• The Front Man in "Squid Game" is Hwang In-ho, detective Hwang Jun-ho's brother.
• One fan theory suggests that In-ho could be related to another character in the series.
• It's not impossible, but the evidence isn't overwhelming.

In season two of "Squid Game," the game's steward — known as the Front Man, or Hwang In-ho under the mask — enters the game himself. Though he's already related to one other character in the show, a new theory suggests he could be further tied to the games.

In season one, detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun) infiltrated the games in search of his older brother In-ho (Lee Byung-hun). In-ho wasn't a player in the games with Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), however — he was the one running them. But in season two, In-ho infiltrates the games as player 001 using the name Oh Young-il.

In-ho mostly seems to be there to break Gi-hun's spirit, treating him like a comrade until he sabotages Gi-hun's rebellion in the season finale. He's not the first player 001 to betray Gi-hun's trust: In season one, the game's creator Oh Il-nam plays alongside Gi-hun as well before revealing his true identity in the outside world.

One moment in season two has fans thinking that In-ho and Il-nam may be further connected — but it's far from conclusive.

Fans speculate that Il-nam is In-ho's father — because of two lines about milk

In season one, episode three, Gi-hun asks one of the guards distributing snacks to players if he could trade his regular milk for chocolate milk, saying that he's never been able to digest plain milk. The guard refuses, but Il-nam remarks on Gi-hun's preferences.

"I bet your father spanked you a lot when you were young," Il-nam says.

"How did you know?" Gi-hun asks.

"My son was just like you," Il-nam replies.

In season two, episode five, In-ho doesn't drink his plain milk either. After the guards serve the players a similar bread and milk snack, In-ho passes his milk to the pregnant Jun-hee instead of drinking it.

"I don't drink plain milk," he tells her.

The "milk theory" has proliferated on social media platforms like Reddit and X. However, one image in support of the theory being circulated online includes inaccurate dialogue.

The above screenshot, which was also posted to the r/squidgame subreddit, simplifies the dialogue in both scenes. Il-nam never tells Gi-hun, "you are just like my son he couldn't drink milk too," and In-ho never says, "here, I can't drink it anyway."

To be fair, the original dialogue in each respective scene isn't that different — but it is slightly more nuanced.

The 'milk theory' raises some other questions

A twist like this would feel a bit out of character for "Squid Game," particularly given that the show has already pulled a secret-family-member twist with the Front Man already. That doesn't necessarily mean it couldn't happen, but the evidence isn't overwhelming.

First, Il-nam says several times in season one that he has a son, singular. In the season finale, he tells Gi-hun on his deathbed that "long ago, I once lived in a house in an alley just like that one with my wife and son."

However, in season two, we learn that In-ho and Jun-ho are half brothers who share a father because Jun-ho's mother refers to In-ho as her stepson. If Il-nam was In-ho's father, he should be Jun-ho's as well.

That doesn't fully rule out the theory: it's possible that Il-nam abandoned In-ho with Jun-ho's mother, and that he didn't raise Jun-ho or consider him a son. Still, there's not much to go on.

If In-ho were Il-nam's son, the implications would be severe depending on the strength of their relationship as adults and if they knew of the others' existence before In-ho entered the games. At worst, it would mean that Il-nam didn't provide his son the money to save his wife's life, and knowingly let him participate in the games. At best, it would mean that they reunited after In-ho joined, and won, the games in 2015.

Furthermore, Il-nam and In-ho give the same surname, Oh, in the games, but they don't share one in real life. Il-nam tells Gi-hun in the season one finale that he didn't lie about his name in the games, but as far as we know, In-ho is lying about his: In-ho's true last name, which he shares with his brother, is Hwang.

Ultimately, it's not impossible that In-ho is Il-nam's son, but the evidence is far from conclusive. The milk thing is weird, sure — but lactose intolerance does not a paternal relationship make. After that cliffhanger ending, we'll have to wait for season three to see if the show goes any further with this particular thread.

"Squid Game" is streaming on Netflix.

• "Squid Game" on Netflix is about a group of people in debt competing in deadly games for money.
• Some of the characters' debts revealed in season two are more than a billion South Korean won.
• When converted into US currency, the highest debt represented is just under $7 million.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Squid Game" season two.

Netflix's biggest show, "Squid Game," is a South Korean thriller series about a group of people who risk their lives in a dangerous competition to pay off their debts.

The largest debts are equal to billions of South Korean won. But in the context of US dollars using the current conversion rates, the largest debt represented is just under $7 million.

The show is set in a dystopian version of the present where people compete in a series of deadly children's games to win 45.6 billion won (roughly $31.2 million). In the show, the prize fund starts at zero and can rise to 45.6 billion won, however the money only increases if a player dies. Each player's death adds 0.1 billion won to the prize pot.

In season one, there can be only one winner, but season two changes the rules. After each game, the contestants can vote to leave, splitting the prize money that's been won so far. If a majority agrees, all the surviving players leave with an equal split of the current prize fund.

By the end of season two, 36.1 billion won (roughly $24.7 million) is in the fund, and 95 players are still alive. If the contestants leave right away, each player would receive 380 million won (roughly $260,000), but this amount is lower than some of the characters' debts.

Viewers unfamiliar with the Korean won may struggle to grasp the level of debt each player is in. These are the fictional debts converted from South Korean won to US dollars based on current conversion rates.

Player 196 owes $31,000

When the contestants first enter the games in season two, the game organizers expose some of the players' debts in an attempt to get them to shut up and play along with the competition.

Player 196, who is the first person to be killed in the first game, has the lowest debt that is revealed in the season.

The organizers say Player 196, who is killed in the first game, "Red Light, Green Light," owed 45 million won, which is roughly $31,000.

Player 007 owes $68,000

In episode five, Player 007, whose real name is Park Yon-sik, shocks his mother by voting to stay in the games.

He later tells her that his debt is higher than she thought it was, and he is being threatened to pay it back.

He says his debt is around 100 million won, which is roughly $68,000.

He is still alive at the end of the season.

Player 120 owes $226,000

Player 120, Cho Hyun-ju, is an ex-military trans woman who needs money to finish paying off her surgical bills and to move to Thailand, where she would be more accepted.

The game organizers say she owes 330 million won, which is roughly $226,000.

She is still alive at the end of the season.

Player 230 owes $814,000

Player 230 is a microcelebrity internet rapper who goes by the name Thanos. He enters the games after losing 500 million won (roughly $342,000) in a crypto scam led by Player 333. Player 333 kills him during a brawl in episode seven.

The organizers say he owes 1.19 billion won, which is roughly $814,000.

Player 198 owes $958,000

Player 198 is a minor character in season two who dies in the second game.

The organizers say he owes 1.4 billion won, which is roughly $958,000.

Player 333 owes $1.2 million

Player 333, Lee Myung-gi, is a former YouTuber who is wanted for fraud and violating telecom and financial investment laws after promoting a crypto coin that turned out to be a scam.

The scammers fled after taking 15.2 billion won (roughly $10.4 million) from those who invested in the coin, including Thanos, Player 222, and Player 124, but Myung-gi seemed to also lose money in the scam and shut down his social media accounts.

In episode three, the organizers expose Lee to the group and say he owes 1.8 billion won, which is roughly $1.2 million.

