Spoiler Alert 🚨
I watched latest Netflix sensation, Squid game over the weekend and I was glued till the end. In fact, a few movies or series do get me to take notes. I basically do this for reflection later on and I must admit that this series is one of such.
Below, I have put together thirty (30) insights and lessons I gleaned from the series. Please do feel free to use the comment section to add any insights you might have picked up, while also watching.
1. Our journeys may be different but often interlinked. The Players at some point realised they had met before at given points in time.
2. People will always lie, even to loved ones. Cho Sang-woo (Player 218) made his mom believe he was successful and Ok. She even believed he was in America.
3. As depicted in Game 1, Life is sometimes understood in colors – Red and Green. Know when to stop and know when to move. This can help you cross the line.
4. When it comes to the lure of money, even a threatened front that has formed an alliance will be easily broken and sharply divided.
5. Don’t just sign up or subscribe to things. Make sure you remember every detail in it. Cho Sang-woo (Player 218), invoked clause 3 and a democratic process was initiated even in an unlikely situation.
6. Everyone is running away from something. Most of the players were indebted to institutions or individuals; some of whom wanted a pound of flesh.
7. People will always go back to what they rejected, when they are in a desperate place. Players who left the game voluntarily returned.
8. Everyone has their own interest even in an alliance. Cho Sang-woo (Player 218) in Game 2 chose the easy part (the triangle) and asked the rest to choose different options.
9. Learn how to improvise quickly when it matters. In Game 2, Seong Gi-hun (Player 456), had to improvise without the needle and in the end saved his life. Player 212 equally had to use her cigarette lighter.
10. Blaze the trail. Others might learn from your example and equally succeed. The licking approach by Seong Gi-hun (Player 456) became a template for others to save their skin.
11. When resources or needs are scarce it’s the survival of the fittest and others are ready to take more than they have to. Remember the egg and drink scene?
12. The desire to survive often reveals our primal instincts. This was evident after Game 2.
13. Learn the rules of survival fast and use it to navigate your way around a hostile environment. Hwang Jun-ho (the Detective) had to blend in at given points to survive.
14. Stick with the strongest or one with a better strategy. Often that’s the only way to survive until the next day. Remember the bloody night scenes and aftermath? It created artificial teams and alliances.
15. The system often creates and instigates chaos and allows those in the system to do to each other what was being done against them.
16. In a system uniquely defined, there are still other competing interests. Some were harvesting organs of the dead players.
17. Some will rig the system for their parochial interests. The Doctor was being given information of games because he was helping to harvest organs for an interest group.
18. In the midst of chaos and survival, some will still find time to satisfy basal needs such as the need for Sex. Remember the restroom raunchy scene between Jang Deok-su and Han Mi-nyeo (Player 212)
19. During survival promises made have expiry dates because everyone is expendable. Remembers Player 101’s promise to Player 212 after their fling?
20. In a team, Diversity is critical as well as Strategy and the strength of Team work. This was depicted by Team 4 during the Tug of War.
21. Those who rig the system someway, somehow get found out. Remember the Doctor and his accomplices?
22. People will always look out for the weakest in teams to bond with. They are easy targets to take advantage of. Cho Sang-woo (Player 218) and Jang Deok-su (Player 101) better exemplified this.
23. The fact that you are a good person and good to people doesn’t mean they will also be good to you; when their life or interest is under threat. Cho Sang-woo (Player 218) sacrificed Ali (Player 199) for his progress in the games.
24. Choices and settling for partners is one of the most important decisions we will all have to make at some point. Some partners will die for you as shown by Ji-yeong (Player 240). Others won’t.
25. As Game 4 indicated, Trust is crucial in every partnership or relationship.
26. Some won’t always accept to be on the losing end and will circumvent the rules to have their way. Player 218 and Jang Deok-su best represented this.
27. Sometimes the man behind the mask and mystery we want to solve is a familiar face. Hwang Jun-ho (the Detective) found out the The Front Man was his brother.
28. You will always be given the opportunity to learn from the fall of others ahead of you as you progress, so you can take the right steps and make our own decisions going forward. Remember the glass walk scene?
29. We might all be broken and flawed but everyone had some amount of good in them. In the end Kang Sae-byeok (Player 067) and a few others made us realise this.
30. Listen to people when they talk. Sometimes the answers you are looking for is in what they say. All through the game, Oh Il-nam (Player 001) gave cues but it was only towards the end that Player 456 realised he was the brain behind everything.
Bonus: Don’t rush. You might end up as the first casualty. Remember the first two (2) players who died in Game 1?
GhPRguy 