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From Wikipedia: “Squid Game” is a South Korean survival drama television series written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix. Its cast includes Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-joon, Ho Yeon-jung, O Yeong-su, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi, and Kim Joo-ryoung.
Genre: action; adventure; childhood; drama; mystery; survival; thriller; web series.
“Squid Game” was released worldwide on September 17, 2021, to critical acclaim and international attention. It is Netflix’s most-watched series, becoming the top-viewed program in 94 countries and attracting more than 142 million member households and amassing 1.65 billion viewing hours during its first four weeks from launch, surpassing “Bridgerton” for the title of most watched show.
The series has also received numerous accolades, including:
Golden Globe Award for “Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film” for Oh Yeong-su
Screen Actors Guild Award for “Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series” for Lee Jung-jae
Screen Actors Guild Award for “Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series” for Ho Yeon-jung.
How I wrote these episode summaries with no spoilers
1. I assumed that you will be reading these summaries and watching the videos chronologically.
2. I narrated some of the main actions in each episode without revealing the plot’s twists and turns.
3. At the beginning of each summary starting with Episode 2, I placed in a table a recap of the major twists and turns of the previous episode. But because you have already watched the video of the previous episode, they aren’t spoilers anymore.
4. I followed this structure all throughout, except for Ep. 9 (Finale) where I included spoilers. Reason — most people want to know if the drama has a good/happy ending or a sad ending before they invest the time in watching it.
Episode 1: “Red Light, Green Light”
Seong Gi-hun is an inveterate gambler, who lives with his elderly mother. He’s separated from his wife and young daughter, and he owes hundreds of millions of won to loan sharks and the bank.
At the race track, Gi-hun runs when he sees the loan shark and his men, but he’s cornered in the men’s room. Later on, at the subway station, he meets a fashionably dressed man who challenges him to a
card game (“ddakji”), with one hundred thousand won as a prize if he wins.
After his mother tells him to fight for his daughter, Gi-hun calls the number on the card given by the man he played with at the subway station. He gets a ride on a van, and later wakes up in a large room filled with hundreds of people like him who are drowning in debts. They’re all wearing green tracksuits, with numbers on them; his number is 456. Among the people in the room are an old man (Player 001), a female pickpocket (Player 067), a thug (Player 101), a hotshot Business Administration graduate (Player 218), and a migrant worker from Pakistan (Player 199).
Wearing a red uniform and flanked by armed guards, a masked man tells Gi-hun and everyone else that they’ll be playing children’s games, with a substantial amount as prize for the winner.
Episode 2: “Hell”
| Ep. 1 recap:
Afraid of losing contact with his daughter if she leaves with her mother and stepfather for the USA, Gi-hun decides to join the games. The “Front Man” (masked and clad in all black) is the current head staff member and the person who oversees the games. More than half of the players are shot and killed during the “Red Light, Green Light” game. |
After the disastrous first game, Gi-hun and a majority of the players vote to terminate the games. Gi-hun immediately reports what happened to him and the others to the police.
Kang Sae-byeok, the pickpocket, visits her younger brother at an orphanage. Later, she goes to see the man who helped her to escape from North Korea and to settle in South Korea.
Gi-hun sees Cho Sang-woo (the hotshot Business Administration graduate) lurking near his mother’s fish stall. He finds out that Cho Sang-woo went deeply into debt because of his failed investments in stocks and futures.
Ali Abdul, the migrant worker from Pakistan, goes to collect his salary from a small manufacturing company.
Hwang Jun-ho, a police detective, searches for his missing brother. In his brother’s apartment, he sees a card similar to the one that Gi-hun left at the police station.
Deok-soo, the thug, orders one of his men to gather the rest of their gang and to bring guns; he plans to steal the prize money from the organizers of the games.
