Emmy Catch-Up: Squid Game

Squid Game: Season 1, Episode 3 “The Man with the Umbrella” (B)

This episode took us back into the brutality and senselessness of the games, something that makes me feel more secure about my initial decision not to continue watching this show because of its disturbing nature. There’s somehow something worse about each player who failed the second game being shot in the head than them being gunned down by machine gun fire since the former is much more deliberate and intentional while the latter is more random. I also had a feeling that the guard who was forced at gunpoint to take off his mask was going to be killed too, and the fact that the Front Man had to come onto the playground to do it himself suggested the seriousness of that incident. It’s not all that reassuring that Hwang is on the ship since he’s likely to be found out soon, and dumping a guard’s body with his ID on it won’t help anyone find him, if that’s even what his intention was by doing so in the moment. Player 212 is playing with fire - both figuratively and literally - as she’s making a scene and not being intimidated by the guards, helping Player 67 to go undiscovered when she went into the vent and then throwing a lighter to Player 101 to help him finish the game successfully. Player 456 wasn’t subtle once he realized that he needed to lick the cookie to melt it, and it will be interesting to see how that perhaps unintentional act of community will be perceived by the game’s overlords.