Proceed carefully; spoilers for the end of “Squid Game” season 2 lie ahead.
The second season of writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk’s acclaimed — and unbelievably popular — Netflix series “Squid Game” is officially here, and the third season, according to Hwang, will premiere sometime in 2025. Based on the season finale, “Friend or Foe,” what can viewers expect … and what about that massive cliffhanger?
Let’s back up for a moment. At the beginning of season 2, the winner of the games seen on screen in season 1, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), stays in South Korea despite the game’s Front Man, Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun), urging him to decamp to America and leave his time in the game behind. He doesn’t — and as the series jumps two years ahead, we learn that Gi-hun has spent that entire time trying to suss out the Front Man and stop the games once and for all (on account of all the murder involved). After his plan involving a GPS tracker inside a false tooth goes awry, Gi-hun is just stuck in the games, but has one advantage: he’s done this before.
Just like in season 1, there’s plenty of petty squabbling amongst the 456 contestants over the massive amount of prize money, but amidst that, Gi-hun is able to corral a small and loyal group of fellow players to revolt against the guards and, in the process, the Front Man himself. As the players split into two factions — those who want to keep playing and those who want the game to end — Gi-hun and a few others think they’ve overtaken a handful of guards, only for the entire mission to end in utter disaster. So where does Gi-hun end up, and how does this set up the show’s third season?
Gi-hun ends season 2 of Squid Game in serious danger
At the end of season 2 of “Squid Game” — which is comprised of seven episodes — pandemonium breaks out in the player quarters between the “X” faction (who want to leave the game and which includes Gi-hun) and the “O” faction, who want to stay and finish … and here, “pandemonium” means that they all start fighting to the death. (This is partly out of sheer rage and partly because every player knows that as you whittle down the number of contestants, the prize pot grows.) Gi-hun and his small army all hide under the bunks and basically let other players duke it out, all the while waiting for guards to come in and break up the massive fight. When the guards arrive, Gi-hun and his friends subdue a few guards and steal their guns, opening fire on the pink suit-clad masked oppressors.
There’s one massive problem with this plan, unbeknownst to Gi-hun. One of his “allies,” who’s masquerading as Player 001, is actually In-ho, also known as the Front Man. (Fans of “Squid Game” will recall that the show basically did this exact same thing in Season 1, so that’s … neat.) Throughout the fight, In-ho acts like he’s on Gi-hun’s side, but when he parts ways with Gi-hun, In-ho fakes his own death, dons his mask again, and kills Gi-hun’s closest friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan) right in front of Gi-hun. The show then cuts to black (aside from a post-credits scene), so it’s relatively safe to assume that season 3 will pick up right where season 2 left off.
Season 3 of Squid Game will see Gi-hun grapple with a huge discovery
It’s reasonable enough to assume that, as season 3 of “Squid Game” gets going, Gi-hun will learn that the Front Man is actually the guy who’s been his ally in the game itself up until this point. That would mimic the twist in season 1 pretty directly (although the show already repeated said twist verbatim, so anything goes, apparently), but it certainly feels like season 2 was building up to this big reveal. On the other hand, maybe the Front Man finds a different way to punish Gi-hun and keeps him in the dark about his identity — aside from Jung-bae, Gi-hun’s other friends in the game are still alive (as far as we know) — so the Front Man could stay masked, not reveal that he’s actually Hwang In-ho, and simply pick off the rest of Gi-hun’s allies. (This would be really cruel for audiences, but this is “Squid Game,” so that wouldn’t exactly be unprecedented.)
There’s also the matter of In-ho’s brother as Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), a detective who’s searching for In-ho and the specific location of the games. He’s not exactly getting anywhere, but hopefully, his lackluster storyline will put him back in the action in season 3. At this point, one thing feels somewhat certain: Gi-hun won’t be casually joining the games as a new player for a third time, and the series definitely feels like it’ll shift its conflict to a showdown between Gi-hun and the Front Man.
“Squid Game” season 2 is streaming on Netflix now.