Season 1 Recap, Who Won and Died Ahead of Season 2 Netflix

With the upcoming second season of “Squid Game” placing Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) back in the fighting ring – now with a determination to end the game from within – what better time to look back at where this sensational South Korean show began?

After its release on Netflix in September 2021, “Squid Game” quickly became an international sensation, becoming the streaming giant’s most-watched TV series of all time. The show, created and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, won six Primetime Emmy Awards, including for actors Lee Jung-jae and Lee You-mi.

Read below for a refresher on the gory events that went down in the first season, the reality show that capitalized on the show’s success, and what audiences can expect from the second season before it drops Dec. 26 on Netflix.

What happened in that fateful first season

With a demented twist on childhood games, “Squid Game” follows 456 contestants in South Korea who accept a mysterious invitation for the chance to win $45.6 billion won (roughly just over $31 million USD) after struggling to pay off their debts. What the contestants don’t realize is that the games are a match to the death, with the first “Red Light, Green Light” contest ending in the gruesome death of all the losing contestants.

Gi-hun is one of the people who fatefully survives the first game along with Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo), Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon), Jang Deok-su (Heo Seong-tae ), Abdul Ali (Anupam Tripathi), and Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su), all of whom Gi-hun gets to know over the course of the season before their gambling-related deaths: died.

The games continue throughout each episode, from tug-of-war, glass bridge walking, dalgona to marbles. The audience begins to learn some of the mysterious basis of the organization behind the Squid Games and the VIPs who delight in the poor people struggling for survival in their thirst for money. As the “Squid Game” shows the popularity of betting on horse racing among lower classes in Korea, this fight-to-the-death competition provides the same excitement for the elite.

Detective Hwang Jung-Ho (Wi Ha-joon) goes undercover to find his missing brother and discovers that he was a former winner of the games. After being confronted by The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), Jung-Ho shockingly discovers that his brother is now the head guard of the entire operation. Jung-Ho does not agree to join his brother and is thrown off a cliff, presumably dead.

The first season ends with Gi-hun winning the prize money in a final match to the death with his last remaining competitor Sang-woo, but sinking into a depression that is all the way down after the traumatic experience of seeing hundreds of people around him die, i.a. , Sang-woo, his childhood best friend who sacrificed himself in the final round after playing viciously up until that point. He doesn’t touch the money for a year.

Gi-hun soon discovers that Player 001, sick old man Oh Il-nam, actually created the Squid Games and sat through them this time to feel the rush of the stakes in his favorite childhood game. After Gi-hun wins a bet to learn the game’s secrets, Oh Il-nam dies before he can reveal anything.

Gi-hun gives Sang-woo’s mother a share of his winnings and decides to go home to see her daughter in the US. However, after seeing more people being recruited on the way to the airport, indicating that the games are continuing, he decides to stay put and go back to end the fighting from within.

The ‘Squid Game’ universe meanwhile

Capitalizing on the success of the first season, Netflix brought the “Squid Game” craze to the world of reality TV with “Squid Game: The Challenge,” which was released in November 2023. The UK-based show recreated many of the original infamous games, even repeating the exact number of participants, albeit with the prize money reduced to a more modest $4.56 million USD versus $45.6 billion South Korean won. It was renewed for a second season last December.

But a reality show based on a show about a group of poor people exploited for entertainment and violence did not come without its own controversy. In his review for BlackAlison Herman described how “the contradictions only increase with ‘Squid Game: The Challenge,’ a competition series that brings Hwang’s (Dong-hyuk) vision to life, minus the mass murder and most of the social commentary.”

In February 2023, Manori Ravindran published a piece in the Black detailed experiences of program participants about alleged poor conditions. Netflix and producers Studio Lambert and The Garden claimed that all necessary safety and health precautions had been taken.

The extensive experiences haven’t stopped there, as a personal activation called the “Squid Game Experience” has already launched in New York City, Madrid and Sydney. These real-life versions of the games aim to replicate the experience of participating in the challenges – minus the cold-blooded murder.

What season 2 has in store

The second season of “Squid Game” promises more violence with Gi-hun, once again Player 456, giving up on returning home and instead re-entering the arena after already winning the prize money. “I’m trying to put an end to the game,” Gi-hun states during the official trailerwhich teases new games and contestants that Gi-hun will have to go up against.

In an interview with writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk, he teased that Season 2 will feature “Gi-hun (being) confronted with her memories of the first game—the experiences of going through a new realization and waking up and returning back to the game to stop this unfair game.”

Frontman Detective Jun-ho and Squid Games Recruiter (Gong Yoo) are all set to return for the second season, joined by an all-new cast of contestants including Yim Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Park Gyu-young, Park Sung-hoon, Jo Yu-ri, Lee David and many more.

The third season will premiere on Netflix in 2025.