S02.E07: Friend or Foe

[AnimeMania]

(Season Finale)

The remaining players strategize on how to survive the night. Gi-hun proposes a risky plan — but he will need trustworthy allies to carry it out.

Premiere Date: December 26, 2024      Netflix 

[Hanahope]

Ah a cliffhanger, of course.

Was 246 shot in the shoulder? Was a bit hard to tell, but I think so.  By 11?  Will she save him somehow?

and of course In-ho would kill Gi-hun’s friend.  He was always going to sabotage the rebellion attempt.

should have expected the boat captain to be the mole against Jun-ho’s attempts to find the island.  Of course In-ho would have him save his brother.  Did he clue in  In-ho about other things that Jun-ho told him or the other blabbermouth?  
 

guess we have to wait a while to find out

 

[Helena Dax]

Damn, I didn't know the season wasn't complete!! I hate this.

Not really in love with this episode. The plan was bound to fail, and not just because they had a mole in their team. The shooting went for too long and well, now most of them are dead. Gin-hu should have been shot too, but I guess the boss wants him to suffer or something like that, 

How long will we have to wait for the second part?

[dubstepford wife]

T.O.P, I don't listen to rap so I don't know how good of a rapper you are, but you are terrible at acting.  Or at least here you were, maybe you're better in other things.  I will not miss you in Season 3.  I get what you were going for, you were supposed to be constantly high, but there's a way to play crazy without chewing the scenery.  

I saw the boat captain being the mole pretty early on.  He found Jun Ho after he was shot which made him instantly suspicious, and he probably had been sabotaging Jun Ho's attempts to find the island for years.  

Season 3 is going to be sad, with the inevitable deaths of one or both of the mother and son pair, Hyun Ju, Dae Ho (he got the coward edit but freaking out in that situation is very understandable), and probably either Gi Hun, In Ho, or both, as main characters don't have plot armor in the final season.  

I still think the whole organ harvesting thing was dumb to bring back.  In Ho/Front Man said in the first season that he didn't care about the organ harvesting operation, he only cared that a player being given an unfair advantage ruined the equality of the games.  By that logic, the soldiers don't need to hide the harvesting operation as it is now, since there aren't players involved in it.  The secrecy of it doesn't fit at all except to provide a threat to the North Korean defector lady.

[Scout Finch]

On 12/26/2024 at 1:56 PM, Hanahope said:

should have expected the boat captain to be the mole against Jun-ho’s attempts to find the island.

In an earlier episodes one of the powers that be had a throwaway line about a captain who was an ally keeping tabs on activities off site and I immediately thought of him and wasn't surprised at the reveal.

My only real complaint--besides the shooting that went on for what seemed like hours--was having to tolerate rapper dude until close to the enzzzAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA  *remove my cat, Daisy, from keyboard* (Can't resist leaving this in for laughs!)

My only real complaint--besides the shooting that went on for what seemed like hours--was having to tolerate rapper dude until nearly the end and that his extremely obnoxious ass wasn't taken out in the first or second game. Come to think of it, Daisy just visualized my inner screams of frustration about it! (Here she is 'helping' me work a couple of months ago.)

 

Edited December 28, 2024 by Scout Finch

[Oscirus]

So basically the plan was to just stand there and watch as the other side kills your allies and with the surviving members ( not all of who can or will participate) take over the island and force the games to end? Yea, even if no.1 was who he said that he was, the plan of taking over the whole island with like ten people was stupid.

I hate they spent the promotional period hyping up the red light green light doll's  boyfriend just for him to appear in an after credits scene to hype up season 3. 

Speculation wise: Thanos's bff becomes the big bad until he's killed in either the next game probably.

Yong-sik's mom dies soon and he takes over as the big bad.

Lee Myung-gi dies  saving his ex and his son.  But those are fairly obvious.

[Roccos Brother]

I knew from the start that the boat captain was going to turn out to be a mole. His character's motivations made zero sense, why would he waste so much time and effort to help a stranger he pulled out of the ocean?

Loved that the MTF character turned out to be a total badass and glad she survived. I can't wait to see more of her and the mother in season 3.

Edited December 29, 2024 by Roccos Brother

[Brn2bwild]

I rewatched S1E9, and Front Man talks to Gi-hun in an unaltered voice after Gi-hun wins the game.  How does Gi-hun not recognize that voice later?  Between the voice, the 001, and his calling Gi-hun by his name, you would think there'd be some suspicion, and he wouldn't be so quick to trust Front Man to lead part of the rebellion.

Edited December 29, 2024 by Brn2bwild

[driver18]

Well, when he spoke with him him he was freshly traumatized, and it was two years ago. 

[Mindthinkr]

A cliffhanger? I thought there’d be some kind of end to the season. I wonder how long the wait is going to be. Sigh 

[Macbeth1966]

So Gi-Hun's plan went from saving as many as he could to let's take 10 people to try to take over the Island as he wants to talk to the guy in charge and put a stop to things. Really?  

He talked to the guy that was really in charge, 001, last season.  So he got the scoop on why they created the games - bored rich sadistic men.

The people who are actually in charge of the Island doesn't mean they are actually on the Island.  If they are they are in a secure location.   The Front Man, In-Ho, who you may think is in charge, won the game nearly a decade ago.  So he is basically middle management.  

