Squid Game/Tear Jerker

WARNING! There are unmarked Spoilers ahead. Beware. Tear Jerkers in Squid Game include:

General

• The fact that the competition exists, and keen viewers can see that they've dated all the way back to 1988. A group of the wealthiest men in the world bets on the poorest people in South Korea, those who are so desperate that they can willingly return to the games even after a group vote to end them. The Host reveals to Gi-hun that it's a test, to see if humanity can truly keep its fundamental goodness in desperate times. Only Gi-hun and his crew seemed to break the cycle.

Specific Characters

• Gi-hun himself is this, growing from a Jerkass Woobie to a straight-up Woobie by the end of Season Two. He believes himself a loser with no chance of recovering from his current state of affairs, owing to losing his job working in a car company as well as his marriage. Reduced to living with his mother, Gi-hun sank into gambling millions of won, to the point that he's forced to sign away his kidneys to a loan shark who wants his money back. Even with that, he's not someone that would sacrifice another human being to benefit his own situation. But then... his mom's diabetes gets worse, neither of them have the funds to pay for a life-saving surgery because Gi-hun gambled it away, and the only person that can front Gi-hun the money is his daughter's stepfather. And he wants to do it on the condition that Gi-hun never sees Ga-yeong again. Feeling he has no choice, a cruel irony since Gi-hun ends up turning his back on Ga-yeong to save her from the Game Makers anyway, Gi-hun returns to the Games knowing he will likely die trying. And then he regrets outliving all the players and his mother, to the point that he doesn't touch the prize money at all. All he can do from Season Two onward is try to stop the Games from progressing because he doesn't want anyone else to suffer what he and his friends did. Thus far, he's only been able to save one person by stealing the business card from them.

Season One

• Mi-nyeo is mainly a comic relief character, but her arc is tragic. She's introduced as a Drama Queen and a compulsive liar that smuggles in cigarettes, while allying with the strongest side. Yet, in each challenge, she pulls her weight, sometimes literally, and figures out ways to survive. It's hinted that her constantly switching sides and being a jerk to those not useful to her is a coping mechanism for how she survived with her debt. Mi-nyeo finds out that game four is in pairs, and no one wants to partner with her because of how disloyal she is. She's in tears and screaming as the guards drag her away, fully expecting to be executed. Yet the guards give her a Cruel Mercy; they dub her the "Weakest Link" and then escort her back to the barracks, where she can sleep the day away. Mi-nyeo is left with the realization that no one will love her or want her with how she's been acting, and it's all her fault.
• Sang-woo as a character, being a Fallen Hero. The prologue shows that he used to be a nice kid, playing Squid Game with his friends, including Gi-hun. He was a prodigy, the golden boy of the neighborhood who graduated top of his class at business school and got a cushy job. Then thanks to a lot of embezzlement and bad stock decisions, he ends up mired in debt and investigated for white-collar crime. Sang-woo also put up his mother's restaurant for collateral, meaning that if he is arrested, she will end up homeless. We see his ruthless pragmatism come out more and more the different games progress, where he starts his darkness by betraying Ali rather than either accepting the loss or calculating if there is a loophole in the Marbles game. Gi-hun remains painfully oblivious that his best friend is not the same sweet boy he remembers until he witnesses Sang-woo pushing the glassmaker that was helping them navigate the last few panels.
• Il-nam is another Tragic Villain. He is a monster and fully admits that he is one on his deathbed to Gi-hun while pointing out that everyone participated willingly. Yet, from what we know, he didn't lie about anything, merely hid details of the truth. So the timeline is this: he had a wife and a son, and they were so close that his wife would make their lunches, and he would play with his son in the streets. Either before or during, Il-nam became a loan shark, and started earning lots of money by ruining others' lives. This may have pushed away his family, as they are nowhere in sight in the present. Alone at the top, wealthy and bored, Il-nam created the games. Even this bit of entertainment didn't last when doctors found he had a terminal brain tumor. So Il-nam enters the games, and explains his motive was to relive his childhood for a little bit longer, and have some fun rather than spend his days receiving endless medical treatment.

Season Two

• Hyun-ju, the first trans competitor we see in the series. As she tells the others in episode five, she used to be a decorated sergeant, the best in the military. But then she came out as a woman and started transitioning. Her parents disowned her, while friends drifted away. To add insult to injury, it's implied the military fired her because of her being trans, meaning she accrued debt she couldn't pay back for her various treatments. As a result, she's uncomfortable about anyone seeing her legs when doing Jegi in the Pentathlon. Out of the new competitors, she's stuck the most between a rock and a hard place; voting to quit would give her some money but not enough to fully transition and start a new life, risking her mental health. Voting to stay, however, means risking her new friends' lives, including sweet Young-mi who befriended her and didn't care Hyun-ju was trans. Hyun-ju had theoretically calculated at first that she could survive the Games on her own after Red Light, Green Light, and later that she could at least protect Young-mi and her team for one more round. But then Young-mi dies due to falling before she can get into a safety room in Mingle, and Hyun-ju is Forced to Watch. You absolutely can't blame Hyun-ju for shutting down afterward and voting to quit with a Thousand-Yard Stare. It takes the bad luck of Dae-ho suffering a panic attack while going back to the dorms to retrieve ammo that saves Hyun-ju when the rebellion fails, since Hyun-ju goes back to check on him. Then when she seems to prepare a Suicide by Cop Last Stand against the guards that storm the dormitories, Geum-ja has to stop her and say she shouldn't sacrifice her life needlessly.
• Geum-ja herself is this, a survivor of the Korean War and implied to be a Retired Badass. Unlike the other competitors, she doesn't have debt; her son does. She entered because she believes a mother has to protect their child. Until she learns that Gi-hun is telling the truth that losing the Games means forfeiting your life, she is prepared to do anything to clear Yong-sik's debts. Then her priorities change, to survive long enough to vote and go home. While she understands Yeong-sik is in a bad spot and he doesn't want her share of the winnings, she also would rather they go home with what they have. Geum-ja also bonds with Gi-hun, Jun-hee, and Hyun-ju, complete with thanking Gi-hun and Young-il for saving her life during Mingle; she's utterly relieved when the Guards return an unconscious Gi-hun to the barracks and he doesn't have any life-threatening injuries, before becoming horrified at his Suicide by Cop attempt. It's implied that in Season 3 she will outlive Yong-sik because he would rather sacrifice himself for her than vice-versa, causing her to wail with her hair in a mess. When Gi-hun is handcuffed to a bed for his Suicide by Cop attempt and only the Guards have the keys, all Geum-ja can do is sit with him and talk about their shared trauma of outliving their loved ones.

