Squid Game Season 3 Episode 2 Kills Off The Show's Most Fascinating Character

Don't hide, don't seek, and maybe don't even move; this article contains major spoilers for season 3, episode 2 of "Squid Game." You've been warned!

A big part of "Squid Game," the internationally beloved Netflix series created by Hwang Dong-hyuk which stars Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun, is that all of the participants play traditional children's games with some sort of horrifying twist. In the second episode of the third and final season, the players, after dividing into a "red team" and a "blue team," learn that they're set to play "hide and seek," but here's the problem. Everyone on the blue team has to hide, and everyone on the red team has a knife ... and a mandate to kill at least one person, or else they'll be eliminated.

We first met Cho Hyun-ju, Player 120 in this iteration of the games, in season 2 after Gi-hun returned to the arena (he won the first games seen in season 1) in order to take down the entire organization. Played by Park Sung-hoon, Hyun-ju is a former soldier for South Korea and a transgender woman who needs money to pay for her gender-affirming surgery so that she can live fully and truthfully. After losing many of her friends in the various games seen in season 2, Hyun-ju allies herself with Kim Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri) and Jang Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim) — Player 222 and 149, respectively) protecting the two of them with her military training due to their respective weaknesses. (Jun-hee is pregnant and Geum-ja is elderly, making it hard for both of them to compete.)

All three of them end up on the blue team for Hide and Seek, but tragically, Hyun-ju loses a fight and her live, though she does so for the most noble cause possible. Put a pin in that, but first, let's explore why Hyun-ju was such a great character in the first place.

To put it mildly, there's not enough transgender representation in film or television at all, which is an unfortunate truth. Beyond Park Sung-hoon's excellent performance, Hyun-ju is a landmark character — not just on "Squid Game," but in the larger television landscape — because she's unapologetic and confident in her identity, and is forthcoming about the fact that she needs the money to live her life as a woman. With that said, there is one issue here ... which is that Park is a cisgender man, meaning that this trans character is not played by a trans woman. 

This isn't a new problem — actors like Eddie Redmayne, Jeffrey Tambor, and Jared Leto, who are all cisgender men, have all won awards for playing trans characters — but "Squid Game" showrunner and creator Hwang Dong-hyuk spoke to Entertainment Weekly about some fair critiques he received. "I do understand that there has been some concerns from the Western world, from the U.S., but in the case of Korea, we didn't have as many concerns because of the Eastern or Asian culture," Hwang said.

"In Korea, there are really not many transgender [people] who have come out and are actors, and there's just a couple of gay [actors] who have come out publicly," Hwang went on. "So it was physically difficult to find a transgender actor who could really play the role. It was, realistically speaking, nearly impossible."

Then, Hwang shared an anecdote about a trans fan and YouTuber — whom he did not name — who's a fan of "Squid Game" and had some understandable reservations about Park playing the role. Ultimately, he watched with the rest of the world as this YouTuber came to love Park's performance and the role itself regardless.

"She said that in the beginning, she wasn't sure why a straight man had to play the role of Hyun-ju," Hwang told the outlet. "But then, even though she was not sure in the beginning, as she progressed, she realized and she was actually touched by the character of Hyun-ju, played by Park Sung-hoon, who is a straight man, because she was moved by how beautiful and how genuine this character portrayal was. It actually moved her to tears."

During hide and seek, Hyun-ju, Jun-hee, and Geum-ja stick together, letting Hyun-ju serve as the brute force to protect the two other women (again, as we saw in the Season 2 finale of "Squid Game" during the player mutiny, Hyun-ju is seriously skilled in combat of pretty much all kinds). Hyun-ju succeeds and kills multiple members of the red team, but the gang hits a very unexpected snag when Jun-hee goes into labor.

Ensconced in one room and armed with a stolen knife — and multiple shaped keys that open doors, ostensibly leading to a safe exit for members of the blue team — Hyun-ju stands guard as Geum-ja helps Jun-hee deliver her baby, which she, improbably, does safely. Just as a seriously injured but alive Hyun-ju figures out where the exit is and tells the other women they can leave together, only for her expression to change. Player 333 — Lee Myung-gi (Im Si-wan), a cryptocurrency scammer who also happens to be Junhee's estranged boyfriend and the father of her baby — saw a blue vest and just stabbed, not realizing he was killing the woman who protected his own child during its mother's labor. This drives yet another wedge between Myung-gi and Jun-hee, and both Geum-ja and Jun-hee are gutted as they watch their protector and friend die in front of them.

Hyun-ju dies a hero's death, but it's still hard to lose her ... and with the show wrapping up after season 3, she had a great and monumental run. "Squid Game" is streaming on Netflix now.