#57. 'Squid Game' Episodes 6 and 7
Listen to this episode ↗on Substack, where the show lives now
This Patreon-exclusive bonus episode, hosted by Vic, Sonny, and JVL, dives straight into Squid Game episodes 6 ("Gganbu") and 7 ("VIPs") with no opening banter. Sonny calls episode 6's marble game a "rich psychological text," praising Sangwoo's ruthless betrayal of his slow-witted partner Ali as the show's most revealing character beat, while JVL flatly declares "I just fucking hate this show" and admits he zoned out during much of episode 7's glass-bridge sequence while working out. The trio spends real time on production design, with Sonny crediting the sets' bright-pastel, Escher-and-Lichtenstein aesthetic (invoking Barry Levinson's Toys) for at least 60% of the show's success, which sparks a tangent — JVL's theory that foreign shows only travel when they're "dumb enough," provoking mock outrage from Sonny and Vic — plus riffs on the suspiciously model-gorgeous North Korean actress, a Rebecca Ferguson/Dune aside, and a bit about the shrinking age gap between Timothée Chalamet and his on-screen movie dads. On episode 7, Vic and Sonny mock the glass-bridge "hopscotch of death" as a poorly designed, pure-luck game, note Sangwoo shoving a glass-factory worker to his death once the lights go out to hide the tempered panes, and needle Vic over his disappointment that the VIP lounge's masked spectators come with body-stocking nudity rather than the real thing. They close by promising Korean-culture expert Paul Crookston will join for the final two episodes.
From the show notes
More murder games! Plus, some bonus Dune chat during the bonus Squid Game episode.
Full transcript
Vic00:00:00Hello and welcome to another bonus episode of Squid Game on the Sub-Beacon. I'm Victor Matus along with Jonathan V. Last and Sonny Bunch. Just a reminder, the Sub-Beacon is now available through Patreon. Go to subbeacon.com, you'll easily find us. And subscribe, tell your friends. So today we are talking about episodes six and seven, Ganbu, Ganbu, and VIPs. Again, it's been some time since I've seen this.
Sonny00:00:43I bet Vic has a lot of thoughts about that VIP lounge.
Vic00:00:47We'll get to that in a second because, okay. First of all, episode six, Ganbu. What did you think about this episode? This is the episode where the game challenge is another very ... Marbles. Yes, it's a childhood game of marbles. I did not play marbles as a kid.
Sonny00:01:08Well, I certainly didn't play it how they were all playing marbles in this, which is like they were gambling. Yes, which is odd to even ... They were gambling marbles.
Vic00:01:15How many marbles in my hand?
Sonny00:01:17Odds and reasons. I was like, "I don't really understand what's going on here." I thought this was a great episode. It was a rich psychological text that was ... That we were watching. Watching the players have to play against each other to decide who would get all of the marbles, so to speak. Yes. I thought it was really ... I thought it was great. I thought it was ... What's it? Sangwoo? It was the most revelatory. Betraying Ali. Ali. It's nothing that we would not have expected. He's clearly the biggest snake in this whole nest of snakes. Yeah. He's worse than the gangster. He's worse than the gangster. He is worse than the gangster.
JVL00:01:57He's a gambler. Because ... Right. Because he's a degenerate gambler. Degenerate gamblers are the worst.
Sonny00:02:04Is that how he lost his money? I don't ...
JVL00:02:06Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Vic00:02:08Right. Right.
Sonny00:02:10Right. Investment-wise and everything. Oh, because he's a financier. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. I quite enjoyed it, and I thought the little bit at the end with the old man and our hero was very interesting.
JVL00:02:25You mean the mastermind? The guy who's the mastermind?
Sonny00:02:27Right. I assume that he is the guy in the VIP lounge who we see the back of his head, and he can't come to the thing.
Vic00:02:34We'll get to the VIP thing in a second. It was a great episode, and also very upsetting, because I really liked Ali, whose greatest weakness, obviously, is that he's slow-witted.
Sonny00:02:48He's trusting. And that. He got outsmarted. This is an important lesson that people need to learn, though, in our just and fair game. The slow-witted are the ones who suffer the most. They will. They will. They really are. And it's too bad for them. They should have been born smarter.
Vic00:03:09JVL, do you have any thoughts on Ganbu?
JVL00:03:12I mean, I just fucking hate this show. Did you?
Vic00:03:16Okay. Did you see this episode?