Season One

Red Light, Green Light

• Gi-hun at first doesn't come off as the nicest guy. He steals from his mother to bet on horses, albeit while promising to use the winnings to spoil his daughter rotten on her birthday. Then Gi-hun gets pickpocketed, the loan sharks make him sign a blood contract. and he's reduced to playing arcade games to win her a present and treating Ga-yeong to street food. You feel bad for him as Ga-yeong hides her dismay about receiving a gun-shaped cigarette lighter, saying that maybe her dad should keep it but shouldn't use it.
• Ga-yeong has a sad look on her face when Gi-hun says that he'll get her a real gift next year. He finds out later that his ex and her family are moving to the States within a few months, so he's unlikely to keep that promise. Gi-hun's mother urges him to find some work and prove that he can fight for custody of her. That's how he ends up calling the number on the business card...
• Sang-woo's mother said that her son and Gi-hun's childhood friend was on a business trip. Gi-hun is shocked to find Sang-woo in the barracks, and clearly identified by the guards when he demands to know what the hell is going on and why were they kidnapped.
• Player 250 and 324's deaths. They had just met that day and were ribbing each other, with both having fun at the photo booth and betting a million won to cross the finish line first. Then 324 can't stop in time during Red Light, Green Light, and we hear a gunshot. 250 cannot believe what he heard despite his Oh Crap look, and moves to check on 324 when he gets the green light. He panics when seeing 324 coughing up blood, trying to run for the exit.
• The way that all the panicking people are mowed down by turret gunfire. They scream and bang at the doors, some not even making it that far. Their photos blink out in rapid succession on the giant screen. Gi-hun can only watch in horror, avoiding gunfire because he's too scared to move after a panicking player knocked him to the ground.
• Sang-woo whispers advice for Gi-hun to get moving before the timer runs out, and hide behind bigger players. This motivates Gi-hun to break out of his Deer in the Headlights mode, and start moving. Soon Sang-woo has made it to the finish line, and he sees Gi-hun is inches away. When it seems that Gi-hun is going to trip over a dead body, Sang-woo watches with anguished helplessness. Thank you for saving Gi-hun, Ali!
• Ali and Gi-hun make it, along with a few other players, before the timer runs out, but not everyone does. One man who had to freeze looks at the doll with a This Is Gonna Suck look. The gunfire resumes, and those left on the field are shot dead.

Hell

• The survivors are in the barracks, huddled in groups. When the guards come and congratulate them for passing round one, Mi-nyeo gets on her knees and begs for her life, saying that she will pay her debt and has learned her lesson. Several women follow suit, and the whole crowd minus a few people including Gi-hun and Ali start begging.
• The sad look on Sang-woo's face as he looks at his mother discreetly, from a distance. Shortly after he leaves and lies on the phone that he's on a business trip, cops come by and tell her they have an arrest warrant for her son. She can't believe it, and insists there must be a mistake.
• Gi-hun's mother ended up in the hospital because her diabetes got worse while Gi-hun was playing the first game. The doctors want to operate on her, but she checks herself out and goes back to work. Gi-hun asks her to go back, asking what happened to her health insurance policy. She reminds him, rather snappily, that he cancelled her health insurance and emptied her bank account to bet on horses. Her job is the only thing keeping their apartment, and she intends to provide that for as long as she can work. All Gi-hun can do is cry Tears of Remorse as it sinks in that his mother will die and it's his fault.
• After Sang-woo and Gi-hun meet for morning coffee and cigarettes, Sang-woo explains his financial problems. He invested money that didn't belong to him in stocks and futures. Gi-hun is confused and asked if his best friend gambled his future away. While Sang-woo doesn't bother to clarify -- futures refer to investing in commodities, with the belief their values will go up-- his face indicates that's a pretty apt summary of the situation.
• Sae-byeok visits her brother after the disastrous trip with the broker, trying to treat him to ice cream. He's mad at her because the other kids in the orphanage say that she's left him, and she won't ever get their mother across the border. She hugs him tightly, promising they'll be a family again.
• The old man encounters Gi-hun drinking as he ponders how to save his mother. Turns out he has a big bag of ready-to-eat noodles, and shares it with Gi-hun who offers the alcohol. Gi-hun asks with worry if the old man should be drinking with his tumor. The old man replies it doesn't matter at this point, and talks about how he felt alive during the game.
• Ali's last conversation with his wife. He gives her the money he took from his boss, and orders her to take their baby to Pakistan, but leave him behind. She knows something must have happened given the blood on the dollar bills, but Ali tells her No Time to Explain. He has one "last" job.
• The ending soundtrack for the episode, that has a melancholic determination to it. Cars come to pick up, knock out, and prepare our cast for the games. From the extremely nice Ali, to the murderous Deok-su and those in-between them, they're all in the same boat: desperate for money to either save themselves or their loved ones. Gi-hun surrenders to the gas, feeling utterly useless. They have only one hope, that is Jun-ho following the truck that took Gi-hun, for the faintest hopes of finding his big brother In-ho.

