Small Details You Missed In Squid Game Season 2

Contains spoilers for "Squid Game" Season 2

When it came out in 2021, "Squid Game" quickly became a worldwide phenomenon, smashing Netflix records and becoming the streaming giant's number one show of all time. The series follows the hapless Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) as he signs up for a series of games after being told he can win some money. As a man who loves betting on the ponies, that's music to Gi-hun's ears. That is, until they play the first game, Red Light, Green Light: Anyone who moves when the giant doll is facing the players is gunned down. This is not what Gi-hun or anyone else signed up for.

Despite his initial shock, Gi-hun goes on to win the games. In fact, he's the only person among the 456 players to live. To say he has survivor's guilt would be an understatement. When we left him at the end of "Squid Game" Season 1, he had decided not to board a plane to America to visit his daughter. Instead, he decided to look for the people who put on the games in the hopes of bringing the whole operation down. By the time we catch up with him in the second season, he has been looking for three years. Needless to say, it's only a matter of time before Gi-hun gets himself thrown back into the games, where a whole new set of individuals have come to play for their lives.

There's a lot to unpack here, including small details you may have missed in the second season of Netflix's "Squid Game."

In Season 1, it quickly becomes apparent that Gi-hun owes money to a loan shark. It's also clear that his loan shark (Kim Pub-lae) is none too happy with him when he and three of his goons leave Gi-hun bleeding in a bathroom. While things aren't looking too good for Gi-hun at this point, after winning the top prize in the games — 45.6 billion won — things change. In "Squid Game" Season 2, not only does Gi-hun pay off the loan shark (who would've taken a kidney and an eye otherwise), he also hires him to look for the man who recruited him into the games.

The show doesn't particularly underline the fact that Mr. Kim was originally Gi-hun's loan shark. The topic comes up in a conversation between the loan shark's guys about whether or not Gi-hun is delusional. They've been looking for the Salesman (Gong Yoo) for two years and have seen neither hide nor hair of him, so everyone's begun to doubt Gi-hun. But Mr. Kim says he believes him because he's had people who owe him money disappear recently, plus Gi-hun is his only client who has ever paid him back.

This version of Mr. Kim is a lot nicer than the version we saw in the previous season. He even sacrifices himself for his recently married friend Woo-seok — a far cry from the person who would have taken Gi-hun's organs if he hadn't paid him off. It goes to show we all contain multitudes.

In Season 1 of "Squid Game," Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon) goes to a broker about getting her parents over to South Korea from China. The agent isn't very helpful. In fact, he tells her that it will cost her 40 million won to bring them to South Korea. In response, she douses him with hot coffee and holds a knife to his throat. She's clearly not happy, but she agrees to get the money, and she enters the games to do so. However, she dies before she can fulfill her promise. Three years later, Gi-hun has taken up her cause: In Season 2, Gi-hun sees the same broker about bringing Sae-byeok's mother over.

This time, the broker is conciliatory. Not only has he found Sae-byeok's mother, he's planning to get her to South Korea as soon as possible. He even says he feels bad about the way things went the last time he and Sae-byeok met. The fascinating thing is that right after Gi-hun leaves his office, No-eul (Park Gyu-young) — the woman who works in an amusement park and becomes a soldier in the games — shows up. She is using him to locate the infant daughter she left behind in North Korea. Sadly, he's reached his limit and tells her to forget about her daughter, as she can't be found. Even though the agent is nicer this time, it's clearly still a tough business.

Gi-hun's hired hands, led by his former loan shark, finally find the man who recruited Gi-hun into the games, and that's when things go south. The Salesman brings a bound and gagged Mr. Kim and Woo-seok back to his place and has them play a deadly game for his own amusement. Then he plays a game of Russian roulette with Gi-hun. During these two games, the Salesman plays opera, and each of his song choices are significant to the present situation.

The first game is accompanied by "Nessun Dorma," from the final act of Puccini's opera "Turandot," most famously sung by Luciano Pavarotti. The opera is, fittingly enough, about a game in which the suitor Calaf challenges Princess Turandot to guess his name. If she can do it, she can execute him, but if she can't, she has to marry him. "Nessun Dorma" means "None shall sleep," and that's what Turnadot demands — nobody in her kingdom can rest until Calaf's name is discovered, and if not one of her subjects can discover his name, they will all be executed. The themes are fitting, and in the Salesman's mind, it's the perfect backdrop to Mr. Kim and Woo-seok's game.