He is still alive at the end of the season.

Player 226 owes $1.3 million

Player 226 is one of the players who consistently pushes the group to continue playing the games.

The organizers say he owes 1.9 billion won, which is roughly $1.3 million.

He is still alive at the end of the season.

Player 444 owes $1.4 million

Player 444 is a minor character who dies in the first game. A sniper shoots him in the leg, but he makes it to the finish line only to be shot and killed by another sniper.

The organizer says he owes 2.02 billion won, which is roughly $1.4 million.

Player 343 owes $2 million

Player 343 is a minor character who dies during the Mingle game after Player 001 strangles him.

The organizers say he owes 2.89 billion won, which is roughly $2 million.

Player 006 owes $2.1 million

Player 006 is a minor character who becomes part of Player 44's cult.

The organizers say she owes 3.1 billion won, which is roughly $2.1 million.

Player 283 owes $2.7 million

Player 283 is a minor character who is the second character to die in the first game. A sniper kills the player after she panics over Player 196's death.

The organizers say she owes 4.02 billion won, which is roughly $2.7 million.

Player 100 owes $6.8 million

Player 100 is the biggest defender of the games, often inspiring the group to continue with the contest instead of quitting.

The organizers say he owes 10 billion won, which is $6.8 million.

He is still alive at the end of the season.

• Player 001 is a main character in seasons one and two of "Squid Game."
• The number was bestowed on Oh Il-nam, a dying old man, in season one.
• Here's what to know about the new Player 001, Oh Young-il.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Squid Game" seasons one and two.

In season two of Netflix's hit series "Squid Game," lead character Seong Gi-hun is betrayed again by Player 001.

The first season became streamer's most-watched show of all time and helped spark global interest in Korean dramas. One of the main characters, Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su), is an old, dying man who entered the competition of deadly children's games to relive his childhood.

He is given the "Player 001" jumpsuit and becomes allies with Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) and his friends before Il-nam is killed during the marbles game in episode six.

However, a year after Gi-hun wins the games, Il-nam reveals to him that he faked his death and was the creator of the games, posing as a player.

Before Il-nam dies of natural causes, he tells Gi-hun that he designed the games to amuse other wealthy people and test people's morals.

This inspires Gi-hun to shut down the games for good, and he agrees to enter the competition again in season two to complete this plan.

This time, he meets another Player 001, who wants to become his ally.

Player 001 is the Frontman without his disguise.

Season two's Player 001 tells his fellow survivors that his name is Oh Young-il, but he is really Hwang In-ho, the Frontman.

In-ho is played by Lee Byung-hun, a South Korean actor who has also starred in American action films including "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," "Red 2," and "Terminator Genisys."

In season one, In-ho led the competition from the command center and ensured it ran smoothly; however, for most of the season, he wore a black mask and raincoat, hiding his identity.

In-ho had spoken to Gi-hun before, but he was masked and using a voice changer. So Gi-hun doesn't recognize In-ho's voice in season two while pretending to be Young-il, so is never suspicious of him.

It is unclear what In-ho's plan is, but in season two, he infiltrates Gi-hun's group, tries to subtly talk him into supporting the games, and sabotages the players' rebellion in the season finale.

In the finale, In-ho also fakes his death, reapplies his mask as the Frontman, and kills Gi-hun's close friend right in front of him.

The Frontman is the brother of former detective, Hwang Jun-ho.

In season one, a detective, Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), infiltrates the competition as a guard in search of his missing brother, In-ho. He discovers that his brother won the competition five years ago and now runs it as the Frontman.

But Jun-ho is shot by In-ho during his escape. Jun-ho survives but loses all the evidence of the games to give to the police.

In season two, Jun-ho joins Gi-hun's team in tracking down the organization running the competition, but hides that his brother is in charge.

The Frontman enters the games to save his wife, but she dies.

While posing as Young-il, In-ho tells Gi-hun that he is competing in the games to get enough money to help his sick, pregnant wife. He says he was fired from his job after borrowing money from a vendor because his bosses thought it was a bribe.

This may be the one time In-ho tells the truth to Gi-hun.

In episode two, Jun-ho visits the grave of In-ho's wife to check for signs he has visited recently. Later, Jun-ho and his mother speak about how they couldn't afford to help In-ho save his sick wife. Jun-ho says In-ho decided to take a bribe, so they shouldn't blame themselves for her death.

If this is true, and In-ho did initially compete in the games to save his wife, perhaps he was too late to save her after winning. His story could be mirroring Gi-hun's, who competes in the games in season one to pay the medical bills for his mother, who dies before he returns.

• Netflix says season two of "Squid Game" got 68 million views in the first four days after its debut.
• The South Korean drama surpassed a record held by "Wednesday" for most views in a premiere week.
• The dystopian thriller is Netflix's top non-English show, with over 265 million views.

Netflix says season two of its hit streaming series "Squid Game" amassed 68 million views in the first four days of its release, blowing past the viewership record for a show's premiere week on the streaming platform.

The record was previously held by the first season of "Wednesday," which had more than 50 million views after it launched in 2022.

The South Korean dystopian thriller also broke records when it debuted in 2021, and Netflix says it remains its most popular non-English show, with over 265 million views.

The series, created by Hwang Dong-hyuk and starring Lee Jung-jae, is broadly about people heavily in debt competing in deadly versions of children's games for a big cash prize.

Shortly after the first season debuted, Bloomberg reported that Netflix expected the series to create nearly $900 million in value for the company.

Alvin Foo, then a Netflix director of strategy and operators for APAC marketing, wrote a LinkedIn post in 2021 describing 10 reasons he thought the show became a global phenomenon. One was the broader popularity of the "survival-game" genre.

Foo also noted that it touched on themes such as economic inequality and said it was "instantly meme-able" for its visually striking set design and costumes.

In an interview with Variety in late December, Hwang said fans wouldn't need to wait too long for season three.

"After season two launches, I believe we will be announcing the launch date for Season 3 soon," he said. "I probably expect that to launch around summer or fall next year."

• Fans and critics are raving about a new player in "Squid Game" season two, Thanos.
• Thanos is a rapper who seems to delight in the death games.
• Choi Seung-hyun, who plays Thanos, was already a popular K-pop star before landing the role.

Warning: spoilers ahead for "Squid Game" season two.

"Squid Game" season two introduces a new cast of eccentric players, but the character fans and critics are talking about most is Thanos.

Thanos (Player 230), named after the alien the Avengers fight in the Marvel movies, is a purple-haired, self-absorbed, and callous internet rapper and one of the main antagonists of season two.

He takes over from season one's Jang Deok-su (Player 101) as the main bully within the deadly children's games. But while Deok-su was a menacing criminal, Thanos is a celebrity and a wild card.

Thanos and his sidekick Nam-gyu (Roh Jae-won) seem to enjoy the games, unlike the other characters who are competing for money to pay off their debts. They laugh, skip, and take drugs from Thanos' secret stash as people are killed around them and continually vote to continue the slaughter.

Choi Seung-hyun's screwball performance as Thanos has been getting a lot of praise, including from The Wrap, which hailed it as one of the best TV performances of 2024.

"Squid Game" season two is looking to be a global hit like the first, which could raise Choi's profile outside South Korea, as it did with other actors from the show including Lee Jung-jae.

