Director Dong-hyuk Hwang likened the pro- and anti-Suk Yeol Yoon arrest protests, split down either side of a police-drawn line in Hannam-dong, to the “O/X vote” in Squid Game 2. Through this image, he aimed to raise questions about the democratic system of majority rule. In the series, as the fate of all participants is determined by a vote, political factions form along ideological lines. Their conflict threatens to overturn the game system itself—only to ultimately fail.

While Season 1 explored the ethics of gift exchange among homo sacer figures and the biopolitics of neoliberal survivalism under a supposedly fair yet secretly rigged game system, Season 2 pivots in a more explicitly political direction. Released amid an unexpected wave of impeachment discourse, it presents a new “season” that seems to respond directly to the political climate. The transition hinted at in the first season’s final moments thus becomes more apparent, pointing toward Season 3 as a depiction of renewed resistance following a failed revolution—culminating, perhaps, in the eventual collapse of the game regime. But such fictional resolutions of real contradictions highlight not only the limits of politically aestheticized narratives, but also refocus attention on the unresolved problems lurking within these very processes, rather than offering clear political answers.

In this regard, Season 2—stuffed with elaborate setups, exaggerated styles, and a barrage of social issues and controversies—employs a kind of strategic inconsistency reminiscent of a variety show. This expands the spectrum of audience reactions, while also magnifying and reproducing the performative contradictions of Season 1, which delivered a jackpot critique of capitalism from within the cultural industry itself. This talk will examine the layered structure of the Squid Game series in relation to the political questions that emerged in South Korea following the era of martial law.