After taking the world by storm in 2021, the curtain is about to close on Hwang Dong-hyuk’s “Squid Game.”
Where Season 2 premiered over three years after its predecessor, “Squid Game 3” hits Netflix barely six months on the heels of that. Season 2’s characters, stakes, and cliffhanger might be fresh in the minds of many, but it’s worth revisiting details all of “Squid Game” ahead of its final hurrah.
In case you haven’t made the time to re-binge all of Season 1 and 2 (or even if you have!), here’s a refresher on what happened in “Squid Game” and what might be critical to Season 3. While most of the characters from Season 1 are dead, Season 2’s key players are still at large — but in terrible danger unless Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) succeeds in his master plan.
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The New Gi-hun
In Season 1, our protagonist was a little selfish, a bit bumbling, but a sweet guy who wanted to provide for his mother and daughter. But after a week in the Games and watching hundreds of people die violently before him due to the whims of the wealthy — not to mention his mother’s sudden death during that time — Gi-hun turned into a grave, hardened, and barely recognizable person (and not just because of that drastic dye job).
In the years between his first and second time in the Game, Gi-hun appears to have barely kept in touch with his daughter, who moved to America with her mother and stepfather, or with Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan), one of his remaining friends. He spent the prize money only on his search for the Games, part of a greater mission to end them for good. And the smile from his old player ID? Gone, probably forever.
Every Vote Counts
In Season 1, Gi-hun and the other players took a vote on whether or not to stay in the game after Red Light, Green Light — a vote which ended in them going home and returning to their lives. But shortly after, many took the opportunity to return to the games, risking their lives rather than keep the ones they had.
This voting returned in Season 2 as a perverse ritual; after an initial vote to stay, players were required to vote again after every game; and every time so far, they’ve stayed. Each person received a patch to wear on their tracksuit indicating how they voted — essentially creating two factions within the dorms. Players have tried to appeal to those on opposing sides, or resorted to more violent means when that doesn’t work.
The Brothers Hwang
In Season 1, Gi-hun filed a police report about everything he saw in the games, which prompted police officer Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) to sneak in as a guard — and learn that his missing brother In-ho (Lee Byung-hun) is none other than Front Man, the highest-ranking authority within the game and a former winner. The brothers faced off in the Season 1 finale, with Jun-ho taking a bullet and falling off a cliff… but his quest to expose the games didn’t end there.
In-ho had a pregnant wife before he entered the Games, but she died while waiting for him to secure funds for her surgery. With nothing left to fight for, he joined the Games and became the Front Man. In Season 2, he joins the games undercover, casting the first decisive vote to keep playing before switching sides and gaining Gi-hun’s trust (but ultimately losing Jung-bae’s when he kills someone during the game “Mingle”).
Gi-hun and Jun-ho teamed up in Season 2, before Gi-hun decided to reenter the games and lost all contact with the outside world. While he risks his life in the competition and tries to save individual players, Jun-ho is on a boat with a team of mercenaries determined to find the island. But as the Season 2 finale revealed, their biggest threat is the boat captain, who is not what he seems.
Gi-hun’s Kill Count
Plenty of players are content to dispense with societal decorum and start fully murdering each other in the Games — but not Gi-hun. He never partook of dormitory violence, sacrificed other players, or even pushed them to create a disadvantage. He won the Games on a technicality, because Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo) stabbed himself after all the death and pain he wrought.
And until shooting at the masked guards in Season 2, Gi-hun hadn’t killed or tried to harm anyone, even if he felt the desire — but he stands as evidence that violence leaves a mark even upon those who survive and witness it. He feels blood on his hands from what he’s seen, if not anything he’s done. But now that he shot at those guards, waged a failed rebellion, and lost his last friend, what new lengths might our hero go to in the end?
The Ones Who Live
As of the Season 2 finale, surviving players include ex-military members Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon) and Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul), mother and son duo Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim) and Young-sik (Yang Dong-geun), expecting mother Jun-hee (Jo Yuri), and several others of note (R.I.P. Thanos). In-ho is back in his role as Front Man after the psychological experiment of entering the games and befriending Gi-hun, while No-eul (Park Gyuyoung) will continue to offer viewers a look inside the guards’ lives.
Many of these supported Gi-hun’s rebellion even if they didn’t take part actively (or in some cases, both — looking at you, Dae-ho), which means they relied on him to get them out of the Games. That trust may be shaken now, along with Gi-hun’s actual ability to save them.
The One Who Died
Before he enters the game, Gi-hun is seen trying to make ends meet in his daily life, including daytime gambling with old friend Jung-bae. In Season 2, they met in the game, immediately giving Gi-hun something to fight for, but also something to lose. In the Season 2 finale, the Front Man killed Jung-bae right in front of him, another devastating death on Gi-hun’s conscience.
“Squid Game 3” premieres June 27 on Netflix.