The second piece of music, "Con te partirò," is played to accompany the Salesman and Gi-hun's game of Russian roulette in Gi-hun's Pink Hotel. "Con te partirò" is sung by Andrea Bocelli and was written by Francesco Sartori and Lucio Quarantotto. The literal translation of the title is "I will leave with you," though it's known in English as "Time to say goodbye." Although it has a more overtly romantic air to it than "Nessun Dorma," it nonetheless still gets across its message for those paying attention.

The actors playing many of the characters in "Squid Game" have become internationally known for their involvement in the series. But there are a couple who were already famous even before the release of the show; the man who plays the Salesman and the man who plays the Front Man. The Salesman is portrayed by Gong Yoo. He has a small but memorable part in "Squid Game," but he's even better known for his starring role as Seok-woo in 2016's "Train to Busan," the Korean movie about a zombie virus that runs rampant on a train between Seoul and Busan.

Even better known is the actor who portrays the elusive Front Man, Lee Byung-hun. Lee has had a slew of roles in English-language films, including as Han Cho Bai in 2013's "RED 2" opposite Bruce Willis, as a T-1000 opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2015's "Terminator Genisys," and as Billy Rocks in the 2016 remake of "The Magnificent Seven" opposite Chris Pratt and Denzel Washington. You may also know him from his role as Storm Shadow in 2009's "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" and its 2013 sequel, "G.I. Joe: Retaliation." In addition, Lee is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and was the first Korean person to present at the Oscars when he gave out an award in 2016.

When we finally make it to the games in the second season of "Squid Game," we learn that a friend of Gi-hun's has been recruited to the games as well. That friend is Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan), and what you may not have noticed is that he is the same friend that Gi-hun bets on horse racing with in the first episode of Season 1.

Jung-bae's part in the first season is very small. He eggs Gi-hun on at an ATM where Gi-hun is using his mother's card to get cash ,and then he goes to bet on the horses with him, but it's clear that the focus is on Gi-hun and minimal attention is paid to Jung-bae. Besides, when Jung-bae finally shows up in the second season, he not only looks older, but the context has changed. He apparently hasn't seen Gi-hun in three years, during which time he's gotten divorced, and his child is with his ex-wife. While it's not good for Jung-bae that he's in the games, it's a great callback to Season 1 if you catch it.

One of the new players in "Squid Game" Season 2 is a rapper named Thanos. He's played by Choi Seung-hyun, who is better known as T.O.P. In the show, Thanos is a runner-up in Battle of the Bands, but he's not as successful as the man playing him: T.O.P. is very well-known in South Korea, though these days he's mostly associated with controversy. He's a former member of the K-pop group Big Bang, one of South Korea's most influential K-pop music acts. In 2017, T.O.P. was fined 10 million won and received a suspended prison sentence of 10 months due to marijuana charges. Because of this scandal, T.O.P. stepped away from his high-profile work and officially confirmed he was withdrawing from Big Bang in 2022.

With "Squid Game," he's stepped back into the spotlight, but his casting has caused waves in South Korea: Many fans of the series were disappointed when they learned that T.O.P. had been cast, on account of his drug charges. Director Hwang Dong-hyuk has been vocal in his defense of T.O.P., saying in an interview with South Korea's Maeil Business Newspaper (via Hindustan Times) that he was the "most suitable choice" for his character and had a "strong commitment" to the role. While the controversy is still roiling, and Choi has reportedly been excluded from promotional activities associated with the show as a result, his character and performance are both great. 

No-eul (Park Gyu-young) is a soldier in the games who takes out the players that have lost with a big gun. But there's one player she may have a hard time shooting: Number 246. That's because Player 246 is Gyeong-seok (Lee Jin-wook), the father of Na-yeon, the little girl that has cancer. No-eul got to know Na-yeon at the amusement park that both she and Gyeong-seok worked at. She was a costumed character who won his daughter over by offering her a lollipop during a parade, and he was a cartoonist. However, they both quit the amusement park to come to the games.