Here's what to know about Choi and his character's fate.

Choi began his career as a K-pop rapper

Choi is better known by his stage name T.O.P, which he adopted in 2006 when he joined the boyband Bigbang, one of the first K-pop bands to become popular in the West.

The band's fifth record, 2012's "Alive," was the second album by a South Korean artist to chart on the US Billboard 200, placing 150th.

In 2016, they were the first South Korean band to be included in Forbes' top 100 richest celebrities list, after earning $44 million that year: more than Drake, Katy Perry, and Maroon 5, respectively.

Choi, who was an underground rapper before joining Bigbang, has also released hit solo tracks "Turn It Up" and "Doom Dada," but hasn't reached the heights he did with the band.

In 2007, Choi began pursuing acting, appearing in the TV romance K-drama "I Am Sam." He has starred in other shows and movies, and won acting awards in Korea.

In "Iris," a thriller TV series, Choi acted alongside "Squid Game" star Lee Byung-hun, who plays the Frontman in the Netflix show.

Choi's career in Korea stalled after he was convicted of using marijuana

In 2017, Choi paused his career to complete military service as a conscripted police officer.

However, that June, Choi was indicted by South Korean prosecutors for using marijuana several times in October 2016.

A day later, Choi was found unconscious after overdosing on prescribed tranquilizers, and hospitalized.

A month later, Choi pleaded guilty to using marijuana in court and was sentenced 10-months in jail, suspended for two years. He also had to complete his military service as a public service worker instead of as a police officer as planned.

He told reporters at the court: "I'm truly sorry that I disappointed my fans and the public. I will do my best to make a fresh start and not to make such a mistake again with what I've learned from this lesson."

Choi appeared in Bigbang's single "Still Life" in 2022, but that year YG Entertainment announced that he had ended his contract with the company, and a year later, Choi confirmed he had withdrawn from the band.

Choi will likely not return in 'Squid Game' season three

"Squid Game" is a bold return for Choi, especially playing a character who openly uses drugs.

Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator of "Squid Game," told People before the series aired that it took "a lot of guts" for Choi to portray Thanos.

"Despite the long hiatus, I have to say, as a director, he performed very impressively and I'm very satisfied with what he did with the character," Hwang said.

In the season finale, there is a brutal fight in the men's changing rooms between those who want to stay in the games and those who want to leave. Thanos, the instigator of the brawl, is stabbed in the neck with a fork and bleeds to death.

So, it's unlikely Thanos will return in season three unless there is some sort of flashback.

• MrBeast appears to be plotting to recreate "Squid Game" season 2.
• His $3.5 million version of season 1 is likely partly why Amazon greenlighted "Beast Games."
• However, the project has been marred with controversy.

MrBeast is already plotting his next move to stay ahead of the competition. The second season of "Squid Game" premiered on Netflix on December 26, and the YouTuber has teased a plan to recreate it.

Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, is the biggest YouTuber in the world with 340 million subscribers.

In November 2021, Donaldson built his own version of the "Squid Game" set, complete with the "red light, green light" doll, bunk bed dorm, huge tug-of-war arena, and $456,000 prize.

The costs set him back $3.5 million, but that's not deterring him from looking to try it again.

"Should I recreate Squid Games 2 in real life like we did with the first season?" Donaldson asked his followers on X on December 27.

Responses have been mixed, with some excited by the prospect of another real-life "Squid Game." The first video racked up 685 million views, so the appetite is likely there.

But others recommended Donaldson look inward and address some of the controversy that has surrounded his own show first.

Squid Game vs Beast Games

The second season of "Squid Game" has been hotly anticipated for three years. The Korean-language Netflix series follows characters who, downtrodden and disadvantaged, opt into a lethal contest where they play children's games for a huge cash prize — being brutally killed if they lose.

Meanwhile, Donaldson has been furiously promoting his new show, "Beast Games," on social media since the first episode aired on December 17. For example, he said he would give away a share of $100,000 to 10 random people who reposted a promotion of "Beast Games" on X.

Donaldson also used Netflix's promotion of "Squid Game" to draw attention to "Beast Games," commenting under posts to remind people that the third episode would be dropping on December 26 as well.

Reviews of "Beast Games" have been mixed. Business Insider's Katie Notopoulos said it was entertaining but she worried about what message it sends about money to younger viewers.

The Guardian gave the show two stars and labeled it "one of the most undignified spectacles ever shown on TV," while an IGN review determined the show to be "almost entirely wearisome."

Before the show's release, Donaldson had to defend himself against allegations about treatment on set.

Some contestants told The New York Times they weren't given enough food and had to wait hours or sometimes days to receive their medication or basic hygiene supplies during the promotional shoot in Las Vegas. They also alleged that some contestants were injured during challenges, and many needed medical care.

Five contestants are seeking class-action status for a lawsuit filed in September alleging dangerous working conditions.

Amazon declined to comment on the lawsuit to BI. A spokesperson for Donaldson previously told BI that Amazon was not involved in the Las Vegas round of the show.

The spokesperson also said that this shoot was "unfortunately complicated by the CrowdStrike incident, extreme weather, and other unexpected logistical and communications issues."

While things seemed to improve in Toronto, where the majority of the Amazon show was filmed, some crew members told Rolling Stone that it continued to be "wild" and "disorganized," with a lack of air conditioning and some unsafe conditions due to flooding.

Beyond Beast Games

Donaldson's ambitious recreation of "Squid Game" and his reputation for pushing the limits with his content was likely one of the reasons Amazon wanted to partner with him for "Beast Games."

The YouTuber has a way of staying on top with his philanthropy and the scale of his stunts, so the negative public perception of "Beast Games" could blow over in time.

But partnering with a giant like Amazon has put more eyes on him than ever. Creator economy experts previously told BI that Donaldson may find it harder to fund his next big project because of the negative headlines it has generated.

"They'll still do partnerships with him," Diana D'Angelo, the CEO of Breaking Creatives Agency, told BI. "But maybe they'll put a bigger check on what he's actually doing and how it's being done."

• "Squid Game" season three will premiere in 2025.
• It will wrap up the season two story and is intended to end the entire show.
• Here's what we know so far about the plot and cast.

It took Netflix three years to debut a second season of the surprise hit K-drama "Squid Game."

However, seasons two and three were filmed simultaneously, meaning there will be less of a wait after the second season, which released on December 26, 2024.

Netflix announced in July 2024 that season three, which will premiere in 2025, would be the last.

The third season will follow Seong Gi-hun's crusade against a secret organization that is manipulating people with huge debts to compete in deadly games for money.

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for season two.

The final "Squid Game" story was split into two seasons.

Fans were surprised that season two ended so abruptly after seven episodes when the first season had nine.

"Squid Game" creator Hwang Dong-hyuk told Entertainment Weekly in December 2024 that seasons two and three were written as one story, but split up to accommodate all the episodes.

This is likely why the episode count is lower than the previous season.

Season two ended on a tragic cliffhanger, with the games' guards defeating Gi-hun's rebellion against the games.

After finding himself competing in the deadly games again, Gi-hun persuades his fellow players to stage a rebellion against the guards, steal their weapons, and storm toward the command center.

This plan is foiled by a saboteur in Gi-hun's ranks: Hwang In-ho, the game's leader, who entered the competition as Player 001 to spy on Gi-hun.

