Our surviving heroes Jun-ho, Gi-hun and Hyun-Ju.
If Season 3 of Squid Game is anything like Season 2 it'll be a perfect work of art once it ends.
Filming on the third and final season has been completed - it was filmed back-to-back with Season 2 - and Netflix has confirmed that it's streaming this year.
What a magnificent show! Before I saw it I was concerned it was overhyped but no, it isn't. It deserves every accolade it gets.
I watched the Season 2 finale last night and I’m still reeling from the haze of bullets that turned out to be the best gunfight I’ve ever seen on TV or film.
The compact and riveting episodic structure of both seasons has been superb. The development of the storyline from Season 1 to 2 was genius, especially with how the individual games changed within the context of the new overall game, and the themes are mindbendingly relevant for our times - shocking and liberating.
We get to see that we aren't alone when it comes to being trapped by the system that tries to make us believe that enough is never enough, symbolised by the players who voted - and killed - to stay in the game.
The impact of the show is that I'm seeing the Squid Game everywhere.
Been to Canal Walk shopping centre recently? I went at the weekend and the first thing I noticed as I walked in was their hashtag #HaveItAll which they have displayed on their branding.
I almost rolled my eyes off my face because of how ridiculous it is. First, it suggests you aren’t good enough if you can’t afford it all and also, it advocates hoarding.
And it's totally impossible -
no-one can have it all.
It got me wondering: do I want or need it all? And what is it that I truly need?
It’s this kind of propaganda that encourages the dilemmas faced by our heroes on Squid Game, the idea that you need to get into debt because you have to buy more.
Of course this isn’t the only reason for their debt - there are other factors that are impossible to avoid like the exorbitant cost of living and the global corruption of medical “care”, as we saw with Gi-hun’s mom and her diabetes, and the gruesome organ transplants where every eye is worth more if it's from a live, suffering person instead of a dead one.
And there are those at the top who are running it all. The Front Man. The Front Men. We know who many of them are. Some of them are very visible to us, others hide.
How will the Squid Game survivors possibly overthrow such evil next season? It'll have to come down to Detective Jun-ho surely?
Until then I suggest we survive by being hyper aware of what these forces are up to. Observe how they operate and try to understand the emotional and psychological impact the system has on us so we can stand up to it.
For instance, I've been looking at the finer details of my cellphone account differently.
I’ve noticed that even if you're up to date with your Vodacom account they still tell you that you owe them.
I have a month to month airtime set-up and when I look at my account balances in the Vodapay app during the month it doesn't describe my upcoming payment amount as subscription charges, it says:
You. OWE.
As far as I'm concerned I only owe that amount if I don't pay it on time but the time hasn't even arrived yet.
It's the system at work, putting you in "your place" - when you're the one keeping them in business!
I'd like a "Thank you for your business Ma'am" instead please.
Once you start looking closely you notice that this type of aggressive language gets used at us a
lot. The use of fear inducing words like "warning" in headlines, red notifications constantly going at you and disaster tickers in the news - all this can only be
very bad for our nervous systems.
Next thing they'll be telling us what time to go to bed, like they do in Squid Game. Oh wait, they already did that when they forced us indoors during lockdown and turned off the lights during loadshedding!
All players, it is bedtime now. Please return to your quarters immediately. Otherwise you will be eliminated from the game.