Seems like everyone I know is talking about the Squid Game these days. Last I heard (on national news no less), this Korean Netflix series was the number one most streamed video series on the internet for the last month or so at least. When I decided to give the show a shot, I was surprised to find that the series has to be watched either dubbed over with English voice actors or has to be heard in Korean with English subtitles underneath (assuming you don’t speak Korean of course). I personally watched the English dubbed version and damn near quit a quarter of the way through the first episode because I had a hard time getting past what felt like just plain over the top bad voice acting. Weeks passed after I paused episode one in the middle, until I finally decided to pick it back up again to give at least the first full episode a watch. Next thing I knew, I was binge watching all nine episodes.
For a series that is chock full of what one might call “gratuitous blood and violence”, I was stunned to find myself deep in spiritual thoughts at the end of the series. I may be an odd duck and probably one of the only ones who found The Squid Game “spiritual” in some way but if you had a chance to watch the entire series and are curious enough to know where I’m going with it, read on. I’ll warn you now however, from this point on this article contains spoilers. Stop reading immediately if you haven’t watched the show and are thinking about it.
SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON
Still with me? I just want to type a sentence or two more of non-spoiler material for the impossibly curious among you who can’t help but just take a “peek at the start of the next paragraph. Ok, that was your last warning.
To summarize the Squid Game a bit, the show is basically a tale about the down and out (or least fortunate ones) of society being “forced” into playing a game to the death for the amusement of the rich and powerful elite. Literally hundreds of “down and out” citizens are hand-selected every year from the dredges of society and tempted by the lure of “easy” money or sheer desperation to willingly partake in a series of “games” for the chance at an enormous cash prize at the end, one that will change everything for them in an instant. Once the unfortunate ones sign up for the game however, they are drugged unconscious and spirited away to a secret private island and learn that they have just signed a deal agreeing to play a series of six games ‘to the death” in order to obtain the final grand prize.
During the start of the “games” citizens are assigned a unique number 001 through 456 for example, and given a set of basic rules or agreements. Once the games begin they cannot be stopped unless the majority of participants vote to end the game. Of course the players in the game have moments when they are tempted to vote as a group majority to stop the games once they realize players are being murdered and that the chances of being the sole survivor are slim. However, the lure of all that money and reward at the end always keeps the majority from voting to stop the games so the games go on, playing out till there is only one survivor.
During the games, the main character (number 456) meets and quickly befriends an old man who is also playing the game and is wearing number 001. Together they both survive the games for a very long time until nearing the end the series, the old man finally “dies” (though we didn’t actually SEE his death on screen). It is interesting to note by the way that there is an early scene in episode one where the old man wearing 001 and the main character wearing 456 meet. The main character points out that “you are the first and I am the last” (or something close to that). This was my first early clue the show COULD have a spiritual meaning. Immediately my Christian upbringing kicked in and I thought, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end”.
Later on, of course, we find out that the old man didn’t really die and in fact was one of the creators of the game in the first place. The number 001 was an early hint that this character was not an “ordinary” player. When the hero of the series survives as the “sole survivor” and finally escapes the game he later discovers that player 001 is also still alive and has a chance to confronts the old man about how he is still alive. What he discovers, of course, is that the old man was actually the creator of the game (along with several other of his extremely wealthy buddies known in the series simply as “The VIPs”. The main character is confused and demands to know why the game was created. This is where the series deeper spiritual meaning comes out.
To answer the question of the main character, the old man asks the hero of the story what does the man who has nothing and the man who has everything have in common? The answer, he says, is that life isn’t very fun for either of them. The old man goes on to explain that the “fun” of the game is the struggle, the competition, the fighting to survive and the allure of winning big in the end. For the person who is already defeated and has no chance to survive, life is really no fun. They know they’ve lost before they even begin. Likewise, to the man who has everything and is so wealthy that he wants for nothing, very little gives him joy anymore. There is nothing he seeks for and derives pleasure from obtaining for he already has everything he wants. Therefore, the old man explained, he and his extremely wealthy buddies just wanted to have a little fun out of life again so created the game as a form of entertainment.
We are also given a short flashback to the moment that the old man decided to “enter the game” as a player. One of his companions asks the question, “Why would you willingly decide to play the game?” To this question the old man answers, “Which is MORE fun? Watching the game, or actually playing it and experiencing it?”
And now, I believe we have the foundation for how to interpret the entire series from a Gnostic perspective. Here is how I basically see it.
In the series, the VIP’s all wear gold, jewel-encrusted masks which sets them apart from all the others in the series. I believe that the gold mask wearing VIP’s represent the “gods” in Gnostic understanding. Below the “gods” (or VIPs) is a character that is called “The Front Man”. He wears a black mask that is different from all of the other “management” and “soldiers” who run the game. This “Front Man” represents Yaldabaoth (the Demi-urge) of Gnosticism. He is the one officially “running the game” on behalf of the “gods”. In Christian parlance he would be the one the Christians call Yahweh, and the one credited with being the “god of this world”. Below “The Frontman” are management and workers who wear red and have facemasks which denote their rank. These characters in red help administer and run the game under the supervision of “The Front Man” on behalf of the gods. These, I believe, are analogous to what we might call “angels” and they go about carrying out the orders of the “Front Man” on behalf of the gods (or VIP’s). The main character represents the common man, essentially being nothing more than a plaything and a form of entertainment for gods who have nothing better to do.
The entire “game” is a metaphor for life on planet earth where humans are pitted against each other in a struggle for survival. The only ones having any “fun” are the ones who think they actually stand a chance of receiving the ultimate prize which, in this series, is represented by a prize reward of so much money that their entire life will be forever changed and they will become one of the elite (or like the gods). The old man who took off his mask and went down to “play” the game is analogous to the story of the “Watchers” as briefly recorded in the Bible and detailed more in gnostic writings such as the Book of Enoch. These “Watchers” (like the elite VIP’s in the series) are merely “watching the game”. However, some of the Watchers, as the stories of old tell us, decided to actually come down and “play” the game as if they were human just like the old man playing as player 001. These “Watchers” took human form (represented by the VIP taking off his mask and putting on the garments of a player). They look like the other players but remain fundamentally different from us.
One final point before I conclude. In one of the parting scenes of the series, player 456 who has escaped the game and essentially become like one of the VIP’s (i.e. wealthy beyond belief) sees a new player about to enter the game and intervenes to stop him. He tells the new person considering playing the game that it’s not worth it and begs him not to start the game in the first place. Then he calls up the “Front Man” who runs the game and informs him that the unfortunate ones of the world are not mere horses running a race for the amusement of the VIP’s and tells him that he will NEVER forgive him for what he’s done (running this game on behalf of the VIPs). This also, I believe, is a Gnostic metaphor for an ascended human being essentially confronting the makers of this game and expressing that the entire “game” is unethical.
On my blog at “Of Gods and Men” I have been reviewing the story of the Watchers as portrayed in various Gnostic writings and also reviewing a book titled “The Watchers: Lost Secrets of Ascension, Resurrection and Perfection”. If you are interested in knowing more about the Gnostic understanding of our physical universe and how it is all merely a “game”, I welcome you to read my blog and follow the discussion.