Squid Game Review

Published: 06-27-2025

First of all, spoilers obviously

With that out of the way, I have a lot of thoughts about this season. I’d like to start off by saying that I really enjoyed the second season despite how people were shitting on it online. I felt like it setup a lot of plot points and continued upholding what squid game did best, which was creating moments with high intensity and paying it off with the expected amount of drama that was involved. Oh yeah, and creating compelling characters with equally as compelling stories.

I think that season 2 set up a couple different plot points which would be the games itself, the detective, and the north korean. I’ll tackle each one of these one by one.

The Soldier

This was probably the most solid storyline of the three. It was pretty simple, a north korean soldier turning back against the other soldiers who seemed to be heartless killers. Someone who wanted to stick to their morals, and even redeem themselves even if they would only save one person. I think this character was written to be very similar to Gi-Hun, as they both have a similar goal, which was to go against the whole Squid Game organization.

I really liked her moment at the end with Gi-Hun and the baby, because at first, it seems like Gi-Hun only says his last lines out of defiance and rage against the organization. It’s first shown to show off his resolve to break the cycle made very evident from the fact that he didn’t kill the others in their sleep at night. But what makes this more powerful is the effect it has on the soldier. Gi-Hun doesn’t know that his display of defiance all the way to the end, ended up saving a life, and possibly providing a future for the soldier.

The fact that this inspires her to keep on living on despite finding records that her child and husband are dead sends a rather positive and impactful message. I can’t exactly place my finger on what that message is, but it’s satisfying to see that Gi-Hun’s resolve was not in vain in more ways than just the baby’s survival. I’m happy that she got a good ending, and its cool knowing that if not for Gi-Hun, she wouldn’t have been able to meet her kid.

The Detective

This storyline was super interesting. In season 2 🥲

I feel like they could’ve done so much more with this storyline, because the buildup for this was insane. Literally from the end of season 1 to the end, this storyline was active. However, they end up finding the island way too late, leaving the detective with literally no interaction with the squid games at all. Blud literally yells why at his brother and thats it. No conversation, no reveal, no history, no nothing. Not even any closure, this guy just seems super happy after 6 months for seemingly no reason??

I don’t know I really feel like there should’ve really been a moment with him and the frontman, and not just a death stare. Besides that, he really did nothing else in the squid games. I can’t believe that him finally finding the island and infiltrating the facility amounted to literally zero information. It’s such a disappointing end to what could’ve been such an interesting storyline. This was the chance for us to learn more about the frontman.

Big disappointment, such a huge fumble. I feel like you could remove this guy from seasons 2 and 3 altogether and the story would not have changed. Like he didn’t even find Gi-Hun, bro doesn’t even know he is dead. Also add zero emotional payoff to zero information as well, because this guy had the same face for the entire two seasons bruh.

The Games

Holy moly though, what squid game does best, they nailed yet again. The first few episodes were so good. So much action, suspense, and character progression for Gi-Hun. I really felt bad for bro after his failure of an attack on the facility, especially when everyone started ganging up on him.

The first game: hide and seek, was executed very well. This game served a really good purpose, which was to bring out and confirm the inner nature of the players. Seeing the dynamic between the taggers and the hiders was great.

120, 222, and the old lady were great to watch. The tension of their journey was insane to watch, I feel so bad for 120 though rip, bro was just too good of a person. The interaction with 333 and 222 after though, was really something. And then immediately following that up with the old lady and her son was so heartwrenching. When 007’s death happened, I immediately thought of her line back in season 2, where she said if you die, I’d have nothing to live for anymore. Really such a tragic situation. The end of the old lady’s character pushing Gi-Hun on after her speech was quite powerful too. It really paints a picture of how monsterous these other players are and perfectly drives home the bleak nature of this season. This stuff set the tone for the rest of the season and was a great setup for what was to come.

Also 333 teaming up and going on a killing spree really shows you how selfish he really was. Really builds his character to be someone who is not to be trusted, reflected perfectly in the ending.

Gi-Hun chasing the “ex-marine” was insane as well. I really really liked this, as it grounds Gi-Hun’s character as someone who can always play the hero no matter what happens to him. It makes his character feel more real, and that kind of characterization is what I enjoy most in storytelling. It shows that even the greatest kinds of people can experience cracks in their morals, and this scene is a major point of development for Gi-Hun, it also may be a parallel to season 1 with the marble game and the old man. Acccepting the truth, and moving on with it. Great work with Gi-Hun this season imo.

