with her. Yong-sik carries
13:11a lot of shame due to how his debts have impacted his mother, yet votes to continue the games
13:16before the mingle round in order to pay them off himself. During the game, he and his mother
13:20are separated, and it briefly seems as though he sacrificed her for his own survival. When
13:25it turns out they both survived, he cries to her and attempts to apologize for abandoning
13:29her.
13:30We're both here. No, sweetheart, it's okay. We're both here. That's what matters."
13:35This isn't just about them surviving the game, but her accepting that even though she's had
13:40to bail out her son time and again, their mutual survival in the world is what matters
13:44most. It's a moment of total forgiveness that allows her to let go of the resentment that
13:48has been present throughout their time in the games.
13:52In the final episode of the season, Gi-hun and Hwang In-ho seemingly team up to take
13:57down the games once and for all. During the initial firefight, In-ho saves Gi-hun's life,
14:01and Gi-hun thanks him, leading the secret frontman to say this deliciously ironic line.
14:07After this is over, buy me a drink."
14:10This line could also be another subtle connection between In-ho and Oh Il-nam, the creator of
14:15the Squid Game competition. When Il-nam and Gi-hun meet outside the games for the first
14:19time in Season 1, the two share a drink on Gi-hun's dime. And when Gi-hun arrives at
14:24Il-nam's deathbed, the camera and script make a point of emphasizing when Il-nam asks
14:28Gi-hun to pour him a drink. Gi-hun clearly has a habit of unwittingly serving his enemies.