Squid Game – K-drama Season 3 Episode 2 Recap & Review

The Review Geek

17 hours ago

Episode 2
Episode 2 of Squid Game Season 3 begins with Player 246 waking up. No-eul kills the doctor and decides to disguise 246 as a guard.
Back to the game, the Red Team enters the arena. Each member has 30 minutes to kill at least one Blue Team member.
Gi-hun goes after Dae-ho who narrowly avoids him every time. The Shaman and her followers go the way the 'ghosts' tell her. However, we see that she just avoids the noisy paths. Player 100 realises his key doesn't fit all the doors. He teams up with a Blue Team member who has a different key.
Hyun-ju deduces the same, that there are 3 locks with 3 keys. Fortunately, the women have one of each key. Geum-ja and Jun-hee even give their key to Hyun-ju to save time.
Myung-gi and Nam-gyu aka Player 124 kill two players at the same time, so they cannot betray each other. However, Nam-gyu drops Thanos' pill box and Min-su grabs one. He keeps hearing how he is a coward and he takes a pill.
226 runs into the three women and tries to negotiate with Hyun-ju to let him kill Jun-hee or Geum-ja. It seems that Hyun-ju may give in but she ends up killing him. Player 100 betrays his ally to escape a Red Team member and then later steals his key.
Once it is announced that Myung-gi has passed, Jun-hee is hopeful that he will come to protect her and the women. However, Nam-gyu convinces Myung-gi to kill all the Blue Team members. That way, the Red Team members who fail to reach the quota will also be killed. And the prize money will increase for them and Jun-hee.
Gi-hun ignores every Blue Team member who is not Dae-ho. Coincidentally, a Red Team member attacks Dae-ho but is accidentally killed. Dae-ho takes his knife and hides.
Meanwhile, the women hide in a room as Jun-hee fractures her ankle. To make matters worse, she goes into labour.
Yong-sik corners an injured Blue Team player. He is the one who dragged Yong-sik away from his mother during the Mingle game. The Blue Team player attacks but another Red Team player kills him while Yong-sik looks in shock.
The Shaman accidentally leads her followers into an ambush set by Myung-gi and Nam-gyu. As she escapes, she runs into Gi-hun. Turns out, she is on his hit list as well. To save herself, she tells him about an injured Dae-ho leaving a trail of blood. Gi-hun leaves her and starts following the blood. She finally finds the exit but it needs all 3 keys to unlock it.
Yong-sik comes across an injured Blue Team player but is unable to kill her. Player 100 plays dead and is almost killed by Nam-gyu, who is called away by Myung-gi. The Shaman finds 100 and since he has the remaining keys, she takes him to the exit.
Geum-ja and Hyun-ju help Jun-hee give birth to her child. A Red Team member attacks and Hyun-ju fights back. They tussle but she kills him. She finally notices her surroundings and sees that she is at the exit. She unlocks the door as she has all 3 keys. She suddenly remembers Jun-hee and Geum-ja. She goes back to them but Myung-gi kills her. He finally notices Jun-hee and their child. He covers for them and leads Nam-gyu away.
Player 100 betrays the Shaman and locks her out once he exits. She is cornered by a stoned Min-su looking for Se-mi. She tries to use her shamanic act to put him down, but it just reminds him of Nam-gyu. He kills her and then panics when he hallucinates killing Se-mi.
Gi-hun finally finds Dae-ho who starts apologising and rambling. He never served in the army and lied so he could team up with him and Jung-bae. He also wanted to help bring the magazines but got scared during the rebellion. He begs for his life but then grabs his knife and attacks Gi-hun. He goes as far as to claim Gi-hun tricked them so he could get everyone killed and take all the prize money. Having had enough, Gi-hun chokes Dae-ho till he dies.
Jun-hee and Geum-ja finally reach the exit, but while unlocking the door, Yong-sik finds them. With only a minute left on the clock, he needs to kill someone or he will be killed. He decides to kill Jun-hee and Geum-ja begs him to kill her instead. He refuses, going after Jun-hee and a desperate Geum-ja stops him by stabbing him with her hairpin blade. He apologises before the guards kill him for failing.
At the end of Squid Game Season 3 Episode 2, Gi-hun convinces himself that it is his fault. Before he can kill himself, the guards stop him.
The Episode Review
Seems like the original Squid Game charm is indeed back. This game goes as far as to remind us of the marble game in Season 1, where fan-favourites were betrayed and/or killed off in bulk. It is completely action-packed and gory as even the Blue Team members fight back. The Old Man's motto of man being inherently selfish is seen in this game with players betraying even their allies. Maybe Hyun-ju should have been selfish; at least she wouldn't have been stabbed in the back, literally.
The emotional quotient is even higher than the marble game, given that the characters had a whole season to be fleshed out and relatable. We already knew it was a bad move for Geum-ja and Jun-hee to switch with Yong-sik and Myung-gi, respectively.
But we do wish Dae-ho could have been redeemed, as that would have made his death even more impactful. Instead, he does a complete 180 turn from his Season 2 personality, making him cruel without any set-up except for the previous episode's outburst.
Previous Episode
Next Episode
Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!