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

Facing the betrayal of an insider infiltrating the Squid Games is nothing new for Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) in the twisted “Squid Game” universe.

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When the first season of the Korean drama hit Netflix in 2021, it came as a complete surprise to both Gi-hun that player 001, old man Oh Il-nam (Oh Yeong-su), was revealed as the games’ creator and the viewer . But in the second season of “Squid Game,” released Thursday, the unexpected involvement of head gameguard The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), whose real name is In-ho, is handled very differently when he appears as Player 001 arrives at the Games following Gi-hun’s re-entry into the competition.

In-ho uses the false name Young-il when introducing himself to Gi-hun, who returned to the games in Season 2 of “Squid Game” to try to take them down from within, hiding his true identity and his motives slowly attempt to gain Gi-hun’s trust and build a group of like-minded players.

“I think it’s kind of fun because only the audience knows it’s him. “So it’s more exciting for them to watch him form this alliance with Gi-hun in the game,” says Lee Jung-jae diversity. “I think viewers will just be thinking about when Gi-hun finally realizes he’s the frontman, or what game he can still play without revealing his identity.”

When Lee Byung-hun first met with Squid Game creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk to discuss possible directions for the second season, they casually speculated about In-ho’s backstory over drinks. While Season 2 ultimately doesn’t show his past, choosing instead to use dialogue to tell details about In-ho’s late wife, who died of an illness when they were destitute, Lee Byung-hun kept thinking about how his character did entered the Squid Game for the first time He played and, like Gi-hun after him, won the competition and how his mind has changed since then.

“He really saw the lowest point of humanity, and amid the violence and despair of Squid Game, his hope for humanity and the world really faded,” explains Lee Byung-hun. “He has this very pessimistic view of the people in the world around him.”

Another recurring “Squid Game” character is detective Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), who teams up with Gi-hun at the beginning of the second season to try to find Squid Game island again. Jun-ho headed there in the first season to search for his missing brother In-ho, and later found out that his brother had gone from being a former competitor in the games to becoming the frontman himself. Jun-ho was shot by his brother after this revelation in Season 1 and narrowly survived falling from the cliffs of Squid Game Island. When he teams up with Gi-hun to try to get back to the island and finish the games in Season 2, he decides not to tell Gi-hun that the frontman is his brother.

The portrayal of In-ho playing the games alongside Gi-hun, who still struggles to believe in the best in people and humanity despite the cruelty of the Squid Game, brings two contrasting characters together. Lee Byung-hun was tasked with portraying much of this subtly, while In-ho (who watched Gi-hun behind a mask in Season 1) watched Gi-hun during the various games, developing a bond with him rather than him Truth expressed thoughts.

Lee Byung-hun describes how “when (In-ho) meets Gi-hun, who is still trying to destroy the system, who returns to the games to be able to make a change because he still has hope for humanity – I think.” In-ho really wants to break Gi-hun’s spirit, and so you watch him during the games and very meticulously make a plan to dismantle a lot of what he does.”

“Squid Game” Season 2 features a series of new violent games that test the alliances formed with a largely new group of players. But it all starts with the same “red light, green light” competition that started the first season. While Lee Jung-jae says it was a difficult five-day shoot, he found that of the second season’s games, it was the most fun to film.

Lee Jung-jae explains: “It’s completely different because this time Gi-hun’s goal is to save as many people as possible. The Red Light, Green Light game caused a big shock among fans in the first season, but now there is a completely different atmosphere.”

Lee Byung-hun says that while In-ho attends the games as Young-il, he “almost enjoys the situation for a moment.” “And I think that’s just a very small glimpse of his former self,” he added.

The most emotionally challenging part of the season for Lee Jung-jae was the rebellion scene in the second season finale. In the final episode, Gi-hun watches as his close friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan) dies at the frontman’s hands, spelling the end of all hopes for the growing rebellion. The frontman puts his mask back on out of sight, so Gi-hun doesn’t know it’s In-ho/Young-Il, who Gi-hun actually believes was already killed during this fight.

Lee Byung-hun explains why In-ho makes the decision to kill Jung-bae in front of Gi-hun after previously going above and beyond during the bloody Musical Chairs-style mingle game where he killed another man had to save his life with his bare hands, to keep Jung-bae alive.

“I would say that until the mingle game, In-ho is still a participant or member of this very close-knit group with Jung-bae and Gi-hyun,” Lee Byung-hun said. “Despite the fact that he shows Jung-bae his very violent side by killing someone in the room, he still has to give the impression that he is a team with Gi-hun and Jung-bae. At the very end of season two, I really thought about how he feels when he has to kill Jung-bae, because at the end of the day he’s still human and he goes through the games together, and that’s what he has at least being a kind of emotional bond that is built between him and Gi-hun and Jung-bae. However, I understand that killing Jung-bae is a means to sensitize Gi-hun to the reality of what is happening. And a conversation I had with director Hwang was: How does In-ho or The Front Man feel when he kills Jung-bae? And I think it’s a kind of bitterness, but I think In-ho understands it as giving up something small for a bigger message to Gi-hun.”

The frontman’s actions (a betrayal that must only be fully revealed to Gi-hun once he knows In-ho is the one behind the mask) hurt even more when Gi-hun and his group of friends are about to commit the act to commit rebellion and the final escape from the games.

“I think the finale did a good job of maximizing the emotions for the viewers, making it feel like they are on an emotional rollercoaster,” says Lee Jung-jae. “They stay at the top.”

Lee Byung-hun believes that In-ho’s betrayal confirms that “his feelings faded over the course of these truly grueling and violent games.” “Feelings of hope and joy are long gone in the In-ho you meet in Season 2,” he said.

With “Squid Game” Season 2 only consisting of seven episodes while the first season had nine, and the big cliffhanger that ends the second season’s story, Lee Jung-jae is not sure how viewers will receive it. “Maybe they’re cursing us for stopping at the finale,” he wonders, laughing.

While season 2 leaves many questions unanswered, the installment was filmed back-to-back with the series’ third and final season, which is confirmed to release in 2025. So fans don’t have to complain about the team for long before learning how this showdown between Gi-hun and In-ho ends. And it looks like it will be a very dark ending indeed if In-ho has his way.

“In-ho is a character who no longer has faith or hope in the outside world,” says Lee Byung-hun. “So it’s almost like he has nowhere to go because it’s not really a world that he feels like he’s a part of anymore. So it’s less because he wants to protect the world of Squid Game and more because he feels like it’s completely hopeless outside. All these people are going to die in really miserable ways anyway. So why not play the games and why not give at least one person a new life and a feeling of opportunity? Because he has this very pessimistic view of the world, he feels like the world of Squid Game at least makes more sense than the world outside.”

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