So there I was on my silly little couch, sipping on my silly little smoothie when I thought to myself: how can I simultaneously improve and ruin my day? So I watched Squid Game on Netflix.
It’s been a number of days since I finished watching the show and I’m still thinking about all those games, because hwat hte fcuk? And the ending? And what that means? Will there be a season 2? Do we need one? Do I even want one? So join me as I word vomit my way through all these questions.
First things first: if you can, please choose subs over dubs. Say it with me, friends. Subs over dubs. Do not do yourself a disservice by watching this phenom show with English dubbing. The dubbing, while entertaining, just doesn’t fit the vibe of the show. It ruins it, if you ask moi. So switch on the subs if you can, you can do that via settings.
Aight, let’s dig in.
What happens at the end of Squid Game?
After winning the survival games, a traumatised Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) returns home to find his mother dead. Grief-stricken, he withdraws from society, refusing to touch his prize money. Fair enough! One night, Gi-hun sits by a river, drinking, when a woman approaches him with a basket of roses. She begs him to buy one, otherwise they’ll wilt. So he does, only to find one of the calling cards from the survival games. There’s an address and time on it.
So out of curiosity, Gi-hun goes to the specified destination and who does he find there? Bloody Oh Il-nam (Oh Young-soo) on a ventilator, the sweet old man who we all thought died during the survival games. Although, his off-screen death was a definite red flag.
God, I hope you’ve watched the show, ‘cos that’s such a huge spoiler.
Turns out, Il-nam is the mastermind behind the whole thing. He was some sort of ginormous moneylender who gave $$$$$$$$ to lesser loan sharks, who then lent money to desperate people like Gi-hun. That’s how he found willing participants.
From his deathbed, ‘cos he really is terminally ill, Il-nam tells Gi-hun that he created the games because he was… sad. He had too much money and nothing gave him joy anymore, except seeing people kill each other. He wanted to have fun. He even participated in the games for the thrill of it. Nice!!!!
Gi-hun is pissed, to say the least, and is disgusted with the old man he formed a bond with in the games. But Il-nam argues that he never made anyone compete in the games, he even gave them the choice to leave.
In a final game, Il-nam bets Gi-hun that nobody will come help a homeless man sitting outside in the snow. He doesn’t believe in humanity, obvs. Why Il-nam won’t just die at this point is beyond me. But anyway, Gi-hun bets the opposite and eventually wins when the man is rescued by a bystander and police at the very last minute.
Il-nam finally dies and, perhaps inspired by the rescuing of the homeless man, Gi-hun decides to use his prize money for good. He gets a haircut, dyes his hair red (???), and buys a plane ticket to America where his daughter is waiting for him. He tries to fill the deep holes the games left.
So he picks up Sae-byeok’s (Jung Ho-yeon) brother, Cheol, from the orphanage and tasks Cho-Sang-woo’s (Park Hae-soo) mother, who lost a son, with looking after him. He also gave Sang-woo’s share of the prize money to his mother to look after Cheol.
Gi-hun is moving on… but then just as he reaches the airport, he sees the very handsome Salesman (Gong Yoo) slapping the absolute shit out of a poor, unsuspecting man.
The Salesman is playing the same game he used to lure Gi-hun to the survival games in the very first episode.
Gi-hun loses it and sprints to the opposite station but by the time he gets there, The Salesman is gone, leaving behind the poor guy and one of his infamous calling cards. So Gi-hun takes the card and, while preparing to board the plane, calls the number on it.
Like the first time Gi-hun called the number, he’s asked to state his name and birth if he wants to participate in the games. So he does. Silence. So Gi-hun says he wants to know who else is behind the games and how they can do such unspeakable things.
Whoever’s on the phone tells him to get on the plane – THEY HAVE EYES EVERYWHERE – but Gi-hun doesn’t. He turns around and starts walking away from the plane, his daughter, and any chance at moving on.
And that’s how the show ends. Don’t yell at me, but I was kinda disappointed in the ending but that’s probably because nothing could top episode 6 (the marbles episode).
The ending does, however, leave things open for a second season.
What’s the go with the red hair?
I mean, maybe he just wanted to go big. You could say Gi-hun underwent the dramatic change to put his past firmly in the past. That’s one way to look at it.
The other? I’m not completely sure, but I don’t think it was a coincidence that we were given an eyeful of Gi-hun’s head for a couple of seconds as he walked towards the plane.
All I know is there’s a lot of red (and green) in the show.
In episode 1, the password to get into the van that will take contestants to the games is ‘red light, green light’, which is also the name of the first game contestants have to play.
In episode 2, when the contestants are given the option to leave the games, they either press the green button to stay or the red button to leave. Red light, green light 2.0.
The show makes it clear that the colours red and green are opposites.
I think – unless this is a blue dress / gold dress thing again – that the uniforms the guards wear are also red, whereas green is the colour of the players’ uniform.
So maybe Gi-hun choosing to dye his hair red is another way of saying that he’s about to become the aggressor. That is, if Netflix wants to go there with a second season.
What happened to Hwang Jun-ho?
Yes, what happened to my new husband!!!? Detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun) successfully infiltrated the survival games dressed as one of the guards, collecting evidence on his phone. He was searching for his brother, who he knew was somehow tied to the games.
He eventually broke into the office of The Front Man, leader of the guards, and found all the files containing the names of past contestants. And that’s how he found out that his brother not only competed in 2015, but won too. So what happened to him?
While trying to escape the island the games are set on, Jun-ho ends up on a neighbouring island where he desperately tries to send the video evidence to his boss. But reception sucks, so it’s unclear if all the files sent through. I think some did though?
Anyway, The Front Man and his henchman track Jun-ho to the island and corner him on a cliff. Jun-ho only has one bullet left in his gun and he uses it on The Front Man, shooting him in the shoulder.
And that’s when The Front Man reveals he’s the missing brother, In-ho (Lee Byung-hun).
Jun-ho is devastated when he finds out the truth. So to rub salt in the wound, his brother shoots him in the shoulder. Jun-ho falls to his (off-screen) death. Read: he’s absolutely not dead.
We didn’t really get to see much regarding Jun-ho’s relationship with his brother, or how In-ho even became The Front Man, which irked me. Also, if In-ho won the games in 2015 and then became The Front Man does he just… go back and forth between normal life and the games?
For what it’s worth, the director-writer of the series Hwang Dong-hyuk isn’t opposed to a second season, but it’d take time.
“I don’t have well developed plans for Squid Game 2,” Dong-hyuk, told Variety. “It is quite tiring just thinking about it. But if I were to do it, I would certainly not do it alone. I’d consider using a writers’ room and would want multiple experienced directors.”
Another season could go in any direction, really. Considering the games have been going on for decades, there’s enough material for even a prequel series.
My guess is that if there is going to be a second season, In-ho would either welcome a new mastermind or step into the role himself, while the miraculously alive Jun-ho and Gi-hun try to take him down somehow.
Or, maybe the universe will expand. In that episode with the awffffful American actors and dialogue, one of the VIPs did say something about the games being the best in Korea, which suggests that there are other games in other countries played as well.
For all the major theories getting around about the show, aggressively click right HERE.
Squid Game is streaming now on Netflix.
