Netflix came out with another series on Sept. 17 2021 called ‘Squid Game’. I didn’t even hear about this series until I started seeing TikTok videos about it. Most of these videos talked about how different the series was from many of the other pieces Netflix has come out with in the past. 

The series combined children’s games and death and it was shocking to say the least. When I watch something with a lot of violence, children are not usually featured in t. However, this was not the case with ‘Squid Game’

The series follows Seong Gi-Hun, a South Korean man who was severely in debt. The first episode was when Seong was paid a visit by a man who asked to play a game with him. Every time he won he received money, but then every time he lost he had to receive a slap in the face.

After this short game concluded Seong was given a card with a circle, a triangle and a square on one side and phone number on the other. 

When Seong called the number he was asked if he would like to participate in the games. WIthout fully understanding what he just got himself into, Seong accepted and with it, the games began.

After all 456 players, Seong being number 456, were brought together they were met by people who worked for the games dressed in pink jumpsuits, and masks that covered their entire head.

These workers explained the game to the players and told them what they would be playing for. They had to win a series of six games in order to win the cash prize of nearly 45.6 billion won (which is around 38 million USD). 

However, losers of the game do not just get eliminated, they are also killed. Players do not learn this till the first game of red light green light. Any player that moved when it was on the red light was shot down. Over half of the original 456 lost in this first game.

Over the course of the rest of the series, we see Seong navigate through each game winning every single one. Audiences see a lot of death, some of which is not too emotional as we did not get to know these characters. For me, the hardest character to watch die was Kang-Saebyeok.

She was one of three players remaining after the 5th game. She died after a piece of glass shot from the bridge behind her, Seong, and one other player had just crossed. 

She did not die instantly and was actually murdered by the man Seong played against in the final game.

Seong ended up winning the entire game, taking home the $45.6 million won. We also find out in the end that player one, was actually the mastermind behind the whole thing. 

He told Seong, in the last half of season one, that he created the games because he was bored and had too much money to spend.

He holds these games annually and he only participated in these specific games because he was dying from a brain tumor and wanted to feel nostalgia from his childhood.

During the final episode of season one Seong saw the same recruiter from the beginning of the series playing the slapping game with another man in the subway. By the time Seong got to the other side of the subway, the recruiter was gone and that man was standing alone in the subway looking at the squid game card he was just given.

 Seong took the card from this man trying to keep him away from the same horrors he just witnessed. In the next scene, Seong was about to get onto a plane to go visit his daughter when he pulled the card out and called the number. He told them who he was and the person on the other side of the call said to mind your business and turn around and get on the plane.

How they knew where Seong was is a mystery but seconds before the end credits we see Seong walk away from the plane and that is where season one ends. 

There is a lot of speculation as to what might happen in season two or if there will even be a season two. I think it will follow Seong on his quest to take down the games and I also hope to see more of the history of the games broken down so we know exactly what has happened in past years.