Episode 3: “The Man With The Umbrella”
| Ep. 2 recap:
Because of their overwhelming need for money, Gi-hu, Sang-woo, Sae-byeok, Deok-soo, and Ali Abdul decide to reenter the games. While on the van with the others who are unconscious from the gas, Sae-Byeok wakes up. Meanwhile, Hwang Jun-ho, the police detective, secretly follows the van. |
Jun-ho, the police detective, disguises himself as one of the masked men driving the vans.
During the inspection of the players, Sae-byeok manages to hide her switchblade in her player’s uniform.
Gi-hun forms a team with Sang-woo, Ali Abdul, and the old man (Player 001) to help each other survive the games. The other players also form their own teams, with Han Mi-nyeo, the ornery woman, joining Deok-soo’s team; she claims that she’s capable of doing anything.
During breakfast, Player 111 finds inside the bread a secret message. Later, on the way to the venue of the next game, Sang-woo moves close to Sae-byeok and whispers something to her.
For the next game, the players are asked to choose one of four shapes — circle, triangle, star, and umbrella.
Episode 4: “Stick to the Team“
| Ep. 3 recap:
Jun-ho places his police badge and ID with the masked guard that he killed; he dumps the guard’s body into the sea. Using her switchblade, Sae-byeok crawls into the ventilation vent and observes what the masked guards are doing. Later on, after telling Sang-woo that the guards were melting sugar, she finds out that the second game is “Ppopgi” which involves cutting out the shapes in the “dalgona” (honeycomb candy) using a metal toothpick. Instead of using the metal toothpick, Gi-hun licks the back side of the “dalgona” to extract the umbrella shape. |
After the second game, the prize money is now 34.9 billion won. When one of the players gets killed during a lunch time fight and the prize money increases, the players begin to suspect that some of their fellow players will kill as many of the players as they can.
While the players who died during the second game are being incinerated, Jun-ho puts on an official’s mask (with the square symbol). Meanwhile, Player 111, who’s a doctor, helps some guards harvest the organs of a dead player; in return, the guards tell him what the next game will be.
When the lights go out, chaos breaks out as Deok-soo and his teammates attack the other players.
Episode 5: "A Fair World"
| Ep. 4 recap:
The third game is “Tug-of-War.” With the doctor’s tip, Deok-soo gets rid of Mi-nyeo and fills his team with strong men. His team easily gets rid of their opposing team. Gi-hun ends up with three women on his team. His team follows Player 001’s instructions on the proper way of playing Tug-of-War, but the other team’s brute strength puts them on the brink of defeat. |
Gi-hun and his teammates prepare for another night by building barricades around them and taking turns in watching out for other players who might attack them. Meanwhile, Player 111 (the doctor) harvests the organs of several corpses, with Jun-ho (the police detective) and another guard assigned to deliver the organs to a waiting ship.
Gi-hun stands watch together with Player 001. At the secret room, Player 111 (the doctor) finishes harvesting the organs, but he goes berserk when the guards tell him that they don’t know yet what the next game will be.
Episode 6: “Gganbu”
| Ep. 5 recap:
After finding out where the records of all the players are kept, Jun-ho kills the guard who’s leading him in delivering the harvested organs. Player 111 (the doctor) is shot and killed by a guard on the Front Man’s orders. Jun-ho finds his brother’s record in the archives. |
In the office, Jun-ho overhears the Front Man reporting on the telephone that the next game will proceed as scheduled despite the disturbance. Later, he uses the telephone to contact the 119 emergency number.
As the remaining 39 players proceed to the game venue, they see the dead guards and Player 111 (the doctor) hanging from the ceiling.
The fourth game requires teams of two players each. Sang-woo teams up with Ali Abdul while a math teacher/soccer player offers to team up with Gi-hun.
With no one picking her as a team mate, Han Mi-nyeo is dragged away by the guards. Meanwhile, each player is given a pouch with ten marbles in it.
