IIRC they show at least one or two people taking the bread roll over the card.
I would agree that the opening two episodes were the least interesting, but also argue that the writer(s) felt there had to be a pretty extensive tie-between section to even have an attempt of getting Gi-hun back in the game.
When the first season was produced, I don’t think a continuation was planned at all. It’s surprise hit status really did come out of nowhere.
I think they did pretty well.
I agree but see the theme as a little more encompassing- people constantly make choices that are hypocritical or antithetical to their best interests, often due to greed in the context of the show, but not always.
For example, I was wondering why the Front Man, while disguised as player 001 or at anytime really, didn’t just arrange to kill Seong right away. What was up with the whole subterfuge? Now that I’ve seen the last episode, there was a telling moment-- Front Man / Player 001 was going along with Seong the whole time, but when Seong told their group his plan to wait out the battle between the Xs and Os so they could attack the guards, Player 001 seemed surprised and disappointed. “You’re going to allow several on our side to be killed for your plan to work? It’s OK to sacrifice a few to save the many?” Seong basically said it’s the only way.
It occurred to me then that the Front Man was testing Seong, like Willy Wonka tested Charlie-- “So shines a good deed in a weary world…”. Except unlike Charlie, Seong didn’t pass the test. The Front Man saw this as hypocrisy. Kind of like in the novel 1984, when O’Brien got Wnston Smith to pledge that he’d throw acid in childrens’ faces for the sake of the revolution, then later threw that (metaphorically) back in Winston’s face, saying he’s no better than The Party.
Yeah, it would have been pretty stupid to just go, “Oh no, I’m in the games again!” The first few episodes made it clear that he had an actual plan, and spent considerable time and resources trying to make it work, so he could end the games for good. It’s just too bad that the people running the games were a few steps ahead of him, so he ended up back where he started.
I think that we’ll see quite soon in the next series that this isn’t the first time a former winner has tried something like this, so the game masters knew exactly what was going to happen. Their whole system of control is pretty comprehensive and sophisticated, which hints at the fact that they’ve been doing this a long, long time. They’ve probably seen every way it can ultimately play out several time over.
I don’t know what the RTP on scratchcards is in Seoul but odds are if you’re giving them out by the dozens, one of them will be a good winner, and just 1 winner would devalue the Recruiter’s morality play.
Edit: not intended as a reply to solost.
Finally watched the whole season and very much enjoyed it.
Familiar enough to be a sequel, but with enough new threads to be shocking and thought-provoking in its own right. AIUI they didn’t originally plan to make a sequel, and given that everything was wrapped up at the end of S1, this is about as good as it was possible to do.
And they clearly took some of the feedback to heart. No VIPs, and more fair games than tug of war or the glass bridge. All in all, a lot of thought and care has gone into this, and it shows.
My criticisms are pretty minor, so not really worth going though.
I will say I thought 456’s decision in episode 7 seemed a little forced; he knows the organizers honor the vote, and it’s conceivable with barricades etc not so many people would have died that evening. I don’t see the leap of logic to trying to grab guns and shoot their way out.
I think if it had been a full season they would have spent time to tie his hand a bit better. But it’s just a minor gripe.
I’m not so sure about that. We only saw half the games so far, and the bridge one was near the very end of the last games.
Plus, we did see that one where they had to make impromptu groups to hide in the rooms or get shot. They made it pretty clear that the last round was impossible for everyone to win, just on the mathematics of the game. That’s not very fair.
In season 1 there were 3 games with guaranteed 50% or more dead (bridge, tug o war, marbles), plus the last couple rounds where the final contestants were pitted against each other.
Meanwhile in season 2, the carousel game…we can guess they would have kept going until a decent number of people die, but we don’t know how many. In the meantime, at least there is a degree of skill / strategy.
The fact that in some rounds the total number of people wasn’t a multiple of the group size called out, is a (bloody) rounding error within the scope of how deadly these games are.
We watched the rest of the episodes. Lazy writing and way too much interpersonal drama. I couldn’t wait for it to end.
I remember thinking that the carousel game was specifically designed/manipulated into ending with 100 players. At the time, I thought it was to set up future games, having seen the season, I now think it was to push the pot high enough that the players would vote to keep playing. Wheels-within-wheels.
@Crafter_Man - Couldn’t disagree more. I do think this half-season was rushed a bit to end on a cliff-hanger, but that’s the reality of serial television when production values (i.e. costs) are this high. And literally the entire show is and always has been primarily about interpersonal drama.
Well, mathematetically the bridge game could have ended up with 0% dead, and according to the Monte Carlo simulation I wrote a few years ago, there was actually a 40% chance that half or more would survive if the players played it perfectly.
Ah yes you’re right; the binary nature of left or right made me casually put it with the 50% games, but a moment’s thought reveals it’s not 50% survival for the whole group with best play and likely events.
But a lot more than a moment’s thought is required to do the actual analysis, nice work 
I’d still put it with the “bad” games though, because of the high degree of guesswork in choosing a number and outright luck for left or right.
The plan was to end the games for good, not to escape. He was not trying to shoot his way out. He knows if he just saves this small group of people the games will go on and they’ll just get more desperate people. He wants the games over for good, that is why he was so willing to sacrifice a few of his team. It was a dumb plan none the less, but he was working from desperation.
I get it but the timing in particular seemed forced. It did seem likely that they may win the vote, and he knows that the organizers do honor the vote.
The plan as it was, wasn’t much of a plan, they were extremely fortunate to get as far as they did.
Only if they won the fight that was coming against the other team, and their side while having a single extra player was also were most of the women and elderly were. I imagine he felt if they let this chance pass there would be too few of them left to fight, and there wouldn’t be another time when armed men would come in t restore peace so they could ambush them. I didn’t think it was a great plan either, but from his POV his original plan was dead and there wouldn’t be another chance to end the games for good.
Yeah, if they had 100 players left and the same number of tiles, it would have been a pretty high survival rate, once the first person makes it across then everyone lives. Of course, they probably would have done something like change each stage to a choice of 3 or 4 tiles, to get the death rate that got the VIPs the thrill they were paying for.
So one change from Season 1 that I don’t think was mentioned in this thread - in Season 1, when they voted whether to continue or quit, they were told that the money accumulated so far would go to the families of the eliminated players, so the remaining players still alive would get nothing. But this time, the remaining players would split the accumulated winnings. Did the Front Man purposely add that just to show 456 that even with offering the players money in their pocket they’d vote to continue anyway?