WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for Squid Game season 2.
Many of the children's games in Squid Game season 2 premiered on Netflix on December 26, 2024. Lee Jung-jae returns as Squid Game winner Seong Gi-hun, now seeking to stop the competition from within. However, that means he has to go through the games again.
The end of Squid Game season 1 confirmed that Gi-hun was now on a mission against the games' organizers. While season 2 had a lot of action and saw Gi-hun working with mercenaries and hired guns to bring down the games, Squid Game didn't lose track of what made the first season so interesting. The games were deadly as ever, with season 2 including both games seen in Squid Game season 1 and new challenges.
8 Ddakji
Episode 1
Ddjaki is the game that The Salesman (Gong Yoo) plays in both Squid Game season 1 and 2 to recruit potential players for the Squid Game. According to the LA County Library, "Ddakji is a traditional South Korean game played with folded paper tiles which are also called ddakji." In the world of Squid Game, it is only played by The Salesman and is punishable by slaps to the face when the player loses and can't repay his debts.
In this way, ddjaki acts as a foreshadowing precursor to the actual circumstances of the Squid Game. The Salesman slapping the recruiting players if they lose is sort of a cautionary maneuver that hints that players who lose the game are vulnerable to getting hurt and even worse, ending up dead.
Squid Game Season 2 Ending & All Twists Explained
Squid Game season 2’s ending is an even bigger cliffhanger than season 1, and it leaves Gi-hun even worse off after his plan to stop the tournament.
Although ddjaki is a simple children's game that involves throwing a colored envelope and trying to flip the other envelope on the ground, it is used as the primary game to recruit players for the Squid Game. It is also how Gi-hun and his associates are able to find The Salesman years later.
7 Bread And Lottery
Episode 1
"Bread and Lottery" is the title of Squid Game season 2, episode 1, and is a new recruiting game used by The Salesman in the opening episode of the new season. The Salesman purchases 100 pastries and 100 lottery tickets and offers them to apparently random people out in public in broad daylight. Per the typical recurring process of The Salesman, he targets persons who appear to be at a great financial disadvantage, some of whom could be homeless. He walks up to them and offers them the choice of bread-based food or a scratch ticket.
Many people take the lottery ticket and immediately scratch it only to learn that they made the wrong decision when their lottery ticket was worthless and as a result ended up with nothing. The Salesman emphasizes this point by stomping on all the unchosen pastries that were perfectly good and edible but were often seen as less valuable than the lottery tickets.
It shows how easily hope can be marketed and sold to no avail, which is essentially the root of all gambling.
The point in Squid Game that The Salesman makes with his break and lottery game is that people will often choose risk with a higher reward than a guarantee of lesser value, even when they are desperate. It shows how easily hope can be marketed and sold to no avail, which is essentially the root of all gambling.
6 Jokenpô
Episode 1
The third game introduced in Squid Game season 2 occurs toward the end of the first episode in which The Salesman forces Mr. Kim and Woo-seok to play to determine which one of them will survive. Jokenpô, otherwise known as Rock Paper Scissors, is pretty self-explanatory. However, the Salesman adds a twist to it. They play "Jokenpô minus one," where they initially play two hands at the same time and must remove one of their picks every round.
Mr. Kim let Woo-seok win, choosing to die to save his friend's life.
What is left results in a tie or an advantage over the other person's selection. Paper covers rock, rock smashes scissors, and scissors cut paper. It's one of the most basic and common kids' games ever played. Woo-seok tragically beats his boss Mr. Kim in Jokenpô, which results in The Salesman killing Mr. Kim and sparing Woo-seok after he catches both of them following him.
5 Russian Roulette
Episode 1
Russian Roulette is another extremely common and well-known game that is by no means a children's game as it is incredibly dangerous. The Salesman introduces this game to Gi-hun as a way to determine, or rather let "fate" decide, how their conflict should end in Squid Game season 2, episode 1. The Salesman also plays this game in conjunction with Jokenpô with Mr. Kim and Woo-seok earlier in the episode.
Gi-hun and The Salesman take turns firing a 6-gauge revolver into their own heads with only one bullet loaded. The initial shot has a 5/6 chance of it not being loaded but as the game goes on, the odds of the bullet being loaded goes up. The Salesman and Gi-hun play the game honorably, which remarkably results in 5 straight blanks and the final loaded bullet being taken by The Salesman, killing him. This is how Gi-hun is able to make with the Front Man and reenter the Squid Game.
