‘Squid Game Season 2’ is a grander, gripping - oh wait, it’s over

Ryan O'Connell / THE GATEPOST

By Ryan O’Connell Associate Editor A lot can happen in three years. After all, three years is 1,095 days, or 26,280 hours, or 1,576,800 minutes. Three years was the time it took me to finish 27 classes, write 127 articles, and work 998 hours at IT. It was also the amount of time it took Netflix to release the second season of “Squid Game.” Surely you remember when “Squid Game” first premiered - the show was absurdly popular, an instant hit, and for a few weeks seemed impossible to escape. As soon as a month after the show’s release, an interview with creator Hwang Dong-hyuk for The Guardian revealed, there was talk of a second season. But despite the show’s extreme popularity, three years is a long time to wait, especially for a television show. So naturally, when the second season released Dec. 26, 2024, I expected it to underperform - especially if Netflix was projecting the numbers season one brought in. Surprisingly, “Squid Game Season 2” became the most-watched show on the platform from July to December in only six days, according to Hollywood Reporter. All of this is to say that people loved “Squid Game” when it first released, and they still loved it when the second season dropped. But after watching it myself, I’m not too hopeful for the future of the series. The second season picks up exactly where the original run ended, with Seong Gi-hun at the airport, preparing to leave the country. Here he makes the decision which leads the rest of the season - to stay and enact revenge on the frontman of the Squid Games. The show takes an interesting diversion for the first three episodes, carefully building up to the games while fleshing out some of the smaller season one characters, as well as introducing a few new faces. We spend much more time with Detective Hwang Jun-ho, who previously infiltrated the island dressed as a guard, was shot by his brother, and then rescued from the ocean by a passing fisherman. Now, with a crew of mercenaries, they search for the island where the games are taking place. We also see the loan shark from the very first episode, previously threatening Gi-hun, now as his employee. The shark and his army of thugs, now on Gi-hun’s payroll, search for the mysterious recruiter he met a year ago at the subway stop in order to learn more about the games. In the later half of the season, when the focus is back on the games, there is a new batch of childhood challenges to stress over, and a new crowd of players to admire, mourn, and hate. Season two takes what worked and runs with it - it doesn’t feel too repetitive, thanks to the new games, characters, a twist on how they can all win, and another curveball at the end of the season - which makes the installment fun and fresh. It also doesn’t compromise the social commentary it set up in the first season. The themes of capitalism being a machine for suffering are still there, although this season definitely did feel more like a contemporary drama, with the setting and situation fueling most of the commentary. All of that sounds well and good - so why am I concerned about the series’ direction? Well, season two is only seven episodes long. For all the good the newest season does, for all the expansion and worldbuilding and stakes and tension it brings, it doesn’t resolve a single thing. There are a few “conclusions,” such as when the recruiter dies in a game of Russian roulette, and the final scene of the seventh episode, where a hidden identity is revealed to Gi-hun, but these don’t wrap anything up. The recruiter revealed nothing to the audience, nor Gi-hun, before his death, and the identity reveal only leaves viewers further questioning the character’s motive. Certain subplots, like Detective Jun-ho’s and the newly introduced sniper’s barely make any progress at all, feeling undercut by the drama happening inside the Squid Games. The two sides of the season, the inside and the outside, feel dissonant with each other in terms of progress made, which makes the cliffhanger ending even more unsatisfactory. So while “Squid Game Season 2” originally piqued my interest in exploring old characters, developing layered new ones, and twisting the model of season one, the lack of any fulfilling payoff really killed that investment. Besides, the third and final season is expected to release June 27, according to Tudum. So if we were made to wait three years for season two, why not hold it another six months? Rating: C+ More like mid game