I love that the “hero” is still the absolute worst in season 2.

HE IS THE WORST. I think it’s really amusing that people still don’t seem to understand he is not meant to be the hero of this story.

Let us explore the evidence.

SPOILERS BELOW

The Main Character is the Anti-Hero of Squid Games.

1. He does not get on the plane to be a father to his child… which was his supposed motivation to “earn money” (gamble… he just gambled) in the first place. How easily that excuse evaporated the second he got his hands on billions. In fact in Season 2 he’s become even more distant and unreliable to his family, not even communicating with his daughter any longer.

2. He promised to care for that girl’s younger brother in Season 1 but dumped him off on an elderly woman that he is not related to in any way. She’s just the hardworking mother of his dead “friend” – putting in the time to scrape by in life. Our dude throws an unknown child on her without explanation and a bag of cash, and this saint of an old woman decides to take him in and raise him. In Season 2, our jerk main character continues to watch this old woman raise this random kid while working her old bones off in an outdoor market. Just like he watched his own mother work herself to death to care for his fully grown butt. Just like he turned over the childrearing of his own kid and responsibility to his ex-wife.

3. Speaking of this sad abandoned kid, our dude does not use his considerable fortune to get the his mom out of North Korea – just does the bare minimum with one broker. That’s the extent of his efforts.

4. In Season 2, our loser lead character hoards his wealth to pursue his private obsession. He spends two years wasting away in his private hobby hotel and still does not have a solid plan or even good ideas about how to handle the murder island – it’s just an abstract idea of his that he’s latched onto to divert his attention away from his real responsibilities.

5. Our dude as has STILL not realized the old man’s gamble at the end of season one with the homeless man only required that HE go down and help the guy, instead of just watching passively and hoping something would happen (This is arguably the theme of the show).

6. In Season 2, he gets back into the game but does not tell a single soul it’s a murder machine death game for the elites until AFTER they have all signed up, been photographed, and marched onto the field to be slaughtered.

7. This jerk did not check in on or help his only friend from season one, even though they were still in the same city and his friend was clearly struggling financially. Now that poor sod is also in the death game.

8. After the first game, they’ve changed the rules so that the group can vote to say or leave the murder island. Awesome, eh? And our main lead doesn’t say a word to anyone. He doesn’t make his impassioned speech to convince others not to continue the game after round one until over half have already voted and his own side is losing. I laughed out loud at his usual terrible timing.

9. When the majority votes to continue the game, he makes no attempt to try to reason with or plead with those who voted to stay, even though they only lost by a narrow margin. They literally lost by one vote, if memory serves. The two groups stay divided. Ironically it is two characters from the other, majority side who cross over the line and reach out to him. One of them shares his personal story of why he voted the way he did (this guy is the mole villain) – which is ironically what our “hero” should have done. Except our hero doesn’t have a sad story of circumstances – he is the sad story.

10. After more death and mayhem, our male lead finally thinks it’s time to perhaps attempt to sway some hearts and minds and make a plea to the other side to vote for their survival. He is instantly talked out of it by the mole, who says it may stir up “trouble”… in the murder game. That pitiful excuse is all our dude needs to hear, he immediately shuts up and passively waits for fate to lend a hand.

11. The finale of Season 2 includes our guy’s completely haphazard plan to take over the facility by disarming the uniformed guards. I can not believe he talked the others into doing this. A few of them mildly protested, pointing out it would undoubtedly lead to many deaths of their own side, but they’re the blind leading the blind in this show. So even though they knew they were outnumbered, that there is surveillance everywhere, and that they had zero plan of what to do next – the strongest of his team hid away under their bunks while the majority of their “team” was left to fend for themselves (and be murdered) so they can enact this very dumb plan.

So in conclusion…

HE IS THE WORST.

Is it a case of being your own worst enemy, of mental illness, of selfishness, stupidity? Is it suicidal tendencies born from disappointments? Is it just in our DNA?

I don’t know. But I do think this show has gone to great lengths to show us repeatedly that the male lead is someone who doesn’t know how to care for others. He is someone who will actively sabotage his opportunities or avoid them all together.

His sweet daughter loves him dearly but you could already see she was old enough to be disappointed in him in Season 1. There was pity there too.

Money can’t change your bad habits or your crap personality.

This man didn’t even invest some of his money so that at least the interest could fund a few orphanages or homeless shelters in perpetuity. Nope, he’s got it sitting around on a mattress, almost like he’s hoping someone will come along and steal it and relieve him of the burden of having the means to make a difference in his own life or the lives of others.

I also find it interesting how many older women are still trying to raise fully grown men in this show. The male lead’s mom, who literally died taking care of her grown son. The mother of his dead friend from season 1 who our male lead tosses another son onto. And now the mom contestant in season 2 who’s son would also let her die to save himself or perpetuate his desire to have money fall from the heavens on him and “save him.” There’s too many women bearing the full responsibilities for raising families, sons, daughters, siblings and more in Squid Games for it not to be commentary.

It’s also interesting the only female game enforcer we know is also introduced as being someone who abandoned her child. I hope we get more of her back story and circumstances in the last season.

I’m glad we have shows like this though. Cause there are no easy answers. This island is just a symptom of a larger problem, one that can’t be fought alone. It will take many heads coming together to even start to unravel the mess we are in.

Anyways… looking forward to the finale. I would not be surprised if our lead male becomes a new commander of the games at the end. Because giving up to the system is far easier than fighting it and he’s proven he sucks at fighting it.