In-ho splits the rebels, making them easier to defeat, and fakes his own death. After his guards crush the uprising, In-ho, hiding his identity behind a mask, kills Gi-hun's best friend right in front of Gi-hun.

Outside the games, Gi-hun recruited a group of people to help find the game's island to shut down the competition. The season finale shows that they have a traitor among them, too — Captain Park, a fisherman who owns the boat the team is using to find the island.

Since the games were not finished by the end of season two, season three will show the second half of the same competition. Gi-hun and his allies' will also likely have their last attempt to destroy the games.

One of the new games will be based around another creepy doll.

The most popular game among fans of "Squid Game" season one was "Red Light, Green Light," in which the players race to the finish line without being spotted by a giant rotating creepy doll.

The doll was based on a statue in South Korea of Young-hee, a character from old school textbooks. In June 2022, Hwang said in a statement teasing the second season that the show will introduce Chul-su, a character often paired with Young-hee.

Though Hwang initially called the character "Cheol-su" in his statement, Netflix referred to him a "Chul-su" in a new Instagram post to tease season three.

Giant dolls of Chul-su and Young-hee appear in a post-credit scene in the season two finale. The scene seems to be teasing one of the game settings in season three, but it is not clear yet what the game will be.

Some fans have theorized that it could be "Jack and Jill," a board game where players use a die to race up a hill toward a finish line. Until now, all the games have been playground games, so a board game like "Jack and Jill" would be an outlier.

Season 3 is the final season of "Squid Game."

In December 2024, Hwang told Entertainment Weekly that he decided to end the show after the third season because the story he is "capable of telling through Gi-hun" ends there.

He later told Variety that he was "sick" of making "Squid Game."

"I'm so sick of my life making something, promoting something," Hwang said. "I'm just thinking about going to some remote island and having my own free time without any phone calls from Netflix."

He also told Variety that he expected the third season to premiere " around summer or fall" 2025.

Since Netflix owns the rights to "Squid Game," it could create more spin-offs without Hwang's involvement. It already has a reality show, "Squid Game: The Challenge," and the video game "Squid Game: Unleashed." Variety reported that Hwang has been kept in the loop with these projects but has not been involved with them.

Deadline reported in October 2024, citing unnamed sources, that an English-language version of "Squid Game" was in the works and that David Fincher may be hired to develop the show.

The surviving players from season two will return in season three.

This includes: Player 388, Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul), the ex-marine; Player 222, Kim Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri), the pregnant woman; Player 007, Park Yon-sik (Yang Dong-geun) and his mother, Player 044, Jang Geum-ja (Kang Ae-sim); Player 044, Seon-nyeo (Chae Kook-hee), the mystical lady; and Player 120 Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon), an ex-special forces officer.

Lee Jung-Jae and Lee Byung-hun will reprise their roles as the main protagonist, Seong Gi-hun, and the antagonist, Hwang In-ho. Other non-player characters who are still alive at the end of season two will also return, including former Detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) and Woo-seok (Jeon Seok-ho).

• Gong Yoo returns in "Squid Game" season two as the recruiter.
• Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk told BI he wanted to explore the character's backstory and true nature.
• That true nature is pretty wild — and Gong embraces it in his performance.

Gong Yoo's ddakji-playing recruiter is blessedly back in "Squid Game" season two — and this time, his appearance is even more memorable.

Gong plays the recruiter, a well-dressed, frankly unfairly attractive man who approaches people and challenges them to a game of ddakji. If they win a round, he gives them money. If they lose, he slaps them. Win-win! After enough time, he'll invite them to participate in a game with a much larger prize pool, and much more severe consequences for losing.

He appears only briefly in season one to recruit Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) into the games. More memorably, he utterly trounces Gi-hun in ddakji, slapping him no less than ten times all while remaining perfectly pleasant and composed. It's enough to, if you're a true freak, make him want to slap you too.

Luckily for those of us who have been thinking about this scene for the past three years, there's a whole lot more Gong Yoo in season two.

"I got many, many requests, people asking me to tell us the backstory about the ddakji man," creator Hwang Dong-hyuk told Business Insider. "I also thought of him to be a very intriguing character, so I wanted to bring him back again in season two and give him is own narrative."

Warning: Spoilers ahead for season two, episode one of "Squid Game."

Gi-hun tracks down the recruiter as a means to an end

In season two, Gi-hun is a man on a mission: he wants to shut down the games, and to do so, he needs to pin down his first point of contact. That's ddakji guy, and Gi-hun enlists a veritable small army of foot soldiers to scour the Seoul subway system for people getting slapped. It's slow going until Gi-hun's former creditor Mr. Kim (Kim Pub-lae) and his associate Woo-seok (Jeon Seok-ho) actually manage to find him.

They pursue him from the subway, to a bakery, to a convenience store, to a park, and eventually to an alleyway. Unfortunately, Mr. Kim and Woo-seok are no match for six feet of bitch-slapping recruiter, and he captures them and forces them to play a game that leaves Mr. Kim dead.

When Gi-hun returns to the motel where he's taken up residence, he finds the recruiter waiting for him. During their conversation, the recruiter reveals his backstory: after getting brought into the game as a guard, he was given a gun. After killing a player who turned out to be his father, the recruiter realized that his calling was.... leading people to their violent deaths. Sure!

This time, the recruiter challenges Gi-hun not to ddakji, but a modified game of Russian Roulette that will inevitably leave one of them dead. Apparently, he's a man prone to absurd melodrama, because he queues up "Time To Say Goodbye" by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman to set the tone.

After trying to convince Gi-hun to acknowledge that he's a "piece of trash" like everyone else who ended up in the games, the recruiter ends up with the last bullet in the gun — and after Gi-hun calls him a dog, ddakji man pulls the trigger, ending his own life.

No more Mr. Nice Ddakji Guy

In season one, the recruiter was an entrancing figure because of the difference in his demeanor (perfect, poised) and actions (slapping the daylights out of people). This time, however, Hwang told BI that he wanted to not only reveal his backstory, but also, "what kind of state he is in as a human being."

The answer? One untethered to anything except his objectively wild and remarkably strong convictions. This is a man who does it all — harassing people already being crushed by debt, sentencing them to a death game, and murder — for the love of the game. It's not really clear why he believes people, like those he recruits into the games, are trash. On the flip side, it's incredibly clear that he's a sadist who will play any game he initiates to the end, even if he has to forfeit his own life.

Gong brings a charged energy to his sequences in episode one — particularly his confrontation with Gi-hun — that remains largely unmatched by the rest of the season. His physicality, whether it's getting up in another performer's space or spinning the barrel of a pistol, is unmatched.

"Gong Yoo is an actor who's mostly taken on very sweet characters," Hwang said. "He's never done something that's as crazy or insane as this one, so I was personally curious to see how he was going to portray the character as well."

In season one, it was clear that the recruiter was a tightly coiled spring. In season two, Hwang and Gong finally let him snap.

"Squid Game" season two is now streaming on Netflix.

• "Squid Game" is finally back, three years after its first season.
• Season two features some familiar faces, but also plenty of new characters.
• Here's a guide to the major characters in season two, and who plays them.

After a three year-long wait, "Squid Game" is finally back.

