Every game in Squid Game Season 2, ranked

The Squid Game Season 2 spoilers follow.

The second season of The Squid Game is finally out. seven new episodesand perhaps the biggest surprise of the new season is that … well, there aren’t many games this time around. After protagonist Lee Jung-jae Song Gi-hoon returns to the island where the official games are held, he and the new players will only play three games (although one of those games consists of five mini-games). This may come as a surprise to some viewers, as the deadly children’s games made the first season so memorable. To be fair, season 2 ends on a cliffhanger (Season 3, which will be the last, is due out next year), which means we’ll likely get even more games in Season 3. All that said, there are three other games that are being played earlier the new season is coming back to the island, so if we want to break down all the games in “Squid Game” season 2, we might as well include them. Which is what we’re doing below as we rank every game in Squid Game Season 2.

Coming in last is a game that will be familiar to anyone who has seen it “The Deer Hunter”: Russian Roulette. A highly lethal game usually involves players loading a single bullet into a revolver, spinning the chamber, then holding the gun to their head and pulling the trigger. The player has a one in six chance of getting shot. In the first episode of “The Squid Game” season 2, Gi Hoon comes face to face with a mysterious recruiter played by Gun Yoo. The recruiter has a revolver on hand and invites them to play Russian Roulette, but he adds a twist to the game: instead of spinning the chamber each round, the two players will simply walk back and forth while pulling the trigger. This increases the chances of being shot and means that at least if the gun is empty five times in a row, the last shell will ensure a bullet is fired. Gi-hoon, trying to get back to the island and shut down the games once and for all, agrees to play.

The two players go back and forth, empty chamber each time. Finally, two chances remained. One of the two remaining pulls on the trigger will fire the bullet. Gi Hoon has a gun and can easily cheat by pointing it at the recruiter and pulling the trigger twice – one of those shots is guaranteed to kill. Gi Hoon plays fair: he puts the gun to his head and shoots. This round is empty, meaning the last round is the one with the bullet in it. The situation has changed: the recruiter could just use this opportunity to just shoot and kill Gi Hoon. Instead, he also plays by the rules and ends up shooting himself in the process. It’s a disturbing scene overall, but it’s the least “exciting” game of the season.

Season 2 of The Squid Game jumps forward two years from last season, and we learn that during those two years, Gi-hoon hired a team of people to help him find the Recruiter, all in order to get back to the island. to stop the games. For two years, these men, led by Mr. Kim, combed the subway system trying to find a recruiter, but to no avail. Finally, one day Mr. Kim and his employee Choi Woo Seok notice the recruiter and follow him. During their reconnaissance mission, they witnessed a strange sight. First, the recruiter goes to the store and buys a bunch of buns and a bunch of lottery tickets. He then goes to a public park where he approaches a group of homeless people. The recruiter offers them a choice: they can either take the list or scratch the lottery ticket. Most people take a ticket and immediately lose it. Instead of giving the players the remaining shots as compensation, the recruiter throws them to the ground and beats them to a pulp. It’s a darkly funny moment, and it’s another example of the show’s running theme of down-on-their-luck people desperate for money, but it’s not the most interesting game.

One of the new games this season is called Mingle. Players enter a large circular room and must step onto a rotating platform in the center. As the platform rotates, a number is called. The platform then stops spinning and players must quickly gather into groups that match the number. So, for example, when the number “10” is called, players must form groups of 10 people. They must then run into one of a series of smaller rooms and close the door. Players who don’t make it in time are eliminated — which means they get shot. Players must also follow the rules: if the number 4 is called and a group of only 3 people enter one of the rooms, all 3 people are shot. It’s brutal and chaotic.

The first game in which players participate is a familiar one: Red Light, Green Light. Once again, players must try to cross the finish line while being watched by a creepy giant doll. When the doll’s head is turned away, the players can move freely. When the doll turns its head to look at them, they should freeze in place. Anyone who does not maintain absolute immovability is shot. While the rules of the game are the same as in Season 1, Season 2 puts a twist on the process: Gi-hoon has already played this game once and survived. Thanks to this, he can warn other players that they are about to be killed. However, his warnings fall on deaf ears…at least not at first. The new players think Gi-hoon is full of it… but once the bullets start flying, everyone quickly follows him.

Another game played before the show returns to the island is Rock Paper Scissors Minus One. After the “Bread vs. Lottery Tickets” incident, Mr. Kim and Choi Woo-seok continue to follow the recruiter. Unfortunately for them, he falls upon them and captures them. He ties two men to chairs and forces them to play a game he calls “Rock-Paper-Scissors Minus One,” which is a combination of Rock-Paper-Scissors and Russian Roulette. Mr. Kim and Choi Woo-seok have to play Rock-Paper-Scissors with two hands, and then when the recruiter yells “Minus one!” they have to take one hand away. The winning hand is the one that outranks the other remaining hand—at which point the recruiter puts a revolver loaded with a single bullet to the loser’s head and pulls the trigger.

Understandably, this stresses and unsettles the two men forced to play, and to make matters worse and more painful, the Recruiter eventually decides to change the situation. Instead of using a gun with five empty chambers and one bullet, it switches to five bullets and one empty chamber. This, of course, increases the chances that one of the men will be shot. After several lightning rounds, in which a terrified Mr. Kim and Choi Woo-seok were drawn each time, Choi Woo-seok extended both hands as “Paper” and Mr. Kim discarded “Paper”. ” and “Scissors”. The subtext is clear: all Mr. Kim has to do is remove “Paper’s” hand and keep Scissors out and he wins. This means that Choi Woo Seok will almost certainly die. However, after a long, agonizing pause during which both men stare at each other, Choi Woo-seok takes away one of his “paper” hands, while Mr. Kim chooses to keep both hands — meaning Mr. Kim is automatically disqualified. The recruiter instantly puts a gun to Mr. Kim’s head and pulls the trigger. In this round, a live bullet and Mr. Kim is killed, much to Choi Woo-seok’s horror. It’s a dark, heartbreaking moment: Mr. Kim could have easily saved his own life and sacrificed Choi Woo-seok in the process, but he chose to give up his turn to keep his employee and friend alive.

Actually the biggest game of Season 2 of Squid Games. five mini games. After a deadly round of Red Light, Green Light, Gi-hoon suggests that the second game will once again be about trying to cut out dalgon cookie shapes like in season 1. However, the people running the games have changed things. Instead, the second game ends with a six-legged pentathlon. The players must divide into groups of 5 and fasten their legs together. They then have to move around a circular track, taking turns playing mini-games. If they complete all the games and cross the finish line in time, they win. If they don’t, they are killed. Five mini-games include what is the matterthe game that a recruiter usually plays is to try to flip one envelope over another; Flying Stone, in which the player tries to topple a tiny tombstone-shaped rock with another small rock; gonggiwhich involves trying to lift small pieces of plastic with one hand and is very similar to jacks; spinning top, where the player has to spin a small rope using a rope; and eatwhere someone has to try to hold a frill-like object, like a sack, in the air with their foot. It ends up being the most memorable game of the season simply because it takes so much time and has so many moving parts, meaning players have so many chances to screw up and decide their fate.

The Squid Game Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.