Squid Recreation Season 2’s ‘Six-Legged Pentathlon’ Mini-Video games Defined

This text accommodates spoilers for “Squid Recreation” season 2.

Poor Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae). You’d suppose {that a} man attempting to take down the whole Squid Recreation group by taking part within the video games for the second time would have already got sufficient on his plate. But, even his probability to shine together with his Sugar Honeycombs sport information is stripped away from him. Satisfied that the second sport is the all-too-familiar Dalgona candy-shaping sport from season 1 and freely distributing game-winning technique to his fellow contestants, Gi-hun finally ends up with egg on his face when the organizers shake issues up and the sport seems to be a Six-Legged Pentathlon as an alternative. 

The sport begins with the gamers forming groups of 5. After this, the groups have their legs tied collectively in a manner that they should proceed on a mixed “six legs.” Then, they’re compelled to tackle a round course which accommodates a pentathlon of video games they’ve to finish inside a strict time restrict — on ache of loss of life, as is the way in which of the sport.

The 5 video games the groups should sort out are, after all, conventional Korean playground video games. The primary one is none aside from Ddakji, the notorious envelope-throwing sport Gi-hun performs with the Recruiter (Gong Yoo) in season 1. The second is Flying Stone, the place the workforce has to knock over a small tombstone-like piece by throwing stones at it. Subsequent up is Gonggi, a grabbing sport the place gamers have to select up small, formed pebbles with numerous hand motions (like Jacks). The fourth sport is a contest of spinning tops, and the fifth one is Jegichagi — a kind of Hacky Sack sport performed with an object that resembles a shuttlecock. 

Six-Legged Pentathlon is the second sport within the competitors, and it is tasked with heavy lifting on the subject of establishing contestant dynamics. With out going into an excessive amount of element about what occurs to numerous characters earlier than the sport is over, two notably notable factions quickly emerge.

Gi-hun and the Entrance Man (Lee Byung-hun), who’s posing as participant 001 within the video games, find yourself on the identical workforce on the latter’s request. They’re joined by Gi-hun’s pal Jung-bae (Lee Search engine optimisation-hwan), Participant 388 (Kang Ha-neul), and Participant 222 (Jo Yu-ri). This comparatively highly effective group is contrasted by a quintet of outcasts that begins forming when different gamers discriminate towards Participant 120 (Park Sung-hoon) and refuse to permit her into their groups. She’s quickly joined by Participant 007 (Yang Dong-geun) and his mom, Participant 149 (Kang Ae-shim), a tag workforce that additionally finds it tough to safe a spot in different groups because of the latter’s superior age. This high-stakes workforce is ultimately rounded up by Participant 095 and the vastly eccentric Participant 044. 

Given Gi-hun’s expertise and animosity with the Entrance Man, it makes narrative sense to place the 2 in the identical workforce that is largely made up of succesful and decided people. It is also attention-grabbing to see season 2 remixing the outcast themes the viewer remembers from “Squid Recreation” season 1. Although Participant 120 is a much more sympathetic character than the scheming Participant 212 (Kim Joo-ryoung) in season 1, they each discover themselves within the unlucky position the place they’re ostracized by most groups. Likewise, Participant 149 discovers that few wish to be a part of forces with an aged contestant, identical to Participant 001 (O Yeong-su) does in season 1 — although the circumstances surrounding the characters are very, very completely different. 

The second sport within the thirty third Squid Recreation – aka the one we noticed in “Squid Recreation” season 1 — forces the members to decide on a selected form and carve it out of a circle of extraordinarily fragile Dalgona sweet. Gi-hun comes up with the tactic of licking the form free from the encompassing space, which not solely saves his personal life however helps out different contestants. It is a essential second in his transition from a self-serving, hapless loser to a extra decided determine with genuinely heroic traits … which is promptly turned on its head when the present revels in pulling the Dalgona rug from beneath Gi-hun in season 2.

Right here, Gi-hun is vocal about his Dalgona expertise and manages to fire up hope among the many gamers forward of the second sport. The revelation that he was flawed they usually’re really taking part in a Six-Legged Pentathlon delivers one other abrupt flip in his arc — solely this time, it is in the other way. Whereas Gi-hun’s season 1 Dalgona heroics give him confidence and set up him as a resourceful participant that others can look as much as, his utter failure to foretell the second sport of season 2 regardless of claims on the contrary deeply undermines his authority. It is the form of intelligent twist we have come to anticipate from the most effective “Squid Recreation” episodes, and spells loads of bother for the character as he tries to make it to the tip of the seven-episode “Squid Recreation” season 2, which is now streaming on Netflix.