Squid Game – A summary

Seong is a divorced father deep in debt and a heavy gambler in his late-20s/30s. But the tendency of losing custody of his only daughter is the final reason to accept the very tempting offer.

Broken, despaired and marveled by the quick 10000 Won reward on sight that is, after receiving a round of slaps, Seong accepts the invitation to ‘Squid Game’, seeing it as the only path to financial and societal redemption.

Hours later, Seong wakes up in a secret location where he is being held, alongside 464 players who were all recruited like him, to participate in this competition whose rules remain suspiciously ambiguous until it isn’t.

In the first scene, the innocent and harmless game we are acquainted with is displaced with a frightful and horrendous one titled ‘Red and Green Light’ in which the stakes are higher; I’m talking elimination, as in death!

While Seong and other characters that survived the first round remain in shock over the reality of their predicament, there are some central questions worthy of takeaway from the first 1-hour episode.

Who are the organizers of this violent competition? What is the goal? What is their endgame?

The founder of the game Oh iL-nam(Oh Young-soo) is shockingly one of its players. Who in his ideology made the game only to relive his childhood memories even at the cost of the lives of innocent lives. This confession comes after Seong emerges victorious and confronts him on his death bed.

The best way to win a game with a 1% survival rate is by not playing it. But here is the thing, ‘Squid Game’ preys on the pathetic plight of citizens in heavy debt, and people like that will always be available. People whose lives are miserable will always be available and will be taken advantage of by the elite. The frontman himself says this; ‘you bet on horses, we bet on people.

But the 455 players’ mistake was believing it was their game to play instead of seeing the sinister system beneath. This is quite a reflection of society and life. Once stepping into a scenario that only sees one as a victim, it’s best to stay away because such means only exist to take advantage but never give.

Although Seong is given 45 billion Won as the winner, in the nick of time, in this case, it takes his mother, privacy, and even his sanity that he still chooses the game overseeing his daughter in the United States. [Which sets the series for a second season].

In one of the final dialogues between Seong and il hamn on the hospital bed, they quickly bet over a homeless freezing man dying in the street. If no one would come to his rescue, humanity is too condemned for redemption, but there is still good left in the world if the opposite happens.

This move is the moral highlight of squid game. Wisdom will conquer folly, right over wrong, good over evil despite the gory, death, and evil motives. And to justify this, Seong wins the bet just in a nick of time.

Israel Olorunnisola is a freelance creative. When he is not writing about Film, Music, TV or Pop culture he is telling stories on Wattpad.

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