This article contains spoilers forSquid Gameseason 2.
Squid Gamedoesnt work without choice.
Without that single vote,Squid Gameis little more than an exercise in gratuitous violence.
The name of season 1 episode 2 Hell doesnt refer to the circumstances within the games butoutsideof them.
In the end, they had the choice to leave and they had the choice to return.
But that doesnt mean they felt in control of their destiny.
That grappling with choice was the most thematically-rich aspect ofSquid Games first season.
With only 91 players eliminated, 365 remain to play another day.
To Gi-hun, 365 souls saved is a massive victory.
To those 365, however, theres another, more important number: 9.1 billion.
Thats the amount of money available in prize winnings after the 91 deaths in the first challenge.
And doing so will be a lot easier with him around.
We have a previous winner here.
What do we have to worry about?
Player 100 (who is 10 billion in debt) says.
Once again, the designers of the games have revealed themselves to be keen understanders of the human condition.
The Xs and Os dine together, develop strategies, and even work on catchphrases with One more game!
becoming a rallying cry of the Os.
While undoubtedly the most equitable political system weve come across yet, democracy can be a profoundly frustrating beast.
Watching Gi-hun grapple with a barracks full of the ultimatelow information voterscan be downright triggering.
What do you mean you want to play one more game with a 50% mortality rate?
And how do you not know what a tariff is???
For the poorly informed (i.e.
most people), voting amounts to answering the same question over and over again: Are you upset?
Normally, I would feel embarrassed to bring my American bias into an article about a South Korean series.
American culture looms large in the West and so too do American anxieties.
Comparatively to the rest of the globe, thepost-Covid economic malaise didnt hit the United States too hard.
Though inflation did spike,it quickly rebounded into shapewhile unemployment remained at a steady low.
We survived last time, so surely one more game cant hurt.
No one involved is claiming that democracy is bad or less preferable to an autocratic system.
Some estimates claimthat approximately $15.9 billionwas spent on the 2024 U.S. presidential elections.
But its also like…notthatmuch money in the grand scheme of things.
One thing you cant say aboutSquid Games VIPs is that they skimp on production value.
In the end, the problem is never only capitalism or democracy.
Thankfully, they can be the solution too.
All seven episodes of Squid Game season 2 are available to stream on Netflix now.
