The Squid Game: Season 2 of the Gambler’s Game on the Island with Seong Gi-hun, O O Yeong-su

Season 1 ended with Gi-hun not only getting rich but also learning that the elderly Oh Il-nam, player 001 (O Yeong-su), was actually the creator of the games and that he and a group of fellow ultrarich individuals used the murder and mayhem purely as a way to relieve their boredom. Gi-hun had to choose whether to go on a plane to be with his family, or stay and watch the games. He doesn’t get on the plane.

The first few episodes don’t actually touch on the games themselves much — and instead provide a deeper look at the rest of Squid Game’s strange world. It requires a lot more learning about the mysterious and unflappable salesman, who seems to take a perverse delight in terrorizing the poor and destitute. The guards who patrol the games have some insight into what they do. We learned that they are not different from the contestants in that they are desperate people in a financial system that has failed them.

If you watch the return of the show, you’ll likely think the same thing. You will hear things you essentially heard in Season 1. You will see a lot of the things you watched in Season 1. If you happen to hear or see something new, the character will probably be the one you watched kill someone the first time around.

The new season picks up a few years after the events of the first, which Seong Gi-hun, better known as player , won the initial games. He won a 48.6 billion prize and had to live with being the only survivor of a group of 456 people.

But Gi-hun isn’t the only one looking for them. In season 1 the detective went undercover to find his brother who was participating in the games, and now he is trying to find the island with a local fisherman. Gi-hun was pulled back into the game as a contestant once again after the two joined forces to set a plan in motion.

A few episodes in, the show pivots back to the games and starts to look very familiar. The guards are wearing bright pink jumpsuits with green tracksuits while the giant pin bank fills with cash when more people die. But rather than rehashing previous events, these episodes are like a remix of season 1. The games have been changed up, and because Gi-hun is the only returning player, there’s a whole new cast. And, like in the original, there’s a great mix of compelling stories, with characters who have been pushed to the brink and left with few other options.

That includes an expecting young mother looking to start a new life, a trans woman who needs money for gender-affirming care, and a mother and son who both signed up to pay off his gambling debts, tragically unaware the other had also joined the games. The new villains include a purple haired rapper who is having the time of his life during the bloodshed, and a cold hearted influencer who lost himself and all of his money. And once again, there’s an undercover member of Squid Game management who is trying to manipulate the games from the inside.

Gi-hun’s efforts to save people while playing and convince them to leave after the match is over makes the games feel different. The tense moments of counting hundreds of X’s and O’s are when the surviving players can vote on whether or not to continue. Gi-hun was right, greed pushes people to make the wrong choice over and over, and it is hard not to get discouraged. But for many of the players, death in a schoolyard game is preferable to what awaits them on the outside. Gi-hun has a tough job convincing the other contestants that their real enemy isn’t each other, but the system that puts them here fighting over money. Things eventually culminate in a bloody massacre that pushes Squid Game further into horror than it’s ever been.