After its release in September 2021, Squid Game became a massive success and caused a cultural storm across the globe. It is Netflix’s most-watched series, attracting more than 142 million member households during its first four opening weeks, surpassing Bridgerton for the title. Since the publication of Squid Game, it has cumulated numerous accolades: a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film for O Yeong-su, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series, and Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for Lee Jung-jae and HoYeon Jung. Following its huge success, Squid Game has been renewed for a second season and is set to premiere in late 2023 to early 2024.
The show follows Seong Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae), a divorced father and heavily indebted gambler, who is invited to play a series of children’s games in exchange for a grand cash prize. After accepting the offer, he is taken to an unknown location among 455 other players, similarly in financial ruin. Each player wears a green jumpsuit displaying their respective number and is kept under the watch of masked guards in pink jumpsuits. The Front Man, who wears a black mask and uniform, is revealed to oversee the entire operation. The players realize that losing the game results in their “elimination,” or death, with each passing adding ₩100 million to the potential ₩45.6 billion grand prize (roughly $35 million). Gi-hun allies with other players, such as his childhood friend Cho Sang-woo (played by Park Hae-soo) and North-Korean defector Kang Sae-byeok (played by HoYeon Jung).
Spoiler Warning!!!
Episode 1: “Red Light, Green Light”
The pilot episode details the life of Seong Gi-hun, who is estranged from his ex-wife and daughter and in debt with dangerous loan sharks. While waiting for the subway, a man approaches Gi-hun and offers him money in exchange for playing a game of ddakji. The elusive man later presents Gi-hun with an opportunity to play more games with much higher stakes. He accepts the invitation, is sedated, and wakes up in a dormitory with 455 others. It is explained that all participants are in dire financial situations, but they will be given billions in prize money if they win the competition. Gi-hun befriends Player 001, an elderly man with a brain tumor as well as Player 067, a North Korean defector, and recognizes his former classmate Cho Sang-woo. When faced with the first game, Red Light, Green Light, anyone who is caught moving is shot dead, which reveals the sadistic nature of the competition. Half of the crowd panics and attempts to flee, which results in a massacre, but Gi-hun finishes the game alive thanks to the help of Sang-woo and Player 199.
Episode 2: “Hell”
With half of the players killed in the first game, many players demand to be released. Using the game’s third clause, the players hold a majority vote and narrowly decide to stop the games without any prize money. Back home in Seoul, Gi-hun tells the police what he experienced, but no one believes him except Detective Hwang Jun-ho, whose brother received the same invitation card and recently disappeared. The players are invited to reenter the games, and many return, including Gi-hun, whose mother needs surgery, Sang-woo, who is about to be arrested for fraud, Player 001, who wishes to die on his terms, Player 067, who wishes to rescue her parents from North Korea, and Player 199, a Pakistani migrant worker, and Player 101, a gangster on the run from gambling debts. Detective Jun-ho secretly follows Gi-hun as he returns to the competition.
Episode 3: “The Man with the Umbrella”
Jun-ho successfully infiltrates the games by disguising himself as a masked worker, and it is revealed that the competition is being held on a remote island. As the players feel more prepared, they start forming alliances amongst themselves. Gi-hun, Sang-woo, Player 001, and Player 199 team up. Player 067 secretly explores an air vent and finds workers melting pots of sugar, which reveals the next game: Ppopgi, where each player must extract a shape from a dalgona (honeycomb candy). Sang-woo learns of this but does not alert his teammates while he picks the easiest shape for himself. Gi-hun chooses the umbrella shape but can complete it by licking the candy to melt it. Player 212, a mouthy and manipulative woman, helps Player 101, Deok-su, complete the game with a smuggled lighter. Later, a player about to be executed forces a guard to remove his mask, which results in his murder for revealing his identity.
Episode 4: “Stick to the Team”
Player 111, a former doctor, secretly works with a handful of guards to harvest the organs of losing players to sell on the black market, in return for information on the upcoming games. Deok-su kills an innocent player in the dormitory, which subsequently increases the prize money and inspires players to riot during the night. Gi-hun’s group survives and exchanges names to build trust amongst themselves: Player 199 is Ali Abdul, and Player 067 is Kang Sae-byeok. Player 001, because of his brain tumor, has trouble remembering his name. Player 212, Han Mi-nyeo, has sex with Deok-su, which implies they are allied. For the third game, players are told to form groups of ten. Deok-su, having learned of the game beforehand, rejects Mi-nyeo and gathers only strong men for his team. The game is then revealed to be tug-of-war on two raised platforms. Gi-hun’s team, consisting of two women (Player 240 and Sae-byeok) and an old man (Player 001), along with other men, is pitted against a team of entirely young men.
