Lingering questions after the season 2 finale

Summary

• Captain Park is suspicious: linked to the games, he killed a teammate to hide his connections.

• No-eul's challenge: he refuses to follow orders to harvest organs, he could be an ally for a future uprising.

• Uncertain Consequences: Gi-hun's rebellion failed, consequences for the rebels are unknown, further twists are expected.

The second season of the hugely popular Korean thriller series Squid game ended with a much more significant cliffhanger than the first, which largely told a complete story with an open-ended conclusion. In contrast, season two felt more like the first part of a two-part finale. It left a lot of big questions unanswered, which will hopefully be clarified when the third and final season releases later this year.

For now, though, there's enough Squid game fans to ponder and speculate about until Season 3 arrives to save everyone from their own wild theories. Here are some lingering questions after the season 2 finale.

The following contains spoilers for Squid game second season.

What's happening in Captain Park?

At first glance, Captain Park seemed like a pretty nice guy. The little squid boat captain saved Jun-ho from drowning after his brother shot him and dropped him off a cliff into the water in the first season. In the second season he helps Jun-ho in his quest to discover the location of the secret island of the games. Saving Jun-ho's life left him with a certain sense of obligation to help him, allowing him the use of his boat seemingly without warning.

At least, that's what he said. But as Jun-ho mounts a more organized campaign to find and infiltrate the island with an entire team of former military personnel paid by series protagonist Gi-hun, Park's behavior becomes increasingly suspicious as the team gets closer to the their destination. He plays an incompetent old man quite convincingly, marveling at the team's drone technology and even mispronouncing the word. It's easy to assume that he's just a helpful man who's a little out of her league.

That is until the finale, when one of the team members finds Park trying to sabotage the drone under the cover of a violent storm. Park tries to write it off as mere curiosity, but ends up stabbing his teammate to death and pushing his body overboard while the rest of the team tries to sleep below deck. It seems almost inevitable that Captain Park is somehow connected to the games, sent to keep an eye on Jun-ho and prevent him from finding out who is responsible. Season 3 will undoubtedly reveal the truth about Park's deception.

What will No-eul do next?

One of season two's most intriguing new characters is Kang No-eul, first introduced in his off-season work as a mascot animal. Much like Kang Sae-byok from the first season, she is a defector from North Korea, struggling to survive in the South while also searching for her lost son who remained north of the border. However, it is soon revealed that the seemingly normal (if somewhat distant) woman is actually one of the “triangles”, the mid-level soldiers in the games' bizarre hierarchy of shapes.

Unlike the other triangles, No-eul is not willing to follow her superiors' orders to the letter. During the first game of “red light, green light”, he is tasked with shooting players who are unable to stay still, but does what he can to make sure the injured players are completely dead. Apparently, this is not part of the job description. The higher-ups are trying to keep some players alive until they can harvest their organs for the lucrative side business of gaming.

No-eul refuses to participate in this added level of brutality, even after a lecture from her superior officer. Two triangle partners attack her and threaten her to comply, and it seems she's willing to fall in line for now. It's possible that No-eul's discontent and willingness to challenge authority will come in handy for Gi-hun and his fellow rebel rebels in season three. Their uprising was easily defeated at the end of the season, but No-eul could prove an unlikely ally if they manage to mount another attack.

What happens now?

Season two ends with what seems like a pretty major shift in the dynamic between the contestants and the game's organizers, one in which it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to return to normalcy afterward. Gi-hun's armed rebellion appears to have failed for now, as his fellow rebels are forced to retreat when their ammunition runs out and other supplies are blocked by soldiers. His fictional ally Young-il, actually the games' Front Man in disguise (or out of it, depending on what the real disguise is), is believed to be dead, as the Front Man gives up his charade and sets himself up puts the mask back on. . Gi-hun's friend Jung-bae is executed, leaving Gi-hun devastated and racked with guilt.

It remains to be seen what will happen to Gi-hun and his fellow rebels such as ex-soldier Hyun-ju and fake Marine Dae-ho. Will they also be executed by the Front Man and his soldiers, or will they be given some opportunity to continue the games? Many players refused to take part in the rebellion; can they continue if they turn against their mutinous teammates? It seems unlikely that things will return to normal without further consequences for the Rebels, but games rarely play out exactly as viewers expect. It wouldn't be a surprise if creator Hwang Dong-hyuk had a few more tricks up his sleeve.

Gi-hun is unlikely to give up on his mission to collapse games, so he will probably find a way to mount another offensive. He also still has outside support from Jun-ho and his forces, who seem closer than ever to finding the island. Although they have a mole in their midst with Captain Park, they are unlikely to give up anytime soon. It's a good thing that season three is premiering this year, because fans will have a hard time waiting for answers to these and other questions.