DISCLAIMER

The dialogue below is a work of literary fiction. This conversation between VIPs never took place. Squid Game is a series created by Hwang Dong-hyuk; it is not documentation of real events.
Luigi Mangione, however, is real. Jeffrey Epstein was real. The survivors of the horror on Epstein’s island are real - and so is their trauma.
Luigi’s trial is moving at an almost express pace compared with the sprawling Epstein case. I understand this may be due to the complexity of the matter. Still, as of the time of writing, the list of suspects remains sealed.
Using dialogue to depict a capitalist elite commenting on - and debating - their own system makes it possible to state plainly what legal analysis or journalism often has to veil. The justice system is not “broken.” It works exactly as it was designed to. For some, swiftly. For others, not at all. Fiction functions here as a tool for understanding a reality that already exceeds the bounds of plausibility.

Archivist’s Note

The following dialogue was reconstructed from a recording found in the Saint Babtiste Marione archives. Two people - a man and a woman - discuss events that, officially, never happened. The recording’s authenticity has neither been confirmed nor denied by any authority.

Recording

VIP 1: Do you remember the island?
VIP 2: Which one? There were quite a few.
VIP 1: The Korean one. Originally there were 456 players. We only showed up for the last days of the games. 2020 or 2021. I can’t recall exactly.
VIP 2: Ah - right. Now I remember. I still can’t believe I lost that bet with you on who’d win.
VIP 1: And rightly so. Your ’62 Ferrari 250 GTO looks lovely in my garage in Gstaad. Speaking of bets - and losses. How about another one?

[…Silence. Ice clinks against glass…]

VIP 2: Mmm. Go on. You’ve got my attention.
VIP 1: Luigi Mangione. How many years do you think he gets? Or maybe some other sentence entirely?
VIP 2: Ha - easy. Life, or the death penalty. Depends on the state. Honestly, I’d wager my Basquiat on it.
VIP 1: And how many of Epstein’s clients will see a prison cell? \

[…The woman giggles…]
[…A lighter flicks…]

VIP 2: Also easy. One - maybe two people. And not life. A few years, then they’re out. Assuming it’s even them doing time, and not stand-ins.
VIP 1: At this point they can’t lock up anyone - or at most one person - because Ghislaine’s already inside.
VIP 2: Ghislaine had to go down. Somebody had to. Jeffrey went in for a moment. After his “suicide” they took his woman so it wouldn’t look like no one paid.
VIP 1: Which is exactly why Luigi was so easy to pin. Sometimes you need a show trial. I’ll admit, it moved fast - five days from the shot to the arrest. And on top of that, some prole snitched him out. Ha!

[…The woman’s laughter breaks into a spasm…]

VIP 2: Ha - yes, that part amused me too. That’s what happens when you cut a knot in ,the network of capital and information flows. And let’s be honest: if one of us were behind it, the only person who’d sit would be the hired hand - not the head of the operation. And with Jeffrey, it was heads all the way up.
VIP 1: Yeah… and it’s been a while now and still no Netflix doc about that little mishap. With Luigi there was a documentary almost immediately - murderer, radical, lone wolf, threat to society. Here we don’t have a ready-made narrative. Most people are hiding behind “we didn’t know,” “it was ages ago,” “it wasn’t true.” Though the best one is Elon!
Ha! He brags he was never on Jeffrey’s island - and then an email leaks asking when the wildest parties are! Ha!
VIP 2: That’s the issue. We need one version of events - something we can push through the media. Before someone starts asking questions. And why would we want that? Let the proles believe the justice system works.
VIP 1: Right - before people start asking why… or how come.
VIP 2: Then you toss some reheated twenty-year-old scandal on Netflix. They’ll wail, they’ll shout. Luigi will do time. Jeffrey’s story will fade. And that’s that.
VIP 1: The system has to keep running. I can’t imagine losing everything I have. I’d have to get a job. Ugh.
VIP 2: Don’t even say the word “work,” you’re making my skin crawl.
VIP 1: Same. Which is why the status quo has to hold. The law must keep asking not what you did, but to whom.
VIP 2: And above all, who you are.
VIP 1: Exactly. That’s the most important part.
VIP 2: I can’t imagine the law being enforced on us the way it is on them.
VIP 1: So - about that bet. Is there any point betting at all when we already know the answers?
VIP 2: Not really. You could bet on how long the topic gets churned through the media - YouTube and the rest - but there’s no thrill. No uncertainty.
VIP 1: What - do you miss that spark? The possibility of losing something that actually matters? You don’t even want to try? Fine. I’ll find someone else to play with.
VIP 2: Suit yourself. Waiter! Another drink. And hurry up - I’m not paying you to stand there.

[…Footsteps approach the microphone. The sound of liquor being poured; a bottle trembles softly as it taps the rim of a crystal glass…]

VIP 1: Hey - watch it. You’re spilling. What am I paying you for?
WAITER (quiet, trembling): My brother… disappeared in Seoul. In 2020. He left only debts.
VIP 2: Excuse me? What the hell are you talking about? Who even allowed you to speak?
WAITER: We looked for him for five years. And you… you made a bet out of him?!
VIP 1: Security. Now!

[…A harsh scrape as a chair overturns. A dull gunshot - unnaturally loud - then a second. VIP 1 screams. The sound of a body falling and glass shattering on the floor…]

[…The recording cuts out abruptly…]

Archivist’s Note

The audio ends precisely at 14 minutes and 32 seconds. Official police reports from that day record no homicide in Saint Babtiste Marione, mentioning only an “accidental incident” involving a privately owned firearm. According to preliminary files, an unidentified service worker died in custody before charges could be filed, as a result of sudden heart failure. The case was sealed for fifty years.