The first season of Squid Game introduced a police detective who tried to learn more about the eponymic tournament after his brother joined a few years prior. However, in the penultimate episode, he was shot and fell off a cliff, into the ocean. This untimely death of the detective character signified the sudden loss of hope in getting to know more about the games, or does it?
After being revealed that Il-nam (Player 001), the old man, was still alive, there became an unwritten rule in Squid Game that, unless the corpse or actual death is seen, the character could still be assumed as alive. At the end of “Gganbu“, the camera panned to follow Gi-hun walking away, and blocking the sight where Il-nam was supposed to be shot, thus, there was no visual evidence that Il-nam was dead. The police officer, Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), was also shot; however, a shot to the shoulder does not guaranty fatality, and the viewers never saw his corpse, so this could mean that he was still alive, allowing the second season to take the mystery route.
Squid Game Already Set Up The Perfect Detective
Hwang Jun-ho had an excellent character arc. He knew about the games way before the main characters did and when the opportunity to get to the games arose, he jumped at it, and there his investigations commenced. His investigations built a good subplot as well. He managed to infiltrate the most secret of the places inside the Squid Game facility where he found the answers to the inquiries he had in the first place – his brother’s whereabouts. He discovered that his brother won the said games in 2015 (five installments before the one seen in the series), and with that, he knew that his brother was still alive somewhere, and that was one Squid Game mystery done, and there are several more to go in Season 2.
How Squid Game Season 2 Can Succeed As A Mystery
The first season delivered two significantly impressive reveals – the Front Man being revealed to be the detective’s brother and Gi-hun seemingly wanting to know who runs the games and to take the games down. These two impressions can run concurrently in the second season, where Jun-ho can try to bring the Korean police to take the games down, meanwhile, Gi-hun could be busy with his revenge plan. While Jun-ho tries to take the games down from the outside, Gi-hun will be attempting the same from the inside, unwittingly making a great team.
The first season of Squid Game implied that the detective died, but did not show his actual death. If Detective Hwang Jun-ho is still alive, he could continue his investigations of the games and could put an end to them. An interesting addition to the plot could put a fun spin on Squid Game Season 2, incorporating the mystery genre for added thrills and excitement.
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