Squid Game season 2 episode 2 finds Jin-ho and Gi-hun joining forces to take down the gamemakers. Our thoughts on the episode.
As per usual, no big spoilers for the episode in question, but lots for previous episodes!
If you were expecting Squid Game season 2 to be a total copy of the first season, you’ll be sorely disappointed after episode 2. Episode 1 didn’t take us back to the games yet and neither does episode 2. It’s refreshing to see a series like this abide its time, focus on characters and allow different dynamics to form, but at the same time, I am itching to watch our characters get tangled in another series of deadly games.
We’re quite dedicated to keeping most of our reviews spoiler free so our written thoughts on episode 1 didn’t reveal the fact that Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), a police detective and The Front Man’s (Lee Byung-hun) brother, is still alive and kicking. You might remember that the Front Man only shot Jun-ho in the shoulder and the impact dropped him off the cliff in season 1, so it always seemed like the door was open for him to return and return he did.
In Squid Game episode 2, Jun-ho hears the gunshot go off in the motel where Gi-hun has been holed up. We already know it’s the Recruiter shooting himself in the head, but poor Jun-ho runs in, ready to bust whoever is there. Jun-ho and previous winner Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) join forces, swearing they will find the island where the games are held and put a stop to it. In fact, Jun-ho has been paying the sea captain who found him in the middle of the sea to help him go through the various islands of the area in hopes of finding the right one.
Desperate times call for desperate measures and Gi-hun has a dentist swap out one of his teeth with a fake one, embedded with a tracker in order for Jun-ho to locate him. After finding a special card in the now-dead Recruiter’s pocket, Gi-hun plans to put himself back in the games. This might seem silly at first but at the end of the day, he’s quite powerless to do anything from the outside so might as well risk it and go back in the games, warn the new players and maybe find out more.
Gi-hun is also still secretly checking in on Sang-woo’s mother and Sae-byeok’s brother, making sure they’re doing well. It’s sweet, right? Wrong! He hides himself from them, as if he’s scared that he might ruin their lives if he gets involved, but the short scene holds a lot of power and tells us much about Gi-hun’s mental state. Squid Game really has matured a lot from last season and is really leaning on the darker aspects of the narrative this time around, but we’re certainly not complaining.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. There’s still a comical edge to Squid Game and it’s particularly potent in the Halloween Party scene, where this episode takes its title. The survivor of the Russian Roulette game in episode 1 is now helping Gi-hun and Jun-ho, but bless him, he’s a little thick and keeps getting himself in trouble. The silliness of scenes like this creates a nice balance together with the series’ trademark brutal violence.
As we mentioned in the previous review, Lee Jung-jae is really remarkable as Gi-hun. You know when you boil water and it’s seconds away from fully boiling, but the water is just barely bubbling underneath the surface? That’s exactly how Lee plays Gi-hun and it’s really compelling to watch.
We also meet No-eul (Park Gyu-young), a North Korean defector who also works part-time at an amusement park in costume, handing out candy for little kids. No-eul was forced to leave her kid behind in North Korea and is now trying to arrange for her to cross the border, but like with Sae-byeok’s brother last season, it’s easier said than done. Safe to say she’ll be heading to the games as well, but No-eul’s storyline does seem somewhat similar to Sae-byeok’s.
That being said, the story is heading into a really interesting direction. We won’t say too much in case you’re taking it slow and haven’t made it any further into the series yet, but it seems we’re getting very different perspectives in Squid Game season 2 compared to season 1. The trailer for this season made this writer very worried the series would be recycling the same plot for season 2 but creator Hwang Dong-hyuk proves he’s got plenty of tricks up his sleeve.
