Squid Game

Front Man

We’re in the endgame now, folks, and to up the stakes, “Front Man” opens with Jun-ho reaching the mainland with evidence of the games on his phone. It also feels like we’re reaching the end of Sang-woo’s arc, too; he’s fully on the Dark Side now, and his relationship with Gi-hun is badly suffering. Gi-hun gives as good as he gets, though. Sae-byeok also continues to be a little cagey, lending further credence to the idea that she’s more severely hurt from the glass than she’s letting on.

Just like that, in the bathroom, we see that a giant chunk of glass is wedged in her stomach. She pulls it free and bandages the wound, but it’s a bad one. The finalists have all been given numbered tuxedos as a reward for their success. But there’s clearly a bit of time-killing involved since the Front Man is still on the island in pursuit of Jun-ho. He symbolically shoots a hole into the oxygen canister that Jun-ho left on the beach. The officer is able to call his superior and request that he locate his signal and send a whole squad there. He also sends him several of the photos and videos he has taken as evidence, which should do the trick, but there isn’t enough signal for the messages to get through.

Elsewhere, several fine meals are prepared for the finalists on a table in the shape of a triangle. It’s an odd dynamic to see the guards suddenly waiting on the players. Gi-hun and Sang-woo angrily stare at each other while eating, and Sae-byeok does her very best to remain conscious, all while Jun-ho continues to run around the island, trying to evade capture for long enough to get some consistent phone signal. Eventually, he’s cornered. The Front Man knows plenty about the gun-loading policies of the Korean police, so he knows that Jun-ho only has one remaining bullet, which he promptly puts in the Front Man’s shoulder. But that doesn’t dissuade him. Jun-ho asks who the Hell he is, and finally the twist is revealed — the Front Man is indeed Jun-ho’s brother, In-ho, as we predicted several recaps back. He asks Jun-ho to make this easy, but he won’t. Instead of answering his brother’s question of why In-ho instead shoots Jun-ho, and he falls off the cliff into the ocean.

Meanwhile, the finalists were all left with a steak knife each following their dinner, and back in the dorm room, each sits on their bed and presumably contemplates stabbing the others. Sae-byeok, though, isn’t looking too good. Gi-hun approaches her, and after a brief conversation about her family back in North Korea, they agree to make a deal. If either of them can make it out of this, they’ll look after each other’s loved ones. Before he can swear to this, though, Gi-hun realizes that Sang-woo has fallen asleep, and begins to cross the room with his knife drawn, ready to kill him. Sae-byeok tells him not to — that’s not who he is. And she’s right. After that sage advice, though, she begins to lose consciousness from the blood loss. Gi-hun summons help, but the guards enter with a coffin, not a doctor. When Gi-hun turns around, Sang-woo is standing over Sae-byeok’s bedside, having cut her throat. Enraged, Gi-hun picks up his own knife and lunges at him, but the guards separate them. There’s still a final game to play, after all.