How Squid Sport Season 2’s Large Cliffhanger Units Up Season 3

Proceed fastidiously; spoilers for the top of “Squid Sport” season 2 lie forward.

The second season of writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk’s acclaimed — and unbelievably fashionable — Netflix sequence “Squid Sport” is formally right here, and the third season, in line with Hwang, will premiere someday in 2025. Based mostly on the season finale, “Pal or Foe,” what can viewers anticipate … and what about that huge cliffhanger?

Let’s again up for a second. At first of season 2, the winner of the video games seen on display in season 1, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), stays in South Korea regardless of the sport’s Entrance Man, Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun), urging him to decamp to America and depart his time within the recreation behind. He would not — and because the sequence jumps two years forward, we be taught that Gi-hun has spent that total time making an attempt to suss out the Entrance Man and cease the video games as soon as and for all (on account of all of the homicide concerned). After his plan involving a GPS tracker inside a false tooth goes awry, Gi-hun is simply caught within the video games, however has one benefit: he is achieved this earlier than.

Identical to in season 1, there’s loads of petty squabbling amongst the 456 contestants over the huge quantity of prize cash, however amidst that, Gi-hun is ready to corral a small and constant group of fellow gamers to revolt towards the guards and, within the course of, the Entrance Man himself. Because the gamers cut up into two factions — those that need to hold enjoying and those that need the sport to finish — Gi-hun and some others suppose they’ve overtaken a handful of guards, just for your entire mission to finish in utter catastrophe. So the place does Gi-hun find yourself, and the way does this arrange the present’s third season?

On the finish of season 2 of “Squid Sport” — which is comprised of seven episodes — pandemonium breaks out within the participant quarters between the “X” faction (who need to depart the sport and which incorporates Gi-hun) and the “O” faction, who need to keep and end … and right here, “pandemonium” implies that all of them begin preventing to the loss of life. (That is partly out of sheer rage and partly as a result of each participant is aware of that as you whittle down the variety of contestants, the prize pot grows.) Gi-hun and his small military all disguise beneath the bunks and mainly let different gamers duke it out, all of the whereas ready for guards to come back in and break up the huge combat. When the guards arrive, Gi-hun and his buddies subdue a number of guards and steal their weapons, opening hearth on the pink suit-clad masked oppressors.

There’s one huge drawback with this plan, unbeknownst to Gi-hun. One among his “allies,” who’s masquerading as Participant 001, is really In-ho, also called the Entrance Man. (Followers of “Squid Sport” will recall that the present mainly did this very same factor in Season 1, in order that’s … neat.) All through the combat, In-ho acts like he is on Gi-hun’s facet, however when he components methods with Gi-hun, In-ho fakes his personal loss of life, dons his masks once more, and kills Gi-hun’s closest buddy Jung-bae (Lee Search engine optimization-hwan) proper in entrance of Gi-hun. The present then cuts to black (apart from a post-credits scene), so it is comparatively protected to imagine that season 3 will choose up proper the place season 2 left off.

It is affordable sufficient to imagine that, as season 3 of “Squid Sport” will get going, Gi-hun will be taught that the Entrance Man is definitely the man who’s been his ally within the recreation itself up till this level. That would mimic the twist in season 1 fairly immediately (though the present already repeated stated twist verbatim, so something goes, apparently), nevertheless it definitely looks like season 2 was constructing as much as this large reveal. However, possibly the Entrance Man finds a special strategy to punish Gi-hun and retains him in the dead of night about his identification — apart from Jung-bae, Gi-hun’s different buddies within the recreation are nonetheless alive (so far as we all know) — so the Entrance Man may keep masked, not reveal that he is really Hwang In-ho, and easily choose off the remainder of Gi-hun’s allies. (This is able to be actually merciless for audiences, however that is “Squid Sport,” in order that would not precisely be unprecedented.)

There’s additionally the matter of In-ho’s brother as Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), a detective who’s looking for In-ho and the precise location of the video games. He isn’t precisely getting wherever, however hopefully, his lackluster storyline will put him again within the motion in season 3. At this level, one factor feels considerably sure: Gi-hun will not be casually becoming a member of the video games as a brand new participant for a third time, and the sequence positively feels prefer it’ll shift its battle to a showdown between Gi-hun and the Entrance Man.

“Squid Sport” season 2 is streaming on Netflix now.