Pyramid Game (2024) K Drama 2024 Episode 2

Episode 2 of Pyramid Game starts with a look into Ha-rin’s picture-perfect life where she is the queen bee of the class and good at everything she does. Woo-yi admires Ha-rin and aspires to be like her. Ha-rin, Do-ah, and Da-yeon are also close with the school principal.

One day, Ha-rin is bullying Ja-eun in the school backyard when one of the students sees her. Ha-rin goes after the girl and the episode cuts to the present day where Ha-rin enters the class as Soo-ji is being bullied by Do-yeon and her group. Ha-rin helps Soo-ji up and asks Da-yeon to stop as she is taking it too far.

Soo-ji is confused by Ha-rin’s behaviour but decides to keep her suspicions about Ha-rin a secret. She thanks Ha-rin for helping her and leaves the classroom. Over the next few days, Soo-ji tries to observe Ha-rin and tries to determine her motive behind creating the game. Soo-ji is adamant about bringing the mastermind behind the game down.

A flashback from Ja-eun’s conversation with Ha-rin in the trustee’s cabin shows Ja-eun asking Ha-rin to quit picking on Soo-ji. Ha-rin presses the burning cigarette on Ja-eun’s wrist, wondering why she was being nice to the new girl.

Meanwhile, Class 5’s homeroom teacher Mr Lim reads Soo-ji’s background information from her previous school and learns that Soo-ji struggled with being independent and relied on her classmates.

Mr Lim is called in for a staff meeting with the principal of the school and other Year 2 homeroom teachers. One of the teachers talks to the principal about a bullying incident in her class. The principal – Lim Soon-ae, tries to brush off the matter and asks the teachers not to make a mountain out of a molehill.

Mr Lim offers some advice and asks the teacher to talk to the victim but the principal dismisses his statement and asks the teachers to refrain from making any assumptions.

The episode moves to Soo-ji being suffocated in class with a garbage bag on her head while Woo-yi plays the sound of dogs barking to threaten her. Do-ah announces that recess is over and the girls get back in their places. Soo-ji starts wondering how the bullies had planned out the bullying to take place in the 10 minutes of recess between each lecture as well as the 60 minutes of lunch break.

She also concludes that the teachers tend to turn a blind eye towards the bullying and they may be aware of what’s happening in Class 5. Soo-ji meets Mr Lim and asks why the floor that Class 5 was set in does not have CCTV cameras when another teacher points out that since it is the only class on the floor; CCTV isn’t needed.

She also adds that since Do-ah is the class representative and is agile and alert, the floor did not need any security cameras. Furthermore, Do-ah’s father is the director of Seosim Hospital, hence she’s vigilant just like her dad. Do-ah shows up at the staffroom and takes Soo-ji with her.

On their way out, Do-ah warns Soo-ji about getting Mr Lim to back her up. Soo-ji tries to look up information about Seosim Hospital and finds a connection between Do-ah, Ha-rin and the other popular girls in the class. She learns that all the bullies including Do-ah, Ha-rin and Ye-rim are all part of a sports team.

One day, Da-yeon goes inside Class 5 and asks one of the Rank D students to meet her in private, clearly indicating that she is going to bully her. Soo-ji meets Ha-rin in private and asks her who the creator of the game could be and what was their motive behind making such a game. Ha-rin implies that the creator would enjoy seeing the look in the eyes of students who were ranked with F ranks and would enjoy seeing them shudder with horror.

Soo-ji claims that the creator must be a psychopath and asks Ha-rin why a new transfer student like her got a low rank when Ja-eun was the class’ victim already. Ha-rin tells Soo-ji that what was happening to her was not her fault and leaves. Soo-ji goes back to class thinking how creepy Ha-rin is but she is stopped by a classmate named Ji-ae.

