Squid Game Season 2's Most Disappointing Storyline Ruins A Beloved Character

Contains major spoilers for Season 2 of "Squid Game"

After over three years of waiting, Netflix has finally brought us the next chapter of their global hit series "Squid Game." Unfortunately for those of us who've been anxious to learn what happens after the cliffhanger finale of its groundbreaking first season, however, Season 2 is depressingly light on satisfying answers. If you have yet to see "Squid Game 2," this is your final spoiler warning, as we're about to dive head first into reveals and plot points that go right up to the season's anticlimactic final episode.

As fans of the series may recall, one of the strongest aspects of "Squid Game" Season 1 was the storyline of Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), a police detective from the major crimes unit who goes to great lengths to investigate the disappearance of his brother Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun). After hearing Seong Gi-hun (Player 456, played by Lee Jung-jae) telling another officer about his experience on the island, Jun-ho begins to suspect that In-ho may have been a victim of these murderous games as well. He stows away on a transport ship to the island, disguises himself as one of the pink guards running the games, manages to work his way up to the VIP room, and directly confronts the games' enigmatic masked orchestrator known as the Front Man. The two face off against one of the island's cliffs, trading shots to the shoulder, one of which sends Jun-ho tumbling over the edge to a potential watery grave. But before his fall, Jun-ho learns that In-ho is alive — and is in fact the Front Man.

Fortunately (and somewhat incredibly), Hwang Jun-ho is rescued by another sea vessel after falling to what easily could have been his death, and is taken back home to recover with his family. When he's finally back to full health, he declines to rejoin the major crimes unit or reveal the identity or location of his brother. Instead, he takes a job as a traffic cop, where the lines between truth and lies are apparently much clearer. Only another chance encounter with Seong Gi-hun snaps him out of his disengaged state, and the two men decide to work together to take down the organization — though Jun-ho still deliberately hides that he knows the Front Man's true identity.

Frustratingly, an early-season twist leaves "Squid Game" with a massive character problem relating to Jun-ho's place in this story. Because Hwang In-ho plays the dual roles of Front Man and undercover contestant (taking over the Player 001 role from previous traitor Oh Il-nam), Jun-ho cannot be involved in the island's games whatsoever, lest he spoil the arguable retread of Season 1's secret betrayal storyline. When this becomes apparent after the initial In-ho/Player 001 reveal, it seems as though the season will relegate him to a disappointingly secondary but still relevant story wherein he and his crew of mercenaries investigate the island from outside the games. His actual role in the season winds up being even less meaningful, as there are several episodes in which he doesn't even appear.

What makes these choices and much of "Squid Game 2's" plot so confounding is that the first two episodes actually set up a very compelling web of storylines that could naturally interweave with one another over the course of seven hour-long episodes. But the series instead chooses to divert a mind-numbing amount of time to the absurdly slow-moving games, the intrigue of which is rarely novel, even when it comes to the relationships between new contestants.

Honestly, Hwang Jun-ho's story, even when given the proper amount of focus it would require to work, would still be unsatisfying for similar reasons. Like Seong Gi-hun, he is given the exact same role to play in Season 2 — that of covert infiltrator, attempting to make his way through the island and better understand its purpose. A more thorough exploration would probably yield scenes far too similar to better ones from the first season. One can't help but wonder what might have been, had the show dared to keep Gi-hun on the outside and send Jun-ho in to confront, compete with, and maybe even redeem or defeat his brother.

As for the show we got, every cut to Jun-ho's meandering crew is groan inducing. Hopefully when "Squid Game" returns for a third season, he'll be able to step back into a more prominent role that surprises and rewards those fans who invested so much in him on an emotional level.