Episode 7: “VIPs”
| Ep. 6 recap:
Instead of playing as a team against another team, the players are ordered to play against their teammates. Sang-woo loses against Ali Abdul, but he begs Ali Abdul to trust him that there’s a way for both of them to survive. Ali Abdul believes him, but he actually cheats by secretly exchanging Ali Abdul’s marbles with stones. After bonding with Sae-byeok (Player 067) over stories of their tragic lives, Ji-yeong (Player 240) sacrifices herself for Sae-byeok to live. Gi-hun uses Player 001’s dementia to cheat and win. As he walks away, he hears a gunshot and the announcement that Player 001 has been eliminated. |
The Front Man notices that the telephone has been used by someone else. Drawing his gun, he hunts down the intruder, calling him out and saying that he must be a police officer because of the M60 revolver that he uses. Later on, the guards find Jun-ho’s badge and ID on the body of the guard that washed ashore.
The Front Man reports to someone wearing a rabbit’s mask that the next game will proceed as scheduled and will be ready for the coming VIPs.
With 16 players remaining and the prize money now 44 billion won, the fifth game begins. The players are first asked to choose from the numbered mannequins set before them; as the other players choose their picks, Gi-hun is torn between No. 1 and No. 16.
The players are led into the playing room, with a glass bridge in front of them.
Jun-ho disguises himself as one of the waiters serving wine to the VIPs. While the game is going on, one of the VIPs orders him to take off his mask.
Episode 8: “Front Man”
| Ep. 7 recap:
Jun-ho forces one of the VIPs at gunpoint to reveal everything he knows about what’s going on. When the players in front of him die by stepping on ordinary glass instead of tempered glass, Deok-soo refuses to move, endangering everyone because of the expiring time limit. Mi-nyeo mocks him for being a coward; she embraces Deok-soo tightly, and they plunge to their deaths. Sang-woo pushes the man before him off the bridge. Gi-hun, Sang-woo, and Sae-byeok survive the fifth game. But the glass bridge explodes, sending pieces of glass hurtling towards them. Using the scuba diving gear, Jun-ho escapes from the island, but the Front Man and some guards chase after him on a speed boat. |
As finalists, Gi-hun, Sang-woo, and Sae-byeok exchange their tracksuits for formal suits. But Sae-byeok was seriously injured when the glass bridge exploded.
Jun-ho is cornered on an island by the Front Man and the guards.
Gi-hun realizes that Sang-woo will do anything to win, and so, he forms an alliance with Sae-byeok. When Sang-woo falls asleep, Gi-hun approaches him, a steak knife in his hand.
Episode 9: “One Lucky Day” (Finale, with spoilers)
| Ep. 8 recap:
Sae-byeok tells Gi-hun that whoever of them survives must take care of the other person’s family; she stops Gi-hun from killing Sang-woo. Sang-woo kills Sae-byeok. On the island, Jun-ho finds out that the Front Man is none other than Jin-ho, his missing brother. When he refuses to join the staff that runs the games, he’s shot by Jin-ho, and he falls off the cliff into the sea. |
After winning the games, Gi-hun is given a card through which he can access the prize money.
One year later ...
Gi-hun finds out that the person who started the games for bored ultra-rich men is one of the players.
Gi-hun takes Sae-byeok’s brother from the orphanage and places him under the care of Sang-woo’s mother.
In the airport on the way to the USA to see his daughter, Gi-hun sees a man playing the card game “ddakji” with the same fashionably dressed man whom he played with before he joined the games.
Historical / cultural backgrounders and other information
1. The “secret inspector” (“Amhaeng-eosa”) reference in Ep. 1 of “Squid Game”
At around the 1:08 mark of Ep. 1, after the young Gi-hun lands at a certain spot, the adult Gi-hun narrates that they exclaim “secret inspector” (“amhaeng-eosa”) for some reason. As the adult Gi-hun further narrates, from that point on, they can walk around freely on two feet.