Ji-ae scolds Soo-ji for being missing during break which led to Da-yeon picking on her friend – Seung-yi. Soo-ji fights back and scolds the girl for not being safe as it wasn’t her responsibility to protect the other girls. Soo-ji tries to calm herself down and tries to find a way to get more people to vote for her so she can get out of this mess. She meets Ja-eun and starts putting an act up of crying in front of her.

Ja-eun refuses to participate in the game but Soo-ji notices the bandage on her hand. She wonders if Ja-eun smokes as she smells of cigarettes all the time. Soo-ji asks why Ja-eun has self-harm marks on her wrist and wonders what is going on with her. Ja-eun ignores Soo-ji’s questions and asks her to talk to Seung-yi and Ji-ae as they are the nicest girls in class.

The following day, Soo-ji and Ja-eun try to talk to Seung-yi and Ji-ae. Ja-eun finds the girls’ behaviour odd and tells Soo-ji they are trying to dissociate with Rank F students to avoid being bullied by Da-yeon. Soo-ji tells Ja-eun that none of the students in the class would want them to get out of Rank F because it would only make them the next target of the bullies.

She asks Ja-eun to look out for herself but Ja-eun remembers something and leaves. Soo-ji meets Eun-byeol in private and learns that the girls from Year 1 Class 5 have all moved to Year 2 Class 5 with Ja-eun and herself being the only new students in the class. Soo-ji starts doubting Eun-byeol and thinks about how she will be left alone if Eun-byeol and Ja-eun become friends again.

Soo-ji gets a text from her father, asking for a document. She goes to the Seoul military base to hand it over to him. Her father tells Soo-ji that she does not need to be worried about another transfer as she will be able to graduate from the same school. Soo-ji thinks to herself how she would rather have transferred this time but does not tell her father anything.

Following this, Ja-eun skips school for the next few days with Soo-ji being the only Rank F student in class. Ye-rim looks at Soo-ji, feeling bad for her when her desk mate – Sim Eun-jeong asks if she wants to help Soo-ji out. Meanwhile, Ha-rin is in class when Ja-eun recalls her conversation with Ha-rin from a few days back. After Ha-rin overhears Ja-eun and Soo-ji talking, she threatens Ja-eun of trying to make “new” friends in school.

Back to the present day, the girls from the entire school are gathered together in the school auditorium for a prayer service. Ha-rin is the main performer of the service and performs a soulful ballet dance. Soo-ji is distracted, thinking about the upcoming voting and accidentally drops her phone on the ground making a loud noise.

The performance is stopped which leaves Soo-ji as Da-yeon’s main target. Da-yeon finds Soo-ji in the library and threatens to shoot her with a huge gun. Woo-yi asks Soo-ji to play fetch and turn into a dog but Soo-ji realises that Da-yeon would not go to the extent of killing her. Instead of doing as the bullies say, Soo-ji looks straight at the barrel without flinching and stares as Da-yeon fires a shot which turns out to be a blank.

Soo-ji leaves the room and tries to look for help but runs into Ye-rim on her way out. Ye-rim tells Soo-ji that Ha-rin’s mother – Choi Yi-hwa was the school’s chairwoman which meant Ha-rin’s family essentially ran the school. That night, Ha-rin and her father – Mr Baek Hyun-joon are having dinner with Da-yeon and Do-ah as well as their respective fathers.

The three fathers being business partners get together once a month and have dinner with their three daughters. The atmosphere during the dinner is sinister with Da-yeon’s father being standoffish while Do-ah avoids speaking much. Ha-rin asks Mr Baek to provide more scholarships for poor students. She says something to him in secret that knocks the air out of Mr Baek’s face eventually, leading to him agreeing to fulfil Ha-rin’s demands.

At the same time, Soo-ji is at the same convenience store where Jo Seung-hwa, the store employee gives her a rice cake to eat without charging a fee. Meanwhile, Ja-eun writes a letter to the school, requesting to drop out. The next day, Soo-ji meets Mr Lim who seems trustworthy to her. When she is about to talk to him about the bullying, Do-ah shows up and asks Mr Lim to meet the principal.

