The ante has officially been upped in Squid Game season 2 episode 6. Here’s our review of the brutal, thrilling episode.
Warning! Spoiler-light on episode 6 but all the spoilers for all previous episodes.
I’m not great at making new friends, especially under pressure. I have anxiety, I’m self-conscious and just generally don’t deal with new situations very well. It’s safe to say that I would die immediately in the third game of Squid Game season 2.
The players are thrown into a large room with a platform in the middle and a bunch of doors surrounding the room. The platform will spin while the music plays and once it stops, the player must find a specific number of people and run into one of the rooms or be killed. It’s like the worst possible version of musical chairs and I wouldn’t last past round one, but thankfully I’m safely at home in Surrey.
Just like in episode 6 of the first season, this episode forces the players, who have now more or less, formed teams and alliances, to play against each other. You’re in a team with your four best friends? Tough luck, this round only allows three per team so two of you can go looking for one more stray.
The players’ true colours have been showing all season, thanks to the public voting after each game, but episode 6 really shows us how far some will go in order to win. Squid Game is more plot-driven than about the themes, but I couldn’t stop wondering if these people are just really good at self-preservation or if they’re inherently this violent?
It’s another extremely satisfying and intriguing episode, but with only one more episode to go, this season has a huge issue. The subplot involving Jun-ho and a team of others looking for the island has been on the back burner for a few episodes now and while this episode features their efforts more, I found myself not caring much. The games have become the focus of the series – probably because that’s what people expect from Squid Game – but the show isn’t very balanced anymore.
It’s the same issue that Silo currently has. The episode runtimes of the AppleTV+ sci-fi drama are constantly divided between the events of silo 17 and silo 18, but one is more interesting than the other. There’s more going on the island with the games, there’s more spectacle and more tension so we’re naturally more drawn to it. Unfortunately, that means that the scenes that involve Jun-ho’s attempts to locate the island feel more like filler or even a distraction rather than a meaningful part of the plot.
There’s also a slight issue with the villain of this season. From episode 3, it was immediately clear that Thanos, the purple-haired former rapper, would be the season’s villain, but as the show has progressed, he’s become more of a comic relief than a true threat. Sure, he’s great at annoying people – the audience included – but it doesn’t seem like he’s actually able to do anything but intimidate. Whereas Heo Sung-tae’s Jang Deok-su felt like a credible threat in season 1, Thanos is mostly just irritating and you keep hoping he slips and messes up in the games.
Episode 6 does set up a very exciting finale. The group is very much divided following this episode’s vote and violence is beginning to erupt within the players. We already know Squid Game is coming back for a third and final season, which means this season will likely end on a bit of a cliffhanger, but we’re sure the final episode won’t be pulling any of its punches.