The Man With The Umbrella

• Jun-ho's face as he sees the convoy of trucks after following one to the docks. He decides to follow along, posing as a player before killing a guard and impersonating him. Consider this, however: he was trained to protect the innocent. Jun-ho knows the logical decision would be to take photos with his phone, text his boss, and start an investigation years into the making. Instead, he tells his boss he won't be in, and enters the unknown. Why? To find out what might have happened to In-ho.
• Gi-hun frantically waking up the old man, worried the knockout gas killed him. He's relieved when the old man awakens.
• Only 14 people refused to return for the games. Everyone else, including the main characters, returned. The old man and Gi-hun discuss this, that even the woman who claimed to have an unnamed baby came back for round two.
• It's sad how a little mistake from breaking the dalgona leads to players begging for their lives before they're shot. One woman was so close but she got startled by gunfire.
• The episode ends with one player killing a guard, and demanding the one he took hostage to remove his mask. When the guard does, he has a young face, with no emotion. Horrified he was pointing a gun at a youth who could be his son, the player shoots himself. Then the Front Man appears and shoots the unmasked guard for breaking the rules.

Stick To The Team

• Four Is Death is very much in place. While the third game is yet to come, the Front Man plans a bonus round where limited food rations will cause a riot. The Guards, including an undercover Jun-ho, are ordered to stand by and do nothing until they receive a signal to stop the riot. Jun-ho visibly agonizes about this under the mask because his brother might be there in the barracks.
• The death of the hungry man when he demands his ration back from Deok-su. When he's on the ground, Gi-hun demands that the guards do something. They do something...bring in a coffin and announce that he's been eliminated.
• Who is the first casualty of the riot? A woman who tells the hungry man that Deok-su and his friends cut in front of her, and that's why there were people who got none. All she can do is lie in her bunk in terror before Deok-su makes her scream.
• It's implied that Il-nam didn't know about this bonus round. He might have, given he gets on a bed high above the action and it's his words that end the riot, but several high beds topple down during the riot and he says the games are supposed to have an element of fun so it could have been him having dumb luck. Il-nam begs for the cameras for this to stop, saying that he's scared and that everyone is going to kill each other. The Front Man only then sends in the Guards to break up the massacre and count the dead.
  • For the rest of the night, Il-nam has a Thousand-Yard Stare as he looks at the corpses being collected, and the bloodstains splattered on people's clothes. Maybe, just maybe, he realized the implications of what he had created all those years ago when starting the games.
• Jun-ho is horrified that he has to stand by and watch the contestants murder each other. As soon as he can, he checks up on Gi-hun while disguised, and asks if In-ho Hwang is there. Gi-hun responds, "We don't know each other's names."
• Gi-hun's team gathers at their barracks. They're relieved the old man wasn't hurt, and Sang-woo says it was lucky none of them were injured, physically at least. Ali says that climbing that high is dangerous for a man Il-nam's age, and says they were worried he had gotten killed.
• Gi-hun wakes up the next morning and learns that Il-nam didn't sleep the whole night. He asks why; the old man says he felt guilty about his helplessness during the riot, and felt keeping watch would make up for that.
• There is something sad about Deok-su refusing to have Mi-nyeo on his team for the third game. Everyone knows that trusting him would be a bad idea after the riot, but Mi-nyeo thought that they had a connection. When she keeps begging, he tosses her to the ground.
• Game three is tug-of-war. After the players form teams and choose ten members, they have to compete over a high platform, while handcuffed to the rope. The losing team is pulled off the platform, left to dangle, and falls when a guillotine slices the rope.
• Deok-su's gang goes up against a team where a middle-aged bearded man is the leader, and there are several women. While they hold their ground at first, Deok-su delivers this Wham! Line: "Kill them!" His team proceeds to pull the others over the platform easily, and the leader is crying. Everyone on the ground goes Mass "Oh Crap"
  • Know how bad this is? Even though Il-nam loves tug-of-war and says it was his favorite game as a kid, you can see him gasp in horror and close his eyes, waiting for the inevitable, before the guillotine slices the rope. That's right, even the Big Bad of the game is horrified by how ruthlessly Deok-su curbstomped his opponents and the design of the game.
• Gi-hun's team has to go against an all-men group. They have three women, an old man, and at least one guy who's not athletic. When they enter the elevator, all of them have a look of resignation, that they're going to die. Then Il-nam speaks up; he says that it's not over yet. He knows how to play tug-of-war and can help them win.
• Mi-nyeo's panicking during the opponents' second wind is not her usual brand of comedy. She's screaming for Gi-hun to do something before they're pulled to their deaths. When Sang-woo suggests his risky but effective plan -- walk three steps forward to throw off the other team's balance-- she splutters out, "I can't!" She sounds like a scared woman, not her usual Dirty Coward self.