Sonny00:03:18Did you watch it? Do you have any thoughts on that? Can we talk a little bit about the set design on this? Because it really is the most- Okay. The mini home? The village? It's the most striking thing about the show. This is the thing that has made it the success that it has. Not just the village in this little episode, which was fine or whatever, but the set design throughout. The whole kind of ... You remember the movie Toys? Yes.
JVL00:03:41The Barry Levinson movie Toys? Is that with Robin Williams?
Sonny00:03:43Yes. With Robin Williams. That is the aesthetic that this whole movie is working with. This kind of bright colors, bright pastel colors, giant playgrounds. Everybody in their uniforms kind of marching around. That is the ... Again, that's the aesthetic that this show is working with. I mean, say what you will about Toys, it's not necessarily a great movie. It's kind of a silly movie, really, but it is a visually distinct movie. It's a movie I've never forgotten watching because it looks ... It has this just great look to it. I do think that that is at least 60% of the reason the show has been such a success is because it has images that stick in people's minds and they're like, "Oh, guys are ... People walking around like Escher." Drawings.
JVL00:04:28I couldn't possibly agree more. I also think the fact that, again, it basically plays as a silent movie. You don't really need the closed captions. I mean, you can read the captions, you can read the subtitles if you want to, but you can get 70% of what's going on from just watching it, and that, it just makes it such an easy watch. There's a lot of, I don't know if you know, it's the entertainment strategy guy had a thing out today about, you know, looking at there's all this stuff in the trades talking about how, well, this is a squid game proves that foreign language programming is the next big thing in streaming is like, no, no, no, no. It's not. Uh, unless the foreign language programming is, it is thinking about it this way. We make movies in America for Chinese consumption. That are so. Stupid that you don't even have to speak English to understand what's going on. That's what the fast, the furious movies are. If it's gonna work in reverse, if, if South Korea is gonna import stuff to be successful here, it's gonna have to be that stupid in reverse. So that the, you know, the people in Appalachia on their Netflix can go, oh, look at the squid
Mike00:05:47games going on. Oh, that's the, that's the, how can you say that?
JVL00:05:51That's the most elitist thing. Mom.
Sonny00:05:53Elitism. The show is on. Your elitism. I gotta watch my show. This is what, this is what Squid Game is teaching us is wrong with the system we have. The people like you.
Vic00:06:04Beautiful, beautiful parts of this country.
Sonny00:06:06This is, uh, this is bias. This is bias. I'm shaking my head. You can't see. Ma.
JVL00:06:12Ma. Them Chinese fellers when the, the Vietcong Squid Game was on. Oh, come on. There, there, there.
Sonny00:06:18You, you. That's, that's what it's come to. Disgusting. Ridiculous. Disgusting. And you got mad at Vic for using that racial slur in the last episode. That's right. That's right.
Vic00:06:28How dare you? Which we recorded such a long time ago.
Sonny00:06:30Yes. Um, I, uh, no, I liked this episode. I thought it was good. I love, I love, I love the two, the two ladies, the North Korean lady and her, uh, friend. Ah, yes. Revealing. That was a great little, great little scene. North Korean lady is.
JVL00:06:42She's great. She is.
Vic00:06:44Boy, I did not realize that North Korean women were that attractive. I, you know what I wonder, and this is, this is an honest question. Um, can South, I'm just gonna throw it out here because it's, I'm not sure what's coming
Sonny00:06:57next.
Vic00:06:58Get ready. Get ready to bleep. Uh, I wouldn't, can South, Japanese and Koreans don't like, you know, I mean they have a history of not liking each other, right? Why? Don't have to get into that.
Sonny00:07:09What are the reasons?
Vic00:07:10Don't have to get into that. And they can some, you know, can South Koreans tell North Koreans apart? Can they tell them apart? Yes. No. Yes. Okay. Oh, well I guess this is a question we should say for Paul when he's here.
Sonny00:07:22We should, we should, we should, we should have, no, this is, this is a, this is a Hitchens wrote about this. Hitchens wrote about this, that the, the, the North Korean, uh, people through malnourishment and like, and, and just like general deprivation are now on average something like six inches shorter than South Koreans. Like, I mean, like there's, they, they are, I don't, I mean, look, I don't want to get
JVL00:07:46like weird and technical here, but the, the, the lady who, who plays the North Korean girl is literally a model. I see you looked into it. She's literally a model. That's what she is. Isn't it a little weird to cast, well, we got a, we got the role of a North Korean street urchin. Hmm. Let's go. Somebody call the Ford agency.
Sonny00:08:13You're telling me that somebody in a movie or a TV show is hotter than they should be in real life. Find that hard to believe.