One of No-eul's last acts outside the games was to return the little girl's hat to her when she went into the hospital, and she heard Gyeong-seok telling the doctors that he would figure out how to pay for his daughter's treatment somehow. Clearly, a salesperson got wind of his desperation and recruited him to the games. No-eul sees him in the first game (Red Light, Green Light) and realizes what's happened. In fact, it seems like she'll try to preserve his life even though she's been cold-blooded about everyone else's deaths. This isn't a major plot point of "Squid Game," but it's an interesting dynamic that you may not have picked up on.

In the Front Man's office, where he watches the games, there is an automaton band. In the first season, this band's music plays over the first episode's round of Red Light, Green Light and at the end of Episode 8, when Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon) dies and is cremated. The song they play is "Fly Me to the Moon." In the second season, these automatons make a comeback: They can be heard over part of Red Light, Green Light again, which takes place in the third episode this time.

In this scene, you can see that the Front Man controls them with a remote and that the automatons occupy a specific tableau. They're set up at an American jazz club, and each of the automatons plays an instrument (or, in the case of the woman automaton, sings). What may have escaped your notice is that they play the same song as they did in the first season ("Fly Me to the Moon"), as this time the song has more modern instrumentation. That is, until the Front Man abandons his position in his office and the song stops.

Throughout the show, there are several pop culture references that you may have missed. First is a joke about Thanos (Choi Seung-hyun), the name the rapper goes by. When he asks Se-mi (Won Ji-an) to partner with him on the second game and tells her his name is Thanos, she asks him if he's gotten all the Infinity Stones yet. This is a reference to the comic book villain Thanos, who was portrayed by Josh Brolin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the films, he uses the Infinity Stones to snap half of all life in the universe out of existence.

In Episode 5, Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul) references Kim Byung-hyun when he mentions Jong-bae's successful performance in the second game: Kim Byung-hyun was a successful Korean pitcher who played for the American baseball teams the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Boston Red Sox. He was with the Diamondbacks when they won the World Series in 2001, making him the first Korean player to win a World Series. He's been retired for years, but Dae-ho's reference is still potent because Jong-bae was like an expert pitcher in the second game.

In the same episode, the first name of Player 149 appears to be a reference to Park Chan-Wook's "Lady Vengeance," which is part of a trilogy with "Oldboy." The old woman Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim) shares a name with the main character of the film, which is telling, because they are both in their current situations due to someone else. Player 149 is trying to get her son out of debt, and the Geum-ja in Park's movie is taking the fall for Mr. Baek's crimes. Though it's not clear that this is a deliberate reference in "Squid Game," the similarity is striking.

In the first season of "Squid Game," we discover that the guy who runs the games, known as the Front Man, is Hwang Jun-ho's (Wi Ha-joon) brother In-ho — right before In-ho shoots Jun-ho and sends him into a coma. In Season 2, we get to know the Front Man better, because he becomes one of the players himself. He is number 001, and goes by the name Yeong-il. He says that he's in the games because his wife has cirrhosis and needs a liver transplant, plus she's pregnant and determined to give birth. While this helps us know him better, it isn't true — at least, not anymore.

The truth is that In-ho's wife died years ago, and while In-ho did participate in the games — and won — that didn't save her. Moreover, Jun-ho mentions to his mother in Episode 2 of the second season that In-ho was caught taking bribes, but In-ho (in explaining the situation to Gi-hun in Episode 4) says his vendor offered to help with his wife's situation. His employer incorrectly assumed it was a bribe and fired him, which landed him in the games. Also, while In-ho mentions a child, Jun-ho and his mother don't appear to know anything about that. Therefore, it's possible only In-ho and his wife knew about the child, and when she died, the child died as well. Of course, it's possible that there was no child at all. One way or another, something happened that made In-ho less merciful.

There's no denying that K-pop is one of the world's largest music genres, with die-hard fans spread across the globe. As "Squid Games" is an incredibly popular South Korean production, it's not surprising that the cast features a few of these talented entertainers. While Choi Seung-hyun, aka T.O.P., gets plenty of screen time as Thanos, he's not the only K-pop superstar to take part in the games. He's joined by two others who are rather famous in and out of South Korea.

