‘Squid Game’ creator, stars discuss season 2 finale cliffhanger

Warning: This article contains spoilers about the Squid Game season 2 finale.

It wouldn’t be a season of Squid Game without Player 001 secretly being a rich VIP who enters the game in disguise. But in season 2, that had even deadlier consequences than normal for Gi-hun, a.k.a. Player 456 (Lee Jung-jae), and the rest of the players.

After Gi-hun trusted Il-nam, a.k.a. Player 001, in season 1 only to learn that he was the original creator of the game, you’d think that he would have a healthy distrust of anyone with the 001 label moving forward. But throughout season 2, Gi-hun befriended the new Player 001 without realizing that it was actually the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) in disguise. Fool him once …

All jokes aside, the deception resulted in a devastating outcome for Gi-hun at the end of the violent season 2 finale, which had a traumatic cliffhanger. Gi-hun had been on a mission to end the game all season, and he tried to organize a rebellion against the Front Man and the guards. For a while, it looked like Gi-hun and his new allies in the game were going to pull it off, after they killed a legion of guards and stole their guns and ammo. But Gi-hun had no idea that Player 001 was actually the Front Man, who secretly sabotaged the rebellion and killed many of the players — including Gi-hun’s BFF Jung-bae, a.k.a. Player 390 (Lee Seo-hwan), who was shot right in front of him in the finale’s closing moments.

Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk originally envisioned seasons 2 and 3 as one story, but when it became “too many episodes,” he had to find a natural place to split it into two installments. And that’s why he decided to end season 2 on this major cliffhanger.

“When you see the journey of Gi-hun, he tries many attempts to put an end to the game,” Hwang tells Entertainment Weekly. “The first attempt is, he tries to get backup to come and save him from the game. That fails. The second one is through votes — he tries to persuade everybody so they can leave together. That fails as well. And then, the third attempt was to carry out the revolt, which again fails. And as a result, he loses his best friend in front of his eyes.”

Hwang knew that moment in episode 7 would pack an emotional punch and keep viewers interested until the final season premieres next year. “I thought that that would be just the right moment to end the story,” he says. “Of course, those watching would feel like, ‘Oh, no. What’s going to happen next? Give us the next episode right now.’ But I think that because, at that moment, Gi-hun loses everything, he fails all of his attempts, that is when he goes through yet another character transition. So, I thought that was the best place to end the season.”

The actor behind Gi-hun remembers feeling shocked when he learned how season 2 ends on a brutal cliffhanger for his character. “My first reaction was, ‘how could you end the season at that point?'” Jung-jae says. “I think the audience would be dying to know what’s going to happen next and some may be very angry, actually. Some may even curse that it’s ending on such a cliffhanger. But I realized that a lot of people nowadays actually love bold cliffhangers.”

Seo-hwan, who first appeared as Gi-hun’s friend Jung-bae in season 1 before returning in a major capacity for season 2, laughs as he admits, “I actually really, really love that cliffhanger ending.”

Jung-jae thinks that showing Gi-hun and Jung-bae’s friendship over the course of both seasons makes Jung-bae’s death in the cliffhanger an “even more dramatic ending.”

“In season 1, I had those scenes where it really showed how we share a friendship,” Jung-jae adds. “And ever since season 1, I had those emotions piled up inside me, so in season 2, the scenes with Jung-bae were my breath of fresh air, and a bit of a comic relief for myself as well. Whenever I shared scenes with Jung-bae, it may be brief, but I think it was my opportunity to show the older Gi-hun, the side of past Gi-hun where he was more childish and more fun, and also show how deep of a friendship I share with Jung-bae.”

The actor also doesn’t believe it was a coincidence that Gi-hun’s best friend was invited to the game in season 2. “I think that it was probably Front Man who invited Jung-bae into the game in order to make the game more fun and entertaining for the VIPs,” Jung-jae says. “Front Man probably thought that bringing in a close friend of Gi-hun’s would make everything so much spicier and fun. Even when they’re friends, Jung-bae doesn’t fully trust him in the beginning, but as time goes by, he does and he fully trusts Gi-hun, and as friends, they are determined to get out of the game alive together.”

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Jung-jae believes that, even though it wasn’t shown onscreen, the VIPs were likely gambling more on whether Gi-hun and Jung-bae would make it out alive. “Thinking of Front Man and VIPs gambling on the desperation of these two friends made me think that they were just so evil,” Jung-jae says. “And it made me very furious.”

Losing Jung-bae in such a disturbing fashion is absolutely going to impact Gi-hun heading into the final season. “It must have been a really big shock for him,” Jung-jae says. “Maybe he will feel a little bit lost, or he doesn’t know what to do next, or maybe he will become more furious and vengeful and really hate the host behind the game. I think the viewers, also, will be curious how changed a person Gi-hun would be in season 3.”

Squid Game season 2 is now streaming, and will return with season 3 in 2025, on Netflix.