A Fair World

• Even though Sang-woo's move is risky, given Gi-hun dangles near the edge of the platform, it works. As Gi-hun's team pulls back and starts to win, the camera motion slows. Gi-hun stares into the faces of the men that he is killing, and his expression becomes more horrified.
  • One of the opposing team members loses his shoe. He tries to pick it back up before being pulled away.
• When the other team is pulled off their platform, their weight starts to drag down Gi-hun's team. There's a horrifying moment when you think everyone will die. Then the guillotine comes down. Gi-hun's team collapses, all with shaken expressions of what they were forced to do, sans the old man. Even Mi-nyeo has nothing comical to say at the moment.
• More of a Cry for the Devil moment, but Gi-hun accurately points out that none of Deok-su's gang members are actually his friends, when Deok-su tries to intimidate him before the lights go out. Sure, he could stage a riot and take down the barricade that Gi-hun's group has mounted, but the gang will stab Deok-su in the back as soon as they get an opportunity. Deok-su actually lets it register that he's all alone and can trust no one.
• While standing watch, different characters talk about their pasts:
  • Gi-hun flashes back to the strike that cost him his friend's life, former relationship, and old job working in a car company. He talks with the old man about it, how hew as working hard to provide a better life for his family, and failed.
  • Ali shares his ration of corn with Sang-woo. He mentions how he's here to support his family, a wife and baby son. Sang-woo says he's here for the same reason, to take care of his mother.
• Byeong-gi's breakdown while doing more organ donations. It's implied that doing these donations is violating his Hippocratic Oath and he was shaken when a "zombie" woke on the operating table after he removed their eyes. The sleep deprivation and constant hunger don't help either. When the guards admit they don't know the next game, he snaps at them, attacks one with a scalpel, and runs in a panic.
• One guard doing the organ donation busts Jun-ho as a fake, because the real 29 would have remembered what happened to the "zombie". He makes Jun-ho unmask at knifepoint, only to go Oh Crap when Jun-ho reveals that he has a gun. Jun-ho then starts to angrily rant that his brother donated a kidney to save his life, mistakenly believing that the zombie might have been In-ho. He's only mollified when the guard tearfully says that the "zombie" was a woman, not a man, because they raped her, but still shoots the guard.
• The Front Man's dedication to fairness is not an act; he calls out the guards for helping the players cheat, saying that these games are supposed to be a second chance for those that society does not favor. He also looks like he pities Byeong-gi after executing him.
• How the episode ends; Jun-ho hides in the Front Man's office. He finds a room of records, as the guard he killed told him. Jun-ho's first response is to look for In-ho in the 2020 records. In-ho's name isn't there, and the games date back to 1988. Jun-ho looks around in despair; there's no way that he can look for that many records with the limited time he has. Then a coffin ribbon box catches his eye; he opens it, and finds it's a binder record of the winners. In-ho won in 2015. Jun-ho rummages through the 2015 records, and finds a page of his brother. He whispers In-ho's name in the English dub, and says "brother" in the original Korean. Cue credits.

Gganbu

• This whole episode is the saddest in season one. And why? Because characters that know each other well partner up for this game, only to learn that they will not be playing as teams, but playing against each other. And one of the pairs is a married couple.
• All of the major character deaths:
  • Sang-woo betrays Ali when Ali, despite winning their game, doesn't want to claim victory and takes his suggestion to find other players to challenge.
  • Ji-yeong throws the game she suggested with Sae-byeok: hitting a marble against a distant wall and the one closest . Sae-byeok previously had been playing the games and not caring who died in the interim, which is justified considering she and her brother are refugees from North Korea and likely saw her share of death. This time, she attacks Ji-yeong, pinning her to the wall and shouting at her to take a real throw. Ji-yeong remains firm in her decision; she says she has nothing to live for, but Sae-byeok has to reunite with her brother. Sae-byeok reluctantly accepts her win since she accepted the terms of their game and risks being shot. As she walks away, tears in her eyes, Ji-yeong calls to her. She says, with a tearful smile, "Thank you for playing with me!" before the Triangle Guard shoots her.
    • Doubling as Heartwarming, the fact that the Triangle Guard allowed Ji-yeong to say goodbye rather than just shooting her when seeing she made Sae-byeok win. Even one "loser" of this year proved the Guards are not all Faceless Mooks.
  • We find out later that Il-nam's death was faked, but Gi-hun thinks that a sick old man sacrificed his life for him after Gi-hun spent their time trying to trick him to save his own. He cries Tears of Remorse and prepares to forfeit... only for Il-nam to give Gi-hun his last marble and a Cooldown Hug. Il-nam reassures him that he had a long life, and it was a fun game.

VIPS

Front Man

• The moment that Gi-hun and Sang-woo's friendship snaps. And it's not even colored with Gi-hun's insistence that Sang-woo will save them with his genius; instead, Gi-hun sees his childhood friend exactly as he is. Gi-hun asks if it was necessary to push the glassmaker since he had one tile left to go and was helping them. Sang-woo insists that it was, since he was running down the clock and the glassmaker had let other people fall. Gi-hun then asks if Sang-woo would have pushed him for hesitating so long. Sang-woo can't answer, and devolves into a rant about how Gi-hun is a loser who only survived because Sang-woo kept sticking out his neck for him and making the hard choices
• Jun-ho makes it to an island, and his phone gets a few bars of service. It seems he'll get backup after calling his boss and conveying the gist of what happened over the past few days. When he realizes that the Front Man has caught up with him and shot his stolen scuba tank, Jun-ho tries to run for it only to realize that he's cornered. So he tries arresting the Guards and the Front Man, saying (accurately) that he called for backup. The Front Man says that in real life, Instant Emergency Response does't exist and the Korean police have never been fast. Realizing they called his bluff, Jun-ho prepares to go down fighting.
  • The Front Man unmasks himself. Jun-ho stares in shock and says, "In-ho". The brother he feared was dead and vivisected for his organs? He was The Dragon all along for the Games. When the Front Man tells Jun-ho to surrender and join him, all Jun-ho can do is shake his head and say, "Brother, why?" after In-ho shoots him in the shoulder.
• Sae-byeok's death. We find out that a glass shard impaled her abdomen, too deep to treat. Even if the Guards had given her medical treatment, and we see they treated Gi-hun's impaled hand in the next episode, it would have put her in the ICU on the mainland and that's if paramedics reached her soon enough. She pulls it out (a no-no since that likely led to internal bleeding) while changing into her tuxedo, and covers the wound as best as he can. Right when she loses consciousness, Sang-woo slits her throat when Gi-hun is distracted, and her blood coats the front of his shirt.
  • She, Gi-hun and Sang-woo were given steak knives. Sae-byeok is skilled with a knife, as we see, and she isn't afraid to get violent. But while she's losing consciousness after lights out, she sees Gi-hun moving to kill Sang-woo in his sleep. She uses her wavering strength to tell him not to become cold-blooded killer, after all the senseless deaths they've seen. Gi-hun stops, and they talk about their families.
  • Her last words: "Please, mister, I'd like to go home".
  • Gi-hun's reaction when he realizes that Sae-byeok is dying. He hated her for pickpocketing his gambling winnings and leaving him to the mercy of loan sharks, but surviving the Games together changed things. And seeing her wound bleed through her tuxedo, after she made him promise that whoever wins the Games will take care of the other's family? He goes Oh Crap, begs her to stay conscious, and runs to the doors. Gi-hun screams for help, saying Sae-byeok needs a doctor and the Guards need her alive for the last game. You can tell by his tone that he knows this is a long shot, but he doesn't know what else to say to save her.
  • The doors do open... and the Guards come in with a coffin. That's when Gi-hun turns and sees a bloodied Sang-woo standing over Sae-byeok's body with an unapologetic expression. Gi-hun sees red and for the only time in the series charges with an intent to kill. The Guards have to pin him down so they're both alive in time for the last game.

