Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the season 2 premiere of “Squid Game.”
For as much as the debut season of “Squid Game” sucked viewers into its labyrinth of sadistic games and psychological drama, the finale still left audiences with a number of unanswered questions. How would lone survivor Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) use the vast resources at his disposal to enact vengeance upon the perpetrators? With the death of Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su), the kindly old man who turned out to be the man behind the curtain all along, would the mysterious Front Man (who turned out to be the missing In-ho, played by Lee Byung-hun) step up to take on the big job? And speaking of which, whatever happened to the Front Man’s brother, the dogged detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun) — along with the damning evidence he collected and tried to send to his police superiors?
The well-received second season wastes no time catching fans up on this missing piece of information, confirming that the cop survived that tense, cliffside encounter with his long-long brother who turned out to be the Front Man. But while he managed to walk away from that bullet wound and his fall into the ocean far below, the same can’t be said for the intelligence he attempted to use to blow the whistle on the entire operation. Still, at least he’s since returned to his old profession, fighting crime and keeping civilians safe … though not in a way anyone would’ve ever expected.
If there’s anything that this early storyline with Hwang Jun-ho proves, it’s that the games have taken their toll and nothing will be the same again. Years after the finale, the once-relentless detective is now a shell of his former self. Yet, deep down, his need to reveal the Squid Game for what it is continues to drive him, after all.
Squid Game season 2 reveals that Wi Ha-jun survived … but is now a traffic cop
Do you want the good news or the bad news first? On the one hand, we find out in the season 2 premiere titled “Bread and Lottery” that Wi Ha-jun survived his traumatizing ordeal on the secretive island location that hosts the eponymous Squid Game competition (though only after a lengthy stay at a hospital to recover from his wounds). On the other, the video and photographic evidence he tried to send to his boss never went through, and the authorities aren’t in a rush to believe such a far-fetched story. And, to add insult to injury, the final indignity sees Jun-ho — once such a talented and effective detective — now working the traffic cop beat, stopping motorcyclists for minor violations and going nowhere, career-wise.
Of course, that’s hardly the final word on one of the show’s most promising heroes. We find out that, in the two years that have passed since the season 1 finale, Jun-ho has stayed in touch with the fisherman who scooped him from the sea and saved his life. Since then, he’s convinced the captain to trawl the ocean in search of that mysterious island. What’s more, Jun-ho seems to get the motivation he needed to snap out of this rut and get his mind back on track, thanks to coincidentally crossing paths with the similarly reinvigorated Seong Gi-hun. Our main hero has been busy putting his immense wealth to work, funding a massive manhunt in the subways for the enigmatic recruiter who sucked him into the games in the first place … and who continues to do so with countless victims in desperate stages of their lives.
The premiere ends with the Recruiter (Gong Yoo) killing himself in a game of Russian roulette, while Jun-ho breaks into Seong Gi-hun’s motel hideaway and discovers some files that will almost certainly bring the two back together again in a team-up that’s been a long, long time coming. Every episode of “Squid Game” season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.