Make a mistake in the title competition of "Squid Game," and you may lose your life. Failing to catch some of the references and nods to the previous season while watching the show has much lower stakes, sure. But you don't want to miss anything, do you?
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00:00CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR SQUID GAME SEASON 2
00:03Make a mistake in the title competition of Squid Game, and you may lose your life.
00:08Failing to catch some of the references and nods to the previous season while watching
00:11the show has much lower stakes, sure, but you don't want to miss anything, do you?
00:16In season 1, it quickly becomes apparent that Gi-hun owes money to a loan shark played by
00:21Kim Pa-ble.
00:22It's also clear that his loan shark, coincidentally named Mr. Kim, is none too happy with him
00:27when he and three of his goons leave Gi-hun bleeding in a bathroom.
00:31While things aren't looking too good for Gi-hun at this point, after winning the top prize
00:34in the games, 45.6 billion won, things change.
00:39In Squid Game season 2, not only does Gi-hun pay off the loan shark, he also hires him
00:43to look for the man who recruited him into the games.
00:47The show doesn't particularly underline the fact that Kim was originally Gi-hun's loan
00:51shark.
00:52The topic comes up in a conversation between the loan shark's guys about whether or not
00:55Gi-hun is delusional.
00:56They've been looking for the salesman for two years to no avail, so everyone's begun
01:01to doubt Gi-hun.
01:02But Mr. Kim says he believes him because he's had people who owe him money disappear recently.
01:07Plus, Gi-hun is his only client who has ever paid him back.
01:11This version of the loan shark is a lot nicer than the version we saw in the previous season.
01:15He even sacrifices himself for his recently married friend, Woo Seok.
01:19It goes to show, we all contain multitudes.
01:22In season 1 of Squid Game, Kang Sae-byeok goes to a broker about getting her parents
01:27over to South Korea from China.
01:29The agent isn't very helpful.
01:31In fact, he tells her that it will cost her 40 million won to bring them to South Korea.
01:35In response, she douses him with hot coffee and holds a knife to his throat.
01:39She's clearly not happy, but she agrees to get the money, and she enters the games to
01:43do so, but dies before she can fulfill her promise.
01:47Three years later, Gi-hun has taken up her cause.
01:49In season 2, Gi-hun sees the same broker about bringing Sae-byeok's mother over.
01:54The fascinating thing is that right after Gi-hun leaves his office, Noh Yul, the woman
01:58who works in an amusement park and becomes a soldier in the games, shows up.
02:02She is using him to locate the infant daughter she left behind in North Korea.
02:06Sadly, he's reached his limit and tells her to forget about her daughter, as she can't
02:10be found.
02:11The baby was one year old.
02:13How could she survive in North Korea without her parents?
02:16Even though the agent is nicer this time, it's clearly still a tough business.
02:20Gi-hun's hired hands, led by his former loan shark, finally find the man who recruited
02:24Gi-hun into the games, and that's when things go south.
02:28The salesman brings a bound and gagged Mr. Kim and Woo Seok back to his place and has
02:32them play a deadly game for his own amusement.
02:35Then he plays a game of Russian roulette with Gi-hun.
02:38During these two games, the salesman plays opera.
02:41The first game is accompanied by Nassun Dorma from the final act of Puccini's opera Turandot,
02:46which is about a game in which the suitor, Caliph, challenges Princess Turandot to guess
02:50his name.
02:51If she can do it, she can execute him.
02:53But if she can't, she has to marry him.
02:55The themes are fitting, and the song is also marked by Caliph saying Vincero, meaning I
02:59will win.
03:01In the salesman's mind, it's the perfect backdrop to Mr. Kim and Woo Seok's game.
03:05The second piece of music, Con De Partiro, is played to accompany the salesman and Gi-hun's
03:10game of Russian roulette in Gi-hun's pink hotel.
03:13The literal translation of the title is I Will Leave With You, though it's known in
03:16English as Time To Say Goodbye.
03:19Although it has a more overtly romantic air to it than Nassun Dorma, it nonetheless still
03:23gets across its message for those paying attention.
03:25Who cares about rules?
03:27The only thing you'd have to do now is pull that trigger once.
03:32The actors for many of the characters in Squid Game have become internationally known because
03:36of their involvement in the series.
03:38But there were a couple that were already famous even before the release of the show.
03:42The man who plays the salesman, and the man who plays the frontman.
03:46The salesman is portrayed by Gong Yoo.
03:48He has a small but memorable part in Squid Game, but he's even better known for his starring
03:52role as Seok-woo in 2016's Train to Busan, the Korean movie about a zombie virus that
03:57runs rampant on a train between Seoul and Busan.
04:01Even better known is the actor who portrays the elusive frontman, Lee Byung-hun.
04:05Lee has had a slew of roles in English-language films, including as Han Cho-bai in 2013's
04:09Red 2 opposite Bruce Willis, as a T-1000 opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2015's
04:15Terminator Genisys, and as Billy Rocks in the 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven opposite
04:20Chris Pratt and Denzel Washington.
04:22But Lee might be best known for his work as Storm Shadow in 2009's G.I.
04:26Joe, The Rise of Cobra, and its 2013 sequel, G.I.
04:29Joe Retaliation.
04:30In addition, according to The Korea Times, Lee is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures
04:35Arts and Sciences and was the first Korean person to present at the Oscars when he gave
04:39out an award in 2016.