One Lucky Day

• Sang-woo's reason for killing Sae-byeok. While at first he tries to say it was a Mercy Kill, Gi-hun calls bullshit. He then says he was worried that Sae-byeok and Gi-hun would invoke the group vote and make them all go home broke. Gi-hun's face reflects that he -- and the viewers-- know that it never would have happened because Sae-byeok was too desperate to give her brother a home and rescue her mother to even think of quitting. She would have stayed and fought to the bitter end.

Season Two

Bread and Lottery

• Both Gi-hun and Jun-ho, who miraculously survived his fall into the ocean and being shot, have been plotting to stop the games. Gi-hun, however, catches a lucky break when his former loan shark finds the Salesman on the subways. All Jun-ho has is the fisherman who rescued him and maps of the islands around South Korea. After day after day with dead ends, he apologizes to Captain Park and says the man is right, they should stop. And then he gets his lucky break later when his partner catches Gi-hun speeding...
• Gi-hun's PTSD is still strong. Despite holing up in a motel that doubles as his armory, he has nightmares about the Front Man tracking him down. The latest nightmare has the Front Man presenting Sae-byeok and Sang-woo's heads, which proceed to open their eyes. Even two years down the line, Gi-hun hasn't forgiven himself for surviving while Sae-byeok and Sang-woo didn't.
• Kim Jeong-rae's death. While the guy is a vicious loan shark, he was revealed to be honorable and A Father to His Men. Heck, he officiated his Number Two Choi Woo-seok's wedding! He also diligently searched for the Salesman for two years without results and alerted Gi-hun as soon as he and Choi Woo-seok saw the guy. When he makes the mistake of trying to tackle the Salesman before Gi-hun can arrive, the Salesman kidnaps him and Woo-seuk. While they're Bound and Gagged and facing each other with dog bone gags, the Salesman makes them play Rock-Paper-Scissors combined with Russian Roulette. Loser gets shot at, and the Salesman gets bored when one bullet in a chamber doesn't lead to anyone dying. He adds four more bullets, and soon Woo-seok has a losing hand. But Jeong-rae chooses to lose rather than sacrifice Woo-seok. Cue blood splattering all over the Salesman and Woo-seok after the fatal gunshot.
  • Note that Jeong-rae is not facing death with dignity while making this decision. He is sobbing Tears of Fear the whole time. So is Woo-seok when he realizes what Jeong-rae did. And they can't even say goodbye to each other or give words of reassurance due to being gagged.
• The Salesman is a monster, but he insists on telling Gi-hun how he got to his position. He started as a low-ranking Circle guard, carrying the dead, before being promoted to Triangle. The Salesman was going through the motions, only to see his own father in front of him, having lost a Game. His father begged for his life, but the Salesman shot. And he enjoyed it. Whatever remaining humanity he had died that day.
• During the motel confrontation, the Salesman says that he didn't find Gi-hun particularly smart or skilled. So it confused him just how Gi-hun won his year of Squid Games. He concludes that Gi-hun was a loser who just got lucky. The thing is that Gi-hun agrees with the Salesman... and that's why he is taking the Games down. Gi-hun thinks he didn't deserve to live, let alone win.

Halloween Party

• Choi Woo-seok is sobbing when he tells Gi-hun what the Salesman did to Jeong-rae. He asks why Jeong-rae chose to sacrifice himself to save his right-hand man.
• Despite everything, Jun-ho can't bring himself to tell Gi-hun that the Front Man was the brother he was trying to rescue. It may not have been out of loyalty to In-ho; he looks traumatized when Gi-hun asks him if he saw the Front Man's face.
• Halloween is Gi-hun's birthday. He mentioned it back in season one. So instead of spending his birthday emotionally healing from his trauma or doing something fun, he opts to call Ga-yeong before heading to the nightclub. But when she answers the phone and realizes who is there, he chokes up and can't say a word. We don't know if it's because he realizes this may be the last time he talks to her, or if he's terrified that the Game Makers will find her if he says a word.
• Na-yeon collapsing in the theme park just as Kang No-eul turns in her letter of resignation. She sees Na-yeon's father, the portrait artist Park Gyeong-seok, helping the paramedics load her into an ambulance. We see that she has cancer, and the treatment to save her is far beyond what Gyeong-seok can afford based on the conversation that No-eul hears.

