This article contains spoilers for The Squid Game Season 2.

Poor Seong Gi-hoon (Lee Jung-jae). You'd think that a guy trying to bring down the entire Squid Game organization by participating in the games a second time would have enough on his plate already. However, even his chance to shine with his knowledge of the Sugar Honeycombs game is denied him. Convinced that the second game is the all-too-familiar Dalgona candy-shaping game from the first season, and freely distributing game-winning strategy to his fellow contestants, Gi-hoon ends up with egg on his face when the organizers shake things up and instead, the game turns out to be six-legged pentalon.

The game begins with players forming teams of five. After this, the teams have their legs tied in such a way that they have to continue on a combined "six leg". They are then forced to take a round course that features a pentathlon of games that they must complete within a strict time limit - on pain of death, as is the way of the game.

The five games the teams have to tackle are, of course, traditional Korean playground games. The first is none other than Ddaki, the infamous envelope-throwing game Gi-hoon plays with the Recruiter (Gong Yoo) in season 1. The second is Flying Stone, where the team has to topple a small tombstone-like piece by throwing rocks at it . Next is Gonggi, a grab-and-go game where players have to pick up small shaped pebbles with different hand movements (like Jack). The fourth game is a spin match, and the fifth is Yegichagi—a type of khaki bag game played with a shuttle-like object.

The six-legged pentathlon is the second event in the competition and is tasked with doing the heavy lifting when it comes to establishing the dynamics of the competitors. Without going into too much detail about what happens to various characters before the game ends, two particularly notable factions soon emerge.

Gi-hoon and the front man (Lee Byung-hoon), who poses as player 001 at the games, end up on the same team at the latter's request. They are joined by Gi-hoon's friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan), Player 388 (Kang Ha-neul) and Player 222 (Jo Yu-ri). This relatively powerful group is opposed by a quintet of outcasts that begin to form when the other players discriminate against Player 120 (Park Sung-hoon) and refuse to allow her on their teams. She is soon joined by Player 007 (Yang Dong-geun) and his mother, Player 149 (Kang Ae-shim), a tag team that also finds it difficult to secure a spot on other teams due to the latter's advanced age. This high-stakes team is eventually rounded out by Player 095 and the extremely eccentric Player 044.

Given Gi-hoon's experience and enmity with the Human Front, it makes narrative sense to put the two on the same team that is largely made up of capable and determined individuals. It's also interesting to see Season 2 as a remix of the viewer's discarded themes remembers from The Squid Game Season 1. Although Player 120 is a much more likable character than the rogue Player 212 (Kim Joo-ryong) in season 1, they both find themselves in the unfortunate role of being ostracized by most teams. Similarly, Player 149 finds that few want to join forces with an older competitor, just as Player 001 (Oh Jeong-soo) does in season 1 - although the circumstances surrounding the characters are very, very different.

The second game in the 33rd Squid Game – just like the one we saw in The Squid Game Season 1 – forces participants to choose a specific shape and carve it out of a circle of extremely fragile Dalgona candies. Gi-hoon devises a tactic to lick the form free from the environment, which not only saves his own life, but also helps the other contestants. It's a pivotal moment in his transition from a self-serving, hapless loser to a more determined figure with true heroic qualities... which is immediately turned on its head when the show enjoys pulling the Dalgona rug from under Gi-hoon for the season. 2.

Here, Gi-hoon is vocal about his experience in Dalgona and manages to instill hope in the players ahead of the second game. The revelation that he's mistaken and that they're actually playing a six-legged pentathlon provides another sharp twist in his arc—only this time it's in the opposite direction. While Dalgona's season 1 heroics give Gi-hoon confidence and establish him as a resourceful player for others to look up to, his complete failure to predict the second game of season 2 despite claims to the contrary undermines his authority deeply. It's the kind of clever twist we've come to expect the best "Squid Game" episodes.and causes a lot of trouble for the character as he tries to reach the end of the The Squid Game Season 2 Episode Sevenwhich is now streaming on Netflix.