I think 456 has suspicions about 001 because he noticed that 001 knew his name without being told, even though 001 had an explanation.
I was not surprised to see 456’s friend get killed. 001 wants to punish 456, not kill him. I suspected the boat captain and was still a little disappointed that it was him. Too obvious a twist.
And wasn’t the organ harvesting a non-no in season 1? I missed the explanation of why it was suddenly OK.
My guess is that is not his plan, but it may end up that way. The ultimate corruption of Gi-hun would be that he gives up hope on humanity.
My impression is that it’s still not OK, but that the Leader (not the front man, but the guy who speaks with 011 about her sniper activity) is running the organ operation against the will of the people who run the games. He may have more high powered conspirators but it against the rules. Like the last time, money makes people do risky things.
I finished all 7 episodes and was a bit let down by the ending. I didn’t know this was essentially a mid-season finale, but I’m eagerly awaiting the rest of this games. They couldn’t rerun the first season, no one wants to see the same things. Putting the Front Man in the game was a great move, since he’s one of 5 characters left over from season 1. They didn’t have a lot of characters to work with so they made the most of them.
The Recruiter was a great character and a great performance by the actor. He was creepy, dangerous, and compelling.
Yes! The look on his face when he realized he was going to have to kill himself or let Gi-hun be right was amazing. Great job.
I wonder if it’s SOP for Player 001 to always be a ringer. Kind of gives the game runners an inside man just to be safe. And it shows a lot of trust on the part of 001. One small accident and hey, there’s an open position at the top! Maybe Black Square will do just that next season. Interesting that despite the masks, the staff know who 001 is by sight.
So did the organization (or the Front Man, are they the same thing?) send the ship captain to keep an eye on the policeman and thwart his search plans for three years? Was he recruited after the fact or was that plan the whole time?
I’ll have to rewatch, but when the Front Man (back behind his mask) confront player 456 at the end did he use his first name? If so, that might be a clue to Seong who he his.
As soon as Player 001 took the team to find a way around the firefight you know those two guys were going to be shot in the back. Poor redshirts. And was soldier 011 involved in the fireflight.
It’s kind of hard to feel any sympathy for Number 11. She feels bad for the little cancer kid whose father is in the game. But she’s a cold blooded killer when the time comes. And her mercy killings are really just to screw with the organ harvest. I wonder how she is going to figure in the end. And I did notice that at the end of Episode 7, the subtitle referred to the upcoming “Final” season. So I expect things to be done for good after that.
I think the point of the organ harvesting is to emphasize - everyone is corrupt. Even in a organization funded by billionaires who won’t hesitate to use murder to enforce their will, there are still people looking for opportunities for their own profit, and who don’t care about the risks. The guards are just as money-hungry as the billionaires, and the contestants, they just grift at a different level, is all.
The organization clearly has a lot of real-world power. If they’re running the games on an isolated island, it makes sense to have anyone who works around that island on the payroll. I can’t imagine that this is the first time they’ve had people vowing to end the games, so they probably have a plan in place for that. Isolate the heroes, make them look crazy or incompetent, and then kill them off.
So that’s who that was! I remember a scene where 011 was watching a player in the game intently, but I didn’t recognize him. That makes perfect sense now.
The ending could be that after all the time, effort, and bloodshed to stop them, the games just continue on with a new Front Man (Seong?). Depressing, but possible.
And they’re just as willing to bully or kill their peers to get what they want. The powers that be are willing to pit them against each other for their own benefits.
Player 001 was willing to kill off some soldiers during the rebellion - he was pitting the participants (players and soldiers) against each other for his own gain.
We’ve watched the first three episodes thus far.
Ehhh, somewhat boring and predictable so far. Hopefully it gets better.
Don’t worry, it does.
I was hoping this would be answered here too, since wasn’t he sitting back in a recliner with a tumbler of Scotch watching the Red Light, Green Light game on a TV screen? How does he then sneak himself into and out of the game constantly? It seems like a plot hole, or at least a shaky plot device.
Well, I can see how with 456 starting players, no one would notice that 001 was missing. But he slipped in for the first vote. So maybe the inside man will skip a game sometimes. That’s certainly possible before the number of players is whittled down too much.
I wonder what happens if Red Light-Green Light kills too many people to meaningfully continue the games. Or if the particular games are selected based on the number of survivors of the previous day. RLGL, the turntable game, and the candy cutout game can potentially kill everyone or no one. The marble games and tug of war have 50% kill ratios. The pentathlon kills folks in groups of five. So I guess you can cull the number of survivors pretty precisely.
I’ve only just started watching, because I held off until I could watch with my gf.
I didn’t enjoy episode 1 – it wasn’t terrible but it was probably worse than any episode of season 1. But of course it was largely set up, so I’m sure the series is going to improve from here, especially based on the reviews.
My issues with ep. 1:
It was interesting how his sense of honour prevented him from saving his own life. Not your typical solution.
They had very few characters from the first series left to work with; Seong, the policeman, the Front Man, Seong’s friend, and the recruiter. The wanted to flesh out those characters and I really liked what they did with the recruiter. His sense of honor was a core belief and he kept that to the end. Seeing him lose his cool in the park with the homeless folks is insight into his motivations. I loved what they did with him.
Jun-Ho
In-Ho
Seo-hwan
The Recruiter 
Yes, that was central to the whole theme of this show: far too many people, when given the choice, will go for the money at the expense of losing everything else. The people in the park gave up food in hopes of hitting it rich, the people in the Squid Games keep choosing to risk their lives in hopes of hitting it rich. The only difference is the scale they’re playing at.
Well seems I’m in the minority on this.
I agree that it’s good they added detail to the character, as they had few rollover characters from season 1. I just don’t like that he became unfair and suddenly far more violent. He was quite an enigmatic character in the first series so I would have preferred more leaning into that (e.g. hinting at him being aware of some overarching figure over the games)
And the thing in the park was a ham-fisted moral IMO; there were no good options for the homeless; one bread roll is a snack. IRL some would choose the card, some would choose the bread, some would tell him to sod off. What’s that meant to tell us?
Anyway though, don’t let me spoil anyone else’s enjoyment, that was just my feeling.