Jo Yu-ri, who appear as Player 222, Kim Jun-hee, entered the world stage in 2017 via a reality TV competition called "Idol School." The show featured dozens of K-pop trainees hoping to join a new girl group. While she didn't win that competition, she competed the following year on the similar "Produce 48," where she placed third and earned a spot in the group Iz*One. This made Yu-ri a star, and after her three-year contract ended, she gained more fame by launching a solo career. "Squid Games" is her first major acting role, but it likely won't be her last.

Im Si-wan entered the K-pop industry in the band ZE:A, which debuted in 2010. The group became incredibly well-known and successful, and Si-wan parlayed that fame into an acting career. He began working in K-dramas in 2012, and this helped him move into feature films. Si-wan is Player 333, Lee Myung-gi, a crypto influencer who is hounded by Thanos and others after his failed cryptocurrency suckers $10.3 million out of his formerly loyal followers.

The second contest in "Squid Games" Season 2 is the six-legged pentathlon, where five players' legs are locked together for a race against the clock. They must travel around the track and play five childhood games, each handled by a different player. Any mistakes are likely deadly, and this is especially true for Seong Gi-hun's (Lee Jung-jae) team. He's joined by Player 001, Oh Yeong-il (aka Hwang In-ho, played by Lee Byung-hun), who slyly sabotages their game, possibly to make it more difficult.

The way he does this is rather insidious, as it involves using his non-dominant hand for the game he plays. Yeong-il is responsible for the spinning top game, and as he winds the cord around the top, he uses his right hand. At the end of "Squid Games" Season 2, In-ho, as the Front Man, shoots his brother while holding the pistol with his left hand. People don't typically fire guns using their non-dominant hand, which suggests In-ho purposefully uses his right, non-dominant hand to wind the top.

The team quickly breezes through their challenges before it's his turn, but the spinning top sets them back for a good chunk of time. It's unclear why he would do such a thing, as having the team lose would likely screw up whatever plan he has in place to mess with Gi-hun, but several eagle-eyed viewers spotted this detail, suggesting that the Front Man is playing a game most viewers would never notice.

A subplot in "Squid Games" Season 2 involves Player 333, Lee Myung-gi (Im Si-wan), who is on the run after scamming his followers out of more than $10 million. This type of scam isn't included in the season on a whim; it's actually a huge problem in South Korea that's caused many to lose a great deal of money. 

In 2001, months after the first season dropped, the Squid Coin cryptocurrency began trading with a valuation that soared to over $2,800 per coin. The scam involved a purported online "Squid Games" platform, for which the coins would be used to participate. The coin's price skyrocketed, but it became impossible to resell them, dropping the value to $0.00. As a result, every Squid Coin was worthless, and the developers cashed out, having scammed more than $3.4 million from their investors. 

While that scam was directly related to "Squid Games" and likely influenced a similar problem created by Player 333, it's hardly the only example to happen in South Korea. In 2024, South Korean police arrested 215 people suspected of carrying out a crypto scam believed to have netted $228 million — over 15,000 people lost their money to the criminal organization. These scams and others make the inclusion of the so-called MG Coin in "Squid Games" Season 2 topical to South Korean culture, so it's no wonder Player 333 is so hated by the people he scammed.

In Season 1, the Front Man, who wears an iconic black mask, is shown to be Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun), the brother of police officer Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), whom he shoots. In Season 2, the Front Man accepts Seong Gi-hun's (Lee Jung-jae) offer to put him into the game, setting the stage for his campaign of deception because the Front Man enters the competition as Yeong-il, Player 001. This is important because, in the first season, Player 001 isn't who he presents himself to be either.

Season 1's Player 001 is an elderly gentleman whom Gi-hun befriends and keeps safe. He later takes advantage of his forgetfulness brought on by a brain tumor to win a game of marbles, dooming the man to death. It's eventually revealed that Player 001 doesn't die and is Oh Il-nam (Oh Yeong-su), a financial tycoon who created the Squid Game. This is shown at the end of the season when the recently victorious Gi-hun confronts him on his deathbed.