This was not a well thought out seasoned at all.

Edited December 30, 2024 by Macbeth1966

[kittykat]

Ooof.  A very predictable ending to The Squids Strike Back.  Guess we're at The Hero loses Everything on our journey.

I mean we know Gi-Hun isn't the most strategic of planners so I did find it alarming when he was willing to sacrifice X players to attack the masked men.  In-ho was certainly sopping it all up as he witnessed the man who was doing everything to save everyone to changing his principles to be the hero.  And now he's gotten his best friend killed.  I thought at one point Jung-Bae was going to betray them but he really was with them to the end.  His death was Ali levels of sad.

I hope come Emmy season Lee Byung-Hun gets his due.  Great performance keeping us guessing whether Front Man was changing his ideology by replaying the games but nope the act continues.  Technically the "Special Game" had a double meaning.  Not only the riot but the rebellion. In-Ho made the same choices, he was willing to sacrifice a few soldiers just to let Gi-Hun get close then pull the rug out underneath him.

So No-Eul was the one who shot 248 right?  I know there's been theories that she didn't fatally shoot him but I'm thinking she did.  Her supposed redemption was only a tease but in the end she's a true believer like the rest of them.  

Not going to miss Thanos next season.  A lot of people compared him to Deok-Su but while Deok-Su led the riot this clown is the first to die in it.  All talk and no grit. 

Agree that Crypto bro will probably die next season to save Jun-Hee.  I hope Thanos' toadie doesn't last long, hated that he killed Ye-Se and Min-Su watched Corporal Upham style but that's war for you.

The police storyline really needs to move along better next season.  No surprise Captain Park is the mole.  You think Jun-Ho would have figured out that the guy who can sail through anything and rescued him suddenly can't find the island.  I know you and Gi-Hun are our protagonists but this is ridiculous levels of slow on the uptake.  Hoping Woo-Seok, our affable idiot makes it out alive.

On 12/28/2024 at 2:53 PM, Oscirus said:

Speculation wise: Thanos's bff becomes the big bad until he's killed in either the next game probably.

I think 100 the bloviating old man with the ridiculous debt will probably be the main bad.  A bunch of clueless people listening to a raging man who feels entitled to more money and power?  I feel like I've seen this show before. I'm guessing he bites it in Game 5.

Can't decide if this season dropped at the wrong time or the perfect time for American viewers.  The allegory of sacrificing people for a larger sum of money is just too ...on the nose.

[Fake Jan Brady]

On 12/31/2024 at 5:17 AM, kittykat said:

So No-Eul was the one who shot 248 right?  I know there's been theories that she didn't fatally shoot him but I'm thinking she did.  Her supposed redemption was only a tease but in the end she's a true believer like the rest of them.  

I realise it's all in service of storytelling but what are the odds that she just happened to be the nearest guard to him after all that chaos? 

[iMonrey]

I'm surprised the dormitory isn't rigged so they can simply gas them all if something like this happens.

Disappointing ending. Last season was 9 episodes, this one only 7. 

On 12/28/2024 at 7:15 PM, Brn2bwild said:

Between the voice, the 001, and his calling Gi-hun by his name, you would think there'd be some suspicion, and he wouldn't be so quick to trust Front Man to lead part of the rebellion.

Agreed, this was very frustrating. You would think Front Man would be a little more stealth than choosing 001 as his player number, and that Gi-hun would keep him at arm's length for that very reason. Plus, the way Jung-bae kept almost saying something about him then stopping himself - grrrr. That's irritating. 

A lot of the plot this season relied on both Gi-hun and Jun-ho being woefully oblivious to the painfully obvious.

But in the end, what I found the most unrealistic was that so many of them would keep voting to keep the games going. Sure, I get that a handful of them have such miserable lives they'd rather risk theirs for the money than go back home, but over half of them? After all that trauma and the 50/50 chance of death? No. Not buying it.

[Black Knight]

On 12/30/2024 at 10:17 AM, kittykat said:

So No-Eul was the one who shot 248 right?  I know there's been theories that she didn't fatally shoot him but I'm thinking she did.  Her supposed redemption was only a tease but in the end she's a true believer like the rest of them.  

I'm certain she didn't fatally shoot him, because it gives a purpose to her subplot with the organ harvesting. He'll be marked as an organ donor, but she'll be waiting on the other end and will kill the other guards in order to save him. And then their escape will link them up with Gi-Hun and any other survivors trying to get out. Her existence as a character as well as the organ harvesting subplot would otherwise be entirely pointless.

I wonder how Front Man would have played things out if Gi-Hun had taken him instead of his best friend. Since he was separated from Gi-Hun, it was easy for him to carry out the sabotage and then dress himself back in his Front Man outfit without ever tipping off Gi-Hun. Trickier to manage shutting down the rebellion without revealing himself if he'd been tag-teaming along with Gi-Hun.

We're getting the remaining episodes this year, and they're done and in the can, so I don't mind the cliffhanger. I assume NF isn't going to hold onto S3 for that long - this is really one season dropping in two parts, and when NF has done that before (You for instance) it's not that long before the second part drops.