How Squid Game Season 2’s Big Cliffhanger Sets Up Season 3

Proceed with caution; spoilers for the end of The Squid Game Season 2 ahead.

The second season of the acclaimed — and incredibly popular — Netflix series The Squid Game, directed and written by Hwang Dong-hyuk, is officially out, and the third season, according to Hwang, it will premiere in 2025. Based on the “Friend or Foe” season finale, here’s what viewers can expect … and what’s next massive steep?

Let’s go back for a moment. At the beginning of season 2, the winner of the games that could be seen on screen in season 1, Song Gi-hoon (Lee Jung-jae), remains in South Korea, despite the main character of the game, Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hoon). , urging him to leave the camp in America and put his time in the game behind him. He doesn’t — and when the series jumps forward two years, we learn that Gi-hoon spent all that time trying to figure out the Master and stop the games once and for all (because of all the killing). After his plan to use a GPS tracker inside his denture goes awry, Gi Hoon is stuck with the games, but he has one advantage: he’s done it before.

As in Season 1, there are many petty squabbles among the 456 contestants over the huge amount of prize money, but amidst it all, Gi Hoon manages to drive a small and loyal group of players into a rebellion against the guards and, in the process, the Front Man himself. As the players split into two factions—those who want to keep playing and those who want the game to end—Gi Hoon and a few others think they’ve outrun a handful of guards, but the entire mission ends in complete disaster. So where did Gi-hoon end up and how does this set up the show’s third season?

At the end of c Season 2 of “The Squid Game” — consisting of seven episodes — pandemonium breaks out in the players’ quarters between the “X” faction (which wants to leave the game and includes Gi-hoon) and the “O” faction, which wants to stay and finish … and here “pandemonium” means that they all start fighting to of death (This is partly out of pure anger and partly because everyone the player knows that as you reduce the number of participants, the prize pot grows.) Gi-hoon and his small army hide under the bunks and basically let the other players sort it out, all the while waiting for the guards to come in and break it up before a massive brawl. When the guards arrive, Gi-hoon and his friends subdue several guards and steal their weapons, opening fire on the pink-suited, masked oppressors.

There is one massive the problem with this plan, unbeknownst to Gi Hoon. One of his “allies” posing as player 001 is actually In-ho, also known as Front Man. (Squid Game fans will remember that the show basically did the same thing in Season 1, so that’s … neat.) Throughout the fight, In-ho acts like he’s on Gi-hoon’s side , but when he breaks up with Gi Hoon, In Ho fakes his own death, dons the mask again, and kills Gi Hoon’s closest friend Jung Bae (Lee Seo Hwan) right in front of Gi Hoon. The show then fades to black (except for the post-credits scene), so it’s relatively safe to assume that Season 3 will pick up where Season 2 left off.

It’s reasonable to assume that as the third season of The Squid Game begins, Gi Hoon will find out that Frontman is actually the guy who was his ally in the game itself up until this point. what would mimics the Season 1 twist pretty directly (though the show already repeated said twist verbatim, so whatever, I guess), but it definitely feels like Season 2 was building up to that big reveal. On the other hand, maybe Front Man will find another way to punish Gi-hoon and keep him in the dark about his identity—besides Jung Bae, Gi-hoon’s other friends in the game are still alive (as far as we know)—so that Front Man can remain masked. not to pretend that he is actually Hwang In-ho and just pick off the rest of Gi-hoon’s allies. (That would be really cruel to the audience, but this is The Squid Game, so it wouldn’t be unprecedented.)

There’s also the case of In-ho’s brother as Hwang Joon-ho (Wi Ha-joon), a detective looking for In-ho and the specific location of the game. He’s not going anywhere, but hopefully his shady storyline will bring him back into action in Season 3. At this point, one thing seems certain: Gi Hoon won’t be casually joining the games as a new player the third time, and the series definitely looks like it will take its conflict to the showdown between Gi Hoon and Fronton.

Squid game season 2 now streaming on Netflix.