I watched this show with my friend in sub because dub was a little silly, anyway. We are introduced to the main character, Seong Gi-hun, he and his mother are poor because Gu-hun spent all of their money on.. “Gambling?” No. He wasted all of his and his mother’s money on betting on, horse racing? I don’t know lol. So Gi-hun and his mother aren’t exactly on the best terms. Gi-hun goes to talk to his best friend (Sang-Woo)’s mother, Gi-hun and Sang-Woo’s mother believe that Sang-Woo was in school, which is why he isn’t seen with his mother. On the way home, Gi-hun waits for his train when a man in a suit sits next to him and offers to play a game, now of course, Gi-hun refuses multiple times, but the man offers a ton of money for everytime Gi-hun wins each round, the game that is played is called Ddakji, they play a bunch of rounds, every round Gi-hun fails, the man always wins, since the man offered Gi-hun money for every round he wins, he tells Gi-hun that he has to give him that same amount of money, but since Gi-hun is broke, the man slaps him in the face every time he wins. Eventually after a short montage, Gi-hun eventually wins a round, giving him 100,000 won. Gi-hun tries to play more rounds but the man offers him to play more games to win money, he hands him a card with 3 shapes on the front, a circle, triangle, and a square. There was a phone number on the back of the card that Gi-hun would have to call if he decided he wanted to play more games for money, but Gi-hun seems happy with the money he received from Ddakji, so he leaves and heads straight to the bank to withdraw all the money he has in his account, he doesn’t have a lot, so he takes out 10,000 won. Gi-hun has an ex-wife that he had a child with, and since he doesn’t have a lot of money, he can’t do much with his kid, but with the money he has he heads to an arcade to get a prize from a claw machine to get something for his daughter for her birthday, he tries multiple times at the claw machine but fails, he has his eye on a box in the claw machine that holds something. Eventually with the help of a young boy, he wins. Gi-hun spends some time with his daughter, buys some food for her at a restaurant and finally reveals that he got a present for her birthday, he hands her the box and she opens it excitingly, but inside the box was a gun? (It was a lighter.) Gi-hun embarrassedly tries to tell her it’s a toy but he ends up taking it back and promising her that he will give her something better for her next birthday, little does Gi-hun know, that his ex-wife and child are moving to America, he gets informed of this once he returns his daughter home to her mother and stepfather. Gi-hun returns home upset, he sits in his room and pulls out the card that the man in the suit had gave him earlier, he calls the number and accepts to play the games for money. He stands outside as a van pulls up with a masked man driving it. They bag him and throw him in the van and drive off. Gi-hun awakens in a big room full with a bunch of bunk beds, he’s wearing a green tracksuit with the number “456” on it, in the room, besides the beds, are 455 other people who called to play the games, over a speaker, a voice tells everyone that they will compete in a series of Korean childhood games to win a handsome amount of money, masked guards wearing red enter into the room and they announcer tells the players to get ready for the first game, after a quick briefing, the players are escorted to big arena, there’s a white line and quite the distance away from that is a big doll. The players are told that the first game is Red Light, Green Light. Once the doll turns it’s head and says “Green Light.” Players are supposed to move forward and progress to the other side of the arena, once the doll turns it’s head to look at the players, it yells “Red Light.” And the players must stop in their tracks. There’s a scene of two men, they are messing around, joking to eachother about who’s going to lose first, the first Green Light is called and players begin to move forward, a Red Light is called and one of the men wasn’t able to stand still, the doll locks in on the player, and the player gets shot. Everyone is confused and shocked, a Green Light is called and the other man walks up to his buddy, thinking it’s a joke, but once he reaches to his friend, he sees him dead. A Red Light is called and the man didn’t stand still in time, he tries to run away but gets shot in the back of the head, everyone freaks out and begins to run towards the exit, but since it’s still on Red Light, half of the 456 players, get eliminated. The rest of the players continue on, the timer that had been set at the beginning of the game ticks down to a few more minutes, Gi-hun is just about to reach the end when a Red Light is called, he trips over a dead body, but just before the doll turns it’s head a sense Gi-hun falling, Ali Adbul, Player 199 catches Gi-hun midair, the both stand still, and in the last seconds, Gi-hun and Ali jump towards the other side and win the game. When Gi-hun first arrived, he looked around at all the players, he noticed one in particular, his best friend Sang-Woo was one if them, he hadn’t been at school. All the players were scared and upset when Sang-Woo spoke, he talked about a rule the Frontman (the masked overseer) had made, if the majority of players vote to terminate the games, then everyone returns home and are left to their debts, the majority vote to ends the games, everyone gets shoved back into their lives filled with debt, after some story of some of the players, they all realize, they can’t live their life with all their debts, so they, including Gi-hun, decide to return to the games.

This episode had me in shock, it was definitely an insane introduction to the show and it was actually really beautifully produced, I would recommend to anyone who can watch violent stuff like Squid Games without throwing up, or being traumatized, I give this episode a solid 10/10

Where you can watch Squid Games: Netflix