Diksha Sundriyal
The second season of Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ stirs the pot by throwing Seong Gi-hun back into the fray in an effort to find the people behind the games and make them pay for killing innocent people for their entertainment. However, he forgets that it isn’t just the people behind the scenes who have the power to stop the games. The players could very well stop at any point, but most of them don’t due to the reward that is waiting for them at the end. It is the allure of this reward that captures the imagination of most unlikely players and brings out the worst in them, if not by their terrible actions, then simply by their cowardice and inaction. Min-su falls in the latter category. SPOILERS AHEAD
Min-su Survives the Fight by Choosing to Stay Out of It
There are all kinds of people in ‘Squid Game,’ and each is tested thoroughly, bringing either the best or the worst out of them. There are some who survive by actively harming others to increase their odds. And then there are some, like Min-su, who are not inherently bad but are made so by their decision not to do anything when their friends clearly need them. Introduced as a shy and timid young man, Min-su is taken in by Se-mi, who sees his innocence and believes that he will not survive in the cut-throat environment of the games because he is not cut out for the things that survival demands. She makes sure that whichever team she joins, Min-su is also taken in by them, which keeps him alive for a while.
After the first two games, Min-su has seen enough to know that he will have to toughen up because, with each day, the games get worse. He puts it into practice in the third game. It requires people to team up in the numbers that are declared before each turn. Once they have formed that group, they must cross into one of the small rooms. In the first couple of runs, Min-su sticks with Se-mi. But then, when they are told to make groups of three, Min-su abandons Se-mi. She asks him to stay with him and find one more person they will easily be able to find. However, Thanos and Nam-gyu only need one more guy, and Min-su finds it better to go with them than to take his chances with Se-mi.
This is a huge betrayal, and Se-mi doesn’t give Min-su another chance as she, too, has learned her lesson. She underestimated the guy, but now he has shown his true colors. Still, what Min-su is somewhat understandable. By the third game, he has seen so much violence, and having betrayed Se-mi, he is somewhat disappointed in himself. So, he changes his vote to X from O, preferring to go home rather than continue and go through the terror of another game. However, when the vote ends in a tie, Min-su finds himself in a very difficult situation. He is cornered by Thanos and Nam-gyu, who try to coax him into changing his vote.
Min-su’s Lack of Inaction Turns Him Into a Low-key Villain
Since the players are now cleanly divided into two camps, the Xs come out in support of Min-su. Myung-gi stands up for Min-su, trying to protect him from Thanos. But the duo’s hatred for each other leads to a fight which quickly turns ugly. Instead of fighting alongside his team, Min-su quietly slips out, escaping the violence that follows. He doesn’t even come out to thank Myung-gi and the others when they return. Instead, he sits quietly on his bed, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible. And then, the lights go out.
Due to the tie in the votes, a fight was imminent. The Os decide to strike first, leading to a blood-curdling bloodbath. Min-su tries to survive this, too, by being out of sight and out of mind. If no one sees him, they will not kill him. So, he climbs on top of a bunk bed, and the fight mostly takes place on the surface level. As protection, he keeps hold of a bottle. While he is hiding, he sees Se-mi getting cornered by Nam-gyu, who has a fork, with which he clearly means to kill her. Considering how good and kind Se-mi had been to him, one would think that Min-su would try to right the wrong by helping her this time. And he even tries it.
Min-su throws the bottle at Nam-gyu but misses it. The bottle breaks, and Se-mi picks it up, but Nam-gyu overpowers her and kills her with the broken bottle. Min-su watches all of this happen from the top, but he never steps down and helps the only friend he had in the games. He silently cries as more people are killed, and eventually, the guards come out and stop the whole thing. Following this, Gi-hun announces his plans for a rebellion by attacking the guards, and as expected, Min-su stays put, sticking to his strategy of surviving by doing as little as possible. Sure enough, almost all the rebel players are killed, and Min-su lives to see another day.
Read More: Does the Shaman (Player 044) Die in Squid Game Season 2?
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