JVL00:08:20I mean, it's hard to believe. It's like casting a cave man who has no body hair.
Sonny00:08:25It's like, it's like Rebecca. When Stamos as a mystique was hunted, hunted and feared by the world, why would anybody do such a thing?
Vic00:08:33Um, yeah, I like her.
JVL00:08:35I think she's great, but it made me Rebecca Ferguson as the mother of a 20 year old, she,
Vic00:08:42she was prettier in the beginning. She was less pretty in the desert.
Sonny00:08:46I'll just put somebody, somebody made a, uh, somebody made a chart and we're, we're getting away from Squid Game and somebody, somebody made a chart of like, uh, the age of, of Timothy Chalamet's fathers. Um, in the movies he's been in and the, the gap has, has, uh, shrunk from like 30 years to 16 years between him and Oscar Isaac.
JVL00:09:06It's a, it's going to, you know, we didn't even talk about Oscar Isaac and he's great. He's great too. Yeah. Okay. Really great bonus. A little bonus bonus.
Vic00:09:15Okay. So then at the end of course, um, um, June manages to outwit the old man in marbles and survives and feels terrible. Uh, there's a couple of other terrible situations in there.
Sonny00:09:30There's a husband and wife where the husband, I can't believe they didn't play that up more. I mean, it's just like, it's just, they just throw it in there at the end. I thought that would also be compelling. I felt like a mistake.
Vic00:09:39Right. Felt like a mistake. And then of course the gangster was able to get the approval of his guard to change up the games. And it's the, who could throw their marble into this pit, which you know, you would think it's easier than they made it look like it looked very, it looked like they just couldn't do it. A bunch of idiots. Yeah. I don't know about that one. Just go for it. Exactly. Stuff. Well, yes. Uh, and then, uh. Not that kind of corner. Thank you. And then, uh, and then of course Ali dying and, but, but again, it just shows how ruthless Sangwoo is. Uh, and then we go into the next episode, which is called VIPs and VIPs. We finally meet like, who are they? Because in fact the mask man is like the host, right? He runs the show. He's not the boss. He runs the show. And uh, then they bring in these VIPs. These who are betting again, very much like, let's say the end of taken or hostile where there are bidders for different things, bidders for young girls or bidders for people to get tortured. And in this case, bidders for people who play against each other to the death, right? And they come in, they all have to wear masks and, uh, well, yet again, nudity, but really not the kind I wanted.
Sonny00:10:56To see, uh, I was gonna, I wanted to get your take on this because it feels like a real, it feels like a real dereliction of duty for Vic Mattis here to, to have all of these women in essentially body stockings, some body paint, perhaps instead of just, you know, going about their business freely.
Vic00:11:17Uh, yes, but, uh, you know, what w but I, again, what, what I found most disturbing was the, uh, the, the VIP.
Sonny00:11:24Oh, the VIP.
Vic00:11:26That's what I'm saying. Who is the VIP? Who then has it somehow he's hanging out, watching the game, wearing it, wearing a robe. You're allowed to do that. And, uh, and, and then he, you know, takes a shine to, uh, the undercover cop, the detective. And then of course then is, you know, it's his mistake obviously, because he brings them to the back room. The detective takes care of that, uh, and then he's on his way and then the mask man meets the detective and then the chases, the chases on.
Sonny00:11:55So we'll see what happens. Very truncated at the end, by the way, it was like, it was kind of hard for me to follow how far everybody had gone and how quickly, like is the mask, the mask man is on the boat.
Vic00:12:06Oh yeah. Already in the water, the amphibious, the amphibious assault team is very quick.
Sonny00:12:13It's like the poison Island and no time to die. It's like, how did they, how did everybody get here so quick?
Vic00:12:18Yes, exactly. So, uh, did you have thoughts on, on the, the VIP episode, what do we think about the murder
Sonny00:12:25game? What do we think about the murder game? The most important part of the episode.
JVL00:12:29So I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna lie to you guys. I'm sorry. I was not gonna confess this. I was doing an especially, especially rigorous high impact hill workout during, during this session. And I was on a pretty serious climb with, uh, with Dennis Morton. He makes offers, I make decisions and, uh, and I kind of, I kind of missed. The, this glass bridge thing. And I, I didn't quite understand like why there's the falling, some of the glass breaks.
Vic00:13:05Oh, that was, that's, that's, is that the end of a, oh, that's the, that's the, that's the whole episode.
JVL00:13:10Oh, good. Good.
