Cleaveslice - That One Guy

being a true whitaker fan means that you are required to be a santos defender. it's what he would want.

THE PITT + TRIVIA • from the cast & interviews (insp.)

ready for the trinity santos and dennis whitaker bestfriendship of all time on levels that no one else can comprehend. i need them to walk into the next season arguing about how trinity broke the coffee machine in the one singular way where it's unfixable. need dennis to talk about how someone tried to break into the apartment and trinity broke their arm in five places. they watch shitty medical dramas together and get genuinely angry at inaccuracies and use said inaccuracies to quiz each other. trinity took no less than 100 pictures on dennis's residency match day. dennis tells trinity that he's survived multiple tornadoes and her only reaction was calling him a loser because he's never been stormchasing. this isn't even all the thoughts i've had and i finished the finale 15 minutes ago

throwing this into the ring like a beyblade

on the pitt and its writing

I actually cannot get over how the pitt is so good at like. trusting its viewers to catch onto things while fully not giving any information at all. I don't know if I explained that correctly. but we literally are not told a single thing unless it's immediately relevant to the story or one of the characters.

we don't learn about mckay's ankle monitor until it goes off, and we never even learn why it's there because it's not immediately relevant to anything going on. we don't learn the details of why langdon needs the pills, only that the pills stem from something that happened to him. abbot's prosthetic is never mentioned until the very end because, shit, dude, he's probably in so much pain after that shift he needed to take it off to relax. nothing is explained because the characters know what they've gone through and they don't feel the need to talk about it, or it's not necessary for them to talk about it. and when we learn about stuff from the environment or the way the characters are acting, like with princess and perlah's friendship and javadi's insistence on being taken seriously and literally everything between collins and robby. it's all storytelling through implication and sometimes it's really obvious (like with javadi) and sometimes it's not (like with langdon) and sometimes it's just really good for setting up character reveals (like with santos).

this show is kind of a masterclass on the perfect balance of showing and telling, and it knows exactly when to use one, the other, or neither. and somehow it works every time???? jesus christ I need the writers team to win everything during the upcoming awards season.

"I will show you that the world doesn't always go the way you want to" are the premises which Gi-Hun made a bet with In-Ho.

In-Ho, who is smart, cold, and manipulative, always seeming to be three steps ahead of everyone, is being put to the test if things would "always go his way".

He has the upper hand and will absolutely use all the cards in his favor.

This is a continuation of the post I made regarding his interpersonal manipulation to get Gi-Hun to like him and emotionally attach to him. In-Ho didn't stop there, using his position as a bureaucrat to manipulate both Gi-Hun and everyone else to continue the games, systematically ensuring the results he wants to win the bet.

As Gi-Hun correctly pointed out, the way he got people to comeback to the games was upon preying on their desperation, making it seem like they reached a dead end, with the only and last opportunity they had was to participate "willingly" on the games. Making it virtually impossible for people to want to vote out on later games as they feared something greater outside, and everyone has "come too far" to get out now. This time, it was much more sophisticated.

The addition of clause #4 and the voting system.

Unlike last time, people have the opportunity to get out and share the price money, even after only playing one game. A direct way to fuck Gi-Hun's mind as if those were the conditions of the 33rd Squid Game, at least both Sang-Woo and Sae-Byeok would have made it out alive, In-Ho knew this very well, so, he would need to prove that people will continue the games regardless if they shared the price money.

Him choosing to be player "001" is key into determining the fate of the results. If it came to end a tie or marking a tie, In-Ho would hold that power as he is the last person to vote.

Other factor to consider is that voting is *not anonymous* so the outcomes are corrupted by the expectations other people have on you, specially after they are marked with a patch that exposes if they chose to continue or wanted to get out. Min-Su is the most obvious case of voting for 'O' because he was intimidaded into doing so, however, Jung-Bae, Dae-Ho, Yong-Sik, Myung-gi and "Young-Il" all voted 'X' because there was an expectation from someone else to vote that way.

It is very interesting that the games did this fake illusion of democracy, as it only matters during the votes that people don't get violent, however, you are free to intimidate and even kill people.

