There are a total of nine episodes in Netflix's survival series Squid Game.
The series' name is based on a kid's game with a similar name that is popular in Korea. Hwang had developed the concept in response to his own early-life financial struggles, the class divide in South Korea, and capitalism. Though he had first drafted it in 2009, he was unable to find a production company to support the concept until Netflix became interested in it around 2019 as part of their effort to broaden their selection of foreign programming.
Seong Gi-hun, a divorced father and debtor who resides with his dying mother, is invited to participate in a series of kid's games for the chance to win a reasonably large cash prize. When he accepts the offer, he is taken to an unidentified location with 455 other players who are all in dire financial straits. The Front Man, who wears a black mask and a black uniform, oversees the games, while the players are required to wear green tracksuits and are constantly watched over by masked guards wearing pink jumpsuits.
The players quickly learn that losing a game results in their death, with each death increasing the potential ₩45.6 billion grand prize by ₩100 million. To survive the physical and psychological twists of the games, Gi-hun forms alliances with other players, including his childhood friend Cho Sang-woo and North Korean defector Kang Sae-byeok.
Hwang wrote and directed all nine episodes of Squid Game, which ranged in length from 32 to 63 minutes. The full series was released in all Netflix worldwide markets on September 17, 2021.
The nine-episode synopsis of "The Squid Game" is as follows:
Episode 1 - Red Light, Green Light
Seong Gi-hun is struggling, having amassed sizable debts from loan sharks and grown distant from both his daughter and ex-wife. A well-dressed man approaches him in a subway and offers to pay him to play a game of ddakji in exchange for the chance to play additional games with much higher stakes.
Gi-hun agrees, is put to sleep, and awakens in a dormitory with 455 other people who can only be distinguished from one another by numbers on their green tracksuits. The players are all in dire financial situations, but if they can win six games over the course of six days, they will receive billions of won (Korean currency) in prize money, according to a group of masked guards wearing pink jumpsuits who arrive.
The "Front Man," who is masked and dressed in all black, is in charge of the games. Player 001 is an elderly man with a brain tumor whom Gi-hun befriends. He also recognizes two other players: Player 067, a pickpocket who took Gi-hun's money after he won a horse race wager, and Cho Sang-woo, a former classmate who went on to become an investment broker.
Red Light, Green Light is the first game, and it makes clear how savage the games are by having anyone caught moving immediately shot to death. When the crowd realizes this, half of them panic and make an effort to leave, turning the game into a massacre. Sang-woo and Player 199 assist Gi-hun in completing the game.
Episode 2 - Hell
Many survivors demand to be released because the first game resulted in the deaths of more than half the players. They narrowly decide to call off the contest and send everyone home without any prizes by using the third clause of the game. When Gi-hun returns to Seoul, he approaches the police, but no one takes him seriously save for Detective Hwang Jun-ho, whose brother also received the invitation card and has recently vanished.
When given the chance to rejoin the game, many players do so out of desperation. This includes Player 001, who doesn't want to pass away in the outside world; Gi-hun, whose mother needs surgery; Sang-woo, who is about to be arrested for financial fraud; and others. Player 067, who wants to free her younger brother from an orphanage and rescue her parents from North Korea; Player 199, a Pakistani migrant worker who attacked and seriously hurt his employer after the latter refused to pay him; and Player 101, Jang Deok-su, a gangster on the run from his former employers and gambling debts.
Episode 3 - The Man with the Umbrella
It is revealed that the venue is an isolated island after Jun-ho successfully infiltrates the games while posing as a masked worker. Now that they are better prepared, the players are forming alliances. Team members include Gi-hun, Sang-woo, Player 001, and Player 199. When player 067 investigates an air vent, he or she finds workers melting sugar pots.
The second game is revealed to be Ppopgi, in which players have ten minutes to perfectly extract a stamped shape from a honeycomb candy called a dalgona. Sang-woo learns of Player 067's discovery and is aware of the game beforehand, but he chooses the most straightforward shape for himself and does not alert his teammates.
Gi-hun chooses the most challenging shape—an umbrella—but manages to win the game by melting the honeycomb with his tongue. With the aid of a counterfeit lighter, Player 212, a boisterous and cunning woman, aids Deok-su in winning the game.
A guard is taken hostage by a player who is about to be killed and made to reveal his identity. The player shoots himself after discovering the staff member is a young man, and the guard is killed by the Front Man for disclosing his identity.
Episode 4 - Stick to the Team
In exchange for information on upcoming games, Player 111, a disgraced doctor, secretly collaborates with a small group of guards to collect organs from deceased players to sell on the black market. The value of the prize money rises when Deok-su kills a player after accusing him of stealing extra food, and the guards fail to stop him.
After the lights go out, Deok-su and his gang start a massive riot, which leads to players attacking one another after realizing they could freely kill other players to increase the prize money. Players 199 and 067 are Ali Abdul and Sae-byeok, respectively, and they exchange names to establish trust in Gi-hun's group. Due to his brain tumor, Player 001 has trouble remembering his name.
Players are instructed to form groups of ten for the third game. Sae-byeok enlists Player 240, a young woman roughly her age, for Gi-hun's team. A team wins the game by dragging the other team off the platform, where they will perish, and the game is revealed to be a tug of war on two raised platforms.
Deok-su rejects Mi-nyeo, who joins Gi-hun's team, and chooses only strong men because he had previously learned about the game from Player 111. Gi-hun's team struggles against another all-male team after Deok-su's team easily wins their match.
Episode 5 - A Fair World
With the help of Sang-woo's quick thinking and Player 001's strategy, Gi-hun's team prevails in their tug-of-war contest. They construct a barricade and spend the night taking turns on guard because they expect another riot, but Deok-team Su's does not attack.
