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Hell

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Season One
Red Light, Green Light Hell The Man with the Umbrella Stick to the Team A Fair World Gganbu V.I.P.S Front Man One Lucky Day

Hell (지옥 Ji-ok?) is the 2nd episode of the Season 1 of the Netflix TV series Squid Game.

Summary[]

Split on whether to continue or quit, the group holds a vote. But their realities in the outside world may prove to be just as unforgiving as the game.

—Official Netflix synopsis

Plot[]

The episode begins with the guards burning the bodies of the players who had eliminated. One of the coffins, a player who was still alive, tries to climb out. The guards notice this and quickly nail the lid down, preventing the player from getting out.

After the first game, all the surviving contestants are brought back to the dormitory. The guards enter and congratulate the players for winning the first game, stating that 255 players were eliminated. At this, Han Mi-nyeo (Player 212) and several players beg to be let go from the games, promising that they will pay off their debts. A guard clarifies that the point of the games are not to punish the players for their debts, but to give them a second chance.

After being reminded that players who refuse to participate will be killed, Cho Sang-woo invokes the third clause of the consent form that says the game can be ended if the majority vote to leave. The guards agree to the voting but show the cash prize first, with a gigantic transparent piggy bank being lowered from the ceiling that begins to be filled up with stacks of cash totaling ₩25.5 billion. They reveal that each contestant is worth ₩100 million and that the total prize pot will be ₩45.6 billion. The guards further explain that the players can make a choice between leaving or staying, and set up a voting machine with two buttons - a circle to continue and an X to leave. If they leave, they don't get any of the prize money.

Voting is done in reverse order of player numbers, so Seong Gi-hun is first because he's Player 456 and votes for "X", Player 453, an elderly woman, passes to vote, thinks about her decision and the money makes her vote for "O", which surprises Gi-hun. The voting progresses and remains neck and neck, Park Ju-un votes for "X", Jung Min-tae votes for "O" and the vote reaches 50-50, Sang-woo passes to vote and votes for "O", making it 51-50 and surprising Gi-hun that his friend chooses the money over his own life, Mi-nyeo passes to vote and votes for "O".

No Sang-hun asks the players who voted for "O" if they have gone crazy and tells them that they must stop that madness, Mi-nyeo asks him if if they leave something in their lives will change and declares that it's Hell out there. Min-tae says that Mi-nyeo is right and that if they stop they will be doing the dead players a favor and giving them the money, which he doesn't think is fair because they are the winners, Ju-un begs to stop the games and go home, Min-tae says that he doesn't have a home to return to and that there he has an opportunity, he tells the others to try until the end and that he prefers to try until death. Sang-hun grabs him and tells him that if he wants to die, he should do it alone, but not drag the others with him. Sang-hun and Min-tae start fighting until the Guards stop them, telling them that they will not allow any kind of act that interferes with that democratic process and politely ask them to continue with the voting.

Voting continues and players pass to vote, Ali Abdul votes for "X", Sang-hun votes for "X", Jang Deok-su votes for "X", Kang Sae-byeok votes for "O" and the voting reaches to a 100-100 tie.

The Manager announces that the last voter remains: Oh Il-nam, Player 001, Il-nam goes to vote and thinks about his decision. Gi-hun remembers what Il-nam told him about his brain tumor and worries about the old man's decision. The Manager reminds Il-nam to press "O" to continue the game and to press "X" to end the game, Il-nam finally makes his decision... and votes for "X", finishing the voting 100-101 and ending the games. Players who voted "X" are happy that they won and can go home while players who voted "O" are upset that they lost and won't get the money, the Manager announces that the majority of players voted to end the game, therefore the game is over.

Min-tae tells the Manager that the "X" players should leave, but that the "O" players should stay, that half of them have already died and that they can't stop there, Mi-nyeo says to let them continue and Min-tae says to continue. The Manager regrets that they have to say goodbye by that way, but he tells the players that if the majority wants to play again, they will resume the game and says goodbye to them for the moment.

With that, everyone is dropped off back on the mainland that night in pairs, with the promise that if a majority of people want to continue the games after a few days, the games will be restarted. Gi-hun is dumped with Sae-byeok, the pickpocket who stole his money. Gi-hun brothers Sae-Byeok by asking her to give him back the stolen money, only just for her to leave him with his legs tied and naked. Sang-woo is dropped off with Ali, a Pakistani immigrant, who saved Gi-hun in the first game. Ali asks Sang-woo if he can borrow his phone to make a call. Sang-woo agrees to this, but his phone is dead, so he goes to a nearby convenience store with Ali to buy a phone charger and some ramen. When he charges his phone, he finds a torrent of messages from the authorities and legal threats to pay his debts. He nevertheless gives Ali cash for a bus ride back home, who proceeds to thank him profusely.

Gi-hun immediately goes to a police station and tries to report the game. However, the officers think his story sounds too ridiculous to be true and do not take him seriously and think he is drunk. He gives them the business card, featuring only a circle, a triangle and a square on one side and a phone number on the other. A police officer calls the number and unconvincingly says he would like to play some games, and a woman who answered the phone seems confused and then calls him a pervert before hanging up. Gi-hun, believing the officer has misdialed, calls the number again directly from his cell phone logs, but the line is now disconnected. Detective Hwang Jun-ho overhears the conversation and notices the business card. Later, while searching his brother's room at a gosiwon (boarding house), Jun-ho finds a small black box tied with pink ribbon containing the same business card, leading him to suspect Gi-hun was telling the truth to the police.

