June 21st, 2025

I can't restart Squid Game because the first minute of the first episode is so devastating. (Spoilers ahead) 

My heart breaks seeing Gi-hun and his mom at home, knowing how season 1 ends with him cradling her body in his arms as he sobs. Anyone who has lost a parent understands this kind of grief where you want the earth to swallow you whole. Squid Game shows us many pictures of how money ruins lives and trades real moments with your loved ones for something completely empty, covered in blood. Gi-hun joined the games for multiple reasons but one was undoubtedly to pay for his mom's medical treatment, and I hate the first minutes of Squid Game season 1 episode 1 because we see how sad Gi-hun's life is. It's truly painful to see how mindlessly he treats his mom and his attempts to be a good father to Ga-yeong. His morality has been strung by fire because of the games so coming into season 3, he is a very different person than the one he starts out as, but those first moments are too sad for me to watch now because everyone, especially his mom, deserved so much better than what capitalism-- and specifically the VIPs of this story-- dealt them.