The Korean-language Netflix series takes place mostly within the confines of a killing game, in which the economically disadvantaged play children's games for money. To participate, they wager their lives.

The show is one of Netflix's biggest hits, prompting the streamer to invest not only in a second and third season from creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, but also in in-person experiences, a reality series, and a video game.

"Squid Game" season two stars Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun, the winner of the games on season one. Unfortunately, the nature of the show means that most characters from season one like Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon) and Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo) aren't back in season two. While there are a few familiar faces, the majority of the cast are new.

Here's a guide to the major characters in "Squid Game" season two, and who plays them.

Warning: This post contains light spoilers for "Squid Game" season two.

Seong Gi-hun

Gi-hun is a veteran player of the games, and returns as player 456. In the three years since he emerged as the sole survivor of his cycle, he's used his fortune to search for the man who recruited him so he can find a way to shut the games down.

Seong Gi-hun is played by Lee Jung-jae.

Hwang In-ho / The Front Man

Toward the end of season one, Jun-ho discovered that his other brother, In-ho, was the Front Man in charge of the games. Initially, Jun-ho believed that In-ho may have been a player.

Lee Byung-hun plays In-ho.

The Recruiter

The recruiter is a tall, handsome man who recruits people into the games by challenging them to a game of ddakji.

Gong Yoo plays the recruiter.

Kang No-eul

No-eul is a young woman working at a theme park. Originally from North Korea, she hopes to locate her child and bring her to South Korea. Later, she's recruited into the games — not as a player, but as a soldier.

No-eul is played by Park Gyu-young.

Park Jung-bae

Jung-bae (Player 390) is Gi-hun's friend from outside the game — the same one with whom he gambled on horse races in the season one premiere. Unfortunately, this time they meeting inside the game.

Park Jung-bae is played by Lee Seo-hwan.

Hwang Jun-ho

Jun-ho is the detective who followed Gi-hun to the games in season one, infiltrating them by posing as a guard. He's the younger brother of Hwang In-ho, the Front Man. In-ho shot Jun-ho toward the end of season one, but he survived — and at the beginning of season two, he's working as a traffic cop.

Wi Ha-jun plays Hwang Jun-ho.

Mr. Kim

Mr. Kim, referred to as Kim Dae-pyo in the credits, is Gi-hun's former creditor. After winning the game, Gi-hun paid him back, and retained his services to help him find the recruiter.

Mr. Kim is played by Kim Pub-lae.

Woo-seok

Woo-seok is close to Mr. Kim. Now, both Mr. Kim and Woo-seok work for Gi-hun as part of his search for the recruiter.

Woo-seok is played by Jeon Seok-ho.

Dae-ho

Dae-ho (Player 388) is a young man who Gi-hun and Jung-bae befriend in the game. Like Jung-bae, he's also an ex-Marine.

Dae-ho is played by Kang Ha-neul.

Lee Myung-gi

Myung-gi (Player 333) previously worked as a cryptocurrency influencer. However, a poor recommendation led to him, and other players, losing a significant amount of money.

Myung-gi is played by Yim Si-wan.

Kim Jun-hee

Jun-hee (Player 222) is a young woman who entered the games to repay her debt, as a result of losing money on Myung-gi's recommendation. He's also her ex-boyfriend.

Jun-hee is played by Jo Yu-ri, who is a singer and former member of the K-pop group IZ*ONE.

Thanos

Thanos (Player 230) is a rapper who lost money after bying cryptocurrency on Myung-gi's recommendation. In the game, some people recognize him as a celebrity.

Thanos is played by Choi Seung-hyun, a musician also known by his stage name T.O.P.

Nam-gyu

Nam-gyu (Player 124) is one of Thanos' groupies in the games. Previously, he worked at a nightclub, where he first met Thanos.

He's played by Roh Jae-won.

Min-su

Min-su (Player 125) is one of the younger players in the game, and aligns with Thanos. He also befriends Se-mi, a cool young woman.

Min-su is played by Lee David, who described the character in a cast featurette as an "ordinary guy" who is "super timid."

Se-mi

Se-mi (Player 380) is a young woman who befriends Min-su in the games.

Se-mi is played by Won Ji-an, who described the character as "bold and determined."

Park Yong-sik

Yong-sik (Player 007) is a young man who joined the game to pay off his debt. Unfortunately, he also encounters his mother there.

Yong-sik is played by Yang Dong-geun.

Jang Geum-ja

Geum-ja (Player 149) is Yong-sik's mother. She joined the game to help her son pay off his debt.

Geum-ja is played by Kang Ae-sim.

Hyun-ju

Hyun-ju (Player 120) initially faces discrimination in the games because she is a trans woman. She's a former special forces soldier.

Hyun-ju is played by Park Sung-hoon.

Young-mi

Young-mi (Player 095) befriends Hyun-ju in the games, and refers to her as unnie — a term that younger women use to refer to older women they are close to.

Young-mi is played by Kim Si-eun.

Seon-nyeo

Seon-nyeo (Player 044) is a shaman who often behaves melodramatically and unpredictably in the games.

Seon-neyo is played by Chae Kook-hee.

Gyeong-seok

Gyeong-seok's (Player 256) daughter Na-yeon has cancer, and he joins the games to fund her expensive treatment.

Gyeong-seok is played by Lee Jin-uk.

• "Squid Game" season two has two major twists that reframe the story's direction.
• Season three will arrive in 2025, so there won't be as long a wait between seasons.
• Here's what happened in the explosive finale and how it will impact season three.

Warning: major spoilers ahead for "Squid Game" season two.

"Squid Game" season one ended with hope, but the second concluded with death and misery after an electrifying finale.

The global sensation returned for a second season after the first became Netflix's biggest surprise success.

Season two returns to the gritty world where a secret organization runs a gameshow where contestants can win a fortune playing a series of children's games.

If they lose, they are killed, and the prize pot increases with each death.

In season one, Seong Gi-hun is the only survivor of the games, wracked by guilt and grief after watching his friends die one by one for him to win. He decides to take down the organization, but the plan goes awry in season two, landing him back in the competition.

This time, the game makers add a new feature where contestants can vote to leave after every game. But most are so desperate for the prize money that they continue.

Gi-hun leads a revolution that is foiled by a saboteur.

In season two, Gi-hun forms a new crew, including Player 001 — Hwang In-ho, the leader of the games who enters in disguise.

They work together to survive the games and eventually agree that they must end before everyone dies. But other players still want to continue, leading to a tied vote in episode six.

In the finale, the players who want the game to keep going attack and kill other players so they will have the majority in the next vote.

Gi-hun and his allies hide during this massacre, and when the guards come to break it up, the group attacks the guards, steals their weapons, and starts a rebellion.

The rebellion fails, though, due to In-ho's betrayal.

Since his reveal in episode three as a player, it's been clear that In-ho has infiltrated the games to sabotage Gi-hun's plan to stop them. But he doesn't play saboteur fully until the rebellion.

Gi-hun and Park Jung-bae (Player 390), Gi-hun's friend from outside the games, head to the command center, but In-ho stops the rest of the group from following, keeping them divided and easier to defeat.

He splits the group further, sending two on a mission to get ammo, from which neither returns.

He takes two more players to help Gi-hun, but shoots them both in the back. He then sends a radio message pretending to die himself.