Player 001

• Geum-ja chides her son Yong-sik for gambling again and getting into debt. Yong-sik doesn't care that she's embarrassing him in front of everyone; he's horrified that she's trying to pay off his gambling debts and doesn't want that. He tells the Pink Guards that a frail old lady shouldn't be playing any games for money and will tire out easily. You can see them wrestling in line as he tries to stop her from signing the agreements. Note this is before they learn the games can cost you your life.
• Gi-hun's plan B, after his plot to catch the Front Man in the limo failed, involves him returning to the Games and the island. You can see the trauma and deja vu as he awakens in the barracks, and he seems to operate almost robotically when going through the motions of marching to the first Game. And then a familiar face calls out to him. It's Jung-bae, his gambling buddy from season one! Gi-hun goes Oh Crap, pulls Jung-bae aside as the latter is chiding Gi-hun for ghosting him, and orders his friend to stay by his side, no matter what.
  • In the middle of his chiding, Jung-bae apologizes to Gi-hun for being unable to help with his mother's medical bills. He mentions how Gi-hun's mother was always kind to him and that he literally didn't have the funds at the time (due to gambling most of them away). At this point, Gi-hun doesn't care; his mother's been dead for three years, and he can't bear to lose another loved one.
• Jung-bae also reveals that he got divorced and his wife took their kid, and he doesn't even have his bar anymore to run. Gi-hun asks what did Jung-bae do; did he have an affair? Jung-bae bitterly responds that he's not good-looking enough to catch any woman's eye. It speaks volumes that whatever did happen between him and his ex wasn't pretty.
• During photos, Gi-hun doesn't bother to smile. He gives a tired, stern Death Glare. A far cry from the goofy smile he gave in season one.
• When Gi-hun realizes that the Game makers found his tracker and removed it, he goes for Plan C: keep as many people alive during Red Light, Green Light, as much as possible. And it almost works: despite the crowd laughing at him for warning them they will die, they follow his instructions. Almost two minutes pass with no one dying. But then while flirting with Kang Mi-na, Thanos points out a bee is on her neck and calls her a flower. She freaks out and swats it away. Gi-hun goes This Is Gonna Suck on hearing her screaming; after she gets shot, he can only remind people don't move while the doll is watching.
  • And just like the first two casualties form season one, Kang Mi-na wasn't particularly evil or malicious. She was just dumb. Hardly a reason to be killed senselessly.
  • Heck, the fact that she wasn't mad about losing. She was laughing at Gi-hun saying they would die, wondering if he was drunk. But when she moved, all she did was chuckle and admit that's game over for her.
  • It's the only time during the entire season that Thanos didn't mean to kill someone. After Kang Mi-na's blood splatters all over him, he has a frozen My God, What Have I Done? look that he startled her. Only then does he take his drugs. Afterward, he starts killing people on purpose, and it goes From Bad to Worse from there.
• The panic soon starts, despite Gi-hun's best efforts. While it's fewer people than the first time he saw this, two dozen players run for the exit panicking. Soon one guy stands still among the corpses, and he briefly hopes that means he won't die. But then he's shot where he's standing, by Kang No-eul.
• They were laughing at him at first, but Geum-ja and Yong-sik go Oh Crap when seeing Gi-hun was telling the truth. As others run, Geum-ja snaps at Yong-sik to not run though he wasn't moving a muscle. Then when he orders them to get in lines, Yong-sik's first instinct is to put his mother behind him.
• One of Thanos's groupies gets shot because she can't stop her hands from shaking and the doll's sensors pick up on it, despite her being in a protective line. Myung-gi notices and wraps his hands around his body to avoid that happening to him.
• The stress and tightening her clothes around her belly make Jun-hee reel in pain. Geum-ja is in front of her, goes Mama Bear and whispers for Jun-hee to stay close to her.
• Player 444 gets caught in a Human Traffic Jam. The front of his line gets caught moving, falls over and knocks down everyone else in line. Player 444 stays upright, but realizes that he's next. He starts shouting, while shaking his hands in fear, "I didn't move! Please!" The poor guy doesn't even get a headshot; he gets shot in the leg which pegs him for vivisection. Gi-hun sees him begging for help while there's time on the clock and everyone else is across to safety; despite himself and Jung-bae shouting at him not to, Gi-hun returns for Player 444 and tells him move as fast as he can the next time they hear the doll give the go-ahead. Even then, they nearly get caught stumbling if not for Hyun-ju helping them.
• The three of them make it across the finish line with five seconds to spare. While Player 444 is badly injured, he's alive. He thanks Gi-hun and Hyun-ju for saving his life...only to get shot in front of them. Kang No-eul took the shot because she knew it was either a Boom! Headshot! for the guy, or slow death by vivisection since the doll marked him as "eliminated". But for Gi-hun, who doesn't know that, it looks like his attempts at mercy once more failed.
• "I've played these games before!" Gi-hun, after invoking the group vote clause, tells the voters that he is a player who has returned. And everyone who was with him died. Just like before, the vote is split, and his only hope is warning them that this is a no-win situation. But some don't believe him because no one walking away with 45.6 billion won would return, and the ones that do think they have a better chance with Gi-hun. As Thanos bluntly but correctly puts it, Gi-hun selflessly trying to save everyone during the first Game means that he'll be obligated to do the same for the players that survive. The Pink Guards then make Gi-hun stop begging the players to vote to leave.
• Yong-sik, despite seeing the trauma firsthand and his mother begging everyone they should listen to Gi-hun, considers voting O. She has to shout at him not to do anything stupid.

