Summary of ‘Squid Game’ heading into Season 2

(This story contains spoilers from Play octopus season 1.)

Three years after taking Netflix by storm to become the streamer’s most popular series of all time, Play octopus returns December 26 with its long-awaited sequel season. Set in the aftermath of the first final, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk’s thriller looks to delve deeper into the violent history of the title competition, with Lee Jung-jae once again braving the games as Seong Gi-hun.

Before you dive in Squid game 2you’re probably wondering if you need to remember every single detail about the original. That answer is complicated. You don’t have to remember every character and beat, but there are definitely recurring characters and plot points you should brush yourself up on before hitting play. If you don’t have time for the whole rewatch, here’s a pocket-sized primer on what you need to know beforehand Squid game 2 (trailer, below).

Filmed and set in South Korea, Play octopus followed Gi-hun, a vile gambler and deadbeat father, despite his love for his child. He often plays and runs schemes with his best friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan), who will return in season two. However, Jung-bae barely registers in Season 1 when an increasingly desperate Gi-hun takes up an enigmatic salesman (Gong Yoo) on an offer to make real money playing the squid game, leaving her world behind. (It sells, by the way? Also will return in season two.)

After sleeping through a gas-filled limousine ride, Gi-hun wakes up wearing a green jumpsuit in a massive bunk room with a small army of similarly dressed individuals. They are all here to compete for an insane amount of money, all signed before they fully understand the rules of the game. They quickly figure out the rules, with a large selection of competitors dying in the opening game Red Light Green Light, an instantly iconic sequence. A majority of the survivors vote to end the game and go home. But within a week, those same survivors decide to return, preferring their odds in a series of deathmatches to their odds of surviving at home.

So the games continue, with all eyes on Gi-hun and an accompaniment of other contestants, allies and enemies. The eyes belong to a masked figure called Front Man, played by Lee Byung-hun, whose undercover cop brother Jun-ho (Wi Ha-Joon) has infiltrated the game in hopes of finding his long-lost sibling. Front Man and Jun-ho have a brief but tense reunion in Season 1 that ends with Jun-ho shot and presumed dead—but very much still alive if that doesn’t factor into the equation.

Both Front Man and Jun-ho will play roles in season two, but other returning players? Not so much, considering how season one ended with the death of every single one of Gi-hun’s allies. As the sole survivor of the game, Gi-hun walks away with more money than he could ever spend in his life. But the cost far outweighs the reward, when a year after her victory, Gi-hun seeks out the game’s architect, Oh Il-nam (Oh Yeong-su), a dying old man who posed as Gi-hun’s ally in the game.

With “Player 001” dead, Gi-hun lacks any real clues as to how to stop the game, so he does what everyone else would do in his shoes: dye his hair pink and head out to the United States, where his daughter now lives . But just before he boards the plane, Gi-hun gets a phone call from the frontman, and the siren song of revenge begins. The season ends with Gi-hun turning around and vowing revenge – and that’s exactly where we have to start when Squid game 2 dropping all episodes on December 26th.

“He’s a very changed person,” Lee recently teased of his Gi-hun Play octopus returns for a season already nominated for a Golden Globe. “The way he perceives the circumstances around him and engages with the world, he will almost seem like a different person. He is goal-driven more than anything else – and he has an extremely strong conviction to put an end to the game.”

The clash between Lee’s Player 456 and Front Man will continue until the series finale with season three already confirmed to be released in 2025.