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By the time the season 2 finale begins, the divisions among the players are deeper than ever. They’ve formed into two camps on opposite sides of the room: Xs, those who voted to end the game, and Os, those who want to continue. The episode, much like the season as a whole, lives up to the title, “Friend or Foe,” as relationships are formed, loyalties are tested, and enemies hide in plain sight.
The stark divisions resonate in post-election America, even though the Korean show was filmed in 2023, The Hollywood Reporter pointed out. Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk was inspired by “the sheer fact that everywhere you turn, people are drawing lines, whether it’s by generation, class, religion, ethnicity, or race,” he told THR. As such, the players, like most of us, have yet to fully learn that rather than pick sides within the system, they must defy (and even destroy) the system that pits them against one another.
Because the most recent vote among the players was a tie, they’ll have to vote again tomorrow, which allows them time to manipulate one another into switching sides, or worse. The latter is the case at the end of episode 7, as a skirmish between X and O players in the bathroom escalates into a bloody brawl, which includes Myung-gi (player 333, played by Yim Si-wan) stabbing and killing Thanos (player 230, played by Choi Seung-hyun) with a fork. The rest of the group has no idea until player numbers are eliminated, and the pot grows. When the players return from the bathroom, bloodied and bruised, each side rushes to use their losses as propaganda.
O players claim they were targeted in an organized attack; X players say the Os started the fight. Suddenly, choosing between the two sides isn’t about whether you want to continue or stop the game; it’s about where your personal loyalties lie. Each group counts members to see which has suffered more fatalities.
In Jun-ho’s boat, a henchman wakes from seasickness to find the ship captain tampering with his drone. The captain tries to brush it off and walk the crewmember back to bed, but then stabs him and throws him overboard. It’s no wonder the crew hasn’t been able to find the Squid Game island; their captain is with the enemy. But who didn’t see that coming? When the captain played dumb in an earlier episode, that was the first tell that he wasn’t as genuine as he seemed.
The players reach a final tally: the Os lost three people, while the Xs only lost two. The good news is the Xs now have the majority to win the vote; the bad news is the Os will surely retaliate with bloodier means. Gi-hun (player 456, played by Lee Jung-jae) can sense that the Os will attack when the lights go out in 30 minutes. The guards behind the scenes know this too, as they prepare for a “special game” to take place.
Members of the X crew suggest attacking the Os first, but Gi-hun encourages them to redirect their energy. The people they should be attacking are the ones who created and watch the game. He tells them about the control rooms in the game’s upper levels and their leader, a man in a black mask, whom we know as The Front Man. If they capture him, it’s all over. The face of Young-il, who is actually The Front Man disguised as a player, falls into an icy deadpan—a subtle but sublime performance by Lee Byung-hun. “How are you going to fight them? They have guns,” he asks, keeping his cool. Gi-hun advises: When the lights go out, they’ll hide under their beds to stay safe from attacking players, so they can rush the guards later on. Unfortunately, that means they’ll leave their fellow X teammates vulnerable to danger, but this is necessary to accomplish their mission. Young-il catches the hypocrisy in Gi-hun’s plan. “Are you suggesting that we make a small sacrifice for the greater good?” he asks, as if to point out, how is that any different from the Squid Game itself? Gi-hun responds that if they miss this opportunity, the sacrifice will be even greater. Young-il is in.
When the fight ends and the guards come in to check the bodies, Gi-hun and his comrades play dead until the guards approach them. Once they’re close enough, they leap up, grab the guards’ weapons, and start shooting at them. Young-il even shoots and kills his own men to keep up his believable disguise.
Lee Byung-hun as the Front Man.
Once all the Pink Guards are down except one (they’ll use him for intel), Gi-hun reveals his plan to all of the surviving players, no matter if they voted X or O. They’re going to find the headquarters and put an end to the game once and for all, so that they can all go home—together. A few men who know how to operate guns join the effort. Yong-sik (player 007, played by Yang Dong-geun) tries to step forward, but his mother holds him back. Hyun-ju (player 120, played by Park Sung-hoon) gives a quick tutorial on how to operate and reload their machine guns (she was a sergeant in Korea’s special forces). Holding the last guard at gunpoint, Gi-hun forces him to lead them to the Front Man.
The makeshift militia only makes it as far as the maze staircase when additional guards start firing at them. Hyun-ju takes the lead at shooting the enemy; Dae-ho (player 388, played by Kang Ha-neul) shakes in fear. (Maybe he’s not a Marine after all.) When Gi-hun pushes the guard he’s holding hostage to tell them where the management office is, the guard recognizes the Front Man, unmasked, among his captors. But before he can say anything, he is shot dead by other pink soldiers. Had no other guards recognized Young-il in the games so far? Or were the rest of them already in on it from the beginning?
