JuHan Noh / Netflix
Warning: major spoilers ahead for "Squid Game" season two.
"Squid Game" season one ended with hope, but the second concluded with death and misery after an electrifying finale.
The global sensation returned for a second season after the first became Netflix's biggest surprise success.
Season two returns to the gritty world where a secret organization runs a gameshow where contestants can win a fortune playing a series of children's games.
If they lose, they are killed, and the prize pot increases with each death.
In season one, Seong Gi-hun is the only survivor of the games, wracked by guilt and grief after watching his friends die one by one for him to win. He decides to take down the organization, but the plan goes awry in season two, landing him back in the competition.
This time, the game makers add a new feature where contestants can vote to leave after every game. But most are so desperate for the prize money that they continue.
No Ju-han / Netflix
In season two, Gi-hun forms a new crew, including Player 001 — Hwang In-ho, the leader of the games who enters in disguise.
They work together to survive the games and eventually agree that they must end before everyone dies. But other players still want to continue, leading to a tied vote in episode six.
In the finale, the players who want the game to keep going attack and kill other players so they will have the majority in the next vote.
Gi-hun and his allies hide during this massacre, and when the guards come to break it up, the group attacks the guards, steals their weapons, and starts a rebellion.
The rebellion fails, though, due to In-ho's betrayal.
Since his reveal in episode three as a player, it's been clear that In-ho has infiltrated the games to sabotage Gi-hun's plan to stop them. But he doesn't play saboteur fully until the rebellion.
Gi-hun and Park Jung-bae (Player 390), Gi-hun's friend from outside the games, head to the command center, but In-ho stops the rest of the group from following, keeping them divided and easier to defeat.
He splits the group further, sending two on a mission to get ammo, from which neither returns.
He takes two more players to help Gi-hun, but shoots them both in the back. He then sends a radio message pretending to die himself.
The guards overwhelm and kill the remaining rebels, apart from Gi-hun, Jung-bae, and the two players who returned for ammo.
In-ho switches outfits to the signature mask and a black jacket of the games leader and confronts the now-captured Gi-hun and Jung-bae. They don't realize that In-ho has betrayed them because he has changed his voice and appearance.
In-ho then shoots and kills Jung-Bae right in front of Gi-hun.
It's a tragic ending to the season, putting Gi-hun in a difficult position. He is now captured, his rebellion has been crushed, and he has caused the death of his close friend.
This leaves Gi-hun with two possible paths for season three: give up on his plan to destroy the games or be fueled by his loss and rebound with an even better plan. It's likely Gi-hun will also learn that In-ho is the leader of the games in season three.
No Ju-han / Netflix
Outside the games, Gi-hun recruited a group of people to help him stop the games, including Hwang Jun-ho, In-ho's brother, and Woo-seok, a member of the criminal underworld.
They plant a tracker on Gi-hun, but when that plan fails, they search multiple islands nearby to find the game center. They use a boat run by Captain Park, a fisherman who saved Jun-ho after his brother shot him to protect the games in season one.
In the finale, Captain Park is revealed to be another saboteur working for the organization that runs the games. He kills one of the crewmembers working with Jun-ho and sabotages the team's drone.
The rest of the crew does not know yet, leaving another exciting mystery to be uncovered in season three. Will Gi-hun's allies find out Captain Park's identity and find the game island before he kills them all one by one?
Season three debuts in 2025, so hopefully, fans will soon find out what happens next.
