Opinion | “Squid Game” Season 2 has a major twist that perfectly reflects our moment

Opinion | “Squid Game” Season 2 has a major twist that perfectly reflects our moment

It would have been easy to take the successful, high-concept premise of “Squid Game” – unfortunate contestants compete to the death in a sadistic, child-themed battle royale game – and simply repurpose it for the second season. After all, it is the first of the series. The season, which initially appeared without much fanfare on Netflix in 2021, was hailed as a clever fable about late capitalism and reportedly attracted 330 million viewers worldwide, becoming the streaming provider’s most-watched title of all time.

But the show’s second season, which premiered the day after Christmas, introduces an intriguing plot element that deftly speaks to the current political moment. Critical reviews for the new season are mixed, but the new episode of “Squid Game” may be the best pop culture examination yet of the social dynamics that have led to a series of rightward shifts around the globe since the election of Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea’s hardline conservative president, is aiming for a second victory for Donald Trump here at home in 2022. If the first season was about how capitalism forces people to make impossible decisions (like braving a murderous game show in the hopes of improving a desperate fate), then the second season is all about that Toll of tribalism: the urge to compete with one another in a winner-take-all political battle leads to destruction and despair for all.

To understand the series’ evolution in Season 2, it helps to recall a highlight from Season 1: the second episode, titled “Hell,” in which traumatized survivors of the game’s first challenge were given the opportunity to vote , whether you want to continue the game. Given that the game’s first challenge resulted in dozens of casualties among the participants, a viewer might assume that the participants would unanimously vote to escape. But as they are confronted with the continued hopelessness of their situation in the outside world, at the end of the episode the participants unanimously decide to get back into the game – convinced that the dangerous competitions offer them the best chance to change their fate . The game is cruel, but the world is crueler. And so they vote to play along.

In Season 2, this winner-take-all dilemma becomes not just a one-time vote, but an event after each round. The surviving players must decide by majority vote whether they want to end the game for everyone or continue in the hope of collecting the largest jackpot possible. And there’s another twist: ending the game early no longer means that everyone goes home empty-handed, but that everyone splits the winnings equally. It’s a classic game show dilemma: give up now and take the money you won, or keep going in the hopes of making a bigger fortune. But in the hands of the “Squid Game” creator, it becomes a malicious social experiment.

The participants quickly group into two opposing factions: the red “X” team, which wants to get out and prevent further bloodshed, and the blue “O” team, which is determined to continue despite the risks. The show is not subtle in its political allegory. The election scenes are staged to feel like political rallies, with X and O camping out on their own sides of the aisle. In a later episode, a wave of populist enthusiasm sweeps the group, borne of desperation, greed and survival bias. “We made it this far, so let’s do it again!” One participant calls on the slow ones to convert. What follows should be a triggering warning to every American who was dismayed on November 5th, as the ensuing electoral landslide for the blue team is accompanied by cries of “Four more years!” – sorry, “One more game!” – sweeping the players’ dormitory.

Ultimately, the participants realize that it makes more sense to gain an advantage by eliminating the opposition rather than converting them – and as the Corps shifts fully into tribalism, they take up arms and attack each other. That’s the ultimate message of the show’s second season: Tribalism is a conflagration that consumes itself.

Hwang Dong-hyuk, the series’ creator, began writing the second season shortly after Yoon Suk Yeol was elected president in South Korea. He clearly had a political divide on his mind. At a panel discussion last fall in Los Angeles, held a few days before the US election, he said of the show that he wanted to tell a story about “how the different choices we make create conflicts between us” and how he hoped to “open up.” Start a conversation about whether there is a way for us to move in a direction where we can overcome these divisions.”

It’s most likely no coincidence that “Squid Game” comes from South Korea, a young republic with a turbulent history marked by authoritarian leaders. As recently as December, Mr. Yoon attempted to declare martial law and has since been charged following widespread and sustained pressure from the Korean public. Footage of their joyous protests went viral around the world, recalling similar mass demonstrations that led to the ouster of President Park Geun-hye in 2016.

There’s a moment in the season two finale that struck me as a beacon of hope for the human spirit. A member of the Possession of the ball. Some of these volunteers sacrifice their lives in service of the larger mission of freeing all participants – even members of the opposing team. Only when tribalism falls can all players advance.

As America awaits Donald Trump’s second term, I wonder how we as citizens will respond. Are we already too deeply divided, into a red team and a blue team, and too preoccupied with our individual comforts to act in a way that considers the well-being of others? According to the parable of the “Squid Game,” we can either be conspirators of our mutual destruction or deliverers from it. We’ll find out if we can muster the courage and compassion necessary to work for our collective well-being when a new season of the American drama begins on January 20th.

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