The guards overwhelm and kill the remaining rebels, apart from Gi-hun, Jung-bae, and the two players who returned for ammo.

In-ho switches outfits to the signature mask and a black jacket of the games leader and confronts the now-captured Gi-hun and Jung-bae. They don't realize that In-ho has betrayed them because he has changed his voice and appearance.

In-ho then shoots and kills Jung-Bae right in front of Gi-hun.

It's a tragic ending to the season, putting Gi-hun in a difficult position. He is now captured, his rebellion has been crushed, and he has caused the death of his close friend.

This leaves Gi-hun with two possible paths for season three: give up on his plan to destroy the games or be fueled by his loss and rebound with an even better plan. It's likely Gi-hun will also learn that In-ho is the leader of the games in season three.

A second group of characters is also betrayed

Outside the games, Gi-hun recruited a group of people to help him stop the games, including Hwang Jun-ho, In-ho's brother, and Woo-seok, a member of the criminal underworld.

They plant a tracker on Gi-hun, but when that plan fails, they search multiple islands nearby to find the game center. They use a boat run by Captain Park, a fisherman who saved Jun-ho after his brother shot him to protect the games in season one.

In the finale, Captain Park is revealed to be another saboteur working for the organization that runs the games. He kills one of the crewmembers working with Jun-ho and sabotages the team's drone.

The rest of the crew does not know yet, leaving another exciting mystery to be uncovered in season three. Will Gi-hun's allies find out Captain Park's identity and find the game island before he kills them all one by one?

Season three debuts in 2025, so hopefully, fans will soon find out what happens next.

• "Squid Game" season two has an emotional finale followed by a scene interrupting the credits.
• It is the first time the series has tried something like that.
• Here's what it teases for the third season.

Warning: major spoilers ahead for "Squid Game" season two.

The highly anticipated second season of "Squid Game" is out, and it ends with a chaotic and tragic finale.

Season one was a surprise hit for Netflix when in 2021, becoming a global sensation through word-of-mouth and social media trends. Netflix hopes for the same success with the second season, which debuted in the middle of the holiday season.

In season one, a group of people struggling with debt signed up for a competition where they played children's games to win a fortune.

What they realize too late is that the losers of the games are killed, leaving only one survivor, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-Jae), Player 456.

At the end of season one, Gi-hun vows to stop the deadly competition, but his plan is foiled in season two, and he finds himself competing again.

Gi-hun leads a revolution against the guards in the final episode

He tries to unite the contestants against the game, but they mostly insist on playing, enticed by the prize money.

In the finale, this boils over into a massacre when the players who want to continue the games attack those who want to leave.

Gi-hun and his allies use that chaos to overwhelm the guards and start an uprising against the game makers. But the rebels are eventually cornered and defeated. Gi-hun survives, but his best friend, Park Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan), Player 390, is killed in front of him by the antagonist, Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun), Player 001.

Gi-hun will likely seek revenge in season three, though his spirit may be broken by his failure and the loss of his close friend.

The post-credit scene teases one of the next games

After Jung-bae's death, the credits for the director and cast appear on-screen.

Then, a small scene shows a group of players walking into a new game room. This room includes a train signal stand, a hanging doll resembling the Young-hee doll from "Red Light, Green Light," and a boy doll facing the first.

Netflix confirmed on December 31 in an Instagram post that the doll is called Chul-su.

In June 2022, Hwang Dong-hyuk said in a statement teasing season two that the show will introduce "Young-hee's boyfriend, Cheol-su." Netflix appears to have renamed the character.

Young-hee and Chul-su are characters from old South Korean textbooks and are well-known as best friends.

Chul-su is not assigned to a specific game, but the other signs in the scene may indicate that the game is somehow related to trains.

• The first season of "Squid Game" was extraordinarily good TV, and season two is no exception.
• In the three years since season one aired, "Squid Game" has also become a cultural sensation.
• "Squid Game" season two follows similar patterns as the first — but it works to great effect.

Before "Squid Game" was a cultural phenomenon, it was an astoundingly great television show — and luckily, season two of the Korean-language drama reminds us exactly why.

The South Korean series about a death game for the economically downtrodden exploded after hitting Netflix in September 2021. Not only was it the most significant non-English hit in Netflix history, it quickly became one of Netflix's biggest shows ever.

That popularity spilled from the small screen to myriad even smaller screens, becoming an internet phenomenon whose biggest symbols — the pink-clad guards, green jumpsuits, and even star Lee Jung-jae's beaming face — became inescapable memes eventually divorced from their original meaning.

That's part of why the return to creator Hwang Dong-hyuk's blistering fever dream is so gripping. "Squid Game" season two brings the cultural phenomenon back to Earth and executes the nigh-impossible, continuing what could have been a complete story in a way that's just as cutting as its predecessor.

Back to the game

In its first season, "Squid Game" struck viewers with sheer novelty: its sharp class satire, grounded in childlike aesthetics, was dissonant in a way that was both disturbing and wildly compelling. While there's no way to recreate that shock factor in season two, the series doesn't need to reinvent the wheel to be excellent. In fact, its iterative nature is a thematic strength.

Season two is functionally a torture cycle for Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), the victor of the games. Burdened with a 45.6 million fortune won through the deaths of his companions, Gi-hun puts it to use attempting to shut the games down. This time, he's the one with power, funding a citywide manhunt for the games' ddakji-playing recruiter (a once-again show-stealing Gong Yoo) and incentivizing his employees with a substantial reward. Unfortunately, Gi-hun's crusade puts him back where he started in the games, with his life on the line.

This time, however, he knows exactly who his enemy is: the Front Man, also known as Hwang Jun-ho's (Wi Ha-jun) elder brother, In-ho. This season, the gamesmaster has a much more involved role — one that actor Lee Byung-hun, finally unmasked, handles with grim, enthralling aplomb. He is equal parts Gi-hun's foil and torture master, slowly working to dismantle his still-idealistic worldview by repeatedly exposing him to the horror of human nature.

That makes season two's repetition of familiar games, like "Red Light, Green Light," or character beats, like Gi-hun encountering an old friend in the games, incredibly effective. Even though he's been dealt the same cards — frankly, better ones, given that he's no longer bound by his debts — Gi-hun must struggle against human hubris and avarice.

There are, of course, new challenges. Season two introduces several new games that are just as superlatively designed as their predecessors. This cycle's new mechanic, a chest badge to indicate which players vote to leave or stay in the games, establishes a rote but still compelling division between the players.

New players make an impression

Wisely, Gi-hun takes a backseat for much of season two to make room for the show's captivating cast of new characters.

Choi Seung-hyun (a rapper known by the stage name T.O.P) is an easy standout and sure-to-be fan-favorite as Thanos, a braggadocious rapper burned by a failed crypto investment. Kang Ae-sim is easy to emotionally invest in as Geum-ja, a woman who joined the games to pay off her son's debts, only to discover he agreed to play as well. Former soldier Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon) is the most compelling of the bunch: a transgender woman, she faced discrimination after transitioning, leaving her in debt after she was fired from her job while pursuing gender-affirming surgeries.

Lee shows up once again to work this season, deftly handling the nuances of Gi-hun's plight and changed character. Most striking are the moments where he falls back into Gi-hun's childlike innocence from season one, most frequently due to the actions of his former gambling buddy Jung-bae, played by a painfully endearing Lee Seo-hwan. Still, Lee pulls off the determined, beleaguered savior well.