Participants

While the players were already recruited, it was certainly convenient for In-ho to have many players that would put Gi-Hun on a very familiar and uncomfortable situation, some to point out:

Jun-Hee and Myung-gi: A pregnant woman and her incompetent baby-daddy, who is constantly trying to prove himself for Jun-Hee to forgive him and allow him to be part of her baby's life, as well as hers. Reminding him of how Gi-Hun (without fault on his own) neglected Eun-Ji and almost lost his daughter by witnessing the death of his friend during the strikes. Marking the resentment she holds against him.

Yong-Sik and Geum-Ja: a pathetic mama's boy who gets in debt and (unwillingly) brings his mother down with him, and while trying to make amends to fix mistakes, he doesn't realize how much he hurts her, as she makes her own sacrifices to help her son. Reminding him of the dynamic he had with his own mother, especially after In-ho maliciously implied that Yong-Sik would abandon her to save his own ass.

'Young-Il': A desperate husband who had his pregnant wife in the hospital, sick to death, with time running out, his "only hope" was to win enough money to pay for her treatment. Even if it comes to the death of others. But he is willing to set aside his selfish interest in favor of Gi-Hun's because he "respects and admires him." This is to both remind Gi-Hun's of his relationship with Eun-Ji and also the fact that he came back for the sake of his mother's health.

Jung-Bae: self-explanatory. Gi-Hun's best friend whom he neglected after being profusely traumatized. Too deep into the hole to see past it, blaming himself for not preventing Jung-Bae from falling victim into the system he swore his life to destroy. The only one who reminded Gi-Hun the person he used to be before entering the games. The weapon In-ho would use to destroy Gi-Hun beyond repair.

The Games

In-Ho certainly organized the games in a way that would be favorable to the outcome he hoped for.

He chose Red Light, Green Light first, besides having a huge death rate because of people panicking. He would make Gi-Hun believe that he'd be playing the exact same games as before, blowing his cover as a former winner and making people distrust him, even though his goal was helping as many people to survive as possible. He'd also use this to taunt him. "You know, if you didn't reveal yourself, I wouldn't have chosen to keep going, right? So it is your fault we are still here, despite your efforts of being a hero and saving everyone."

The six-legged pentathlon was also a deliberate choice, a game that relied on teamwork, having a high survival rate and just the right amount of adrenaline, would make people feel euphoric for surpassing the games, forgetting the unfortunate who didn't made it thru. Making people who were originally scared feel confident that if they keep going, they would be able to reach their goal. Not realizing that it meant that the money would be the cost of the blood of the people who "loose" until it came to bite them in the ass for the next game.

This one made it for the majority to vote 'O' without the need for In-ho to be the one making the final choice for him to get the favorable decision.

Mingle brought people back into reality, either losing or being close to losing someone they loved. It brought it back to 50/50.

And now it was turn for the extra round, where In-ho set it up to make it convenient for people to target one another. Keep in mind, if Gi-Hun accepted the terms of fighting one another, In-Ho would have won the bet, as he'd prove to Gi-Hun that things "always went his way," diverting Gi-Hun's objective in favour of the system In-Ho set up. What he didn't expect was that Gi-Hun didn't fall for it, suggesting to take down the whole system down instead of doing what the executives (In-Ho) wanted them to do.

If Gi-Hun chose to go with Young-Il instead of Jung-Bae, he would have kidnapped him (kinda as a payback for trying to do the same a few days ago) and revealed himself right there, winning the bet.

So it was Plan C, betraying him, and shooting the last trace of sanity Gi-Hun still held, his best friend, Jung-Bae, as well as everyone else who decided to follow him.

In conclusion

(Credits to @cleaveslice for such glorious image)

Hwang In-ho, you are not seeing the gates of heaven when your demise comes, malparido triplehijueputa.

If Dae-ho has no fans they shot and killed me

hot take. Despite having the biggest saddest eyes and pathetic vibes, Whitaker is not shaking like a chihuahua nervous about life, he's actually pretty fucking steady and rolls with things as they happen to him. things just happen to him A Lot

Who's off the island so far?:

-the salesman-myung-gi/player 333

-hwang in-ho/the frontman

-Kang no-eul/guard 11

-Kim Jun-hee/player 222

-Kang dae-ho/player 388