This put up incorporates spoilers for “Squid Sport” season 3, episode 5, “○△□.”
After season 2 of “Squid Sport” premiered, one of many standard theories to emerge on-line involved Participant 100, aka Im Jeong-dae, performed by Music Younger-chang. The idea goes that Participant 100, a deeply annoying and cynical outdated man who retains pushing for the video games to proceed, is definitely a VIP. (The VIPs, as season 3 reminds us, are the group of horrible, wealthy American friends who wish to guess on the video games annually.)
This may imply that Participant 100 is aware of extra concerning the video games than he is let on, and it could assist clarify his callous angle in direction of the lack of life round him. The twist would’ve additionally fleshed out his backstory, which entails him being over eight billion gained in debt; it is laborious to even owe that a lot cash within the first place except you had a whole lot of it to start with.
The recognition of this idea has much less to do with realism and extra to do with the thematic implications of such a twist. A former VIP displaying up within the video games would point out that not even these seemingly-untouchable jerks are secure from monetary instability and exploitation. Thus, revealing 100 as a former member of that group could be a significant complication to the present’s current wealth commentary, which has in any other case offered the 1% as being people who find themselves right to imagine they’ll do something with out penalties.
The opposite “Secret VIP” fan idea issues the perpetually nervous Participant 125, aka Min-su, performed by Lee Da-wit. Some followers believed that he, too, could be revealed as a secret VIP and that his nervous nature would change into merely an act. The idea rests on the remark that Lee Da-wit’s title is just like the unseen actor who voiced the deer-masked VIP in season 1, however that looks like a typical coincidence to me. Nevertheless, now that season 3 has arrived, we all know for sure whether or not both of those theories holds water.
The penultimate episode of season 3 kills each secret VIP theories
As those that’ve already completed season 3 can attest, each Participant 100 and 125 met their grisly ends with out revealing any secret VIP standing. In the end, the pair really feel to their deaths within the last sport, and the following collection finale has nothing to do with them. This may’ve been disappointing to any viewers who’d constructed up a much bigger backstory for them of their heads, though I am certain most followers have been simply glad to see Participant 100 chunk the mud.
Personally, I believe it is good that “Squid Sport” did not reveal any twists involving these characters. Participant 100’s arc works higher if you settle for him as a egocentric outdated man fixated on his pursuit of cash and never some quasi-spy with a trick up his sleeve. Equally, Participant 125’s tragic arc works finest if you view him as a timid younger man who could not discover his braveness when he wanted it most. In a kinder world, 125 may’ve discovered a supportive buddy group and labored on turning into extra assertive and assured; right here, although, he is surrounded by unhealthy influences and continuously being thrown into conditions that deliver out his worst qualities.
Most significantly, the key VIP twist would not have labored as a result of, ultimately, the thematic argument “Squid Sport” is making is so simple as it appeared again in season 1: Wealthy jerks just like the VIPs are certainly speculated to be untouchable. The concept somebody as wealthy as these guys may fall so low as to be thrown into the video games themselves is reassuring, however “Squid Sport” would not subscribe to that notion. A rich individual may find yourself within the video games, certain, however the cause the VIPs are so callous in direction of the gamers’ struggling is as a result of they imagine, appropriately it seems, that they’re going to by no means be pressured into the identical monetary scenario.
“Squid Sport” is now streaming in its entirety on Netflix.
