Summary
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Season 2 of Squid Game focuses on character development and twists at the beginning to build tension.
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The big twist of the first season reveals the true nature of the character and leaves the audience in doubt.
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Dramatic irony is used in Season 2 to provide crucial information to the audience while keeping the characters in the dark.
Squid game entered his second season with sky-high expectations. The first season was successful due to its mixture of dark humor, charming commentary and surprisingly brutal violence. Despite all the hype, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk had a seemingly impossible task with his return: to give viewers all the elements that made the first season such a hit without repeating themselves.
The answer seems to have been to split the difference. Season two of Squid game it delivers colorful brutality while telling a story that focuses less on the games and more on the characters trying to survive them. And instead of ending the season with a big twist like he did in season one, Hwang instead flips the element of surprise on its head and gives viewers information the characters are missing. Hwang basically flips one of the biggest twists of the first season.
Spoilers ahead Squid game seasons one and two.
Big Twist of the first season
In the final episode Squid game The first season, a year after protagonist Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) wins a grand prize by standing last, he receives an invitation to a seemingly empty office complex. There he finds Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su), a kind old man he befriended during the games and believed to have been killed. As it turns out, Il-nam wasn't just any contestant—he was the man behind the whole thing. Lying on his deathbed, Il-nam tells Gi-hun that he created the games to amuse bored, wealthy elites like himself, and participated mostly out of youthful nostalgia.

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They look down at the snowy streets of Seoul and play one more game. Il-nam bets that no one will stop to help a homeless man lying on the street before midnight strikes. A helpful citizen proves him wrong, but Il-nam dies moments later, leaving it unclear whether he knew the truth or not before he passed.
It was a pretty massive twist at the end of the first season, toying with the audience by revealing the true nature of a character they had grown to care about and sympathize with. It also put viewers on shaky ground for future games. If a creator could participate undetected, who knows what other tricks games might have up their sleeve?
How Season 2 Twists Season 1's Twist
In the second season, this question is answered for the audience, but not for the characters. After Gi-hun's attempt to end the games by capturing Front Man fails, he makes the final decision to rejoin the games to take them from the inside. At first, there is no reason to think that anyone from the games will try to stop him. That is, until the end of the third episode of “001.”
After the first game costs almost a hundred lives, the players vote on whether or not to continue the game. In reverse order, the last contestant to vote is contestant 001, who casts the deciding vote to continue the games. The camera zooms in on his back until he turns around to reveal that it's none other than the Frontman himself, Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun). Gi-hun has never seen him without the mask and doesn't recognize him. In-ho manages to gain Gi-hun's trust and friendship, even siding with him and trying to end the games in the following votes.
Throughout the rest of the series, Hwang is able to continually increase the dramatic irony where the audience has vital information that the characters do not. Rather than reveal the mole player's existence with a twist at the end of the season, the second season reveals it to the audience early on while the characters are completely unaware. This has the effect of adding even more tension to the story. The viewer is forced to constantly question In-ho's motives and speculate about what he might try to do to manipulate Gi-hun and prevent him from trying to overthrow the games.
This is not to say that one story choice is better than the other; rather, the two simply create different effects on the overall season. By saving the reveal of Il-nam's identity until the very end, the season one finale will make the viewer question every previous interaction with the character and maybe even go back to see if there were any hints they missed along the way. At the beginning of the second series, revealing In-ho to the audience but not the characters creates a more immediate effect where the viewer can see the manipulation happening in real time.
Dramatic irony is one of the oldest tools in drama, dating back to the days of Greek tragedies Oedipus Rex and beyond. It's also a smart choice on Hwang's part, the way to do it Squid game season two a different but complementary experience to season one. The season is coming to a close and viewers will have plenty to think about before season three brings them back to the games one last time.