Gi-hun, not finding his mother at home, searches for her on the street and bumps into Sang-woo, who is afraid to meet his mother, so he watches her from afar while she organizes her fish store. Gi-hun tells him that with his education and financial knowledge, he can pay off the ₩650 million in debt he embezzled. Sang-woo confesses that he has debts actually totaling ₩6 billion due to a series of bad investments in futures and had put his mother's store and home up as collateral in one of those dealings, and he can't pay any of it back. Soon after, Gi-hun receives a call from the Emergency Medical Center that his mother has been diagnosed with severe diabetes and may need to get her feet amputated. At night, despite the doctors' advice and Gi-hun's pleas, she leaves the hospital and refuses treatment, reminding Gi-hun that he had cancelled all their health insurance and drained what little savings they had to get more money to fuel his gambling addiction, hence why they can't afford her getting the treatment and hospitalization to recover. Racked with guilt, Gi-hun swears that he'll make things right and get the money.

Sae-byeok visits her little brother Cheol, who is staying in a children's home as she can't afford a bigger place for them both to stay in. Cheol complains to his sister that the other children pick on him and say that she abandoned him at the orphanage. Sae-byeok consoles her brother, promising him that she will get him out of the orphanage and rescue their mother out of North Korea. She visits the broker she hired, only to find out he has absconded with her money. Before Sae-Byeok leaves, she angrily spills hot tea on him and threatens to end his life if he attempts to pull the scheme one more time.

Meanwhile, Ali returns to the factory where he works illegally and confronts his boss about his pay, which he hasn't received in six months. His boss refuses to pay him, saying that he doesn't have the money. However, Ali sees him putting an envelope full of cash into his pocket. Ali continues to beg his boss for the money, but Ali's boss becomes annoyed at his persistence and curses at him, starting a fight in which Ali accidentally pushes his boss into a machine when reaching for the envelope, crushing his boss's fingers and causing him to drop the envelope. Ali is horrified at this, but nevertheless snatches the envelope off the floor and runs away.

Sang-woo speaks to his mother over the phone, lying to her that he is on a business trip. After ending the call, Sang-woo's mother is talking up her son's success to a client when two police officers approach her and inform her that Sang-woo has a warrant out for his arrest, being charged with forgery, embezzlement, and other crimes related to fraud, much to her shock and disbelief. Meanwhile, Sang-woo is lying in a bathtub in his apartment, inhaling toxic fumes from charcoal in an attempt to commit suicide. He is interrupted by someone ringing his doorbell, and when he answers it, he finds another business card from the games, with instructions on the back telling him when and where his pickup will be.

Ali returns home, his wife alarmed at how he's covered in blood and wondering how he suddenly got a stack of money. Ali only tells her to buy tickets for the first plane back to their home in Pakistan for her and their child, assuring her that he loves her and he'll join them once he gets his job done.

Gi-hun desperately tries to find a way to get the money necessary to save his mother. After being unable to convince a friend to give him a job, he goes to a convenience shop, where he encounters Player 001. The old man claims that he has a friend who lives in the neighborhood and wonders if him and Gi-hun meeting is destiny. They share ramyeon and soju, and the man reveals that he decided to return to the games, remarking that he won't live much longer anyway and he thinks that the outside world is a worse hell than the games. The old man states he prefers to play the games, claiming he might even have a chance to win, than just sit around waiting to slowly die from his brain tumor.

Meanwhile, Player 101, a gangster named Deok-su, reconnects with one of his criminal underlings, showing him the game card he got and orders him to gather as many people as he can, figuring they can follow the vans and find a way to break into the location of the games and take all the cash. However, his underling casually informs him that he sold him out and drove him right to a bridge surrounded by armed operators from a Filipino casino, where Deok-su racked up a small fortune in debt, and they plan to sell his organs on the black market to recoup their losses. Deok-su kills the traitorous underling and jumps off the bridge to escape, swimming to safety.

As a desperate last resort, Gi-hun tries to ask his ex-wife Eun-ji for help, only to find that she and her husband are also barely making ends meet as is. They get into an argument about Gi-hun's inability to be a responsible father for Ga-yeong. Ga-yeong's stepfather offers to give Gi-hun the money on the condition that he cease all contact with Ga-yeong. Infuriated by the proposal, Gi-hun angrily rejects the money punching the stepfather in front of her daughter and leaves. On his way home, he encounters Jun-ho, who questions about the business card and the games, but Gi-hun lies and claims he made it all up. Even when Jun-ho informs that he needs his help to save his brother, Gi-hun rejects it, feeling that he can't be of help. As Gi-hun enters his home, he receives another card, an invitation to go back to the games.

Ultimately, most players decide to return to the games, waiting on the street at midnight to be picked up by the cars. Jun-ho drives close behind, following the van which picked Gi-hun.

Cast[]

Starring[]

Guest Starring[]

Extras (all uncredited)[]

Deaths[]

Trivia[]

  • This episode is the first episode, and the only one in Season 1, to include a voting scene.
  • This is the only episode in Season 1 where no players get eliminated in the island.
  • Im Jeong-dae's name is seen on Gi-hun's phone when he tried to call the recruiter.
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