Six Legs

• Gi-hun is so shocked about the group vote failing to stop the Games, knowing hundreds will die in the next round and there's nothing he can do about it, that he can't eat his share of food. Jung-bae tries to encourage him to have some dinner before giving up and saying maybe it's for the best. He mentions that playing one more game would help clear his debts. Gi-hun then turns his Thousand-Yard Stare to Jung-bae and quietly replies when he was in the Games before, another man said the same thing and died without earning anything.
• When Nam-gyu and Thanos try bullying Myung-gi again For the Evulz since he voted to stay, meaning he's on their side, Young-il steps in. He tries to peacefully tell them no fighting at mealtime, and at that point you could argue it's Pragmatic Villainy: if players find out they can kill each other early, it will cause uncontrollable chaos and dozens could die before they even make it to the second game. And it makes him look like a good guy to Gi-hun despite voting O. But then Thanos tells Young-il to "save the lecture for your own damn kids". Young-il goes still and asks him to repeat that. Knowing that In-ho lost his baby while playing the 2015 games, the subsequent No-Holds-Barred Beatdown was not part of his plan. The only reason that In-ho doesn't kill Thanos then and there is the latter says sorry while being choked.
• Young-il tells Gi-hun he voted to stay because his wife is sick with cirrhosis and pregnant with their baby. They want to keep the child, and some shady loans he took to cover her medical bills caused him to lose his job. He entered the Games because it's the only way he can get her a new liver and save their child. Gi-hun, although angry at Young-il for voting to stay, understands as he was in a similar boat with his mother's fatal diabetes.
  • It'd be easy to dismiss this as In-ho lying, except "Halloween Party" revealed this was the truth, eight years ago. In-ho became a monster to win his Games, only to arrive home too late; his wife and unborn child died while he was away. It's near-identical to Gi-hun's experience. When In-ho looks at the barracks ceiling and says he would do anything to save his family, you can catch a glimpse of the honorable expecting parent and Cool Big Bro he used to be. It's still a glimpse because he willingly entered the Games, the site of his past traumas, to cheat and break Gi-hun's spirit.
• Myung-gi's Oh Crap when he sees that Jun-hee is in the Games and she didn't abort their baby, combined with My God, What Have I Done? when learning that the Dalmatian coin he recommended caused her to go into debt as well. While he did ghost her, and she calls him out for it as well as for voting to stay, it's clear Myung-gi still has feelings for Jun-hee. He begs her to team up with him for the next game not because he needs her physical or emotional support but to protect her. As Myung-gi puts it, it's highly likely that she'll be turned down by most teams for being heavily pregnant and she needs someone in her corner.
  • Despite dismissing him, Jun-hee takes his warning seriously. She asks Gi-hun, Young-il and Dae-ho to team up with her because she's pregnant. Myung-gi keeps watching her with a worried expression, though he knows Young-il is tough after the latter rescued him.
• The first two teams failing in the Pentathlon. Everyone goes Mass "Oh Crap" on seeing that any small failure can run down the clock; when the five minutes are up, Pink Guards spray the five members with bullets.
  • The poor guy that fails to toss the Flying Stone consistently and gets so scared that he wets his jumpsuit. Just as he does it and keeps his feet behind the line, he's cheering, but his team is despairing because there are ten seconds left and they aren't going to complete the rest any time soon. Cue the gunfire. He's begging for his life when Kang No-eul makes the other Guards open up his coffin and she shoots him in the head.
  • Meanwhile, the second team keeps their head as the woman doing ggongi fails the first few times. She then slows down to do it perfectly and they make it to the spinning top. The third player takes inspiration and takes his time with the spinning stop, marking it as a pass... but then the timer goes off.
  • After an initial mass Stunned Silence, player 47 who voted to leave yells at those who voted to stay. He says they should have listened to Gi-hun and thanks to their greed, everyone in the room is going to die. No one has a retort or answer to that.

One More Game

• Even though she is The Load, Seon-nyeo's panic when doing the spinning top is sad. She keeps praying to her gods and trying to wind up the string, but her fingers are fumbling. Hyun-ju has to smack her hard enough to draw blood to get Seon-nyeo calm enough to spin the top perfectly.
• One team nearly makes it to the finish line after completing all their games, but the timer runs out and they're gunned down inches from the pink ribbon.
• Gi-hun's team and another are the last ones to play, with no audience. Jung-bae tells the other team, "Victory at all costs!" and they will see each other on the other side. The other team members enthusiastically agree they'll see each other again. And you can see they are making steady progress while Gi-hun's team soars through the first three challenges. Just as Gi-hun helps the others cross the finish line just as the timer goes off, they're cheering. Then they hear gunfire and turn; the other team didn't make it to a minigame and were shot. Gi-hun, Jun-hee, Dae-heo, Young-il and Jung-bae immediately stop cheering.
• The second group vote.
  • Young-il votes to stay this time and argues that they need to leave, because he doesn't need to cast a tiebreaker. The survivors of the Pentathlon, mostly Os, say that if they managed to get through one deadly game, that they can do one more.
  • Yong-sik voting to stay. Geum-ja is so disappointed and angry that when they talk over mealtime that she nearly disowns him then and there.
  • Young-mi is so scared that she cries and begs people that they should leave. She wants to go home and not die in these Games. Another man, a quiet O voter, mentions that he doesn't have a choice; his family is badly in debt and if he comes home with insufficient funds, they're screwed. He joins her in crying as Young-il points out that if the man dies, his family is screwed anyway and won't even receive his body for a funeral.
  • The chant of "One More Game!" as Gi-hun helplessly watches.
• Both Jung-bae and Yong-sik justify their decisions to vote O. Jung-bae latches onto Gi-hun pointing out that two votes wouldn't have flipped the vote since it was twenty people more that voted to stay, while Yong-sik confesses to his mom that his gambling debts are much worse than she knew.
  • Of note also is that Yong-sik keeps telling his mother that he doesn't want her paying his debts. It was his fault for gamlbig, and she should use her share of the prize money for herself, to maybe expand her restaurant. Part of the reason he voted to stay is so that she wouldn't insist on covering his debts.
• Geum-ja tiredly points out the And Then What? to Yong-sik; there's no guarantee either of them will survive the next game. (And she's right, considering Young-mi dies not because of anyone's fault but because of bad luck.) They survived this one due to being lucky enough to team up with good players. She says that if she died, with her face saying she doesn't want to, maybe Yong-sik would be okay because a son should outlive their mother. But if Yong-sik died and Geum-ja didn't? She wouldn't have a reason to live afterward.
• Hyun-ju, who didn't flip and voted O twice, reveals her tragic backstory and why she's badly in debt. Her family disowned her, her friends ghosted her, and the army fired her. Why? Because she came out as trans. She mentions that she wants to take the prize money to finish her surgeries and move to Thailand, to start a new life. And she'll be "beautiful".
  • Then the ironies start; Young-mi says that "Unnie" is already beautiful, with Geum-ja grudgingly saying that Hyun-ju looks "fine". And later Geum-ja insists that Hyun-ju is a woman and can accompany her and Jun-hee to the ladies' bathroom, hugging her in the next episode like a mother would. Hyun-ju gained new friends and a small surrogate family...only to face the reality that thanks to her vote, she may lose them in a matter of days.
• Jun-hee's breakdown in the bathroom. Geum-ja is first worried that Jun-hee went into labor early, an understandable fear due to the sheer amount of stress they're all undergoing. Thankfully, the baby is not coming early. But Jun-hee is crying and unable to stop, admitting she's scared. She doesn't want to die here or lose her baby. All Geum-ja can do is hug her and say that Jun-hee and her baby will be okay. Meanwhile Hyun-ju listens with a guilty expression.
• Hyun-ju's apology to Young-mi before the third game. Young-mi puts on a brave face despite her obvious terror and says that it's okay, but Hyun-ju promises that she will make sure that Young-mi survives and will vote to leave so they can go home alive and eat dinner with Geum-ja. Which makes what happens in the next episode so much worse.