Gi-hun recalls how, ten years prior, he and numerous other employees of an automobile factory protested a mass layoff, which was the catalyst for Gi-hun's unsuccessful life's course. Sae-Byeok doesn't return the friend request from Player 240, despite his best efforts. Jun-ho watches as the guard whose identity he stole participates in the organ harvesting scam.
Everyone involved in the scam eventually perishes, with the exception of Jun-ho, including Player 111. The Front Man's office is broken into by Jun-ho, who causes the Front Man to launch a facility-wide manhunt for him. Jun-ho discovers that his older brother, Hwang In-ho, won the game in 2015 and that it has been played for more than 30 years.
Episode 6 - Gganbu
The players are given the assurance that the games are made to give each player an equal opportunity without discrimination after witnessing the bodies of Player 111 and his accomplices being strung up for cheating. In the fourth game, players are instructed to pair up, but they quickly learn that they will not be playing as a team but rather competing against their partner in a marble game of their choice.
Within 30 minutes, the person who collects all of their partner's marbles wins and stays alive. A player by the name of Ji-yeong and Sae-byeok share their life stories; Ji-yeong realizes Sae-byeok has more to live for and makes a sacrifice. Sang-woo successfully induced Ali into handing over his marbles.
Player 278—Deok-su's accomplice and henchman—is defeated. Gi-hun uses Player 001's dementia to his advantage in order to defeat him, only to find that the elderly man was aware of the trick the entire time. Player 001, who recalls his name to be Oh Il-nam, concedes defeat in favor of Gi-hun because he is his gganbu (trusted friend). The loss of their friends has traumatized Gi-hun and Sae-byeok.
Episode 7 - VIPS
When the players come back, they discover Mi-nyeo, who was alone during the marbles game, still alive. Foreign VIPs who had been placing remote bets on the games showed up to watch and place live bets on the upcoming rounds. One of the masked servants approaches Jun-ho while he is pretending to be one of them.
He assaults the VIP in a private space, gets his confession on tape, and leaves the island. In contrast, in the fifth game, players must cross a bridge with two panels that are either made of tempered glass or regular glass, the latter of which cannot support their weight. As they gradually test the panels, the players at the front of the line fall to their deaths.
Even though time is running out, Deok-su stands still, daring others to pass him. In retaliation for betraying her, Mi-Nyeo grabs him and drags him down with her to their deaths. An experienced glass worker, Player 017, Do Jung-Soo, can identify which panels are secure up until the Front Man turns off the lights, eliminating his advantage.
Sang-woo pushes Jung-Soo to his death as the clock ticks down, revealing the final trick panel. Only Gi-hun, Sang-woo, and Sae-byeok finish the game, which is interrupted by explosions that damage the other panels and injure the other three players.
Episode 8 - Front Man
Gi-hun, Sang-woo, and Sae-byeok receive a change into formal attire as the winners. The severe stabbing injury Sae-byeok sustained during the glass bridge explosion is concealed. Following dinner, each participant is given a steak knife. Gi-hun advises Sae-byeok to team up against Sang-woo because he knows he'll do anything to win.
Instead, Sae-byeok implores Gi-hun to affirm that whoever triumphs in the game will take care of the other's loved ones. When Sang-woo nods off, Gi-hun moves to murder him, but Sae-byeok intervenes, telling him he is not a murderer. As Sae-byeok's injury worsens, Gi-hun makes a call for assistance. While Gi-hun is away, Sang-woo murders Sae-byeok, and when the guards show up, it's only to take her body.
Gi-hun tries to attack Sang-woo while enraged and heartbroken, but the guards stop him. The Front Man and the guards quickly find Jun-ho after he makes it to another island. The Front Man turns out to be Jun-ho's brother, In-ho, who is trying to recruit him, shocking Jun-ho. In-ho shoots Jun-ho in the shoulder after he declines, causing him to tumble backward into the water from a cliff's edge.
Episode 9 - One Lucky Day
Gi-hun defeats Sang-woo in the final match of the eponymous Squid game but chooses not to kill him; instead, he uses the third clause to implore Sang-Woo to end the match. Sang-woo asks Gi-hun to take care of his mother before stabbing himself in the neck. After receiving a bank card to access the prize money, Gi-hun is sent back to Seoul, where he learns that his mother has passed away.
After a year, Gi-hun is still traumatized and hasn't spent any of his winnings out of guilt. He discovers Oh Il-nam on his deathbed after receiving an invitation card from his gganbu. Il-nam admits that he designed the game to amuse other wealthy, bored people like himself. Out of nostalgia, he joined Gi-hun's group and played games he used to play as a kid. Il-nam bets with Gi-hun whether a helpless man lying on a street corner will be found before midnight as they converse.
After the man is saved, Il-nam passes away. Sae-byeok's brother is retrieved by Gi-hun, who also distributes a portion of the prize money to Sang-woo's mother to care for him. Gi-hun sees the same game recruiter playing ddakji with another desperate player as he heads to the airport to meet up with his daughter in Los Angeles, but is only able to obtain that player's invitation card.
Before getting on the plane, he calls the card's number and demands to know who is in charge of the games. He is sternly told to board the aircraft by the person who answered the phone, but Gi-hun hangs up and goes back to the terminal.
FAQs
Q. How many episodes are there in the Squid Game?
A. Netflix's survival drama Squid Game has nine episodes in total.
Q. When was the Squid Game released?
A. The Squid Game was officially released on Netflix on September 17, 2021.
Q. Will there be a sequel to the Squid Game?
A.Yes, Squid Game has been renewed for a second season, though it is under production.
