Squid Game Season 2’s Breakout Character Is A Reminder Of How Badly Sweet Home Wasted Park Gyu-young

WARNING: Spoilers ahead for Squid Game and Sweet Home

Park Gyu-young’s performance as Kang No-eul – also known as Guard 011 – in Squid Game season 2 is a reminder of how badly Sweet Home wasted her. One of South Korea’s most talented rising stars, Park Gyu-young was perhaps the most exciting addition to the cast of Squid Game season 2. While many assumed that the Sweet Home actor was going to play a contestant, Park Gyu-young’s Squid Game character turned out to be one of the pink guards. No-eul’s story has been fascinating so far and should be essential to Squid Game season 3’s plot.

In hindsight, it makes sense that Squid Game would cast Park Gyu-young in a more shocking role than that of a regular contestant. Considering that Park had already been in a major multi-season Netflix K-drama – Sweet Home – and played the lead character in her own Netflix original series – Celebrity – her addition to the cast of Squid Game 2 was massive news. While Sweet Home’s popularity doesn’t compare to Squid Game’s, the 2020 monster K-drama was Netflix’s first global Korean hit. Unfortunately, Park had a very limited role in Sweet Home season 2 and didn’t return for season 3.

Squid Game Season 2 Gave Park Gyu-young The Attention Sweet Home Didn’t

Park Gyu-young’s Character Was Killed Early On In Sweet Home

Custom image by Simone Ashmoore

Although every role is different for an actor, Squid Game arguably gave Park Gyu-young a lot more to do than Sweet Home. In Sweet Home, Park Gyu-young played Yoon Ji-soo, a young musician who had just moved into the Green Home building when the monster apocalypse began. Ji-soo became friends with Song Kang’s Cha Hyun-su and a few other neighbors during the outbreak and was one of the main characters in season 1. The problem, however, is that Ji-soo was quickly killed off in season 2, even though she was supposed to be one of the story’s central characters.

Netflix’s Sweet Home was based on the webtoon of the same name by Kim Carnby and Hwang Young-chan.

To be fair, Sweet Home season 2 no longer had a source material to follow, meaning that everything was on the table for what was going to happen to the characters. Still, Ji-soo played a major role in the original webtoon on which the K-drama was based and should not have been killed off that quickly in season 2. Park Gyu-young’s Ji-soo was only in three episodes of Sweet Home season 2 before she was killed. Ji-soo’s death was followed by a year-long time jump, meaning we didn’t even get time to mourn her on the show.

Park Gyu-young’s Kang No-eul Was Squid Game Season 2’s Biggest Surprise

Squid Game’s Guard 011 Twist Was Genius

Park Gyu-young’s character in Squid Game was the biggest surprise of season 2. While Squid Game season 2 had a lot of twists, from the Front Man joining the games as Player 001 to Captain Park being a bad guy the whole time, the Kang No-eul twist was arguably the most shocking one. Squid Game season 2, episode 2 followed No-eul’s life in the outside world as if she were a soon-to-be contestant in the games, even establishing that she was friends with a little girl who needed money for cancer treatment.

Park Gyu-young’s Notable K-Dramas
Title	Character
It’s Okay to Not Be Okay	Nam Ju-ri
Sweet Home	Yoon Ji-soo
Celebrity	Seo A-ri
Squid Game	Kang No-eul

Between her tragic backstory as a North Korean defector who had to leave her daughter behind and the connection she had with the little girl from the park, there were more than enough reasons to believe that Kang No-eul was going to join the games as a contestant. She even received what appeared to be a standard Squid Game card from a recruiter. The big twist was that No-eul was joining the games as a pink guard, and that this was not her first time doing so. Suddenly, we were emotionally attached to one of the masked guards.

Why Sweet Home Barely Used Park Gyu-young’s Ji-soo

Netflix’s Sweet Home Wasted Ji-soo

Park Gyu-young as Yoon Ji-soo and Song Kang as Cha Hyun-soo in Sweet Home

From the start, Sweet Home made some significant changes to Ji-soo’s character from the webtoon that made me question how big of a role she was going to have on the show. The most important one was downplaying the relationship between Ji-soo and Hyun-su from the source material. Instead, Hyun-su had a closer relationship with Eun-yu, played by Go Min-si. By the beginning of season 2, Ji-soo’s story was completely disconnected from that of Hyun-su. As such, her death was not that surprising despite being very frustrating.

Park Gyu-young as No-eul in Squid Game s2

Park Gyu-young’s Squid Game Season 2 Role Was So Much Better Than What Anyone Could’ve Expected

Park Gyu-young’s presence in Squid Game season 2 was certainly exciting, but her surprising role (and potential) was even better than expected.

Even still, in a show where people turn into monsters and neo-humans, Sweet Home could have found ways to reinvent Ji-soo’s character in season 2. The fact that she was not included in season 3 – not even in a dream or flashback sequence – made her death even more frustrating. Whether this had anything to do with Park Gyu-young’s schedule is unknown, but if it was purely a story decision, Sweet Home ended up wasting one of its best characters.