SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers from the second season premiere of Squid Game, now streaming on Netflix.

The second season of the hit Korean Netflix drama series “Squid Game” literally starts with a bang – quite a bang. Most shocking, however, is the final moments of the episode titled “Bread and Lottery,” in which Squid Game winner Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) unnecessarily risks his life in a game of Russian Roulette with The Recruiter ( Gong Yoo), who works for the games.

While Gi-hun could simply shoot the recruiter instead if he has the gun in hand, he decides to press on as the odds are clearly not in anyone’s favor as they start reloading before pulling the trigger every time. The decision is risky, as Gi-hun’s goal is not to die, but to live and get the information the Recruiter has about who is behind the Squid Game and where to find them, so Gi-hun will eventually can spend three years trying to hunt them down after winning the deadly battle royale.

Lee and “Squid Game” creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk explained Gi-hun’s choice in the second season premiere diversityYou’ll also get more insight into The Recruiter’s backstory and what Gi-hun has in store for the rest of season two.

What made you decide to bring The Recruiter back for Season 2, and what else did you want to show about who he is as a person outside of his job to attract new people to the Squid Game every year?

This Recruiter character is someone who recruits new players, probably only for about two months of the year. Then the question occurred to me: What would he do in his free time when he wasn’t working and recruiting people? I imagined this character as someone who was extremely distorted, broken, and hurt inside because of all the terrible memories he carried with him. And every day I felt like he was someone who had to do something to believe that what he was doing to the weak and vulnerable was justified, and that he had to do something that would allow him to really believe that these people are justified in being treated like they are trash. To achieve this, he approached these people, mocked them, ridiculed them, and showed them great contempt.

And that’s what I wanted to express with bread versus lottery ticket – food that you can eat immediately versus the longing for a jackpot. And in doing so, he managed to convince himself that he was right all along: that people were trash, that these people who didn’t have money to buy a meal that day would let their greed drive them to do so anyway to choose a lottery. And that would allow him to give himself determination and justification for what he did for a living. I almost saw it as some kind of game that he would play alone, or almost a ritual that he would perform.

Why does Gi-hun even support the Recruiter’s suggestion of playing Russian Roulette to get the information the Recruiter has about the people behind the Squid Game? Why doesn’t Gi-hun just decide to shoot him, put the details in his pocket and hunt down the games like he planned, and not risk his life at all in a competition with very deadly odds?

Hwang: Gi-hun is a character who has a sense of righteousness and is fair. At the end of the day, he’s just a guy who enjoys a good game. You see him in Season 1 when he’s at the track, how excited he is to take part in this bet and this game. And I see him as someone who is addicted to playing a game, addicted to winning. Many addicts who actually play are not addicted to the cash prize, but addicted to this game and playing this game. Gi-hun emerged from Squid Game as the sole winner of the games. I saw him as someone who was naturally addicted to winning; Something inside had been broken and damaged in this way.

So instead of taking the more sensible route and holding a gun to the recruiter and calling it a day, I see him as someone who wants to keep the recruiter submissive by winning him in a good round of a game. And so I wanted him to talk about, as you put it, what the recruiter initiated. And I also felt this round almost as a game or a clash or a competition between the personal values ​​and principles of the two – I wanted to prove to the other person that I am right and you are wrong, and I wanted to prove to the recruiter that I am a better person than you.

Lee: I think what Gi-hun was thinking was that if he doesn’t go along with what The Recruiter wants to do, he won’t have a chance of finding the guys behind the games. He has to agree to everything the recruiter says in order to get back in the game or see one of the people behind the game. I think that’s why he wanted to play Russian Roulette even though he knew he could get killed, and because he was so desperate for the opportunity.

In this scene they had this dialogue and the recruiter says to Gi-hun, “You’re nothing special and you can’t stop us.” And Gi-hun replies, “Well, you’re nothing special either and you’re just kind of a watchdog of the people behind the games. And I want to talk to your owner.” During the game, they have this very intense dialogue that makes Gi-hun even more eager to win the game. As written, it was simply flawless; Director Hwang was a true genius when writing this scene.

After killing the recruiter and getting the information he needs to retrieve the Squid Game, the question becomes what Gi-hun plans to do for the rest of season two.

Lee: The first plan he has in mind is to stop the game, the second is to save more lives, and the third is to punish the host who is behind the game. I think what’s really going to be fun for viewers is whether he’ll be able to accomplish and achieve all of these goals in the episodes. These are some of the questions that really drive the narrative of season two and what makes it all the more intriguing.

These interviews have been edited and condensed.