8 burning questions fans want answered in 'Sacred Games' Season 2

There's just one week left for the most-awaited second season of Sacred Games. Based on the novel Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra, Season 1 was the first Indian original series on Netflix.

After its tremendous success, and a cottage industry of memes and videos that it created, Season 2 is finally around the corner.

For those who haven’t seen the first season yet, (yes we are judging you) please watch out for spoilers ahead.

Here are eight burning questions for which Sacred Games fans will be looking for answers:

1. What is going to happen in 15 days? 

All it took to kickstart this game was a question. “Do you believe in god?” the mysterious voice at the other end of the line asks Sartaj Singh (Saif Ali Khan). He is half drunk and exhausted, but the moment he realises it’s notorious gangster Ganesh Gaitonde (Nawazzuddin Siddiqui) on the line, Sartaj’s life changes forever.

Gaitonde issues a dire warning - there are just 25 days left to save Mumbai or everyone will die. He starts the clock to doom but kills himself before Sartaj can find out more. Season 1 ended on Day 15 and Season 2 takes off with just two weeks left to solve the mystery. But what is Sartaj trying to prevent? A nuclear attack like the finale teased, mass shootings, bomb blasts or some other catastrophic conspiracy?

2. Why was Gaitonde saved? 

Season 1 branched into parallel narratives, establishing the two central characters of  Gaitonde and Sartaj. We saw Gaitonde’s journey from a penniless migrant to the most wanted gangster in Mumbai, to a man on the verge of death. But just when he thought all was lost, he is saved from a prison riot by mysterious men. Why? Why is he now in Cape Town and on the run?

More importantly, why did he kill himself instead of finally having his revenge on his ‘teesra baap’ (third godfather)?

3. Who are the players old and new?

Season 1 of Sacred Games saw very memorable characters many of whom are sadly dead. Kuku (Kubra Sait), Subhadra (Rajshri Deshpande), Constable Katekar (Jitendra Joshi) whose catchphrases became as iconic as his character, and Anjali Mathur (Radhika Apte) an intelligence officer who quite ironically was shot in the head, are all gone. Some familiar faces like Bunty (Jatin Sarna) and Parulkar (Neeraj Kabi) are still around, as is the mysterious thumb chopping Malcolm (Luke Kenny). 

Kalki Koechlin and Ranvir Shorey will portray brand new characters, while Surveen Chawla whose character Jojo got shot dead in episode 1 of season 1, is resurrected to tell her story. I am most excited about most Pankaj Tripathi, who is playing Guruji, the mastermind masquerading as a godman. Who is he and what is his motive to unleash this horror?

4. How are Gaitonde, Sartaj and Sartaj’s father linked? 

Its established almost from the get go that Gaitonde knew Sartaj’s father Dilbagh Singh who had helped him in prison, keeping him alive with food and water. What we don’t know was if it was out of kindness or if he was in on the conspiracy too. Season 1 teased a deeper bond between Gaitonde and Dilbagh and from what Season 2 trailers can tell us, the missing timelines have a lot of secrets to spill.

5. When did this whole conspiracy really start? 

The parallel narratives of Season 1 covered several decades of Gaitonde’s life but only a few years of Sartaj’s. If Guruji saved Gaitonde in jail and then helped him escape abroad almost 15 years ago, then just how long has his plan of annihilation been in action? How are DCP Parulakar, Chief Minister Bhosale, actor Zoya Mirza, Malcolm linked to Guruji and did some of them know about his long-term plans? 

6. What Balidan (sacrifice) does Guruji keep talking about? 

The promos for Season 2 have Guruji talking about a sacrifice that needs to be made. In Season 1 as well, this balidaan (sacrifice) is a recurring theme with Malcolm elaborating on it in the finale, citing the story of Kane and Abel before chopping off Sartaj’s thumb as a supposed sacrificial act. But is this sacrifice a personal one where people renounce the world to follow their spiritual leader, or is it the end of an entire city to usher in a new way of life? 

7. How will the timelines meet? 

With two timelines running parallelly, there are some definite The Time Traveler’s Wife moments occurring this season. Bunty was killed in Season 1 but he remains alive in the flashback sequences of Gaitonde’s life, who is also dead in the present but narrating this tale as the voice haunting Sartaj. Trivedi is dead but we need to know how he ended up in the basement of Gaitonde’s secret hideout. Gaitonde is in many ways like the Night King; he resurrects a whole bunch of other characters including Kanta, Bunty, Jojo, Trivedi and interestingly Dilbagh Singh.

But how will these timelines of past and present meet? How have the decisions and actions in Gaitonde’s past affected Sartaj’s present and led Mumbai to the brink of extinction?

8. Will there be a Katekar cameo? 

Yes, this is an important question, one that most people want answers to. Jitendra Joshi was brilliant as Constable Katekar, and we are all secretly hoping and praying to see him at least in one scene(or more). It says a lot about a performance if it stands out amongst so many other powerhouse actors in the ensemble. Keeping my fingers crossed, Katekar.

Saraswati Datar studied screenwriting and filmmaking and worked with mainstream TV channels in Mumbai as a writer and producer. She now freelances as a columnist and scriptwriter working with digital publications in India and Singapore.