Gi-hun and Jung-bae (player 390, played by Lee Seo-hwan) make their way into the management area, a set of purple hallways and stairs, where they face even more armed guards. But it’s not long until they and their teammates start running out of ammo. Hyun-ju declares she’ll go search for magazines, but Dae-ho, quivering head to toe, surprisingly volunteers to go in her place. He makes it back to the barracks where he frantically searches the dead guards’ pockets for magazines with the help of other players. He amasses a whole bundle of extra magazines, but as he’s about to run back out, the sound of gunfire paralyzes him, and he retreats. It’s because of his cowardice that Hyun-ju must now risk her life to go find him, abandoning their teammates on the stairs as the guards close in.
Kang Ha-neul as Dae-ho.
Back in the management area, Gi-hun resorts to digging into the fallen guards’ pockets—in the line of fire—and miraculously gets away with only one bullet grazing his arm. “If you die before me, I’ll kill you,” Jung-bae jokes. “Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to outlive you,” Gi-hun jokes back, and it starts to sink in that this exchange might be setting up some tragic irony.
Young-il plans to find another way into the management area with two backup men, hoping to shoot the guards from behind to relieve Gi-hun and Jung-bae on the other side. Gi-hun even gives Young-il a round of magazines for support, not realizing he’s supplying the enemy. When Young-il finally reaches the back entrance, before they can surprise the guards from behind, Young-il kills his own men. He radios Gi-hun to say they have been captured, and fakes his own death with the sounds of a gunshot and a dying player choking on his own blood. He changes the channel on the walkie-talkie and orders his men to finish things up. Young-il is dead, but the Front Man is very much alive.
Hyun-ju rushes into the barracks to find Dae-ho hiding in bed and all the backup magazines wrapped in a track jacket beside him. All he can tell her is, “I’m sorry.” The contrast between these two character foils is an obvious criticism of traditional gender roles and upends viewers’ expectations: Here is a muscle-flexing self-proclaimed Marine trembling in the face of danger, while a trans woman, handling a machine gun like an action hero, saves his ass and everyone else’s. However, the impact of this scene is watered down by a misstep in Hyung-ju’s casting. She’s played by a cis male actor, which is not only a missed opportunity but also undermines the point this scene is trying to make. How empowered can trans viewers feel if they’re represented by a cisgendered person?
Park Sung-hoon (center) as Hyun-ju.
Just as Hyun-ju starts to run off with the ammo, a new group of pink guards walk in, ordering everyone to get on the ground. Trapped with a stash of magazines, Hyun-ju must now defend all of the players herself, but motherly Geum-ja (player 149, played by Kang Ae-shim) stops her from risking her life. “You can’t die like this,” she says.
Outnumbered and out of ammo, the remaining players in the stair shootout have no choice but to surrender. The pink guards don’t respond mercifully and kill them, including Gyeong-seok (player 246, played by Lee Jin-wook), the father of the sick daughter who frequented the theme park. Who will take care of her now?
Gi-hun and Jung-bae surrender too, only to be faced with the man they were looking for: the Front Man, back in full garb. Neither of them has any idea that Young-il is actually behind the mask. The Front Man could easily eliminate Gi-hun and the threat he poses to the game by killing him right there, but instead, he chooses to teach Gi-hun a lesson about “the consequences of your little hero game.” He points his gun at Jung-bae’s head and shoots, forcing Gi-hun to watch his longtime friend die before his eyes. Gi-hun wails in anguish as the guards hold him down. End scene.
The Front Man faces Gi-hun.
I mean, what did Gi-hun expect? As a survivor of these games, he knows how large and complex this operation is; he couldn’t have taken it down with a few guns and newfound allies, especially not without the help of Jun-ho and his men on the outside. If anything, though, Jung-bae’s death marks a turning point for him. Will he come back in season 3 reinvigorated with vengeance or completely dejected from his failed mission?
Squid Game’s season 2 finale isn’t really game over; it’s more like halftime. Perhaps that’s what happens when you try to squeeze two more seasons out of a showrunner who thought he was finished. Seasons 2 and 3 are shaping up to feel like two halves of the same season rather than two separate arcs. Still, there’s much to wrap up in the next and final chapter: the fate of Hyun-ju, whether Jun-ho’s crew finds out about their captain and whether they find the island at all; that mysterious smuggling operation among the Pink Guards; and of course, whether the Front Man and Gi-hun meet again—and what happens when they do.