04:42When we finally make it to the games in Squid Game's second season, we learn that a friend
04:46of Gi-hun's has been recruited to the games as well.
04:49The friend is named Joong-bae, the same friend that Gi-hun goes with to bet on horse racing
04:53in the first episode of season one.
04:55Hold on.
04:56It'll block your card if you get it wrong again.
04:58You really gotta think about this one.
05:00Joong-bae's part in the first season is very small.
05:03He eggs Gi-hun on at an ATM where Gi-hun is using his mother's card to get cash and then
05:08goes to bet on the horses with him, but it's clear that the focus is on Gi-hun and minimal
05:12attention is paid to Joong-bae.
05:14Besides, when Joong-bae finally shows up in the second season, he not only looks older,
05:19but the context has changed.
05:20He apparently hasn't seen Gi-hun in three years, during which time he's gotten divorced
05:25and his child is with his ex-wife.
05:27While it's not good for Joong-bae that he's in the games, it's a great callback to season
05:30one.
05:32One of the new players is a rapper named Thanos, played by Chae Seung-yeon, but he's better
05:36known by his stage name, TOP.
05:39While Thanos was known for being a runner-up in the Battle of the Bands, in real life,
05:42TOP has been a successful artist and rapper for around 20 years, having premiered with
05:46the band Big Bang in 2007 as one of two rappers in the group.
05:50However, in 2017, TOP was fined 10 million won and received a suspended prison sentence
05:55of 10 months due to marijuana use.
05:58Because of this scandal, TOP confirmed he was withdrawing from Big Bang in 2022.
06:02With Squid Game, he's stepped back into the spotlight, but his casting has been controversial.
06:07Many fans of the series were disappointed that he was cast when he had drug-related
06:11charges on his record.
06:13Director Hwan Dong-yook has been vocal in his defense of TOP, though, telling Korean
06:16reporters that he's demonstrated a strong commitment to the role.
06:20While the controversy is still roiling, TOP has reportedly been excluded from promotional
06:23activities associated with the show.
06:26No Yul is a soldier in the games who takes out the players who have lost with a big gun.
06:31But there's one player she may have a hard time shooting, number 246.
06:35That's because player 246 is Goong-seok, the father of Na-yeon, the little girl that
06:40has cancer.
06:41No Yul got to know Na-yeon at the amusement park that both she and Goong-seok worked at.
06:46Before the games, she was a costumed character who won his daughter over by offering her
06:50a lollipop during a parade, and he was a cartoonist.
06:54While one of No Yul's last acts outside the games was to return the little girl's hat
06:57to her when she went into the hospital, she also heard Goong-seok telling the doctors
07:01that he would figure out how to pay for his daughter's treatment somehow.
07:05No Yul sees him in the first game and realizes what's happened.
07:08It seems like she'll try to preserve his life, even though she's been cold-blooded about
07:12everyone else.
07:13That is, until he dies at the end of season two.
07:16Throughout the show, there are several pop culture references that you may have missed.
07:20First is a joke about Thanos, the name of player 230.
07:24When he asks Sami to partner with him on the second game and tells her his name is Thanos,
07:28she asks him if he's gotten all the Infinity Stones yet.
07:31Marvel fans know that Thanos was once the Big Bad of the Marvel Universe, and that his
07:35objective was to get all six Infinity Stones so he could snap half of the universe out
07:39of existence.
07:40Don't even need to snap, kill half the universe with a rap.
07:42The fifth episode of the second season has interesting references as well.
07:46First Dae-ho references Kim Pyung-hyun when he's referring to Jung-bae's successful performance
07:50in the second game.
07:52Kim Pyung-hyun was a successful Korean pitcher who played for the Arizona Diamondbacks and
07:56the Boston Red Sox.
07:58Notably, he was on the Diamondbacks when they won the World Series in 2001, making him the
08:02first Korean player to win a World Series.
08:05One more deep cut.
08:06The first name of player 149, Ji-yum-cha, is the same as the main character in Park
08:11Chan-wook's Lady Vengeance.
08:13Both characters are in their current situations because of someone else.
08:17Player 149 wants to get her son out of debt, and the Ji-yum-cha of Lady Vengeance is taking
08:21the fall for someone else's crimes.
08:23Although it's not clear that this is a deliberate reference, the similarity is striking.
08:28In the first season, we discover that the man who runs the games, known as the frontman,
08:32is Hong Joo-ho's brother In-ho, right before In-ho shoots Jun-ho and sends him into a coma.
08:38In season two, we get to know the frontman better because he becomes player number one,
08:42and to his friends in the games, he's known by the name Young-il.
08:46He says that his wife has cirrhosis and needs a liver transplant, plus she's pregnant and
08:50determined to give birth.
08:52None of that is true, at least not now.
08:54In-ho's wife died years ago, and while In-ho did win the games, that didn't save her.
08:59Jun-ho mentions to his mother in episode two of the second season that In-ho was caught
09:03taking bribes.
09:05In-ho explains the situation to Gi-hun two episodes later, saying that his vendor offered
09:09to help with his wife's situation, and his employer incorrectly assumed it was a bribe
09:13and fired him.
09:15This is how he ended up in the games.
09:17Jun-ho and his mother also don't appear to know anything about the child.
09:20It's possible only In-ho and his wife knew about the child, and when she died, the child
09:24died as well, or it's possible there never was a child.
09:28The fact remains that In-ho is currently running the games without a wife or a child, and one
09:32way or another, something happened that made him less merciful to his fellow contestants.