The Netflix original series Squid Game is coming to an end. Less than a year after the streaming giant launched the second season of the popular show, we’ll see on June 27 whether Gi-hun (Player 456) survives more deadly childhood games or if the Front Man will win out.
The second season’s finale ended on a cliff-hanger in the middle of the games. Gi-hun and most of his comrades survived another round of Red Light, Green Light; a timed six-legged pentathlon; and a twisted merry-go-round game called Mingle. That was before players tried to revolt and take out the people in charge of the games. But after the Front Man and others squashed the rebellion, there are still more games to play. The question is, which games?
Netflix is tight-lipped about what the upcoming games will be, but the show offers a few hints. Here are the clues Netflix and Squid Game have shown us so far, and what games I think the characters will face.
‘Dongdaemun’
In a post-credits scene at the end of season 2, we see Young-hee — the animatronic doll from Red Light, Green Light — and another animatronic doll named Cheol-su. We also see some red and green railroad lights at night, indicating the game will likely take place around train tracks.
The post-credits scene from the Squid Game season 2 finale teased a mysterious new game.
Some people have theorized that the game will involve the trolley problem where someone has to decide whether to let a train kill five people or to pull a lever to cause the train to kill one person. But that’s not really a game; it’s a philosophical thought experiment. It also doesn’t account for why Young-hee and Cheol-su are present.
But it could be the Korean game “dongdaemun,” which is similar to the game London Bridge. In dongdaemun two players form a “gate” and sing the nursery rhyme Dong, Dong, Dongdaemun. While they sing, players cross through the gate, but when the singing stops, the gate closes, trapping a player.
As mentioned, the post-credits scene features railroad lights, and the nursery rhyme features lines about a gate closing, so maybe whoever gets trapped, gets trapped on train tracks and hit by a train. Harsh.
Monkey bars
In season 1 of the show, we saw that the walls around the players’ sleeping quarters had drawings depicting the games. In season 2, those drawings weren’t as numerous, but if you looked closely, you could see drawings of people swinging between different points along the top of the walls. That’s likely some kind of monkey bar race over a deadly fall.
You can see people hanging from points on the walls where the blue paint meets the white paint.
I’d imagine this will be similar to the glass bridge game from the first season, where everyone must cross the monkey bars one at a time before a time limit is reached. I don’t imagine the bars will crumble in people’s hands like the tempered and nontempered glass from the glass bridge game, because not many people will have the physical strength to traverse the monkey bars. People will just fall to their deaths.
I also imagine this will lead to some people kicking or disrupting the person in front of them if they’re going too slow, as we saw in season 1. And once the timer runs out, the monkey bars fall from the ceiling, killing all the players still hanging on.
‘Janggi’
The players’ sleeping quarters could also point to one more game. On the far wall of those quarters is a long, black-and-white grid painted on the wall, which could be “janggi,” or Korean chess.
Janggi is played on a 9 by 10 grid with various pieces similar to standard chess pieces. For example, the general in janggi is the equivalent of the king in chess. However, unlike in chess, there aren’t any stalemates in janggi. There can be a draw after certain conditions are met, but in some tournaments, matches can’t end in a draw no matter what.
I’m wondering if we’ll see a chess scene like in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, where our characters take the place of different janggi pieces, except that when the piece is taken out of play, that character dies.
The second season of the show focused a lot of attention on the two different player teams in the show — those who wanted to stay in the games and those who wanted to leave. A game of janggi between those teams where players sacrifice themselves for their team could be a sinister twist from the Front Man to show that though people are on these teams, it’s still every person for themselves.
Will squid game be in Squid Game again?
It’s possible the titular squid game will reappear in the final season, but I don’t think it will, for a few reasons.
The only game to repeat so far in Squid Game has been Red Light, Green Light.
The first reason is that only one game repeated from season 1 to season 2, and that’s Red Light, Green Light. I think that game is always included as a means to wake people up to what they are dealing with, but otherwise the games are different, as Gi-hun found out in the second game in season 2.
Another reason is that we already have six games: the three that players played in season 2 and the three games named above. It’s possible that one of the three games above doesn’t get played, making room for squid game’s return, and it’s possible that the rules surrounding the games change again, allowing for a seventh game.
In the first season, during the game glass bridge, the lights were turned out midway through to make it more challenging. The rules around stopping the games also changed from season 1 to season 2. If the games stopped in season 1, the money would be sent to the families of those who died. But if the games are stopped in season 2, the players split the earnings.
So though I don’t think we’ll see squid game in the show, it’s not impossible. We’ll have to wait until June 27 to find out.
For more on Squid Game, here’s what we know about season 3 and our review of season 2.
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