I’ve seen on Reddit and YouTube various explanations (some more kooky than others) about what that “secret inspector” (“amhaeng-eosa”) reference is in relation to the whole drama. Based on what the “secret inspector” (“amhaeng-eosa”) was in Korean history, you can decide for yourself whether such reference has a deeper meaning in the drama, if it refers to Gi-hun or another character, or it’s simply how Gi-hun and his friends played the game.
From “Amhaeng-eosa - secret royal inspector in Joseon Kingdom” (The Korea Times): “They were undercover officials directly appointed by the king and were sent to local provinces to punish corrupt officials and comfort the sufferings of people while traveling incognito. The amhaeng-eosa system was one of the most excellent inspection systems in the world, the likes of which is very unique and hard to find in other countries.”
The Korea Times article also states that the secret royal inspectors carried two things: the “yuchuk” and the “mapae.”
“Yuchuk” is a brazen ruler and usually two yuchuk were given to the secret royal inspector. One was to measure the implements of punishment for criminals, to restrain the overuse of punishment by checking whether each province implemented the right punishment according to the code of law. The other one was to investigate whether the measurement system for taxation was correctly followed.
The “mapae” was used to prove an inspector’s identity. The number of horses engraved on it showed how many horses he could requisition from the royal stables (“saboksi”) in pursuit of his mission. It was also used to summon soldiers.
According to The Korea Times article, the secret royal inspector also had a “bongseo” or a letter of appointment and description of assignment from the King. After the secret royal inspector completed his assignment, he submitted “seogye” and “byuldan” or reports to the King.
The book “Corea, The Hermit Kingdom” (1888) by William Elliott Griffis states several interesting things about the secret royal inspectors. They were called “The Messengers on the Dark Path,” and to prevent them from abusing their powers, they were secretly monitored by a “yashi” or “Night Messenger.” Griffis states:
“An E-sa, or commissioner, who is to be sent to a distant province to ascertain the popular feeling, or to report the conduct of certain officers, is also called ‘The Messenger on the Dark Path.’ He receives sealed orders from the king, which he must not open till beyond the city walls. Then, without even going to his own house, he must set out for his destination, the government providing his expenses. He bears the seal of his commission, a silver plate having the figure of a horse engraved on it. In some cases he has the power of life and death in his hands.
“Yet, even the Messenger of the Dark Path is not free from espionage, for after him forthwith follows his ‘double’ the yashi or Night Messenger, who reports on the conduct of the royal inspector and also on the affairs of each province through which he passes. The whereabouts of these emissaries are rarely discoverable by the people, as they travel in strict disguise, and unknown.
“This system corresponds almost exactly to that of the ometsuke (eye-appliers), for many centuries in use in Japan, but abolished by the Mikado’s government at the revolution of 1868. It was by means of these E-sa or spies that many of the Corean Christians of rank were marked for destruction. The system, though abominable in free countries, is yet an excellent medium between the throne and the subject, and serves as a wholesome check on official rapine and cruelty.”
2. At around the 35:12 mark of Ep. 1 while Deok-soo is beating up Sae-byeok for leaving his gang to be a pickpocket on her own, he mentions “Yu Gwan-sun.”
From Wikipedia: Yu Gwan-sun (December 16, 1902 – September 28, 1920) was a Korean independence activist organizer in what would come to be known as the March First Independence Movement against Imperial Japanese colonial rule of Korea in South Chungcheong. The movement was a peaceful demonstration by the Korean people against Japanese rule. Ryu became one of the most famous figures in this movement and later a symbol of Korea’s fight for independence. She died (aged 17) in Kyōjō Prison, Keijo, Japanese Korea (now Seodaemun Prison, Seoul, South Korea).
Yu Gwan-sun was portrayed by Go Ah-seong in the 2019 film “A Resistance.”
3. Relevant resources from YouTube:
10 Things You missed in “Squid Game” if You Don’t Speak Korean!
Korean Language Professor Breaks Down Squid Game’s Subtitles | WIRED