Gi-hun comes to learn that Player 001 was a plant and not a legitimate participant in the games. But this fact seems to have slipped his mind in Season 2, because he shows no suspicion of the new Player 001. He appears to take him at his word despite his name suspiciously meaning "zero one." It's clear to the audience that one should never trust Player 001 in the games, but for some reason, Gi-hun never makes the connection, falling victim to In-ho's machinations.

Viewers who watch "Squid Game" dubbed are inevitably going to miss a lot of nuances in the original performances, while those who watch the original Korean version might have some questions about such nuances. One language-based detail that stands out is how the rapper Thanos speaks random lines in English, both when he's rapping and in regular conversations — often when introducing himself or cursing.

Why does he do this? Listen to K-hip-hop and you'll understand why. Korean rappers commonly throw in random English phrases among mostly Korean lyrics, so of course Thanos would do the same. Given the exaggerated comedic nature of the character, try-hard lines like "Welcome to the Thanos world" and calling everyone "bro" play like a parody of how ridiculous a lot of these English lyrics sound. They're also an opportunity for actor Choi Seung-hyun to show off his fluency in English and humor to his international fanbase.

Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon), a transgender ex-soldier who entered the games to afford gender confirmation surgery, has become one of the more talked-about new characters this season. There was controversy over casting a cisgender male actor to play a trans woman, with creator Hwang Dong-hyuk saying he wanted to cast a trans woman but that there are almost no out actors in Korea. Despite this issue, responses from trans viewers have leaned positive, as Hyun-ju proves to be one of the show's most heroic characters.

Commentators have speculated that the character of Hyun-ju was inspired by a real transgender soldier named Byun Hui-su. Hui-su was discharged from the South Korean army in January 2020 after transitioning. She was found dead in her home in March 2021, seven months before the courts ruled her discharge was unlawful discrimination.

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In addition to the return of "Fly Me to the Moon" during "Red Light, Green Light," the new games in "Squid Game" Season 2 have their own ironically fitting music — though Western audiences are far less likely to recognize these selections. As Gi-hun's team makes it through the "Six-Legged Pentathlon" in Episode 5, "To You" by Shin Hae-chul plays in the background. This is one of the most iconic South Korean pop songs of the '80s, winning Shin's band Infinite Track the 1988 MBC Campus Song Festival and a staple of school festivals and sporting events, making it perfect for this scene.

Episode 5 also features the start of the "Mingle" game, which continues into Episode 6 and is scored to the Korean children's song "Round and Round." This song is commonly sung while playing games like musical chairs, though typically those games don't involve shooting the losers like they do here. It's just another way "Squid Game" turns the innocent into the horrific.

Audiences should know from the start that Player 001 is actually the Front Man, aka Hwang In-ho. It's a case of dramatic irony that the rest of the players don't know, but if Seong Gi-hun had paid attention, he would have noticed some clues that indicate this random guy is too good to be true.

For starters, it's worth noting how In-ho's hair is parted during the games. It's the same hairstyle Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo) had in Season 1. Sang-woo was a former classmate of Gi-hun's, so the two naturally had a bit of an alliance throughout much of the competition. In-ho's hairstyle could be seen as him subconsciously trying to get on Gi-hun's good side by reminding him of his deceased friend.

Additionally, there's a part in Episode 5, "One More Game," where In-ho offers his milk to Kim Jun-hee, saying that he can't drink plain milk. Gi-hun does the same thing in Season 1 when he gives his milk to Ali Abdul (Anupam Tripathi). This is meant to make it seem like In-ho and Gi-hun are kindred spirits, and perhaps they are, as it won't be out of the question for In-ho to try to convince Gi-hun to become the new Front Man once "Squid Game" Season 3 rolls around.

It takes until Season 2's final episode to learn that Captain Park has nefarious motivations as well as some kind of relationship with the game makers. However, that twist was foreshadowed earlier in the season in a scene that seems blatantly obvious in retrospect.

In Episode 4, "Six Legs," Captain Park accidentally lets slip that he knows about Gi-hun winning the games previously, information he shouldn't be privy to. He covers this up by claiming that someone else told him about it, and the conversation continues. However, a similar slip-up happens within the games when In-ho accidentally calls Gi-hun by his name rather than his number, even though he hasn't introduced himself properly at this point. As the Front Man, In-ho would know Gi-hun's name, but he can't let that be revealed at this point, so he covers his slip-up by saying he overheard it from Jung-bae.

