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This article contains spoilers for Squid Game season 2.
Squid Game doesn’t work without choice. The first season of Netflix‘s global hit made that clear with its standout second episode, “Hell,” in which contestants in the sprawling competition of deadly childrens’ games successfully vote to void their contract and exit the event.
Without that single vote, Squid Game is little more than an exercise in gratuitous violence. A story in which rich “VIPs” kidnap members of Seoul’s desperate underclass and force them to do battle against one another plays a lot differently from a story that invites them in with the promise of a ₩45.6 billion payday.
Or is it?
Because, as the players in Squid Game season 1 discover much to their chagrin, sometimes a choice isn’t much of a choice at all. The name of season 1 episode 2 “Hell” doesn’t refer to the circumstances within the games but outside of them. Player 456 Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) and his peers return to a real world so full of debts and threats that they all just opt to re-enter the games once again. In the end, they had the choice to leave and they had the choice to return. But that doesn’t mean they felt in control of their destiny.
That grappling with choice was the most thematically-rich aspect of Squid Game‘s first season. Now, in its second season on Netflix, Squid Game returns to the topic once again in a far grander fashion. In the process, the show expands its trenchant critique of capitalism into a larger exploration of capital, the democratic process, and the increasingly exploitative ways they can intersect. Arriving at the tail end of an election year for much of the Western world, Squid Game once again feels like the timeliest show on television.
The contestants of Squid Game season 2 aren’t afforded one choice, but several. At the conclusion of every game, the surviving players are invited to vote on whether they want the games to continue. Though he should know better from his voting experience in the 2021 version of the games, returning player 456 Gi-hun initially views this vote as a chance to save all of these wretched souls.
Thanks to Gi-hun’s pre-existing knowledge of the first challenge, “Red Light, Green Light,” the squid gamers don’t suffer too many casualties. 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, there’s another, more important number: 9.1 billion. That’s the amount of money available in prize winnings after the 91 deaths in the first challenge. If the remaining contestants exit the challenge now, they will take home only 24 million won – or roughly $16,000 – per person.
Additionally, Gi-hun’s mere presence as a survivor of the games only confirms to the players that winning them is a possibility. 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. Not having choice involved wouldn’t be as satisfying to the contest’s spectators – even the hyper rich don’t want to feel like needless butchers. But the element of choice has to be present in such as way as to not actually jeopardize the continuation of the games. In this way, Gi-hun’s involvement in another version of the games feels less like his attempt to end them and more like the Front Man using him as a carrot to dangle to keep them going.
Through the three rounds of voting featured in season 2, Squid Game takes on the rhythms of a functioning and “healthy” democracy. Voters are given “X” and “O” badges depending on which vote they cast and they quickly split into factions that resemble familiar two-party political structures. The X’s and O’s dine together, develop strategies, and even work on catchphrases with “One more game!” becoming a rallying cry of the O’s. But regardless of the votes cast and any progress made, each election always inevitably ends in another round of slaughter.
It’s easy for the viewer to graft their own democratic frustrations onto the proceedings, particularly during what is election year for many in the West. While undoubtedly the most equitable political system we’ve come across yet, democracy can be a profoundly frustrating beast. Sartre had it right that “hell is other people” (hat tip to Squid Game season 1 episode 2 once again) and nothing brings you into closer contact with other people quite like the democratic process. Watching Gi-hun grapple with a barracks full of the ultimate low information voters can 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? Y/N.” A no vote maintains the status quo, while a yes vote hands the reins of power over to something that could be marginally better…or far worse. Voters in the Western world were particularly upset in the post-Covid era. Incumbency was a massive disadvantage in virtually every election from 2021 through 2024, with existing executive administrations losing elections in Poland, Argentina, South Africa, Mexico, the United Kingdom, the United States, and yes, South Korea.
Normally, I would feel embarrassed to bring my American bias into an article about a South Korean series. But Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, bless him, seems just as preoccupied with the United States in season 2 as anything else. One of the characters here, Player 230 (Choi Su-bong), even goes by the stage name “Thanos,” and peppers his language full of American English phrases. American culture looms large in the West and so too do American anxieties. One anxiety in particular, helps explain both the 2024 U.S. election cycle and Squid Game season 2: the fear of missing out.
Comparatively to the rest of the globe, the post-Covid economic malaise didn’t hit the United States too hard. Though inflation did spike, it quickly rebounded into shape while unemployment remained at a steady low. And yet, American voters still reacted similarly to their global peers by striving for something different, in this case, by returning to something familiar. So strong is the pull of change that one of the world’s most familiar names and faces can feel new again. We survived last time, so surely one more game can’t hurt.
That brings us back to capital once again. Squid Game season 1’s satire of unrestrained capitalism came through loud and clear and met with little critical resistance. Releasing just months after supply chains fell during the pandemic, Squid Game found a receptive audience to the concept that maybe the free markets were a little too free. Now season 2 gets even bolder and more challenging by tying capital directly into its more popular cousin, democracy.
No one involved is claiming that democracy is bad or less preferable to an autocratic system. But Squid Game merely notes that democracy does lend itself to unregulated capitalism in a way that capitalists would prefer you didn’t notice. Some estimates claim that approximately $15.9 billion was spent on the 2024 U.S. presidential elections. The country (and world’s) richest man, Elon Musk, spent $277 million alone on the effort to elect President Trump. You could even bump that number up by $44 billion if you consider Musk’s purchasing of Twitter to create a right-wing propaganda apparatus as a campaign contribution.
That is undoubtedly a lot of money, donated freely and legally thanks to the Supreme Court’s (dogshit) ruling in 2010 court case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. But it’s also like…not that much money in the grand scheme of things. And when it comes to influencing the most powerful executive office in the world, it’s a downright bargain for any enterprising oligarch with some disposable cash to spend and some capital gains taxes to slash. In fact, it’s probably not too far off from the money spent each time on prize winnings and operations of the squid games. One thing you can’t say about Squid Game‘s VIPs is that they skimp on production value.
The nice thing about both Squid Game season 2’s depiction of democracy and our own is that neither of them have ended yet. Gi-hun and his allies wisely come to realize that sham elections are getting them nowhere and decide to take matters into their own hands by staging an armed revolution. In the real life version of Squid Game‘s own South Korea, citizens took to the streets in early December to defend their democracy against President Yoon Suk Yeol’s unlawful declaration of martial law.
In the end, the problem is never only capitalism or democracy. It’s people. Thankfully, they can be the solution too.
All seven episodes of Squid Game season 2 are available to stream on Netflix now.
The post Squid Game Season 2’s Democratic Twist Is Uncomfortably Timely appeared first on Den of Geek.
