The ending of Squid Game season 2 is as violent as it is thrilling. With player 456, aka Gi-hun’s amateur plan to end the deadly games backfiring, many are left for dead. But how did we get here?
Masterfully balancing gore with moments of emotional resonance, season 2 delves deeper into the psychological toll the games had on protagonists Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae) and Jun-ho (played by Wi Ha-joon). Soon, the two team up to stop the deadly events once and for all. However, their mission seems challenging with The Front Man (played by Lee Byung-hun) and his elaborate plan.
From the get-go, the second season makes the object of its games pretty simple — “win or die”. Talking about how the instalment is not meant to provide a resolution but serve as a build-up with consequences to feed into the final season, director Hwang Dong-hyuk said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, “I originally envisioned seasons 2 and 3 as a single story. That’s how I wrote it. But in the process, it came out to be too many episodes. So I thought it’d be better to divide it into two.”
Curious to know how Hwang ties up the thrilling, action-packed finale of Squid Game season 2? Here’s our breakdown of the last episode of the Netflix original series.
PS- Major spoilers ahead
Squid Game season 2: The cast and the characters they play
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- Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun (Player 456)
- Lee Byung-hun as The Front Man
- Yim Si-wan as Myung-gi (Player 333)
- Park Sung-hoon as Hyun-ju (Player 120)
- Lee Seo-hwan as Jung-bae (Player 390)
- Gong Yoo as The Salesman
- Park Gyu-young as Kang No-eul
- Oh Dal-su as Sea Captain Park
- Wi Ha-joon as Hwang Jun-ho
Squid Game season 2 ending explained: Bread or lottery, friend or foe?
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Season 2 of Netflix’s global blockbuster Squid Game begins with Gi-hun calling off his journey to the US and returning to Seoul to fight back to stop the deadly games once and for all.
The narrative shifts to three years after the events of the first season. Detective Hwang Jun-ho is now transferred to the traffic department but is secretly working with a friendly boat captain Park to locate the mystery island. Park rescued Jun-ho after he fell off the cliff due to the bullet shot to his shoulder by his brother, The Front Man.
Elsewhere, Gi-hun uses the money he won in the games and starts his hunt for The Salesman — the one who recruits the players for the games.
Soon, Jun-ho and Gi-hun cross paths and decide to team up to bring the VIPs and The Front Man of the games down. Gi-hun, with a tracker attached to a dental implant, enters the bloody games once again. Meanwhile, Jun-ho and his team, with the help of Captain Park, follow Gi-hun’s location to find the secret island where the games are held.
However, as the first game, Red Light Green Light begins, Gi-hun realises that the staff had located the tracker on him when he was brought to the island unconscious and removed it. However, trusting Jun-ho and the team to find him, he decides to continue playing the games as player 456.
By the time the series reaches the finale episode, Friend or Foe, it’s a complete bloodbath. Players of Team X (those who want out of the games) and players of Team O (those who want to stay and play more) duke it out and a few end up killing each other.
Following this, Gi-hun urges his fellow players to “capture the ones who captured us, put an end to this game and make them pay.” He then forms a small group, including The Front Man, who has been double-crossing the former as player 001 and plans to revolt against the makers of the game.
What happens to Hwang Jun-ho and his team?
The ending of season 2 of the Korean drama finally reveals the reason behind Jun-ho and his team’s inability to locate Gi-hun and the mysterious Squid Game island despite all their efforts. They had a mole all along and it’s none other than Captain Park.
In the last episode, Jun-ho and the crew, who had been scouting locations to find the island in Captain Park’s boat, are all passed out after the day’s hard work. However, the drone operator wakes up from sea sickness and catches Captain Park sabotaging their drone. When the former confronts him about the same, Park quickly draws a blade, stabs the drone operator and tosses him off the boat.
What are the consequences of Gi-hun’s “little hero game” in the Squid Game season 2 ending?
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After Gi-hun’s team steals guns from the guards that come in to break up the internal fight between team Xs and Os, they begin their search for The Front Man.
The group put up a brave fight against the guards but run out of ammunition. They then split up. Player 001, with a few others, keeps the guards distracted. Meanwhile, Gi-hun and his friend Park Jung-Bae, aka Player 390, head up to the control room.
When Gi-hun manages to find the room with the aid of a guard mask, player 001 stops his facade and gets back to being The Front Man, with his usual metallic mask and attire.
In the next few moments, he orders the guards to capture and kill everyone who revolted against them. Gi-hun and Jung-Bae, now out of ammunition, surrender to The Front Man. The latter, however, takes his sweet time taunting Gi-hun for his foolishness, “Player 456, did you have fun playing the hero? Look at the consequences of your little hero game.” He then shoots Jung-bae point blank.
Season 2 of the thriller K-drama on Netflix ends with an injured Gi-hun crying on the floor next to his dead friend.
Special mention: The psycho Salesman and his unhinged backstory
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One of the most crucial characters of season 2, The Salesman comes face to face with Gi-hun in episode 1.
A friendly individual in a chic suit portrayed by Gong Yoo, just like in season 1, plays Ddakji with debt-laden people at subway stations and recruits them for the deadly games. In addition, he also plays another twisted game, Bread or Lottery, with the homeless people at the parks.
He offers them two options — either choose a scratch card or a bun to eat. When a vast majority picks the scratch cards but still end up winning nothing, The Salesman empties all of the buns onto the ground and stomps on them saying, “I am not the one who threw these away, it’s you ladies and gentlemen”.
While returning from one such park, The Salesman is tailed by two of Gi-hun’s men. However, he takes the duo captive and plays a combination of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Minus One, and Russian Roulette with them and eventually kills one of them. The Salesman then finds Gi-hun and reminds him that he should have listened to him and left for the US.
Gi-hun taunts The Salesman for being their dog. But the latter retorts saying that some people are trash and deserve to be eliminated from society. He recalls, “I don’t know which year it was, but one day, I was about to shoot a man who had lost a game. The guy seemed familiar. Guess who it was… my dad. He was in tears, desperately begging me to spare his life. I shot him in the middle of his forehead and realised, ‘Ah, I am cut out for this job.’”
Soon after, The Salesman starts a game of Russian Roulette with Gi-hun and shoots himself in the head after losing to Gi-hun. However, before dying he informs Gi-hun that he has left a clue to meeting The Front Man in one of his pockets.
Squid Game season 2 is currently streaming on Netflix.
(Hero image credit: Netflix Korea | 넷플릭스 코리아/@netflixkr via Instagram; Featured image credit: Netflix K-Content/@netflixkcontent via X)