Aahana Swrup
In ‘Squid Game,’ survival is a fickle thing as death and destruction perpetually loom over the players in and out of the arenas. Therefore, as the Game continues in season 3 in the wake of Gi-hun’s failed uprising, the former winner and his friends find themselves thrown back into a constant wager for their lives. In this deathly game of risk and reward, ex-gambler Park Yong-sik, aka Player 007, perhaps has more to lose than most. In a cruel twist of fate, the young man had ended up on the cursed Island alongside his aging mother, Jang Geum-ja (Player 149. As such, all it would take is one round of bad luck for the mother-son duo’s world to crumble around them. Yet, while fate undoubtedly knocks on Yong-sik’s door, the nature of his demise comes as an incredible shock. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Yong-sik Trades His Key For Geum-ja’s Blade in the Game of Hide and Seek
Once Gi-hun’s attempted rebellion against the Front man crashes and burns, it brings everyone back to where they started. However, now multiple players who were in favor of ending the Game have perished while taking up arms against the pink-jumpsuited guards. As such, when the time comes to vote again between playing another round or quitting entirely, the majority undoubtedly remains in the Os’ favor. Thus, the remaining players are thrust forward into their next challenge: a game of hide and seek. Naturally, some alterations have been made to the children’s game to make it more brutal and bloodier.
The players are divided into two groups: the Red team and the Blue team. The former fulfill the role of the seekers who must find at least one Blue player and kill them before the time on the clock runs out. Any individual who fails to do so will be automatically eliminated. Inversely, players on the other team have to either stay hidden for the duration of the game or find their way out of the maze-like arena to win. The teams are assigned to the players at random before the game begins. Consequently, Yong-sik and Geum-ja end up on opposite teams, with the son being on the Blue team and the mother on the Red. Undoubtedly, the prospect of being a hider, who could at any moment die at the hands of the other players, remains horrible. Nonetheless, the alternative might just be even worse. For others, like Nam-gyun and even Myung-gi, the idea of killing another person doesn’t carry as much weight.
Yet, the same is definitely not true for someone like Geum-ja. Aside from the obvious problems that the older woman will run into with overpowering another player, she is also bound to struggle with the moral toll that committing a cold-blooded murder will have on her conscience. For the same reason, when the players are given an opportunity to swap places with mutual consent, Yong-sik urges his mother to trade her blade for his key. Even though he would also have a hard time killing anyone because of his morals and a lack of skill, the son is prepared to take that chance if it means his mother might survive. Furthermore, he argues that if they’re on opposing teams, he can protect her better with a dagger in his hands. As a result, the duo ends up trading places, and Yong-sik condemns himself to a fate of killing or being killed.
A Harrowing Choice Leads Yong-sik to His Demise
In many ways, Yong-sik had sealed his fate as soon as he took up the Red Team’s dagger so that his mother could have a way to survive the game without getting any blood on her hands. Initially, his reasoning seemed sound. The mother-son duo would have had a better chance at survival if they were on different teams rather than the same one. This way, Geum-ja can hide long enough for her son to find a prey to fulfill his role as a seeker. Afterward, he can return to her and help her survive the rest of the game as a protector. Nonetheless, there’s one crucial hole in Yong-sik’s plan: the young man isn’t a killer. Even though he has made many wrong choices since entering the Island, including his earlier decision to vote in favor of another game, he has never been corrupt enough to take another person’s life.
Therefore, when it comes down to it, Yong-sik struggles greatly with killing another player. Once he enters the arena, he’s tense and jumpy, often even getting scared by members of his own team who aren’t allowed to harm him. In fact, even when he manages to find one of the hiders, he can’t bring himself to take their lives. Nonetheless, if he fails to kill at least one Blue player, the guards will eliminate and execute him. Consequently, when Yong-sik finds Geum-ja and Jun-hee in the eleventh hour with only a few minutes left on the clock, he gets deliriously desperate. Most of the Blue players have already either died or found the exit, and there’s no time left to find any of the hidden ones. Thus, if the young man doesn’t make a kill soon, he will seal his fate. Geum-ja is aware of the same facts. For the same reason, she steps forward and offers herself as a sacrifice for her son.
Nonetheless, for all of Yong-sik’s faults, he can’t be accused of not loving his mother. As such, he’s incapable of driving his dagger into her, even when she asks him to. Instead, he turns to an equally horrifying alternative. Jun-hee has given birth to her daughter just minutes ago and remains incredibly vulnerable. Therefore, rather than killing his own mother, Yong-sik decides to kill Jun-hee even if it means orphaning the newborn baby. Naturally, this remains an unacceptable reality for Geum-ja. If her son goes through with the kill, not only will he sacrifice the young woman but his own morality as well. Consequently, Geum-ja has no choice but to use her blade, hidden in her hairpin, to stab her own son. In the end, the brutality of the Game, the baby’s safety, and Yong-sik’s own potential for monstrosity push the mother to make the impossible decision.