Later that day, Mr Lim decides to visit Ja-eun to check up on her and Soo-ji hopes to follow him. However, Do-ah shows up yet again and stops her. She takes Soo-ji inside the school and warns her about leaking information about the game to any of the teachers.

The next few days go by with the students from class bullying Soo-ji to the point that she gets sick. She tries to spend some time in the infirmary but the nurse asks her to attend class. During a PE class, the group of teachers including Mr Lim notice the girls of Class 5 touching Soo-ji inappropriately on the school playground.

Mr Lim approaches Soo-ji and asks if everything is okay. Woo-yi butts in and tells the teacher that the girls were just joking around. Soo-ji asked Mr Lim to drop her to the infirmary as she was ill. Do-ah offers to accompany Soo-ji but Mr Lim asks her to attend the PE class. He takes Soo-ji to the break room and discusses the incident with her.

Seeing how empathetic Mr Lim is, Soo-ji confesses the truth about being bullied by her classmates. Mr Lim starts filming Soo-ji and asks her to show him her wounds. Soo-ji states that she does not have any wounds on her. Meanwhile, the girls from Class 5 discuss how Soo-ji was doomed because she trusted a lunatic like Mr Lim.

Mr Lim forces Soo-ji to undress as he films her and whacks her across the face. Ja-eun shows up to the break room just in time and Soo-ji pushes Mr Lim away to open the door for her. Ja-eun sees a kettle with boiling water and puts Mr Lim’s phone in it, trying to destroy any video he has already filmed with Soo-ji’s confession.

Ja-eun takes Soo-ji to the rooftop and shows her a video of Woo-ri being filmed by Mr Lim. She tells Soo-ji that Woo-ri was the resident victim in Year 1 Class 5. She ended up confiding in Mr Lim who filmed her stripping naked with the implication of showing him “her wounds”. Ja-eun reveals that based on the video, Mr Lim extorted money from the bullies’ families as well as threatened Woo-ri to the point of leaving the school before the end of Year 1.

Ja-eun tells Soo-ji that she is dropping out but Soo-ji asks her to participate in the game that’s going to take place in a few days so that they can beat the system together. Ja-eun refuses to but Soo-ji asks her to reconsider her decision.

On the last Thursday of the month, Soo-ji goes to class as usual and runs into Mr Lim. He tries to talk to her but Soo-ji opens the classroom door, cutting him off. Inside, she is disappointed to see that Ja-eun is absent yet again. At lunch, there is tension between Ji-ae and Seung-yi because the latter was bullied by Da-yeon and her friend did nothing to stop it.

The rest of the day goes by and the girls from Class 5 gear up for the upcoming game. In the final moments before the game starts, Ja-eun shows up in class and agrees to participate. The episode ends with Soo-ji as well as the rest of the class being shocked by the results of the game.

The Episode Review

This show is surprisingly very good and each episode ends with a cliffhanger making it an engaging watch. The OST, Higher by Ava Grace, which plays in during the opening and closing credits, is top-notch. Pyramid Game is insane for the way it delivers its plot twists because I had full faith in Mr Lim only for him to turn out to be a pervert and a lunatic. This makes me wonder if any character in this show should be trusted.

Despite having a runtime of 50 minutes per episode, this show has so many details, making this demand your full attention. At first glance, this one looked like a fun high-school drama but this is so much more than that. Ha-rin is not a mean girl, she is plain evil. The things she has her minions, including the school principal, her mother and her father, do cannot hold a candle to Park Yeon-jin from The Glory.

Ha-rin has an innocent “baby face” that is horrifying and menacing at the same time. With other things considered, I am hoping that Ja-eun voted for Soo-ji. I cannot handle another plot twist in which we learn that Ja-eun is actually evil too and was trying to trap Soo-ji.