O X

• How Mingle works: you have thirty seconds to find the announced number of people for a round and a room that isn't occupied. There's only fifty rooms, meaning that this isn't a game where all the remaining 255 players will survive. Those who are left outside are shot, then have their bodies placed into coffins. You can't blame Gi-hun for looking haunted after round one; Hyun-ju finds a tenth person during round one for his group, saving them but leaving others to die.
• Several deaths in Mingle:
  • Gyeong-su when his idol literally kicks him out of the group when they need four and have five. Because Thanos knocked him down, Gyeong-su ran out of time to get up and save himself, leading to him getting shot crawling away from the guards in fear. Thanos himself has a My God, What Have I Done? when he actually forgets what he did and stares out the tiny room window in horror as his fan is shot.
  • The three people who fail to meet the minimum number of four during a round. They hope that they didn't get seen by the guards outside, not knowing each room has cameras. A Pink Guard is alerted, approaches the room, and sprays them with bullets.
  • Young-mi's death, by far the biggest Gut Punch in the season two Games thus far. Her group had six people, and just needed a room. Hyun-ju found one, with ten seconds to go. But then as Young-mi's running, two other people knocked out of a room and plough into her, causing her to fall. The others don't notice, which probably saved them because going back for her would have led to them being locked out. But Hyun-ju does while making sure everyone's inside; Young-mi calls out, "Unnie!" with four seconds to go. Just as Hyun-ju prepares to run and save her with two seconds on the clock, someone shoves her inside and closes the door; it's Myung-gi. Though he's relieved this means Jun-hee is safe, he's also saddened as Young-mi stands outside the locked door, clinging to it while calling for "Unnie". Hyun-ju tries to open the door, while shouting for her. Then they hear the tell-tale gunshots, and Young-mi slides to the floor. She at least died quickly rather than being marked for vivisection.
    • The fact that Young-mi is so scared that she can't do anything but call for Hyun-ju in her last moments. Her only comfort before being shot is that Hyun-ju is fighting like hell to open the door and save her.
    • Geum-ja starts wailing Young-mi's name, and asks what are they going to do? Meanwhile, Dae-ho buries his face in his hands, trying to not cry. Young-sik and Jun-hee stare at the floor in shock. And Myung-gi? He's not happy about having forced Hyun-ju inside the room and leaving Young-mi behind, hanging his head in a sorrowful expression. Jun-hee notices this and softens.
    • Hyun-ju tries to blame Myung-gi for not letting her rescue Young-mi. Myung-gi points out that not even the fastest person can make it that distance and back within two seconds; if he hadn't forced Hyun-ju inside, then she and Young-mi would have died, along with everyone else in the room. Jun-hee speaks up and says it's true, leading Dae-ho to agree as well.
    • After Dae-ho says that, Hyun-ju lets go of Myung-gi. She stares vacantly with a Thousand-Yard Stare, knowing it's partly her fault Young-mi got killed by voting to stay. During the last round, Gyeong-seok has to grab Hyun-ju's hand and shout at her to run with him to a room because she's shut down.
• One near-miss is when two men pull Yong-sik away from Geum-ja. All he can do is bawl, "MAMA!" as he's fighting to get back to her, before giving up as the doors close. When the timer runs out, he's frantically looking through the tiny window fearing she got killed. And on seeing she's alive? All he can do is collapse in her arms while apologizing and Inelegant Blubbering.
• Seon-nyeo's "reassurance" to a grieving Hyun-ju, Yong-sik and Geum-ja about losing Young-mi: "You will be joining her soon." With her eerie Slasher Smile and Death Glare, she promises that in revenge for them abandoning her during Mingle, she's asked her gods to curse them. Seon-nyeo promises they will all die in the future games, watching each other, and she will be there to gloat. Geum-ja is unnerved, but Hyun-ju doesn't even respond.
• Doubling as a Crowning Moment of Funny, Geum-ja threatens Yong-sik that if he votes to stay again, she'll hang herself in the dorms. Funny because of how she delivers it, sad because we did see a player die by suicide in the previous season. Yong-sik definitely doesn't want to risk it.
• Hyun-ju votes to quit, having the same Heroic BSOD expression she wore when Gyeong-seok saved her. As she moves to stand with the Xs, Geum-ja offers Hyun-ju a pat of reassurance. They both silently mourn Young-mi.
• Myung-gi has stood his ground against Thanos and Nam-gyu's bullying. But what makes him throw the first punch? Thanos threatened Jun-hee. And... Myung-gi is completely outclassed in the fight. All he can do is stab Thanos with a fork while the latter is strangling him.

Friend or Foe

• Jung-bae dies. And this time, unlike with Sang-woo, it is Gi-hun's fault as he wanted to stage a rebellion and took Jung-bae with him.
• The fact that the Front Man makes sure most of the rebels are dead. The only survivors are Gi-hun, Dae-ho, and Hyun-ju. And Dae-ho only lived because he had a panic attack right as he was retrieving ammunition, while Hyun-ju ran back to check on him.