Squid Game 2: 5 truths found in the allegory of hell

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” Mark 8:36

On the evening of Boxing Day last year, like millions of other Netflix subscribers (68 million as of last week), I sat on my couch and turned on Squid Game 2.

When the original Squid Game first aired in 2021, it became an instant hit around the globe, a morality tale bathed in garish colours and shocking violence.

It also birthed a lot of memes – which we all know is the true measure of popularity.

The story picks up three years after Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), aka Player 456, has won the 45.6 billion won prize having defeated all other 455 players in the first Game. But his riches bring him no joy – it is all meaningless, as King Solomon would have put it.

Haunted by his experience and the loss of life he witnessed, Gi-hun is a changed man, determined to return to the mystery island and destroy the Game once and for all.

Long story short, he finds himself in a car talking through a speaker to the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), the one orchestrating the Game. The only way Gi-hun can return to the island is to let himself be drugged. When he awakes, he is once again Player 456.

A brand new set of 456 players join the grisly Game, playing with their lives.

The Game restarts with a brand new set of players, all clueless about the horror that is about to befall them. Among them is a failed crypto investor (Yim Si-wan), a rapper called Thanos (BigBang’s TOP), a transgender who was a weapons specialist in the military (Park Sunghoon, famously the villain in Queen of Tears), an old lady (Kang Ae-sim) and her gambler son (hiphop artist Yang Dong-geun) and a pregnant girl (former Kpop idol Jo Yuri).

At the time I started on Squid Game 2, our office – the Thirst Collective – was coming to the end of a collective one-year cover-to-cover Bible-reading programme.

I found myself watching the scenes through the lens of what I had read in the Bible in 2024, watching biblical truths being played out before my eyes.

Truth #1: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

Ecclesiastes 6:9 (TLB) says, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush; mere dreaming of nice things is foolish; it’s chasing the wind.”

Some people would rather gamble on what they don’t yet have than appreciate what they do have in their hands.

In the first episode, the Recruiter (Gong Yoo) goes to a park where the homeless camp out, and hold out two things to each one: They have to choose between a lottery ticket and a bun. 

The Recruiter (left) plays on the greed or desperation of those who need a way out of debt.

Most of them choose the lottery ticket, despite the fact that they have witnessed others waste their chance of having a meal on the improbability of winning the lottery.

At the end of that exercise, the Recruiter throws all the unpicked buns on the ground and stomps on them. “I gave you a chance and you made your choice. I’m not the one who threw these away — it’s you, ladies and gentlemen.”

Jesus Himself said “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Luke 12:15

Truth #2: If we have the love of Jesus in us, we would be desperate to save as many souls as we can from Hell.

The fact that Gi-hun chooses to risk his life and return to the Game in an attempt to save the players and to stop the Game from taking more lives reminds me of why Christians must tell the world about Jesus. 

The Front Man asks him: “Have you seen The Matrix? They could have lived in peace if they took the blue pill. But they still chose the red pill to play the heroes. Do you also think you are a hero who can change the world?”

Seong Gi-hun aka Player 456 could have kicked back and enjoyed his 45.6 billion won of blood money from the first Game but he willingly re-enters the Game to try and save others from certain death.

It is tempting for Christians, once we are saved, to be content and live in peace that we have eternal life — the ultimate prize, being forever in the presence of God! We may make extra effort to share Christ with our nearest and dearest, but to evangelise strangers has a much lower take-up rate (which would explain why Christianity has plateaued in Singapore).

But we are supposed to take the red pill; Jesus clearly commanded us to do so. Mark 16:15-16, “He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

How willing are we to take the risk, suffer the shame, face the persecution to win souls for Jesus? We may lose face, while others such as missionaries to hostile countries may lose their lives, but how important is it to us that “none should perish but have everlasting life”? 

Click here if you want to know how to share Jesus with others.

Truth #3: Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14)

Player 001 is the Front Man, but none of the players know, not even 456. He ingratiates himself with Gi-hun and the small group of players that have naturally formed. He says the right things, chooses the right side, even attacks the masked guards. By ignoring the small tugs of discomfort and not confronting his questionable behaviour, they trundle along with Player 001 until their lives depend on him and they realise their mistake too late.

Like the Enemy, the Front Man is a liar who infiltrates Gi-hun’s team by deceiving them with his “good guy” act.

1 Peter 5:8 (TLB) warns us: “Be careful—watch out for attacks from Satan, your great enemy. He prowls around like a hungry, roaring lion, looking for some victim to tear apart.”

Christians are called to “put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:11) and to wield the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.

We must keep up our daily spiritual practices – pray, read our Bible, meditate on Scripture. We must exercise the fruit of the spirit, especially self-control, so that we do not give the devil a foothold. 

Truth #4: The wages of sin is death, no matter what your situation is

It’s easy to think of some of the characters as “more evil” than others. Thanos the rapper, for example, is an unrepentant drug-abusing bully – a stereotypical villain.

Then there is the old lady who joined the Game to try to bail her son out of gambling debts. Is that sin? It may seem unfair, or at least incongruent, but yes. 

As the saying goes: The road to hell is paved with good intentions. This mother just wants to free her son from debtors, but gets into a situation far worse.

What about the desperate father hoping to win money to pay for his daughter’s cancer treatment?

Whatever reasons the players have for signing up are immaterial. The officers shoot any and all who fail at the games.

Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man but its end is the way to death.” 

Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” A sin is a sin, no matter how compelling the reason is behind it.

There is no excuse for sin, but there is a Way our sins can be washed away. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” 1 Peter 2:24

Truth #5: Repent while you still can

At the end of the first game Red Light, Green Light (featuring the now-iconic giant doll in the orange dress), the survivors are given a choice: Do they want to end the Game and divide the money equally among them and leave, or do they want to keep playing in the hope that they survive and walk away with a bigger amount of money as more players get killed off?

This is after they have just experienced the terror of the life-or-death exercise and watched fellow players shot to death in front of their very eyes.

Even when given a chance to choose life, the majority of the remaining players choose to “try their luck” and cheat death.

Their greed proves greater than their fear: Despite Gi-hun’s best efforts, the majority vote for the Game to continue, guaranteeing the deaths of more players.

This reflects Revelation 9:20-21 “The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.”

The period for us Christians to share the Gospel and help the lost to repent of their sins and receive Jesus as their Lord and Saviour has an end-date. We may not know exactly when Jesus will come again, but the Day of the Lord will most certainly come, and there will be no chance for repentance then.

Watching Squid Game 2 invoked in me a deep sense of urgency. The fields are ripe for harvest: We see many around us, at work, at the gym, at family gatherings, in the office who need the saving grace of our Lord Jesus. Will we take the blue pill and chillax, waiting for Jesus’ soon return? Or will we take the red pill and start doing what we have been saved to do?

“The Game will not end unless the world changes,” the Front Man tells Gi-hun. 

The number of souls bound for destruction will not change unless we change and become active bearers of Good News and show them a better way.

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