TW: Spoilers

Season two of “Squid Games” is finally out on Netflix! After finishing the show over winter break, there are many things that I enjoyed this season, but also many things that I wished could’ve been better. 

Upon starting the show, I first realized that previously player 067, or Kang SaeByeok, in Season one, would not be returning to the second season. This really disappointed me because she was such an iconic character from the first season of Squid Games, and so many fans were awaiting her return for the next season. 

The show began with the main character, Seong Gi-hun (player 456) searching for the front man and trying to find a way to destroy the games. He felt so angry after he won the games, because the cost was his friends’ lives. 

I felt a difference between the first and second season, as Gi-hun’s face had become so empty, serious, and dull in the second season compared to how he first entered the games. The actor who played Gi-hun, Lee Jung-jae, did a great job, in my opinion, portraying the guilt and anger that Gi-hun felt coming out of the games. 

Soon after the episodes, Gi-hun finds the Front Man, and tells him to let Gi-hun re-enter the games. Gi-hun’s goal was to enter the games again, find a way to destroy it from there, and save everyone inside. 

To my surprise, he meets his old friend from the first season, Jung-bae. I was super happy to see them reunite. 

Additionally, many new characters arrive in this new season. One that interested fans even before the show began was Jo-Yuri. Playing the role of Jun-hee or Player 222, she was a member of K-pop idol group Iz*one and is currently a soloist! 

Many K-pop fans were extremely excited to watch her in her very first acting role. 

Even more surprising, Choi Seung-hyun, also known as T.O.P., played the role of Thanos in the second season. He was previously a member of K-pop boy band BigBang, but left after getting into a scandal involving drugs and prostitution. 

T.O.P wanted to get back into the industry so desperately that he decided to take on the role of Thanos for free. 

When the games finally began, the iconic “Red Light, Green Light” was the first game of Season two as well. Next was a six-legged pentathlon where teams of five played Ddakji, Flying Stone, Gong-gi, Spinning Top, and Jegi.

Mingle followed the pentathlon, where players must form groups that match the number called, enter a surrounding room, and close the door before 30 seconds is up.

What changed from the first season was that you could now vote after every game whether or not to continue the games. In the original season, voting only occurs after the first game. 

Because of this, a lot of screen time was given to the players voting. Many fans disliked this and wished that they focused more on the actual games, like in the first season. 

A plot-twist that I really was not expecting was that the front man also entered the games as player 001. As the front man always wore a mask, none of the players recognized him even until the end of season two, when he betrayed them.

During each vote, I was watching in anticipation to see whether or not the front man would betray them. 

Finally, the last game that was shown in this second season of Squid Games was a “Special Game”. In this game, a fight breaks out among the players first in the bathroom, then to the main area. Gi-hun began to plot his rebellion during this night.

He gathered people who were willing to fight among him, and planned to take over the pink masked men first, and then try to reach the Frontman’s office.

In this season of the games, Gi-hun was trying his hardest to keep everyone alive and destroy the games. But in the last episode, so many of his friends had died, and his rebellion had failed. And that is where Season two ended off.

Of course, they had to leave us on a cliff-hanger and make fans wait until Season three comes out in June. 

This bloody, suspenseful, and thrilling show is a must-watch!