I haven't finished Season 3 yet but the whole storyline with the baby makes me feel very uncomfortable and not really want to watch it. Surely even in the evil murder game they would allow a woman who was giving birth to leave with her baby? How is there not even a discussion around allowing her to go? Nobody even acknowledges it at all? Why are contestants not pregnancy tested before joining? Idk it's just too much I am sorry, the show is all about "but they chose to be there!??" ok the baby sure as fuck didn't.
"But they chose to be there!" is something I agree with to the extent of characterization. The mother was foolish enough to try and hide her pregnancy when faced with the reality of the situation (i.e. the first game), then she made no effort to explain she was with child and needed to get the fuck out. If I remember correctly, I think the granny just happened to find out because she was always a mother. She was lucky to get as far as she did and then she proceeded to physically carry the baby into another game after birth rather than plead with the organizers to help and watch over the kid. The mother was persistently self-centered; I mentioned before but her death flag speech was essentially about "me, me, me" with the child as a cliff note.
Outside of her character specifically, I don't think the writer thought that far ahead. Not even with the mother; her characterization was consistent but it probably came from a checklist of requirements. 'She must be stubbornly independent, but also helpless, but also likeable enough people want her to stay alive (make her pregnant?).'
In the story, from the way the VIPs reacted it seemed like this was fresh occurrence. But this was also the season where one of the VIPs was female, while another mentioned having at least one child, and neither really went against it. Sourced from Wikipedia, the director claimed the whole payoff of the child's arc was because 'something something, new generation, something something' plot-wise which read as code for 'I wanna be done with this shit; a baby immediately raises stakes and makes scenes thrilling, pregnancy makes a woman more sympathetic so I don't have to put legwork into writing a compelling character, and the male lead is largely irredeemable by this point in the story so he might as well suicide dive for a child, the ultimate sacrifice.'
The baby existed as a plot device for Gihun, likely accidentally tied into the old woman/son story (a happy accident of sorts), and was attached to the underdeveloped relationship drama between Junhee and MG Coin with little thought or care put into how this would affect the characters, the story, or the world overall. It shows in the way every character reacts and behaves towards the child outside of the old woman and how things spiral for the worst after the Hide and Seek game. The old woman's son actively trying to harm the kid was a clear showcase of how low he was willing to go and what a pathetic dead end he was, which is why his mother stabbed him, and it made sense considering how wishy-washy he already was towards his mother, other women, and anyone outside himself.
Outside of that? Maybe one of those men could have been happy to kill that baby in cold blood but there's no way in hell all of them were going to be gung-ho about it. Not when the vast majority of them clearly already had enough money to have voted to just leave after the baby was born, not to mention likely having children and families of their own.
Things progressed so Writer-ssi could white knight Gihun for the last leg of the story and get paid to be done with this season.
