Squid Game: Gganbu

 "I'm pretty good at getting the things in the holes, huh?"

After weeks and weeks it's been quite clear that Squid Game, while being fundamentally plotted around the deadly games, is also a bloody good drama with character and subtext... and emotions. But dammit, this episode made this forty-four year old man cry.

The gimmick is simple: the characters pair off... and it turns out they have to play marbles against each other for survival, with characters tending to have paired off with their friends or, in one case, spouses. Naturally, the pairings are for maximum emotional cruelty, but the first casualty is poor Mi-Nyeo, whose desperate charm cannot save her from being the one character unable to find a partner, and thus the first to die. Ouch. I liked her.

Up to a point it's not hard to suppose that the characters we've followed will best the randomers against whom they are pitted, so it's no surprise to see Deok-su, not yet receiving his inevitable comeuppance, survive. Nor are we surprised to see Mi-Nyeo win out against a woman we haven't really seen before, but the circumstances are heartwrenching as this lovely lady willingly lays down her life after a heart to heart, concluding that Mi-Nyeo has more to live for.

Then there's the evil Sang-woo, whose dirty tricks doom poor Ali. I hope he bloody well dies for this. But most heart-wrenching of all is the pairing between Gi-hun and the old man, who sacrifices his life for the younger man but not before teaching him a stern moral lesson about exploiting the weaknesses of others. The old man's death scene is utterly devastating, although he at least has the dignity of being shot off-screen.

This is excellent, devastating television.

Squid Game: A Fair World

 “Everyone is equal…”

The mid-way point, and we get a very interesting episode with an underlying theme of equality. The cliffhanger is resolved, and a team including several women and an old man proves easily able to vanquish a team of arrogant young men. Gi-Hun persuades Deok-su with clever psychology that a night of peace is in order. And the team slowly starts to bond more, although not without friction.

But the most fascinating sub-plot involves the undercover cop, who discovers a secret organ-smuggling ring which is using the dioctor- and giving him clues to get an unfair advantage.When they're caught, it is this last point that the big boss finds unforgivable: all players must be equal, and unfair advantages are most certainly allowed. After all, it's been that way for years: this is by no means the first year the games have been played, as we and the cop discover.

At last we begin to get the first drips of revelation as to the backstory behind the games, as well as foregrounding a few more players whom we get to know a little more- a bloodthirsty priest and a gobby atheist woman. Let's home they acquire some actual character traits too.

This is intriguing. We're getting some answers as to what's going on, or beginning to...

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.