Squid Game: Stick to the Team

 "I don't trust people..."

This is a superb episode- all peril, tension and dog eat dog action. And yet, by putting the characters under such stress and danger, it shows us so much about them as people.

The players really are put through the wringer here. Right after the last game they are deliberately put on short rations in order to generate friction and lethal fighting after lights out, following which it's straight into the next game in the morning- a tug of war. And this intensity is entertaining in itself. Far more interesting, though, is what is does to the people we've come to know, and their relationship. So Gi-Hun's gang of four from the end of last episode is strengthened, with even the old man (who seems to be forgetting his name bringing something to the table. And our North Korean defector seems to be joining the gang.

Meanwhile, Deok-Su, having no morals whatsoever, tries to survive by seizing alpha male status, making enemies in the process and losing his moll the morning after they have sex in the toilet. His chances of surviving the last episode are, I very much suspect, zero by the iron laws of television drama.

We end with a tug of war cliffhanger, as though the episode hasn't been emtertaining enough. And hrough it all there's the ever-present sublimity of the design, from the costumes to the Escher-esque staircases. Squid Game is getting better and better.