Squid Game 2 throws one of the biggest twists of the first season

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Summary

  • Season 2 of Squid Game focuses on character development and plot twists early on to build tension.

  • Season 1's big twist reveals a character's true nature, leaving viewers wondering.

  • Dramatic irony is used in the second season to provide viewers with crucial information while keeping the characters in the dark.

Squid game entered his second season with sky-high expectations. The first season was a runaway success for its mix of dark humor, cutting commentary and surprisingly brutal violence. Despite all the hype, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk had a seemingly impossible task with his return: give audiences all the elements that made the first season so sensational, without falling into repetition.

The answer, it seems, was to split the difference. Second season of Squid game brings the brutality to bright colors while telling a story that focuses less on the games and more on the characters trying to survive. And instead of ending the season with a big cliffhanger like in the first season, Hwang instead flips the element of surprise, giving the audience the information the characters are missing. In essence, Hwang reverses one of the major plot twists of the first season.

Spoilers ahead for Squid game seasons one and two.

The big twist of the first season

Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su) on her deathbed in Squid Game season 1
Netflix

In the final episode of Squid game In the first season, a year after protagonist Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) wins the big prize by being the last one standing, he receives an invitation to a seemingly empty office complex. There he finds Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su), the kind old man he befriended during the games and who he believed had been killed. As it turns out, Il-nam wasn't just any competitor: he was the man behind the whole thing. Lying on his deathbed, Il-nam tells Gi-hun that he created the games to entertain wealthy, bored elites like himself, and that he took part mostly out of youthful nostalgia.

Squid Game director Hwang Dong-hyuk

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Looking out over the snowy streets of Seoul, the two play another game. Il-nam bets that no one will stop to help a homeless man lying on the street before the clock strikes midnight. A caring citizen proves him wrong, but Il-nam dies moments later, and it's unclear whether or not he knew the truth before he died.

This was a pretty massive twist at the end of the first season, toying with the audience by revealing the true nature of a character they cared about and sympathized with. It also put viewers on shaky footing for future games. If the creator could participate unnoticed, who knows what other tricks the games might have up their sleeves?

How the second season reverses the twist of the first

The Front Man and the guards in Squid Game
Netflix

In season two, this question is answered for the audience, but not for the characters. After Gi-hun's attempt to end the Games by capturing Front Man fails, he makes the desperate decision to join the Games to defeat them from within. At first there's no reason to think that any of the games will try to stop him. That is, until the end of episode three, “001.”

After the first game costs nearly a hundred lives, players vote on whether or not to continue playing. Going in reverse order, the last contestant to vote is contestant 001, who casts the deciding vote to continue the games. The camera zooms in on his back, until he turns to reveal it is none other than the Front Man himself, Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun). Having never seen him without the mask, Gi-hun doesn't recognize him. In-ho manages to earn Gi-hun's trust and friendship, even siding with him to try to end the games in subsequent votes.

For the rest of the series, Hwang is able to consistently ramp up the dramatic irony, where the audience has crucial information that the characters don't. Rather than revealing the existence of a mole with a twist at the end of the season, the second season reveals it to the audience early on, while the characters are completely unaware of it. This has the effect of adding even more tension to the story. The viewer is forced to constantly question In-ho's motives and speculate on what he might be trying to do to manipulate Gi-hun and impede his quest to bring down the games.

This isn't to say that one narrative choice is better than the other; rather than the two simply creating different effects on the overall season. Saving the reveal of Il-nam's identity until the end, the season one finale makes the viewer question every previous interaction with the character, and perhaps even go back to see if there were any clues they missed along the route. At the beginning of the second season, revealing In-ho to the audience but not the characters creates a more immediate effect, where the viewer can see the manipulation unfold in real time.

Dramatic irony is one of the oldest tools of drama, dating back to the times of Greek tragedies Oedipus Rex and beyond. It's also a shrewd choice on Hwang's part, a way of doing things Squid game the second season is a distinct but complementary experience to the first. The season ends on a cliffhanger, and viewers will have a lot to think about before season three brings them back to the games for the last time.

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