Squid Game Season 2 Episode 7

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Warning: Contains spoilers

Episode 6 ended with an all-out brawl in the men's toilets. It continues at the start of episode 7, ultimately leaving Thanos and 4 other players dead. Upon the realisation that the deaths will affect the result of the vote on whether to stay in the game or not, the players on the 'O', or 'stay' team decide to attack the 'X' team after lights out in order to kill as many of them as possible. 456 rejects the suggestion to attack Team O first, instead hatching a plan with a handful of other players to attack the guards and try to break out. They get pretty close to the management office before 001 finally betrays them, putting his mask back on and killing 456's friend, Jung-bae in front of him.

Outside the game, as I guessed, Sea Captain Park was indeed up to no good, sabotaging a drone and killing a member of Jun-ho's team before throwing him overboard. Presumably, he is in league with the people running the game and doesn't want Jun-ho to find the island again, but if so it is unclear why he rescued Jun-ho in the first place. It seems risky to let him get this close.

The episode ends abruptly after 456 is captured and the remaining survivors have been killed or subdued. There is a glimpse of the Red Light Green Light doll with a second giant doll beside it, so I suppose we will have to wait for season 3 to find out what that means.

Time to say goodbye!

Now that we have reached the final episode of season 2 let's take a few moments to reflect on the good and bad things about this season. The first negative thing I have to say is that I thought the pacing wasn't as good this time around. It took a long time for the action to get going, then the ending felt rushed.

Secondly, this season didn't have the same emotional impact as season 1, with nothing to equal the marbles episode for sadness. The closest thing this season had to that would be during the game of Mingle in Episode 6. When the players need to find a group of 3, and Thanos and his cronies are in a group of 4, Thanos suggests they play Rock Paper Scissors to decide which of them is out. Se- Mi, who has protected and been kind to the shy Min-su, offers him her hand and says "come with me", but instead of taking her hand he throws scissors, leaving her out on her own. Ouch! That simple little betrayal had more impact than Se-Mi's death in episode 7.



One positive thing about this season was the characters. There were a couple of memorable ones, notably Thanos, and Jang Geum-ja, or player 149, who is here to help her son, and won't hear a word said against him even after they are separated while playing Mingle. There were others I was cheering for, but with such a big cast none of them got very much screen time. I was hoping to see more of Kang No-eul (Guard 011), but I must have missed something because I didn't see what happened to her in the chaos of episode 7.

The cinematography and set design continued to be visually stunning in this season, with aerial shots of the Mingle game like something out of a Busby Berkley musical, or conversely, as one of the crew described it, "like cell division". The score, by composer Jung Jae-il was also striking. This season blended elements of the season one soundtrack with other songs, including covers and remixes. The first episode features Time to Say Goodbye sung by Sarah Brightman and Adrea Bocelli.



Rumours abound about season 3, with various AI-created fake trailers circulating online, but for now, we are just going to have to wait and see. Season 3 was shot back to back with this one and will be released later in 2025.

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More articles by Jennifer Muirhead:
Squid Game Season 2 Episode 6
Squid Game Season 2 Episode 5
Squid Game Season 2 Episode 4
Squid Game Season 2 Episode 3
Squid Game Season 2 Episodes 1 and 2
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Bloodride - TV Series Review