Brutal thrills — and lots of buildup

When debt-ridden gambler-turned-reluctant billionaire Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) once again wakes up to Haydn’s “Trumpet Concerto” in the echoey, black-and-white dorm, a woman stops him as he solemnly makes his way to the floor. “Player 456. I sense you’re holding onto many things,” notes player 44 (Chae Kook-hee), fixing Gi-hun with a piercing gaze. “You can’t leave or stay. You can’t fight it. It’s your destiny.”

In its long-awaited second season, Squid Game, like Gi-hun himself, finds itself in a kind of limbo. Hwang Dong-hyuk’s global phenomenon — a violent survival thriller about desperate people forced to play deadly children’s games in hopes of winning life-changing cash — returns with seven episodes that feel more like a bridge to the third and final season than a distinct arc of their own. Even so, the Netflix hit delivers a satisfying kick of visceral excitement with its brutal contests and a clutch of compelling new characters.

Two years after refusing to get on the plane to Los Angeles, Gi-hun spends his days holed up in an abandoned Seoul motel, using his 45.6 billion Won — the “blood money,” as he calls it — to pay for a search party. From morning until night, the men under Gi-Hun’s employ scour the city’s subway platforms for the recruiter (Gong Yoo) — the handsome, besuited man who lures downtrodden folks to their (almost certain) death with a simple game of ddakji.

Elsewhere in the city, Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) — the detective who infiltrated the island and discovered that his missing brother, In-ho (Lee Byung-hun), was the game’s infamous Front Man — is working as a traffic cop. Having failed to convince his superiors that a cabal of wealthy sickos are killing the poor for sport on a remote island, he continues his search for the perpetrators on his own time. Every night, Jun-ho takes to the seas with Captain Park (Oh Dal Soo) — the fisherman who pulled him from the water after Front Man shot him — in hopes of finding his way back to the game’s locale. 

As fans already know from the season 2 trailer, Gi-hun returns to the games voluntarily, hoping to destroy the murderous operation from within. There he finds the spare dormitory once again packed with destitute folks who had the misfortune of earning an invitation from the recruiter. Young-sik (Yang Dong-geun), laden with gambling debts, is horrified to discover that his elderly mother, Geum-ja (Kang Ae-sim), also joined the games to pay off what he owes. Several players, including a purple-haired rapper who calls himself Thanos (Choi su-bong), lost everything after investing in a new crypto scheme hawked by an influencer — and their fellow competitor — MG Coin (Yim Si-wan). And Gi-hun is dismayed to find Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan), his good friend and pub owner, among the green-tracksuited throng. 

Once wide-eyed, terrified, and intermittently goofy, Gi-hun is now stony and trauma-hardened, grimly determined to keep his fellow players alive long enough to convince them that they need to escape. Lee, who brought an endearing levity to Gi-hun’s travails in season 1, manages his character’s emotional shift beautifully, as he frantically tries to awaken his fellow players to the danger they’re in ahead of the first game: Red Light, Green Light.

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With the humor (mostly) sapped out of his hero, Hwang adds compensatory comic relief through several new characters. Jung-bae forms a charming friendship with Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul), a young Marine who’s eager to be of service to the older man. Jeon Seok-ho is consistently amusing as Woo-seok, an excitable small-time criminal who joins Jun-ho in the search for the island. And Choi — a well-known rapper off-screen — brings phenomenal charisma and swagger to Thanos, who maintains his MC bravado even in the most horrific circumstances. Yoo’s slick recruiter enjoys more screen time this season, and the actor explodes his character’s chilling composure during a terrifying — and delightfully unhinged — reunion with Gi-hun.

As entertaining as this new group of players is, it’s disappointing that season 2 has them spending more time in the dorms arguing about whether to continue the games than playing the games themselves. Early on, Gi-hun reminds the competitors of clause 3 in the consent form — “The games may be terminated upon a majority vote” — which leads to too many scenes devoted to this ongoing debate. Multiple episodes feature lengthy sequences in which the contestants argue before they vote over which way to vote, attempt to sway or intimidate each other during the vote, and then have somber discussions about the results after the vote. The conversations all center on the same dichotomy: Those who want everyone to live versus those who are willing to kill to win. But whatever point Hwang may be trying to make about the value of optimism over nihilism (or vice versa) is crushed under the weight of unnecessary and unresolved repetition.

Fear not, there are new games — and like Red Light, Green Light, they are incongruously barbaric. This is no place for spoilery details, but I can say that each game generates gut-twisting, yell-at-the-screen suspense, even on a second watch. And the games’ announcer (voiced to eerie perfection by Jeon Young-soo) gives the most chilling instruction yet: “Players, please wait while we tidy up the venue.”

It all builds to an expected — but still gripping — showdown that sets up what’s sure to be a blood-soaked battle royale in season 3. “The games won’t end unless the world changes,” warns the Front Man. Well, changing the world takes time, so if Gi-hun needed this season to prepare, we owe it to him to be patient. Grade: B