For the most part, Hwang (who still mostly wrote season two himself, this time with a few assistants) juggles the series' myriad character arcs and plot lines well, though some threads don't hold up as well as others. The weakest of the bunch is Jun-ho's quest outside the games to locate the island where they're held and also, presumably, Gi-hun and his brother. While his arc posing as a guard in season one provided valuable insight into the process of the games, this time, his search is mostly a distraction with little payoff in the confines of the season.

Ultimately, though, "Squid Game" manages to live up not only to its preceding season but the myth of the franchise itself. Success can bring crushing pressure, and with it, an impulse to iterate. In this case, though, the iteration works in service of the show's point: there is no escape: not for the game's players, and certainly not for Gi-hun.

"Squid Game" seasons one and two are now streaming on Netflix.

• "Squid Game" season one premiered on Netflix three years ago.
• The Korean-language series is one of Netflix's biggest shows ever and was renewed for a second season.
• Here's a recap of everything important you need to remember from season one.

Back in 2021, "Squid Game" premiered, and the buzzy show quickly turned into a global sensation.

The Korean-language Netflix series, created by Hwang Dong-hyuk and starring Lee Jung-jae, is broadly about how adverse financial situations drive people to desperation. In the show, which is set in South Korea, people in heavy debt are invited to participate in a shady game with the promise of a monetary reward. What they don't realize upon joining, however, is that they'll be killed if they lose.

"Squid Game" is one of Netflix's biggest hits ever, to the extent that the streamer even spun it off into a reality series called "Squid Game: The Challenge." Despite the fact that it's endured as a pop culture phenomenon, it's been three years since the first season was released on Netflix.

Ahead of "Squid Game" season two's premiere on December 26, here's everything you need to remember about what happened in season one.

Seong Gi-hun decided to join the games after falling into debt

At the beginning of "Squid Game," Seong Gi-hun is a down-on-his-luck man who, following his divorce, lives with his mother. Hounded by loan sharks and unable to take his daughter Ga-yeong out for her birthday, Gi-hun encounters a recruiter who invites him to participate in a game with a monetary reward.

Gi-hun agrees, and is taken with 455 other players to a mysterious facility. There, he's assigned the player number 456 and encounters his old friend Cho Sang-woo (player 218) who has also fallen into deep debt. Gi-hun also befriends player 001, an old man named Oh Il-nam, and recognizes player 067, Kang Sae-byeok, as a woman who pickpocketed him outside of the games.

Sae-byeok is a North Korean defector attempting to bring her mother to South Korea and provide for her younger brother. Other relevant players include Ali (Player 199), a Pakistani immigrant attempting to provide for his wife and child; Han Mi-nyeo (player 212), a woman who relies on allies to survive the games; and Deok-su (Player 101), a gangster whose comrades sold him out in the outside world.

Guards inform the players that should they win six games, they'll win billions of Korean won.

The first game, 'Red Light, Green Light,' is a bloodbath — but the players still return after.

Gi-hun and the other participants quickly realize that they're in mortal peril when players who fail the first game, "Red Light, Green Light," are immediately gunned down. However, for every player who dies in the games, 100 million won gets added to the prize pot.

Gi-hun and the above players all make it through the first game. The surviving players vote to leave the game without any of the winnings. When presented with the choice outside the game, however, they choose to return. Gi-hun chooses to play after realizing that he can't pay for his mother's diabetes treatment.

Detective Hwang Jun-ho investigates the games, believing they may be tied to his brother's disappearance.

While briefly back in the outside world, Gi-hun attempts to expose the games to the police but fails.

However, detective Hwang Jun-ho notices similarities between Gi-hun's story and the disappearance of his brother, and decides to follow Gi-hun back to the island when he returns to the game. Once there, he poses as a guard. While undercover, Jun-ho discovers a secret organ-harvesting ring led by the game's guards.

Jun-ho eventually finds the games' archives and records, which indicate that his brother was a previous player.

In episode seven, when a group of VIP guests arrive, Jun-ho goes undercover as a waiter to find out more about their identities. After separating one from the rest of the group, he threatens him with a gun and interrogates him about the games.

In episode eight, Jun-ho escapes to another island but is tracked down by the Front Man, the boss of the games, and a group of guards.

The Front Man takes off his mask and reveals he is In-ho, Jun-ho's lost brother, and asks Jun-ho to join him. When Jun-ho declines, In-ho shoots him and Jun-ho seemingly falls off a cliff to his death.

Players begin to form alliances over the next rounds of games.

Gi-hun, Ali, Sang-woo, and Il-nam form one group and are the main focus after the first game. Han Mi-nyeo tries to join Deok-su and begins a sexual relationship with him. Sae-byeok tries to get through the games alone.

The second round is Dalgona, in which players have to cut shapes out of a sugar honeycomb biscuit without breaking it. Sang-woo figures out the game before it starts but tricks his group into splitting up, leading to Gi-hun picking the hardest shape (umbrella). Gi-hun still makes it through after figuring out it is easier to break the shape out by licking the biscuit.

The third game is tug-of-war, in which two teams of 10 pull a rope across a high platform. The losing team's members are pulled over the edge to their death.

Gi-hun and his allies, now including Sae-byeok, split up to recruit five more people, leading to three men and a woman, Ji-yeong (player 240), joining the team. Deok-su betrays Mi-nyeo, kicking her out of his team of men, so she joins Gi-hun's team.

Using clever tactics, Gi-hun's team makes it through tug-of-war despite having weaker people.

There's a secret organ-harvesting sect within the organization.

In episode four, we learn that some of the guards are harvesting the body parts of the players killed in the games to sell on the black market.

They hire Byeong-gi (Player 111), a doctor, to perform the surgery to safely remove the organs. The guards buy his allegiance by giving him the secrets of the next game so he can stay alive, and he uses that information to ally with Deok-su and his group of strong men.

In episode five, the organ smuggling ring falls apart when the guards are unable to tell Byeong-gi what the next game is. He freaks out, kills a guard, and tries to escape. The Front Man tracks down Byeong-gi and the remaining guard and kills them both.

In episode four, the players riot.

After Deok-su accidentally kills another player during a confrontation over food, the players learn they can kill each other outside the games without any consequences and still increase the prize fund.

When the lights go out for bedtime, the players turn on each other. Amid the chaos, Gi-hun and his allies protect Sae-byeok from Deok-su and his cronies. Before there is more bloodshed, Il-nam cries out that everyone should "stop this madness," and the guards intervene and end the riot.

While the guards check the bodies, Jun-ho, still disguised as a guard, approaches Gi-hun and asks him if he has seen his brother, Hwang In-ho. Gi-hun says players don't use names inside the games, so he doesn't know.

Gi-hun bonds with Il-nam.

One night between the games, Gi-hun and his team form a barricade to stop themselves from getting attacked.

While Gi-hun and Il-nam are on watch duty, Gi-hun daydreams about the time he went on strike with his fellow employees at a motor company and was mercilessly attacked by the police.

He then talks about the experience with Il-nam, explaining that they went on strike and barricaded themselves in the company building after the company laid off Gi-hun and a group of employees who had been working there for over a decade.