We know In-ho is lying, so the fact these similar moments occur in the same episode really should've clued viewers into the fact that Captain Park was also lying. In "Squid Game," it's never a good idea to simply take people at their word.

Obviously, In-ho isn't going to enter the games if he's at any risk of dying. It's unclear, for example, if he even competed in Red Light, Green Light or only entered the mix during the first round of voting. And one fan theory suggests that he might've cheated during Mingle, a new game that kept the audience holding its breath over its intensity.

In Mingle, players stand on a rotating platform, and, when a number is called out, they must organize into groups of that many people and run into an available room for safety. At one point, they must divide into groups of four, which means Gi-hun's crew of five has to split up, with In-ho offering to find another group to team with. His friends are relieved when he returns to them after the round is over, but one fan theory suggest he may have simply opted out of the game. It's possible that instead of finding another room, he simply ducked away somewhere since none of the guards would've shot him. When the round is over, he then returns and walks over to Gi-hun, all smiles.

However, this theory may not hold water. At the end of the round, 168 players remain — a number that's divisible by four. If In-ho hid somewhere, then the number should've theoretically been 169 or something else that doesn't add up. Regardless of where In-ho hid, that doesn't really seem to be the point of the scene. When he rejoins Gi-hun, he says, "I'm a likable guy, so I'm good at games like this." He's admitting that his charisma gets people to like him, which is why Gi-hun and Jung-bae were so quick to accept him as a member of their alliance.

Red Light, Green Light is somehow even scarier the second time around because we, as the audience, as well as Gi-hun, know exactly what horrors we're in store for. The objective is the same as in Season 1: Cross the finish line in the allotted amount of time without moving after the doll yells, "Red light!" Everyone other than Gi-hun quickly learns what's in store for them, but there are some inconsistencies during this game.

Gi-hun knows that if you move at the wrong time, you get shot. That's why he covers his mouth — so that he can communicate with everyone else about how to play the game without triggering the doll's motion sensors. Those sensors are clearly very sensitive, as one woman whose hands are trembling a little too vigorously gets shot. However, there are a couple of moments where Park Yong-sik (Yang Dong-geun) convulses but isn't shot. He has a noticeable reaction once other players start to be picked off, but the snipers don't pay him any mind.

Some other players also appear to be spared despite obviously breaking the rules. For example, Player 222 jerks severely at one point. Granted, she's behind some other players, but her arm moves out pretty far. You would think the doll would have caught such a big movement, but somehow she manages to avoid detection.

Well before Gi-hun returns to the island, some deadly games are played in the first episode of "Squid Game" Season 2. The Salesman ties up two of the loan sharks and forces them to play Russian roulette. At first, there's only one bullet in the revolver, but after a few rounds with no one dying, he loads an additional four bullets, increasing their chances of dying from 1/6 to 5/6. However, one eagle-eyed viewer noticed something interesting about the bullet the Salesman used.

Redditor u/F_R725 noted that the Salesman initially loaded a dummy bullet, meaning there was no way for either man to die at first. They go on to write, "In the second game when they play with 5 bullets, the recruiter adds 3 more dummies and 1 real bullet (you can tell as it's flat, so the primer hasn't already been hit). So there was actually only a 1/6 chance of dying." One could argue the production team just wanted to use dummy bullets for the actors' safety, but if you look closely at the scene, one bullet is, in fact, noticeably different from the others, suggesting this was an intentional choice by the Salesman.

More than likely, he just wanted to instill more terror into the two men. Even when a real bullet is in place, there is still only a 1/6 chance of dying, and it's only pure coincidence that it happened to go off as early as it did. This is all within the Salesman's M.O., who has a cynical view of humanity and wants the men to suffer more before actually killing one of them.

"Squid Game" Season 2 ends with a quelled rebellion where many players' and guards' lives are lost. However, the games will presumably resume once Season 3 comes around, and we may already have an idea of what they will be.

