"We surrender...!"
Well, we weren'rt exactly expecting a happy ending, were we...?
I'm in two minds about this finale.
One problem is that, while I've no issues with a finale leaving plot threads to be resolved in the following season or even ending on a cliffhanger, we get no sense of closure at all here. The boat captain is a traitor! Young-Il is a traitor! All those who joined in the rebellion against the guards and came close to destroying the whole operatioin are shot... except Ji-hun, who is taunted by Front Man. And then it ends with the promise of Season Three. This feels more like a mid-season "finale" before a short break than a proper finale. As a finale, it fails.
Then there's the fact that so much of the running time is just people shooting each other. a LOT. And it gets very repetitive and dull.
And yet... there's lots of good stuff. The earlier scenes, as the players work out how to survive a night of blatantly licenced free for all killing, are gripping. The announcement of those players who died in the gents' toilet, and the extra money added to the prize total, is a clever psychological moment. But I'm not sure I find it realistic that so many would have agreed to Gi-hun's plan to attack the guards, take their guns and storm the control room because, well, it's completely insane, isn't it...?
And yet... it certainly works very well thematically. The "games" are a blatant metaphor for red-in-tooth-and-claw, unrestrained, free market capitalism with its winners, its losers, its brutality, and its harsh unfairness in such an unequal world. So it feels grimly fitting that there should be the illusion of hope, but only an illusion. And that the enemy should be masked, faceless and limitless.
One thing is truly brilliant, though: the shot from above of the gunfight in that M. C. Escher set...
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