Squid game

Six legs

Season 2

Episode 4

Editor’s Rating

3 stars

***

Photo: No Ju-han/Netflix

Now that we’re more than halfway (!!) through the season, it’s safe to say that we’re working with the POVs of three types of people: the players competing in the game and the soldiers/staff, who are the ones running the game, and the rescue team members who are trying to figure out where the hell the game is happening. However, if this show is a group project, not all storylines are equally important.

The rescue team doesn’t do much in this episode. The main takeaway is that Gi-hun won’t be getting any help any time soon: Jun-ho still can’t convince the police to intervene, and the search can’t resume immediately due to bad weather. I think the only other notable moment is a conversation between Woo-seok and Captain Park. For someone who recently accused other people of drunkenly babbling about this mission, Woo-seok speaks pretty freely about alcohol, especially after Captain Park vaguely says he already has a “rough idea” of what’s going on. I can’t say whether we should keep an eye on Woo-seok or Captain Park… To steal Woo-seok’s pun, I’ll just put them in the same boat and trust neither of them.

More interesting to me is what happens to the workers. Once again, a group of soldiers engage in organ trafficking as a part-time job. They purposely don’t shoot to kill because the outside doctor they hire says corpses aren’t that viable. When No-eul finishes off the players, she knows that she is saving them from organ harvesting from living people. Even when a masked officer who is involved in the plan (and who gave her this job) tells her to stop, she refuses. We learn that she single-handedly took out an entire tracking unit when she defected from North Korea, so perhaps she’s just not afraid of retaliation. The official says these people will die; Why not use her body to save others? No-eul disagrees, but her own explanation for why she’s here – these people feel hopeless, so I’m putting them out of their misery – doesn’t exactly impress me with her consideration for player agency. While I think we’ve gotten a more nuanced understanding of No-eul’s actions, I can’t see her as some kind of #girlboss while she’s still putting bullets through so many people’s heads. Excuse me!

For our players, the X and O badges serve as a helpful visual reminder of their division. But with the second game happening either way, everyone agrees that they want to survive. To Jeong-dae’s annoyance, Gi-hun doesn’t want him to keep any of his information and give anyone a competitive advantage. He tries to keep the number of participants (and therefore the individual reduction in prize money for each) as low as possible.

Gi-hun wants people to trust that, as a former winner, he is best placed to make an informed decision about what it’s like to play this game and whether it’s worth it. At the same time, trust can be a heavy burden, as shown by his nightmare where he screws everyone over with bad Dalgona advice. And In-ho definitely doesn’t make it any easier. He says that he cast his deciding vote to continue the game specifically because Gi-hun gave him the confidence to do so. When he was frontman, he suspected that Gi-hun was a racehorse; Now he addresses him respectfully as seonsaengnim (The Netflix subtitles say “Sir,” but the honorific may also mean that In-ho treats Gi-hun like an expert or leader; someone he can learn from.)

After In-ho easily stops Thanos and Nam-gyu from getting in Ming-gyu’s place at lunch, he earns the respect of many people. He is also the first to turn to Gi-hun and say he crossed the line when sharing his views on the game’s sequel, prompting Gi-hun to also apologize for giving him the blamed for the result of the vote. In-ho then tells Gi-hun that he is here because his wife is very sick but is also determined to carry her pregnancy to term. We heard part of this story from Jun-ho, so we know that his story and his feelings are real, even though he remembers events from 2015 and his wife is already dead. According to In-ho, he accepted money from a long-time salesman who said he wanted to help, but was fired because it was considered a bribe. In-ho’s eyes light up as he comes to the conclusion that he is even willing to use “blood money” to save his wife and child. Gi-hun listens nonstop. From then on, In-ho remains loyal to Gi-hun and asks to work with him, even if it turns out he doesn’t know what comes next; Players are placed on a “playground” and instructed to group into groups of five before the second game, which precludes an individual Dalgona challenge.

Of course, for anyone who is marginalized in any way, finding a team is a struggle. People look Hyun-ju up and down and scoff when she asks to join them, for example. Player 95, a nervous-looking girl, finally asks if she would like to join a team. They, in turn, join Yong-sik and his mother, who was unlucky as a package deal due to her age. (She tried to get rid of him so he could find a better team, but he refused.) Player 44, the Shaman, finally completes this team of outcasts by haughtily reprimanding them for not coming to her first.

Gi-hun’s team is only missing one person. In addition to In-ho and Jung-bae, Gi-hun’s circle now includes player 388, Dae-ho. Back in the sleeping area, Dae-ho confessed to being Gi-hun’s fan and was particularly respectful towards his former marine mate Jung-bae. He offers to find the strongest fifth member to complete the team, but when he returns with another ex-Marine, Jun-hee asks to be the final teammate instead. Somehow, only her ex and Yong-sik’s mother discovered that she was pregnant. She draws attention to her stomach to get Gi-hun’s group to take her in, and it works.

Meanwhile, Thanos has found a new señorita he’s trying to charm: Player 380, who has short hair and multiple piercings. She has already asked Player 125, a clueless-looking man named Min-su, to join her. Thanos says that’s fine, calls Min-su cute and welcomes him to “the Thanos world.” Nam-gyu isn’t thrilled with these last two additions to the team, but is particularly rude to Min-su. And I guess there’s a secret sixth member: Thanos’ cross-chain stash of a “fucking crazy” new drug. After Nam-gyu reveals that he has been consuming quite a bit of illegal substances, he is rewarded with a pill to calm his nerves.

The game is a six-legged pentathlon that is played on a rainbow track. While connected, players must complete one of five mini-games: ddakjiflying stone, gong-giroundabout and jegi — every ten meters. If they don’t reach the finish line within five minutes, the entire team will be shot. Assigning mini-games goes smoothly on Gi-hun’s team, although In-ho naturally gives Gi-hun the responsibility and pressure to let him decide on his behalf.

None of the first two teams survive and one grown man even ends up shitting his pants. It doesn’t look good when the team made up of less popular players is next in line. Hyun-ju has everyone exchange names and gives a short pep talk. Geum-ja exaggerates himself by declaring that she survived the Korean War, and Yong-sik exaggerates himself by surviving it her Son, that’s pretty sweet. Player 95 (Young-mi) still seems nervous, but she is doing better than Player 44 (Seon-nyeo), who needs her arms taken out of prayer so they can begin. After the gun fires, the camera freezes on a panel of five people. We’ll have to wait until the next episode to see if the connections between her legs feel like lifelines or chains.

• Gi-hun is shocked when In-ho calls him by his name, but In-ho plays it off by pretending to follow Jung-bae. Gi-hun walks past it. I think it’s a bit rude not to ask his name? Or maybe I’m just too curious to know what name In-ho would say.

• So far we haven’t seen any trace of the VIPs and their, um… interesting English. Admittedly, I didn’t like her scenes last season, but I wonder if her absence has any significance.

• Damn, the organ harvesting industry is booming, right? While I don’t think any player would want to have their organs harvested without their consent during their lifetime, Squid Game participants may understand this system better than the average person. I doubt In-ho is the only one who had a loved one who needed an organ transplant.

• Episode Winner: Jun-hee, for correctly identifying the group of people who would view her pregnancy as a reason to take her, rather than a reason to reject her.

• Loser of the episode: Myung-gi. He can’t even eat in peace anymore. Even if he ultimately receives prize money, law enforcement and Thanos could be looking for him. Plus, his ex now thinks he deserves to be beaten up, says he’s dead to her, and would rather hook up with complete strangers than him.