A proper explanation of Squid Game season two’s very rushed cliffhanger ending

If you binged Squid Game in one semi-delirious marathon, you might be left wondering what actually went down in the very dramatic finale. Here’s Squid Game season two’s ending broken down step by step, so you can make sense of what you just witnessed. There’s a very deep reason why it all felt so suddenly cut off.

Gi-hun tried (and really failed) to take over the Squid Game control room

So, the whole point of season two is that Gi-hun has decided to ditch a life of luxury with his semi-disappointing prize money and infiltrate another Squid Game. He wants to stop the Squid Games from happening, due to being a half-decent human being. He tried to get the other players to stop the Squid Game through a vote, but it didn’t work out. Gi-hun resorted to violence instead. He and a few other players, including his bestie Jung-bae and their new friend Young-il, aka Player 001 steal a load of weapons so they can fight their way into the control room for the Squid Game arena.

Player 001 is revealed to really be Front Man

He’s got his evil genius face on
(Image via Netflix)

Spoiler alert! But Young-il is actually Front Man who is actually Hwang In-ho who is actually Hwang Jun-ho’s long-lost brother who is actually not dead. You following me still? Front Man won the Squid Game in 2015, and has been sent into the Game as a contestant this time so he can infiltrate Gi-hun’s attempt to infiltrate the Squid Game. Netflix really likes to test our brainpower, don’t they?!

Front Man aka Player 001 aka Hwang In-ho aka Young-il sneaks off from the rest of the rebels. He kills two of the other players and fakes his own death. Then he spills the tea to the other Squid Game guards about Gi-hun’s plot. It all gets pretty messy.

Front Man kills Jung-bae in the ending (sozzles)

Player 001 has a speedy outfit change and puts on his scary Front Man suit. He confronts Gi-hun, melodramatically tells him off for his “little hero games”, and shoots Jung-bae.

The show’s creator Hwang Dong-hyuk explained to Tudum that Front Man thought it would be a worse punishment for Gi-hun to live with his guilt over Jung-bae’s death than to die himself.

Rip to our king
(Image via Netflix)

He also confirmed that Gi-hun doesn’t know who Front Man really is, and still trusts Young-il. I’m sensing this is going to cause chaos in season three.

Er, is that it?

…Yes. Season two ends on this massive cliffhanger, with things looking pretty rubbish for Gi-hun. Squid Game season two is only seven episodes instead of nine because Hwang felt Jung-bae’s death was the right place to end season two.

This is why season two’s ending feels very sudden – the plot is going to tied up properly in season three.

Hwang told Deadline, “When I was writing the script for the two seasons, I felt like there was a big turning point or an inflection point, and that was the end of episode seven, so I thought that it would do it justice to have a separate season after that.”

Mercifully, you won’t have to wait another three years to find out what happens next. Season three was filmed at the same time as season two, and should be dropping sometime in 2025.