Director at the end of the third season

Spoiler alert! Below are details about the Squid Game season 2 finale.

How will Gi-hun get out of this?

The final moments of the second season of the Netflix hit “Squid Game” are some of the most brutal and disturbing of the entire season and end with quite a bang. After leading some of his fellow players in an uprising against the games, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) sees his rebellion immediately crushed. The man he thought was an ally in the game was actually the villainous frontman (Lee Byung-hun), who puts on his mask just in time to see Gi-hun’s best friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan) in front of him to kill. And then the credits roll.

Now more people are dead, the frontman has won, the games can continue unchecked and Gi-hun’s life is in danger. Where do we go from here? And why does it end with such a big cliffhanger?

Recap:“Squid Game” Season 2 releases Thursday: Pick up where we left off

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“Gi-hun has a great sense of loss, defeat and guilt,” says Hwang Dong-hyuk, director and creator of the series. “When he’s just filled with complete loss and guilt after all his attempts (to stop the games) have failed, I thought that would be a fitting ending to wrap up the second season.”

It’s an abrupt and shocking finale that leaves many questions unanswered in the series’ third season, due out in 2025. Hwang and actor Lee Jung-jae spoke to USA TODAY through translators to break down the shocking and brutally violent final episode and what fans can expect from Season 3. Spoiler alert: Those obnoxiously rich VIPs will show up again.

The frontman played Gi-hun throughout the season

“It’s really a showdown between Front Man and Gi-hun that forms the core of the plot,” Hwang said of the second season’s theme. The frontman “wants to make sure he destroys all of Gi-hun’s intentions” and completely wipes out the man and destroys his spirit.

Review:Squid Game 2 is still violent, but it’s more disappointing than shocking

Lee didn’t mince words about Gi-hun’s position at the end of the season: “The frontman was completely playing Gi-hun and just exploiting him in every way possible.”

“The frontman decided that he will allow players to cast a vote after each round because he believes they still don’t want to leave due to their greed,” Hwang said. “Ultimately, the story reflects capitalist society and how it drives people to this competition. Losers have no chance. The winner takes all and the losers are driven to lose their humanity.”

Where did Gi-hun’s rebellion come from?

Gi-hun did everything he could to stop the games, Hwang and Lee say, and when he couldn’t think of anything else, he took up arms and was prepared to kill for it. He and his allies plan to overwhelm the pink-suited “soldiers” running the games and launch an armed insurrection aimed at overthrowing the facility’s overlords.

“He chooses violence,” Hwang said. “He decides to physically fight the system and overthrow it, which fails again. The price he has to pay is the loss of his best friend Jung-bae.”

Lee says the character he plays in Season 2 is a “completely different man” than the quirky, goofy gamer Gi-hun who started in Season 1. “He’s full of revenge and doesn’t want any more.”

He sees echoes of current political unrest in the storylines of “Squid” (Lee’s home country of South Korea recently saw massive political protests amid a constitutional crisis).

“I think it really reflects our society,” Lee said. “I think the ‘Squid Game’ arena is actually a miniature version of our society. If you find that your political system is unfair, or if there is a dictatorship or just an unfair society, then there could be a coup. People will take it on the streets, or there will be people who want to attach a system in some way. We see this in the news all the time, and I think it was a great metaphor that we see in the last episode of ‘Squid Game.'”

What about the VIPs?

Season 1 of “Squid Game” featured “VIPs,” wealthy viewers who enjoyed watching poor farmers fight and die while betting millions on the outcome. They don’t appear at all in Season 2, but Hwang promises they’re not gone.

“In the third season you will see the VIPs,” he says. “They are coming. They are on the way. Your helicopter is now flying over the island.”

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Director at the end of the third season

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