Squid Game 2 flips one of season 1's biggest twists

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summary

  • Season 2 of The Squid Game focuses on character development and twists quickly to create tension.

  • The first season's big twist reveals the character's true nature, leaving viewers questioning.

  • Dramatic irony is used in Season 2 by keeping characters unaware to give important information to the audience.

Squid game The second season has entered with sky-high expectations. The first season was a runaway success for its mix of dark humor, trenchant commentary, and surprisingly brutal violence. With all the hype, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk had a seemingly impossible task with his return: To provide viewers with all the elements that made the first season such a sensation, without falling into repetition.

The answer, it seems, was to split the difference. of season two Squid game Telling a story that focuses less on the games and more on the characters trying to survive brings a brutality of bright colors. And instead of ending the season with a big twist like the first season, Hwang flips the element of surprise on its head, letting viewers know the characters are lacking. In essence, Hwang reverses one of the biggest twists of the first season.

Spoilers ahead Squid game Seasons One and Two.

The big twist of season one

Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su) on his deathbed in Squid Game Season 1
Netflix

In the last episode of Squid game In the first season, a year after protagonist Seong Gi-hoon (Lee Jung-jae) wins a grand prize as the last man standing, he receives an invitation to a seemingly empty office complex. There, he finds Oh Il-nam (Oh Yeong-soo), a kindly old man he befriended during the game and whom he believed was killed. As it turns out, Il-Nam wasn't just any contestant—he was the man behind the whole thing. Lying on his deathbed, Il-nam tells Gi-hoon that he created the games to entertain bored, wealthy aristocrats like himself, and mostly participated out of youthful nostalgia.

Squid game director Hwang Dong-hyuk

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Looking out over the snowy Seoul streets, the two play another game. Before the clock strikes midnight, Il-nam claims that no one will stop to help the homeless man lying on the street below. A helpful citizen proves him wrong, but Il-Nam dies moments later, and it is unclear whether he knew the truth before he passed.

It was a pretty big twist at the end of the first season, playing with the audience by revealing the true nature of a character they've come to care about and sympathize with. This kept the audience on shaky legs for the games ahead. If the creator can participate undetected, who knows what other tricks games might have up their sleeves?

How season two flipped season one's twist

Front man and guards in the squid game
Netflix

In season two, this question is answered for the audience, but not for the characters. After Gi-hoon's quest to end the games by capturing the front man fails, he makes the final decision to rejoin the games to take them down from the inside. To begin with, there is no reason to think that anyone from the games will try to stop him. That is, until the end of episode three, “001.”

After spending about a hundred lives in the first game, players vote to continue the game or not. In reverse order, the last contestant to vote is Contestant 001, who casts the deciding vote to continue the matches. The camera zooms in behind him, until he reveals that he is none other than the man in front of him, Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun). Having never seen him without his mask, Gi-hoon doesn't recognize him. In-ho manages to gain Gi-hoon's trust and friendship, even siding with him to try to end the matches in the subsequent votes.

For the rest of the series, Hwang is able to ramp up the dramatic irony steadily, where the audience has important information that the characters do not. Instead of revealing the mole player's existence with a twist at the end of the season, season two reveals it to the audience early on, while the characters are completely unaware. This adds more tension to the story. The viewer is constantly forced to question In-ho's motives and guess what he might be trying to do to manipulate Gi-hoon and thwart his quest to bring down the games.

This does not mean that one storytelling choice is better than another; Instead the two create different effects on the season as a whole. By saving the reveal of Il-Nam's identity for last, the season finale calls the viewer into question every previous interaction with the character, and possibly even going back to see if there were clues they missed along the way. At the beginning of season two, revealing In-Ho to the audience but not the characters creates a more immediate effect, where the viewer can see the manipulation unfold in real time.

Dramatic irony is one of the oldest devices in the drama playbook, dating back to the days of Greek tragedies Oedipus Rex and out. It's also a smart choice on Huang's part, the way it's made Squid game Season two is a separate but complementary experience to season one. The season ends on quite a cliffhanger, and viewers will have a lot to think about before season three brings them back to the games one last time.

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