In the first season, each game played is hinted at through drawings on the wall in the main room. You can see the shapes used for dalgona as well as some stick figures playing tug-of-war. "Squid Game" Season 2 keeps this foreshadowing going, and from what we can see, several games depicted haven't been played. For starters, it looks like some stick figures are playing on monkey bars, suggesting the remaining players will need to climb across something in order to avoid dying. From another angle, you can see what looks like a chess or checkerboard. Combined with the "Squid Game" Season 2 post-credits scene showing the Red Light, Green Light doll along with a boy doll and a railroad crossing set-up, we have some ideas of what the final three games in Season 3 will involve.

Human chess has the potential to be the most devastating of these games. One could imagine a scenario where the Front Man and Gi-hun are the ones controlling the board, and they decide which pieces go where and who dies if they get captured. It would make for the perfect showcase of the two trying to keep their philosophies in check, but one thing's for sure — the bloodshed isn't over yet.

In "Squid Game" Season 2, Episode 7 — "Friend or Foe" — Gi-hun leads others in an all-out rebellion against the guards, taking away their guns and fighting back. It's an intense sequence, as Gi-hun and his allies get into a shootout that ends with numerous lives lost. With so much going on, it's understandable if you may have missed the fact that a cameraperson is just straight-up in one of the shots. 

The moment occurs with roughly 37 minutes and 35 seconds left in the episode. There's a lot of gunfire and a guard falling to the ground, but if you look in the upper right-hand corner, you'll see what's clearly a camera operator. You can see the camera resting on the person's shoulder, and it's apparent they don't belong in the games since they aren't wearing a green track suit or a pink guard uniform. 

It's far from the first time a show's crew member has wound up in an episode. We all remember the hilarious visual mistake in "The Mandalorian" Chapter 12 when a guy wearing jeans was in the background (although he was later edited out). No word if Netflix will scrub the cameraperson at some point, but it's kind of funny to see for the time being. 

Colors are vital throughout "Squid Game," with red and blue being particularly significant. In Season 1, the Salesman uses red and blue ddakji pieces to lure people into signing up for the games. These return in Season 2, and we also see the red and blue buttons when the players vote on whether to continue competing or leave and split the money accumulated so far. Since Season 1, the use of these colors has been a reference to a Korean urban legend about a spirit that visits people in public restrooms. 

The ghost offers individuals a choice between red paper or blue paper. If they choose red paper, the spirit gives them a bloody death, but for those who choose blue, the ghost strangles them until they're blue in the face. No matter what you select, you die, and it's an apt metaphor for "Squid Game," especially as the red and blue motif appears on the buttons the players press throughout the games. The players think they have a fair choice, but there are factors upending their decisions, such as the Front Man being the deciding vote after Red Light, Green Light who keeps everyone in the games. 

In the folklore, the only way to survive the ghost is to ignore it and opt out of choosing entirely. Perhaps the only way to get rid of the games for good is to dismantle capitalistic structures entirely to where people don't have to choose to risk their own lives to escape poverty. Since it's unlikely that's happening, the games may just continue forever. 

One group of characters missing from "Squid Game" Season 2 are the VIPs, the extravagantly wealthy individuals watching and enjoying the games throughout Season 1 while wearing animal masks. On the surface, this makes sense, since they don't show up until the last couple of games in the previous season. Season 2 only has three games, so it's possible the VIPs won't be flown in until later. Gi-hun obviously doesn't know that, and in Episode 7, he simply tells his allies that they're watching from above and must be stopped. However, it's possible he's referring to someone else. 

Gi-hun describes the VIPs as "the ones who built this whole place. The ones who created the games and who watch us play." His allies then look up, and it almost feels like they're looking directly at us, the viewers. It's possible that in the absence of the actual VIPs in Season 2, we as the audience have taken their place. We're the ones who made "Squid Game" a global phenomenon by enjoying the bloody story of people killing one another to escape poverty. We literally watch them play and make memes about them on social media. 

We're supposed to despise the VIPs for taking joy in human suffering, but honestly, are we any different? We take pleasure in watching "Squid Game" and similar properties like "Hunger Games" and "Battle Royale." Maybe we can convince ourselves it's okay because it's all fictional, but if there really were a reality show where people died trying to win an absurdly high amount of money, how many of us would turn away?