The jump rope game was alright, but it definitely was not as fleshed out as the previous one. But with the addition of this one and the previous one, it really makes you as the viewer question if these people are worth saving. If maybe the squid games are justified in their doing of these games. Gi-Hun’s made an honest effort to save everyone, and no one even wants to believe him, betraying him without a second thought. I really like the way that it makes you question if what he is doing is really worth it.

Also the whole thing with 222 was real sad, it hurts that they made it so you held on to hope that she would be able to pass the game. But it’s honestly a fair ending for her character, I think there’s no one left she can rely on except Gi-Hun and her condition has really brought the others around her down. Leaving everything to Gi-Hun was great for both his character, and fair for hers.

Oh yeah, and Min-Su aura farmed thats pretty cool, I still don’t really like jit though.

Quick Intermission - The VIPS

Ragebait content. Poorly written evil people. Cartoony ass villains who are the most basic depiction of “the rich guys!!”. Why do they even exist, can they have any real interaction that adds any value to the story? I said you could remove the detective from the story and it would be the same. That was kind of a joke, but these guys. Remove them from the story or rewrite them and the story would be way better. I don’t know what the hell the writer was thinking with these guys. How do you spend so much time crafting deep and compelling characters and just serve this shit??

They are easily the weakest part of squid game and definitely the weakest part of the season. I hoped that the detective would find them on their way out as well, but no I guess. There was just so much wasted potential with the detective and these guys as well. It’s a shame that these VIPs were literally just wasted runtime.

Final Game and Ending

First off, I really wanted more between Gi-Hun and the frontman’s reveal. I wish they talked, I really wish they talked more. But seeing as Gi-Hun isn’t the same person from season 2, it did make sense. However I really liked reveal of the origin of the front man along with the old man giving him the exact same knife and saying the exact same things. It shows to the frontman that Gi-Hun is someone who is stronger than he was, and definitely moves the frontman, even if he doesn’t show it. Leading to the frontman later paying respects to Gi-Hun by paying a visit to his family. Also Sae-Byeok flash was cool, really showing off how Gi-Hun has reached the final stage of his character, and now has a renewed mission and sense of purpose.

I liked how Gi-Hun reveals that he was a bad father, and is trying to make amends with his own daughter by trying it again. Being a protector, someone who was true to his morals, someone who would be looked up to. He was an admirable person in trying to protect the baby, and I feel like this was really a big win for Gi-Hun and im happy for his character.

His character wraps up in a way that makes sense, him coming full circle with more resolve than he ever had. Falling off the pillar with back first and accepting death. Him saying “we are not horses, we are humans” even despite experincing a game with some of the worst people imaginable, is satisfying. And his conclusion doesn’t feel like he did nothing, because he very clearly did change the rebel soldier’s life as mentioned earlier. And I guess he did get sort of a bittersweet ending with his kids. IIRC, he came to Korea to get money for his kids, and props to the frontman for the respect, and honoring his wishes. I like Gi-Hun a lot I wish he didn’t die, but from a writing perspective, I understand the decision and it the decision that makes the most sense.

Besides that the last game also reinforces the characters of these people and how terrible they really are. They are not particularily deep characters, but they are understandable, something I really enjoy about squid game. I’m not sure if the game was as strong as the others, like hide and seek, but it was a good end to the “9” remaining players.

With the destruction of the island and all the past game records it really does feel like the end to the squid game. However I do have questions, such as, what happened to the coast guard? Where did the rest of the soldiers go? Is the detective just gonna go chill now? That’s probably about it though.

Now, the teaser for squid game usa. I am not very happy with this. I think of the squid game franchise, this spin off is the most likely to be a cash grab. There was room for continuation from season 1 to season 2, but there definitely isn’t enough room for this spin off. The chance of tying up loose ends from the original squid game in squid game usa is very unlikely too. I’m not really looking forward to it. I hope they make squid game 1958 though, maybe we could see when the front man participated, that’d be cool.

Overall, I had given season 2+3 a good chance as they were meant to be one season, but they fumbled hard for some aspects of season 3. This led to a half satisfying finish, not everything was given proper closure, and the ending did not feel super satisfying. The season had really good highs especially went it came to character moments and acting (super goated). But it unfortunately had really low lows, which would be the detective’s storyline and the VIPs.

I’d rate it a 7/10, as I still enjoyed it, +respect for the writer trying to make something good and not making it a shitty cash grab :)