4 Red Light, Green Light
Episode 3
Squid Game season 1 viewers will instantly recognize the iconic game Red Light, Green Light. As the ceremonial first game of the Squid Game, the rules are very simple: move forward from one side of the map to the other while the music plays and after the announcement of the words "Green light." Upon the announcement of the command "Red light", players must stop moving and be completely still in order to stay in the game.
In the world of Squid Game, players who fail to be completely still during the "Red Light" phases are shot and killed instantly by pink guard snipers. A motion detector in the giant doll at the far end of the map scans the players and determines who is moving and thus, who is eliminated each round. The game has a zero-tolerance policy for any sort of movement during the Red Light phases so many players are instantly shot dead for tripping, shaking, or even being pushed by other players.
3 Six-Legged Pentathlon
Episodes 4-5
One of the new games in Squid Game season 2 is a six-legged pentathlon that involves several mini-games. As the second round in this current version of the Squid Game, which was Dalgona in season 1, players are required to team up in groups of five and designate one player to each mini-game. Teams of five are then aded by their legs, hence the term "six-legged", which forces them to walk together in a circle from station to station. Teams have five minutes to complete all five mini-games of the pentathlon and cross the finish line in order to stay alive, while losers are killed on sight upon failure.
- Game 1 – Ddakji: The two-envelope game played by The Salesman to recruit players in previous episodes is the first game of the six-legged pentathlon.
- Game 2 – Flying Stone: This game involves knocking over one vertical stone on the ground with another stone from a distance of roughly 10 feet.
- Game 3 – Gong-gi: This game is also called Korean Jacks and requires players to catch pebbles or plastic stones through a series of levels, ending with all five landing on the back of the player's hand and catching them all to complete the game.
- Game 4 – Spinning Top: This game requires the fourth player to wrap a thin rope around a metal top and release it onto the floor. The player wins if the top spins.
- Game 5 – Jegi: The fifth and final game is arguably the easiest. Players are required to kick the toy in the air, like a hacky sack, five times consecutively.
2 Mingle
Episodes 5-6
Mingle is the third official game in Squid Game season 2 and is another brand-new game in the series. The rules, like most other games in the series, are quite simple. Players all pool together on a giant merry-go-round type of platform until it stops and a number is called out over the intercom.
Players then divide into groups based on whatever number is announced and seek refuge in the various small chambers around the circumference of the room. Players who fail to reach a door or who do not meet the exact numerical requirements for each round are killed on sight by armed pink guards. Because split-second decisions are made, several betrayals occur in Mingle.
1 Special Round (Lights Out)
Episodes 6-7
The Squid Game in season 2 gets cut short because of the revolt led by Gi-hun and several other contestants. But before that, they had the usual "Special Round." The Special Game, or Lights Out, is not officially regulated but is very much a part of the Squid Game dynamics. Players are given forks with their meals after a vote led to a draw and a revote that would take place the next day.
Squid Game: Expect Season 3 To Come Out Sooner Than You Think
Squid Game season 2 took three years to arrive, but the show’s third and final chapter will come out much sooner than that as season 3 is confirmed.
Rather than allow contestants to sleep on their decisions, the Squid Game overseers allow players to keep their forks, which many use to ambush and kill opposing contestants in the night. Because it is the only game that contestants aren't forced to play in Squid Game season 2, it is the most gruesome one to watch since it is basically just mass murder.
Squid Game
- Release Date
- 2021 - 2025-00-00
- Network
- Netflix
- Showrunner
- Hwang Dong-hyuk
Cast
Lee Jung-jaeSeong Gi-hun / 'No. 456'
Jeon Young-sooGame Guide
WHERE TO WATCH
Squid Game is a South Korean series released in 2021 about financially struggling individuals who are invited to participate in a series of children's games. The competition offers a lucrative prize but comes with perilous consequences, as the players soon discover the lethal stakes involved in each round.
- Directors
- Hwang Dong-hyuk
- Writers
- Hwang Dong-hyuk
- Seasons
- 3
- Streaming Service(s)
- Netflix
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