Squid Game is as fun as it is traumatising. I still can’t get over the jump rope game. But no matter how sharp the writing is, there’s always something that leaves a hole. And aside from the Gi-hun-shaped one, there’s also a huge plot hole in Squid Game that kind of proves the Front Man actually wanted Gi-hun to lose.
Season three ends with Gi-hun sacrificing himself to protect Player 222’s baby, the show’s moral centrepiece. He chooses not to murder the remaining contestants and instead dies a noble, but brutal death in the final game. But if you actually think about it for more than 10 seconds, there’s a glaring problem.
There’s a major plot hole that doesn’t add up
via Netflix
Before the final game, the Front Man, aka In-ho, meets Gi-hun and offers him a way out. He literally hands him a knife, then basically tells him to kill the other players in their sleep and walk away the winner. Just like In-ho did in his own season. But there’s one tiny problem: They’d already banned that.
Earlier, after Player 222 dies and her baby takes her place, the Pink Guards announce a new rule: No more violence between players outside of the official games. This rule is what saves the baby’s life when the others try to snatch her. It also protects Gi-hun. So if he had gone full-on mad in the dorm and killed everyone in their sleep, he would’ve broken the rules and should’ve been disqualified or shot on sight. Yet the Front Man encourages it anyway? Make it make sense.
So, was Gi-hun set up to fail?
via Netflix
The wildest part is that Gi-hun ends up sacrificing himself anyway. So technically, if he had gone through with the murders, he still would’ve saved the baby, and depending on how strict the guards were feeling that day, maybe even survived. But then again, the whole point of Gi-hun’s arc is his morality. Because the creator of Squid Game wanted him to die for doing the right thing.
Still, the fact that he was offered a literal knife with a nudge-nudge “go kill them,” and no one mentioned the new “no killing in the dorm” rule again, was a massive oversight. Either Gi-hun would’ve been disqualified, or the rules don’t actually matter, which kind of breaks the entire structure of Squid Game.
Either way, the twist falls apart faster than Min-su did under pressure.
Squid Game is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.
