the negative response to this season when i looked it up online after finishing it genuinely surprised me. i thought it was really good! a very solid ending to a great show. part of that might be because i'm ignoring the wider marketing by netflix for the "Squid Game Cinematic Universe" and how that might've found its way into the show, like with that cate blanchett cameo. it's not exactly a new thing for tv, it's always been for the profit of a network. i don't care about that, it sucks but what are you gonna do? what i care about is the actual content of the season.
something else that probably influenced some negative reactions is the decision to split it into two seasons. i think this was a pretty obviously bad decision, i think it hurt the show, because it loses context of the progression of the games as a whole. i saw some people were upset about so many people dying in hide and seek, but that's the same point as marbles from season 1. we got so many major character deaths in that game!
but that's also an external factor. in this post, i mostly wanted to talk about some of the character development, particularly in three characters- gi-hun, myung-gi, and jun-hee.
jun-hee probably has the least going on of those three, her motivations are fairly straightforward throughout the whole show. something i really like about her character is that, ultimately, her decision to keep the baby was a selfish one. she only kept it to get back at myung-gi and give her some purpose and company, even knowing that she would be unable to support both of them on her own. after she lost myung-gi, she needed someone who would love her.
then, in the games, she does find people who love her, and even learns to accept help from myung-gi in hide and seek! but of course, he ruins it, and kills hyun-ju and inadvertently geum-ja. now she's alone again and blaming herself, with the only person willing to support her being gi-hun. but with her injury, it would be impossible to pass the next game, even with his help, and she knows that without him the baby has no chance. so she sacrifices herself for her child, and trusts gi-hun to make it out. a very good ending for her character, in my opinion.
myung-gi is... weird. on my first reaction, he came off very unsympathetically, and i even thought his behavior in the last game was kind of a cheap heel turn. but after rewatching and thinking about it a lot, i think i understand his character.
an interesting aspect of the second and third seasons is that there are some obvious parallels between characters from game 1 and 2. hyun-ju is like ali, in-ho is like il-nam, yong-sik is like gi-hun, and myung-gi is like sang-woo. that's the way to think about him. he's a businessman who gambled and failed, and now he's broke. he'll do anything to regain that status, even putting his life before the lives of his friends and loved ones. he does care about people, that's made very clear, but he cares about himself more.
of course, that doesn't make him a monster. i think his plan in the final game was pretty clear: shift attention away from the baby as long as possible, and then when there's no other way, betray the O group and make it out with gi-hun and the baby. mr. lunchbox's death really messed that up. now, myung-gi is a believer in the selfishness of humanity. he thinks gi-hun will do what he would do, so he can't trust him. he's so confident in this that his only recourse is to leave gi-hun behind and kill his baby. that's the only way he sees for him to stay safe. it's really sad to be honest, and even though he's obviously horrible for it, i can't help but feel for him a bit.
gi-hun himself, i can see why some people would be disappointed actually! not because i think his story in this season was ill-conceived or anything, it's just not very fun to watch compared to him in other seasons. most of the time he's just staring into space thinking about shit, and most of his development happens internally. i do still think a lot of people are misinterpreting his actions, though. his decision to kill dae-ho was extremely uncharacteristic of him, and never something he would do before the whole revolution chaos. he's just consumed by guilt at this point, and he needs someone to blame. dae-ho, even though his actions were understandable every step of the way and they would've lost anyway, is a perfect target!
after he kills dae-ho, though, he just feels even worse, even attempting to kill himself right after. the only thing that gives him determination to go on is his conversation with geum-ja, and knowing that he's the baby's only hope. even after jun-hee's death, something that would normally make him shut down like we've seen before, he doesn't give up. part of this, of course, is because of his own daughter, and his regret for not making contact. he's reminded of her when he sees the baby, and he's reminded that he needs to make things right in any way he can.
something that only strengthens his determination is his meeting with the front man. even with all these horrible people who would do anything for a little more money, he retains his faith in humanity and doesn't kill them. by the way, that flashback to the 2015 games was really great! a high point of the season imo. tells us a lot about in-ho's past, even though it's relatively short.
then, in the final game, there's all that chaos and gi-hun is left alone with the baby. and, because he's gi-hun, he does the selfless thing that no VIP watching expected him to do, and he sacrifices himself for the baby just like jun-hee.
something i really appreciate is that the VIPs don't have any dialogue after this scene. they just stare, and for once they don't know what to say. he shatters their worldview, the belief that humans will always kill and act selfishly when it comes down to it. i don't think he changed their minds, or at least they would never admit that, but he proved them wrong. that's a happy ending if i've ever seen one!