Back in 2021, Netflix came out with season 1 of Squid Game, which was an absolute hit amongst the binge watchers of Netflix. Because of its internet receptiveness, the director announced in June of 2022 that a season 2 would be made. It is now 2025, and on December 26, 2024, season 2 was finally given to the public, and has made its way to the #1 spot of most watched shows of all time.
As shown in s1, Gi-Hun (Lee Jung-Jae) is a divorced father and gambling addict who joins the Squid Game in hopes of earning enough prize money to pay off his debts and support his family. However, it wasn’t the reality tv type show like he had hoped; he soon realized that the games were a deadly spin off of children’s games. Losing would result in your total annihilation.
3 years after his big win in the first season, he was unable to move forward and enjoy his immense wealth. He was determined to dismantle the game from the inside – no matter the cost. His search for the island and the frontman was only met with dead ends, however his hopes change after he meets a traffic cop, Hwang Jun-Ho (Wi Ha-Joon), who is hoping to find his missing brother, Hwang In-Ho. After teaming up together, Gi-hun and Jun-ho find themselves being pulled back into the world they so narrowly escaped in an effort to stop the inhumanity they witnessed.
The show eventually ends up with Gi-Hun back in the games as, once again, player 456. One of the most interesting aspects of Season 2 is that it moves beyond the players. The audience follows the journey of pink soldier, No-eul (Park Gyu-young). While the participants are motivated by the promise of billions of dollars, the soldiers, who appear unconcerned with the game’s vicious nature, have chosen to work for the Front Man for other reasons. No-eul had chosen to join the force in hopes of reuniting with her child, Na-Yeon, who she was forced to leave behind when she fled North Korea.
After Gi-Hun entered as a player, he expected the games to be the same as last time. He had told everyone what the second game entailed which was Dalgona, or more commonly known as the honeycomb game. However, to his surprise, the 2nd game was much different. The six-legged pentathlon is a race where 5 players are tied together by their legs, forcing them to walk in a circle while each of them competes in a mini game such as Ddakji, a two-envelope game, Gong-gi, also known as Korean Jacks, where players catch pebbles through a series of levels, and many more. After Hyun-ju’s, AKA Player 120’s, team manages to win through mutual support, many other teams are inspired and succeed. Gi-hun allies with Jung-bae, Jun-hee, and Players 001 and 388 (Kang Dae-ho); they succeed and exchange names after the game, though Player 001 falsely introduces himself as Oh Young-il.
The show continues with 1 other nefarious and violent game, “Mingle “. During that game we see a secondary character, Young-Mi (player 095), pass away. This breaks the heart of main character, Hyun-ju, and she has a brief moment of hopelessness.
At this point in the show, no more games are introduced. However, a bathroom brawl commences, causing people in the main room to also break out in fights. We see multiple secondary characters go, such as Thanos (player 230), and Se-Mi (player 380). This brawl was intended to happen by the frontman, same as it did in season 1. It is relieving that the directors decided to keep some of the same aspects of season 1, like Red Light Green Light and the brawl (which was in complete darkness by the way), because Gi-Hun could still help his allies make their way through the game without fully killing them off.
The show portrays a chilling reality of what it is like to actually live in South Korea. The country has one of the highest levels of household debt in the world, much of which has incurred through a failing social security system. Beyond that, Season 2 highlights one specific feature of a capitalist system built on zero-sum competition: people are drawn into it because of the promise of fairy tale wins for a few, despite it resulting in devastating losses for many.
Ultimately, Squid Game season 2 lives way past the hype and recognition that season 1 had. Season 2 was expected to generate $1.1 billion dollars in revenue; however, Netflix denied this estimate, claiming “it can’t calculate revenue based on the success of a single work because it’s a monthly subscription service “. It reached the top of Netflix’s TV rankings in 93 countries within two days of its release and set a new viewership record in its first week.
In conclusion, Squid Game Season 2 successfully builds on the intense, high-stakes drama of its predecessor, while introducing fresh characters and deeper moral dilemmas that keep the audience engaged. Director Hwang Dong-Hyuk has confirmed Season 3 is coming in fall 2025, and it will be the series’ last.
