🚨🚨 Warning: Major Spoilers 🚨🚨
Squid Game Season 2 is on its way!
When Squid Game first premiered on Netflix, it took the world by storm with its suspenseful, one-of-a-kind plot and gut-wrenching twists and turns that had me paranoid for weeks.
But it's been a hot minute since we first joined a bunch of randomly desperate green jumpsuit-wearing contestants in a deadly game of survival, so I figured we were overdue for a quick recap before Season 2 hits the streamwaves.
Here's everything you need to know about Squid Game, Season 1:
🚨MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD🚨(This is your final warning.)
Squid Game is about 456 very desperate contestants who compete in a series of deadly survival "childhood" games to win 45.6 billion won (which is a little over $38 million). To keep things in order, they're watched over by masked, armed guards in pink jumpsuits and their leader in black — The Front Man.
Each contestant has reasons for needing the cash, some more sinister than others. Yet, the series focuses on Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), a gambling deadbeat father with insurmountable debt and an ailing mother.
The first game is Red Light, Green Light, and Gi-hun quickly learns that you straight-up die if you fail to complete any of the games on the island. As the games continue, the winnings increase, the stakes are higher, and the players become more desperate and dangerous every second.
Aside from Gi-hun, another notable player is Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon), aka Player 067, a taciturn woman from North Korea fighting to get her family across the border.
Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo), aka Player 218, is another notable contestant, Gi-hun's childhood friend, and a businessman on the run after stealing money from his clients for bad investments.
Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) is a police officer who disguises himself as a guard in a pink jumpsuit to find his missing brother on the island.
And then, there's Oh Il-nam (Oh Yeong-su), aka Player 001, who is an older man with a brain tumor who joined the games because he doesn't want to die in the outside world.
Gi-hun starts an alliance with his childhood friend and the older man, and they each survive the next game, Ppopgi, in which they must remove a specific shape (triangle, star, circle, or umbrella) from dalgona, a honeycomb toffee candy and traditional Korean street food.
Eventually, the gangsters and shadier contestants join forces to gain the upper hand in the games, and they begin to murder other contestants to increase the pot.
Despite all the odds, Gi-hun's ragtag alliance (which picks up a few new members) successfully wins the next match, Tug-of-War, thanks to a tip from the older man.
However, everything falls apart when the alliance is pitted against each other for the next game — marbles.
Only Gi-hun, Sang-woo, and Sae-byeok survive the next game, which involves a series of glass stepping stones that can randomly break if you step on the wrong one. Unfortunately, Sae-byeok gets badly injured in the game.
Before the final game, Gi-hun and Sae-byeok make a pact to help each other's families and agree not to betray their alliance and kill Sang-woo. Unfortunately, Sang-woo kills the injured Sae-byeok when she is left alone.
Elsewhere, Jun-ho, the disguised cop searching for his lost brother, discovers the history of the Squid Game and the identity of the evil masked host of the games known as The Front Man — it's his brother!
In the final event — Squid Game, a children's playground game — a vengeful Gi-hun wins and attempts to end the competition (Hunger Games style) instead of killing his friend, but a regretful Sang-woo kills himself so Gi-hun can win the money.
With his untouched prize money, Gi-hun receives a mysterious invitation and meets the creator of the games on his deathbed. It's the older man, Oh Il-nam!
Fortunately, Gi-hun manages to carry out the dying wishes of his friends. Yet, when he is about to take a plane to see his daughter in the United States, he runs into the mysterious salesperson again. The salesman manages to get away but drops a card.
And that's where Season 1 leaves off! I can't wait to see what Season 2 has in store. Will there be new deadly games and more desperate contestants, and will Gi-hun succeed in taking down the entire organization?
Stay tuned!
Squid Game is available to stream on Netflix.
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