Sonny00:13:12Good. I didn't quite understand it. All right. So the, the, in this game, there, there are two lanes, uh, with glass panes on them. And, uh, on, in each of the lanes, there's a, there's tempered glass, which will withstand the weight of up to two people. Um, and then there's just a plane of glass, which will, you'll fall right through it. And so you have to go to, you have to go, you have to jump onto one of the planes, panes of glass. And if you go through, you die, you fall to the bottom and then the next person goes and goes as far as they can go.
JVL00:13:41How is that a game?
Sonny00:13:42Uh, it's not, it's not, it's not, it's not very fair. It's hard.
Vic00:13:46That's what I didn't understand. The one thing it's supposed to be based on is hopscotch, but it's hopscotch of death because, but there's no skill involved. Strictly. There's no chance. So that's the first strike against it in this episode. The second strike is by the time they get to the end, okay, there are three people left who make it yay. And then they explode the glass and people get injured.
Sonny00:14:12Well, they, they, they explode the glass because they have to do that, uh, just in case anybody was left on it with time left. It's to get them off the glass.
Vic00:14:21It was not, it was, well, they should have had some safety experts there when they did that because.
Sonny00:14:26So you think that the murder games needs more OSHA? Yes. Yes.
Vic00:14:30I do.
Sonny00:14:31Regulation. Because. Ah, see, this is big government claptrap right here. The glass? This is you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. All right. If, if you, uh, if you have signed up for the murder games, I don't think you get to be a little bit upset. Well, you know, when the shards of glass come shooting off the exploded glass panes. That was ridiculous.
Vic00:14:48Did you notice how she, you know, she took a big shard? She's she's hurt.
Sonny00:14:54Yeah. She, she seemed to be pretty banged up. And it should have gotten further away from the, from the edge.
Vic00:14:59Well, because of that has nothing to do with the games played as kids. Okay. They blew up that glass. It was ridiculous.
Sonny00:15:06It was ridiculous. I agree. That game, that game is, I think it's a poorly designed game. I agree.
Vic00:15:10And once one guy figures out, oh yeah, I used to work at a glass factory. I could figure out which one is tempered, which one's not. Oh, let's turn off the lights. Really?
Sonny00:15:20It doesn't. Sangwoo. Sangwoo pushes him right through it. Oh.
Vic00:15:24And then there's that. Because you know why? Because he has, he doesn't have time to waste on these things and he's got to win. Right. And then the other thing is interesting is the crazy woman then hops on with the gangster. Yeah. And then she just decides somehow to take it down. But what's interesting is nobody gets more luckier than maybe one jump ahead. And it's like 50 50 every time.
Sonny00:15:50Well, that teacher made like four jumps in a row and then he, and then he falls. He goes, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Vic00:15:56So, you know, it's a terrible way to go.
Sonny00:15:58I think that's, it's not, it's not, again, I mostly am interested in Vic's take on the hospitality suite. What could they have done better? What would you, when you were watching, if you were sitting there, you're watching the murder games, you're drinking, you know, some scotch or some, some, some nice chilled vodka or something like what? What more do I want?
Vic00:16:18Well, I would, I would want a, I would want a waiter who didn't turn out to be an undercover detective. Oh no, no, no. Number one.
JVL00:16:25Right.
Vic00:16:26Number one. So, um, the, so like, um, well, you really got that one pretty quick, didn't you?
JVL00:16:31Is this personal experience?
Vic00:16:32I'm just saying, you know, Hey, that's not fair. That that's like, you know, don't they vet these people? It's so embarrassing. Uh, and, and the, and the other thing is, you know, these are people who are like X, a lot of them are supposed to be X soldiers, X police or something like that. And at the same time, they're very good at the hospitality business and serving and butlers. I mean like, you know, where does the food, who's making this delicious food? And drinking, you know, I mean, there's lots of questions going on and, uh, you would want apps. Oh yeah. Well, I assume, you know, but, uh, I'd be nervous in general. The whole thing makes me very uneasy, even if I were a VIP, because you know, it's, it's all very, I mean, obviously you're partaking in something that's illegal. Are they, is anyone going to miss you if something happens to you? You know, no, you can't, nobody knows where you are. So that's all I had. Anything else? We got two more to go. We promise you next episode. We hope to bring on our good friend and special guest and Korean expert, Paul Crookston. Yes. Okay. That's it. Bye.
Sonny00:17:39I'm sure it's fine.
Spot something wrong in this episode? Suggest a correction →
Comments
Loading…