Note: This story contains major spoilers from “Squid Game” Season 2.
If you thought the final face-off during the “Squid Game” Season 1 finale was stressful, you’ve seen nothing yet. Season 2 of the Netflix original ups the stakes in every conceivable way, adding in more players, bigger personalities, wilder twists and crazier games.
And that means Season 2’s finale is more intense than anything this series has ever done before. Whether you need to dissect what you just watched or you’re the type of person who flips to the back of a book before finishing it, here’s your guide to the Season 2 finale of “Squid Game.” Also, as an added bonus, series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk and stars Lee Jung-jae and Lee Byung-hun tell TheWrap what that emotional ending will mean for Season 3, coming in 2025.
How does “Squid Game” Season 2 end?
The beginning of the end started in the bathroom. After Thanos (Choi Seung-hyun) and Nam-gyu (Roh Jae-won) were caught trying to change Min-su’s (Lee Da-wit) vote, a fight erupted between those who wanted to stay in the game and those who didn’t. That fight ended in several deaths, and for many, that was the final straw. It’s one thing to watch people die, but it’s another to kill people with your own hands.
That morbid push was exactly what Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) needed. He convinced several other players that the game was evil and the only way to finally stop it was to attack the people in charge of the operation. Gi-hun banded together with his best friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan) along with Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul), Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon) and In-ho (Lee Byung-hun) to take out the guards. Thus began a shootout between the guards and several players.
Halfway through the standoff, the players devised a plan, which involved Gi-hun and Jung-bae going deeper into the guards’ quarters in the hopes of finding and confronting the game’s leaders while the rest of the players covered them. Meanwhile, Dae-ho was supposed to go back to the main room and search the dead guards’ bodies for as much ammo as possible. The only problem with this master plan was that Dae-ho is a coward.
Though he made it to the main room, he froze once he entered, wasting valuable time. Hyun-ju finally went after him and secured the ammo. But Dae-ho’s detour proved to be costly. Because the players in the main shootout ran out of ammo, they were overtaken by the guards.
His cowardice also proved to be deadly to Gi-hun and Jung-bae. With dwindling ammo and no backup, it didn’t take long for the guards to overpower them. And while they were taking their final stand, In-ho took the opportunity to switch back to his original side, donning the mask and robes of the Front Man.
“Did you have fun playing the hero?” In-ho asked his former friend, Gi-hun. “Look closely at the consequences of your little hero game.”
With that, In-ho pointed his gun at Jung-bae and shot Gi-hun’s best friend right in front of him. Season 2 ended with Gi-hun screaming over Jung-bae’s bloody body while In-ho walked away.
Does Gi-hun know In-ho is the Front Man?
Both the creator of “Squid Game” Hwang Dong-hyuk and star Lee Byung-hun were adamant about this point: no.
“Not at all. He doesn’t have a clue,” Lee, the actor behind In-ho, told TheWrap.
“You’ll see it in Season 3,” Hwang teased.
How will Jung-bae’s death impact Gi-hun in Season 3?
“It’s a big shock that leaves him devastated,” Lee Jung-jae, the actor behind Gi-hun, told TheWrap. “[Gi-hun] believed very strongly that he could end the game together with Jung-bae, but that’s no longer possible anymore.”
Hwang originally wrote the second season of “Squid Game” over a period of six months. But after the Season 2 scripts became longer and longer, Hwang and Netflix decided together to split the season into two parts. Jung-bae’s murder became a “good point” to split the seasons.
“After Jung-bae died at the send of Season 2, Gi-hun became a different person,” Hwang said.
This finale also marks a change for Jung-bae’s murderer, In-ho. Lee said that inhabiting this character during the series’ yearlong filming process was “mentally taxing.” But by the end, In-ho’s view of Gi-hun and the game as a whole shift.
“When In-ho first enters the Squid Game again, his goal is really to break Gi-hun’s spirit. He thinks that Gi-hun is this idiot that has a completely mistaken view of the world. However, as they go through the games together, they’re fighting for their lives together. In-ho starts to observe Gi-hun and almost sees a part of his past self in him,” Lee said. “Subconsciously, by the end of the Season 2 In-ho might even be rooting for Gi-hun.”
Lee then clarified that In-ho isn’t really rooting for Gi-hun as a person. “It’s more so that he’s saying, ‘I really hope you’re right. I really hope there might actually be a tiny sliver of hope for humanity in the world,’” Lee said. “I think there is still a part of In-ho that feels that by the end of Season 2.”
As for what’s ahead for Season 3, Hwang teased the series will continue to be as tense and unpredictable as ever before. “No one is safe in Season 3,” Hwang teased.
The first two seasons of “Squid Game” are streaming now on Netflix.