Then Il-nam falls ill, and Gi-hun looks after him.

Players turn against each other in the Marbles game.

In this game, everyone pairs up. The twist, however, is that their partner will be their opponent: They will play games against each other until one person is the winner and the loser is killed.

Ali and Sang-woo pair up and play a game where you have to guess if there's an even or odd number of marbles in a hidden hand. Ali, who has never played the game before, has a streak of wins, so Sang-woo begs for his life and then tricks Ali into believing they both can win by sticking together. Sang-Woo then steals Ali's marbles and progresses, leaving Ali to die.

Gi-hun and Il-nam play a similar game, but Il-nam begins to lose his memory and focus and wanders off. When they finally play the game, Il-nam is winning until Gi-hun starts to use Il-nam's poor memory to his advantage, lying about the guesses they make. As Gi-hun is about to win, Il-nam reveals that he knew Gi-hun was deceiving him but gives him the final marble anyway. Gi-hun progresses, and Il-nam is seemingly shot off-screen.

Ji-yeong and Sae-byeok pair up, but instead of playing, they open up about their lives. Ji-yeong reveals that she went to prison after killing her abusive father, who killed her mother. At the last moment, the pair play a game where they have to throw a marble nearest to the wall to win all the marbles. After Sae-byeok throws her marble, Ji-yeong deliberately fails her throw. She tells Sae-byeok she has nothing to live for, so she wants her to win and live life to the fullest.

Deok-su makes it through. Mi-nyeo could not find someone to pair with, so makes it through automatically.

Only three characters make it past game five.

Game five is Glass Bridge, where players have to make it across a bridge made of glass platforms. Half of the glass is tempered glass, which could survive the weight of two players, and the other half will break on impact, letting the players fall to their deaths.

The contestants must choose which path is the safe one. They're given an order and Gi-hun, Sae-byeok, and Sang-woo end up near the back of the line.

During the game, Mi-nyeo uses the opportunity to get her revenge, throwing herself and Deok-su onto one of the brittle glass platforms and to their deaths.

After Sang-woo pushes the final player in front of them to his death, Sang-woo, Gi-hun, and Sae-byeok make it across just in time before the remaining glass blows up, but shards of glass stab all three of them.

Sang-woo kills Sae-byeok but dies during the last game.

When they return from the glass bridge, Gi-hun and Sang-woo get into a fight over Sang-woo killing the other player during the glass bridge game. Sang-woo, Gi-hun, and Sae-byeok are given a feast — and at the end, each of them are left with a knife.

Sae-byeok was gravely wounded by a glass shard during the bridge game, so Gi-hun tries to protect her during the night. They promise to look after each other's family members if one of them dies in the next round.

Gi-hun attempts to kill Sang-woo in his sleep, but Sae-byeok stops him and says that he is not a killer. She passes out, and Gi-hun tries to get her medical help. Sang-woo uses this as a distraction to stab Sae-byeok in the neck, killing her.

The final game is Squid Game, where an attacker has to get to a safe area behind a defender. Gi-hun is the attacker, and Sang-woo is the defender. Sang-woo says that he killed Sae-byeok out of mercy — and to prevent Gi-hun and Sae-byeok from voting to end the game.

The game devolves into a bloody fight in the rain, with both men attempting to stab each other. Gi-hun overpowers Sang-woo but doesn't kill him. He moves toward the safe area, but attempts to convince Sang-woo to stop the game with him and leave with their lives.

Sang-woo chooses instead to stab himself, and asks Gi-hun to look after his mother. Gi-hun sees her after he is released from the game, but returns home to learn that his own mother has died.

Gi-hun discovers Il-nam is alive — and not who he appeared to be.

Gi-hun has barely touched his winnings a year after the games. One day, he receives a mysterious card with an address on it.

There he finds Il-nam (Player 001), who reveals he created the games and entered the competition to have fun because he was dying from a tumor. Il-nam also makes a wager with Gi-hun that no one will help an unconscious drunk man lying on the pavement across the street from them. Gi-hun accepts, but Il-nam dies before discovering that he was wrong.

Gi-hun is revived from this encounter, gets a haircut, and changes his hair color. He picks up Sae-byeok's brother, Kang Cheol, and takes him — and a suitcase full of money — to live with Sang-woo's mother.

Gi-hun almost leaves Korea but changes his mind.

Gi-hun prepares to fly to the United States to visit his daughter, but spots the game recruiter at the airport inviting someone else to the game.

Gi-hun chases him down, but the recruiter escapes. Gi-hun steals the invitation card from the new candidate and calls the number on the way to his plane. In-ho answers, and urges Gi-hun to get on the plane.

Gi-hun says that he can't forgive him, and turns back.

"Squid Game" season two premieres Thursday, December 26 on Netflix.

• "Squid Game" was a massive hit for Netflix, which greenlighted a second and third season.
• Its creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk, said he's "exhausted" after working on the show and wants a break.
• Netflix has spun off "Squid Game" into a reality series, in-person experiences, and a video game.

After "Squid Game" became a global sensation in 2021, Netflix invested big time in the series and the franchise — and after working on the show's second and third seasons, its creator is ready for a break.

"I'm so exhausted. I'm so tired," Hwang Dong-hyuk, the mastermind behind the show, told Variety. "In a way, I have to say, I'm so sick of 'Squid Game.' I'm so sick of my life making something, promoting something. So I'm not thinking about my next project right now."

He added: "I'm just thinking about going to some remote island and having my own free time without any phone calls from Netflix."

"Squid Game," a Korean-language series, captured global audiences three years ago with bright, childlike aesthetics juxtaposed against a gripping, deadly story.

Unable to provide for himself or his mother's medical care, Seong Gi-hun, a divorced dad, signs on to a game where people in heavy amounts of debt play children's games in pursuit of a 45.6 billion won cash prize. To do so, they wager their lives: Losing a game means instant death. Seong, played by Lee Jung-jae, survives, but the other 455 players don't — and at the end of season one, he sets off to shut down the games himself.

The series was a massive hit for Netflix, to the tune of 330 million viewers and 2.8 billion hours viewed to date, according to Variety. Bloomberg reported a month after season one's premiere in October 2021 that Netflix estimated the series would make the company $900 million. The first season was critically successful as well: The show was nominated for 14 Emmy awards and won six, including outstanding directing for a drama series for Hwang and outstanding lead actor in a drama series for Lee.

In the three-year gap between seasons one and two, the streaming platform has capitalized on the property, spinning off the "Squid Game" franchise into the reality series "Squid Game: The Challenge" and in-person experiences where people can play through nondeadly versions of the games with their friends. This year, Netflix launched the video game "Squid Game: Unleashed" and made it available to nonsubscribers.

Hwang has been kept in the loop on these "Squid Game" projects and consults on prospective on-screen continuations of the franchise, Variety said. However, he told the publication that he was more concerned with finishing the main series.

He told Entertainment Weekly he'd intended seasons two and three to be one story but had to split them in two because of what would have been a lengthy episode count. The second and third seasons were filmed back-to-back, and season three is expected in 2025.

It's a lot of work for a creator who didn't anticipate he'd be doing a second season at all.

"I had no intention of doing a second season," Hwang said, "because the overall process of writing, producing, and directing the series was so challenging."