Squid Game season one recap: Who won, who died, who wore the masks?

As the smash hit dystopian survival thriller returns, Kevin E G Perry looks back at the gruesome events of its first season

(Netflix)

When Squid Game first arrived on our screens in September 2021, it very quickly took the world by storm. Within just four weeks, the blood-soaked dystopian survival series had racked up 1.65 billion viewing hours, surpassing Bridgerton as the most-watched show in Netflix history.

Since then, Squid Game has spawned several spinoffs including the reality competition show Squid Game: The Challenge and a video game, Squid Game: Unleashed. With the second season of the Korean thriller now streaming, here’s everything you need to remember about the gripping first season that got the world hooked.

When Squid Game begins, we’re introduced to Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), a divorced chauffeur and gambling addict with massive debts.

One day while taking the subway in Seoul, a well-dressed man invites Gi-hun to play ddakji, a traditional Korean children’s game played with folded paper. They play for money, and the man proceeds to offer him the chance to play more games for higher stakes. When he accepts, Gi-hun is sedated and eventually awakens in a dormitory along with 455 other competitors, all identified only by the numbers on their matching green tracksuits.

Masked guards in pink jumpsuits arrive and inform the players that they will win a massive prize of 45.6bn won (around $31m, or £24m) if they are successful over the coming six games. The contests are overseen by the Front Man, who is also masked and dresses in black.

The first game is Red Light, Green Light, a traditional kids’ game where players move towards a finish line unless “red light” is called, at which point they must stop. The twist is that in this game, anyone caught moving is shot dead instantly. The reveal of the lethal consequences causes a panic, and many contestants are massacred. With the help of other competitors, including his childhood classmate Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo), Seong survives.

After more than half of the initial 456 competitors have been killed in the first game alone, many of the survivors demand to be released. They are told to hold a vote, and by a narrow majority they decide to cancel the games. Back in Seoul, Gi-hun goes to the police but his outlandish story is dismissed by everyone except a detective, Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), whose brother disappeared after receiving an invitation card to the games. When the players are invited to rejoin the games, Gi-hun - whose mother is sick and needs expensive surgery - decides to return. Jun-ho follows him, disguising himself as a masked guard, and learns that the games take place on a remote island.

The second game is Ppopgi, a delicate challenge where players must remove a stamped shape (triangle, star, circle or umbrella) within 10 minutes from dalgona, a honeycomb candy and popular Korean street food. Gi-hun picks the most difficult shape, the umbrella, but manages to complete the game by licking the back of the honeycomb.

On the brink: Lee Jung-jae in ‘Squid Game’ (© 2024 Netflix, Inc)

One of the competitors, a gangster named Jang Deok-su (Heo Sung-tae), kills another player after being accused of stealing extra food. When the guards don’t react and the prize money increases, Deok-su and his gang realise they have immunity to kill other players. They start a riot in which they kill more players and the prize pot rises again. A woman named Han Mi-nyeo (Kim Joo-ryoung) has sex with Deok-su, thinking she’ll gain his protection.

The third game is tug-of-war. Deok-su picks a strong team, excluding Mi-nyeo, having learned the nature of the game in advance from Player 111, who is secretly harvesting organs from dead players in exchange for game secrets. Gi-hun’s group also survives. Detective Jun-ho breaks into the Front Man’s office, where he learns that the game has been running for over 30 years. His brother won the competition in 2015. Player 111’s organ harvesting scheme is uncovered, and he and his co-conspirators are killed.

The fourth game is marbles. Players are paired up and must win all of their partner’s marbles in a game of their choosing in order to survive. Gi-hun is paired with Player 001, Oh Il-nam (Oh Yeong-su), an old man with a brain tumour who he’s become close to. Gi-hun thinks he has exploited his friend’s dementia to win, but in fact the old man is aware of the deception and seems to acquiesce to being killed. In a private back room, Jun-ho witnesses masked foreign VIPs, who have been placing bets on the games, arrive to spectate on the final rounds.

The fifth game involves crossing a glass bridge, with some panes unable to support a player’s weight. Mi-nyeo grabs hold of the faltering Deok-su as revenge for his betrayal, and they both fall to their deaths. Only three players make it across the bridge: Gi-hun, his childhood friend Sang-woo, and Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon).

Within four weeks of its release, season one had racked up 1.65 billion viewing hours (Netflix)

When it emerges that Sae-byeok has been grievously injured while crossing the glass bridge, Gi-hun tries to get her help. While he is away, Sang-woo kills her. After he returns Gi-hun attempts to attack Sang-woo but is restrained by the guards. Behind the scenes, Jun-ho meets the Front Man and is stunned to learn that he is his brother. After Jun-ho refuses to join him, the Front Man shoots him and he falls into the sea.

The sixth and final game is the Squid Game, which takes place on a playing field that resembles a squid. Gi-hun defeats Sang-woo but begs him to stop the game. Instead, Sang-woo kills himself and asks Gi-hun to look after his mother.

Gi-hun is taken back to Seoul and given a bank card that will allow him to claim the prize money. He learns his own mother has died, and a year later has still not touched the money out of guilt. After receiving a mysterious invitation card, he finds his old friend Oh Il-nam, who he thought had died in the marbles game, now on his death bed in the outside world. To his shock, Gi-hun learns that Oh Il-nam is in fact the original creator of Squid Game. He explains he organised the games to entertain bored, wealthy people like himself.

He makes a final bet with Gi-hun over the fate of a man lying unconscious in the street, and dies shortly afterwards. Gi-hun gives a share of the prize money to Sae-byeok’s brother and asks him to look after Sang-woo’s mother. He decides to travel to Los Angeles to reunite with his estranged daughter, but before he boards his flight he spots the same well-dressed man playing ddakji with an unsuspecting player. He gets one of his invitation cards and calls the number. The Front Man urges him to fly to LA, leave the game behind and let it all go. Instead, Gi-hun decides to turn around and go back.

Season two will pick up the story from there, and is set to follow Gi-hun as he returns to the game along with new participants. Whether or not he is able to take down the game from the inside remains to be seen – but don’t expect too final a resolution in the coming seven episodes. A third season of Squid Game is already in production.

‘Squid Game’ season two is out now on Netflix