Episode 5: “A Fair World”
Gi-hun’s team wins thanks to Player 001’s strategy and Sang-woo’s cleverness. Jun-ho witnesses the organ harvesting scheme, as the guard whose identity he stole, was originally a part of it. Everyone involved is eventually killed, including Player 111, except for Jun-ho. In response, the Front Man launches a facility-wide manhunt for Jun-ho, who breaks into his office and discovers that his brother won the game in 2015.
Episode 6: “Gganbu”
The players are assured by the Front Man that the games are designed to give every player a fair chance. For the fourth game, the players are instructed to pair up, and many of them do so with their closest allies. They discover that instead of working together, they are playing against each other in a marble game of their choice. Whoever gets all of their partners’ marbles in 30 minutes will survive. Sae-byeok and Player 240 exchange life stories, where Player 240 sacrifices herself after deciding Sae-byeok has more to live for. Sang-woo tricks Ali into giving him his marbles and wins. Gi-hun exploits Player 001’s dementia to win, only to discover that the old man was aware of the deception the entire time. Player 001 remembers his name to be Oh Il-nam and lets Gi-hun win as he is his gganbu (trusted friend). As a result of the deaths of their friends, Sae-byeok and Gi-hun are traumatized.
Episode 7: “VIPs”
The players return to find Mi-nyeo, who did not have a partner, still alive. Foreign VIPs, who had been virtually wagering on the games, have arrived to watch them live. Jun-ho, posing as one of the masked servants, is sexually propositioned by one of them. He subsequently attacks the VIP and forces him to reveal information about the games and confess. Once he records his confession, Jun-ho flees the island. Meanwhile, the fifth game has players crossing a two-panel wide bridge, where the panels are each made of either tempered or regular glass, the latter of which cannot support their weight. The players at the front of the line fall to their deaths as they test the panels. Deok-su refuses to progress until someone goes in front of him; However, Mi-nyeo grabs him and vengefully plummets them both to their deaths. Only Gi-hun, Sang-woo, and Sae-byeok complete the game; at its conclusion, explosions shatter the remaining panels and injure the three players.
Episode 8: “Front Man”
Gi-hun, Sae-byeok, and Sang-woo are given a change of clothes for their finalist dinner. Sae-byeok hides a severe stab wound acquired from the bridge explosion. After eating dinner, each player is left with a steak knife. Realizing that Sang-woo will go to any length to win, Gi-hun suggests that he and Sae-byeok ally. Instead, Sae-byeok begs that whoever wins the game will look after the others’ loved ones. As Sae-byeok’s injury worsens, Gi-hun calls for help, but while he is away, Sang-woo stabs her and kills her. Heartbroken, Gi-hun is furious with Sang-woo and attempts to slash him but is stopped by the guards. Meanwhile, Jun-ho makes it to another island but is quickly followed by the Front Man, who shockingly reveals himself to be his brother, In-ho. Following his failure to recruit Jun-ho, In-ho shoots him in the shoulder, causing Jun-ho to fall off a cliff and into the sea.
Episode 9: “One Lucky Day”
In the final installment of Squid Game, Gi-hun defeats Sang-woo after a brutal fight, but refuses to kill him and instead shows mercy. After Gi-hun suggests evoking the third clause, Sang-woo stabs himself in the neck and asks Gi-hun to take care of his mother, leaving Gi-hun the winner. After returning to Seoul, Gi-hun is left with a bank card to access the prize money but discovers that his mother has died. A year after the end of the games, Gi-hun has not touched his prize money and resumed his prior life in the name of guilt. He receives an invitation card from his gganbu, and finds Oh Il-nam on his deathbed. Il-nam reveals he created the game to entertain wealthy people like himself and only participated in Gi-hun’s group out of nostalgia. Shortly after, Il-nam dies in the presence of Gi-hun. He retrieves Sae-byeok’s brother and has him looked after by Sang-woo’s mother by giving them a large share of prize money. As Gi-hun travels to the airport on a trip to see his daughter, he stumbles across the same recruiter playing ddakji with another desperate player, but only manages to get his invitation card. He calls the card’s number before boarding his plane, demanding to know who is running the games. The operator orders him to board his plane, but Gi-hun heads back to the terminal instead.