Squid Game: recap and summary, we take stock before season 2

© Netflix

It took almost two and a half years to find the player No. 456. But here it is, season 2 of Squid Gameis (finally) well and truly imminent. For better or for worse. If you remember the general outline of the k-drama, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since the first episodes of the series aired. The least we can say is that a recap of Squid Game won't hurt anyone.

What to remember from season 1 of Squid Game ?

*Given the subject of this article, a disclaimer doesn't seem necessary, but just in case: this article contains spoilers from season 1 of Squid Game. If you haven't seen this series, we strongly advise you not to continue reading. However, you can bookmark this article and come back to read it when you have watched the first season of Squid Game.*

To say that season 1 of Squid Gamewas full of emotions would be an understatement. Since its launch on Netflix in September 2021, the series directed and imagined by Hwang Dong-hyuk has been a hit all over the world. It is no longer a series but a real phenomenon with an undeniable impact on pop culture in just a few weeks.

In season 1 of Squid Game, we meet Gi-hun, a man overwhelmed by debt, living off his mother since she was laid off years before. From then on, the man squanders his money and that of his mother by betting on horse races.

Squid Game © Netflix

Divorced, his relationship with his ex-wife and 7-year-old daughter is complicated. Especially when he learns that they plan to leave South Korea for the United States. As his creditors pressure him to recover what they owe him, he crosses paths with a strange man in a suit on the subway. He offers to play the game ddakji. If he wins the game, he gets 100,000 won (about $70). If not, he has to give it away. Penniless, he can pay his debt in another way: by getting slapped. After the game, his opponent slips him a mysterious card and offers him a chance to win a lot more money…

Read also – Squid Game Review: Why You Absolutely Need to Watch This Series

After accepting this strange proposition, Gi-hun gets into a van and is immediately put to sleep. Welcome to the Squid Game! When he wakes up, he is in a huge dormitory and is wearing a green tracksuit with the number 456. Around him ? 455 other people, all ready to participate in a most unusual tournament to win money. Their interlocutors ? Guards dressed in red (or pink, depending on the eyes of each) jumpsuits wearing masks with a symbol: a circle, a square or a triangle. Oh, and they are armed. The principle ? Participate in games intended for children.

But when they start playing the first game (1, 2, 3, sun), it is disillusionment and fear that take hold of everyone. Because when you lose, you are eliminated for real. To put it simply: to lose is to die. Player #456 survives this first test, thanks to the help of a former classmate (Sang-woo #218) and #199.

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While more than half of the participants were coldly killed during the 1, 2, 3, sun, several players ask to stop the game. If the majority wants it, they can all leave… But without touching a single cent. They are all barely released and sent home. Gi-hun rushes to the police station and tries to alert the authorities but no one believes him and he is considered crazy. There is only one policeman, detective Hwang Jun-ho, who discreetly listens. The latter's brother disappeared after receiving a similar mysterious card.

Thus, most of the players realize that the life that awaits them outside is not sweet and that they need the money promised by this infernal game to get out of it. They are therefore many to return to the arena of their own free will. Detective Hwang Jun-ho takes the opportunity to infiltrate the game by disguising himself as a masked guard.

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The trials go by, the deaths too. As the games go by, Gi-hun teams up with number 218 (Sang-woo, his childhood friend), number 199 (Ali, a Pakistani immigrant), number 001 (an old man with a brain tumor) and number 067 (Sae-byeok, a North Korean who stole money from him before the Squid Game). Sang-woo shows his determination to win at all costs on several occasions while Gi-hun seems to want to believe in the goodness of each other despite the hell they live together. Everything gets worse when they realize that they can kill each other without any impunity: the guards do not intervene. The night also becomes dangerous for the players…

At the same time, detective Hwang Jun-ho continues his infiltration in search of his brother. He discovers that the game has existed for 30 years and that his missing brother won the 2015 edition. We then understand that this game is only intended to entertain “VIPs”, Western men who are certainly rich and who bet on their favorites, like common racing hair.

© Netflix

As the players die one by one, Gi-hun (#456), Sang-woo (#218), and Sae-byeok (#067) are the finalists. While Sang-woo doesn't seem any more moved by what he had to do and experience to get there, this is not the case for these two rivals, who are particularly traumatized by the events they are going through. The marble test was particularly upsetting, for the players and the spectators alike. Number 456 is having a hard time getting over the death of number 001, who made him believe that he was losing his mind during the marble test to let him win.

The one who seems to be in control of everything is, in reality, not the creator of the Squid Game. The Agent (or Front-Man) is a former winner, the brother of the undercover cop. Chasing each other, they finally find themselves face to face at the top of a cliff. The detective refuses to join his brother, who shoots him in the shoulder, causing a fall that we imagine to be fatal. But before this confrontation, the young man called his boss, and tried to send him proof of what he was saying. Unfortunately, on an island in the middle of nowhere, the network is unreliable. It remains to be seen if the authorities will intervene in season 2…

Injured in the penultimate event, number 067 is dying the day before the final. If Gi-hun tries to save her, Sang-woo kills her to end her suffering, which makes his opponent mad with rage. Numbers 456 and 218 are therefore the two participants still alive and the victory is decided during the squid game. This is a children's game from South Korea known for its violence. Number 456 manages to beat his friend, but refuses to kill him. Sang-woo therefore decides to take his own life so that Gi-hun wins the sum of 45.6 billion won, or more than 30 million euros.

Free and alive, Gi-hun returns to his daily life but reality is not sweet. His mother died while he was away and the man is traumatized by everything he has experienced. After a year, he still refuses to use his money. Until a mysterious phone call. Plot twist: Player 001 is not dead, as we were led to believe. He is the one who created the Squid Game and he asked to see Gi-hun before he took his last breath. He came up with this terrible game to entertain the rich who, like him, were bored, and wants to prove that humans seriously lack empathy.

At the end of season 1 of Squid Game, Gi-hun is about to join his daughter in Los Angeles. But everything changes when he meets the man who hired him on the subway, playing the same game with another totally desperate man. He decides to find out who is now running the game and intends to get revenge. Before the end of the final episode, Gi-hun turns around, deciding to abandon his plan to find his daughter in the United States.

The Squid Game Trials in Season 1

• 1, 2, 3, sun
• The dalgona
• The tug of war
• The marbles
• The corridor of glasses
• The squid game

There you have it, you know pretty much everything about season 1 of Squid Game. We had to hang on tight! We imagine that a recap was not to be refused. You are now ready to discover season 2 of Squid Game. It's on Netflix from this Thursday, December 26, 2024 at 9:01 a.m. A nice Christmas present, finally…

Read also – “No, I won’t watch Squid Game”

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