The Entire Squid Game Timeline Explained

Contains spoilers for "Squid Game" Season 2

While Korean shows were little seen in the United States before "Squid Game," since it premiered in 2021 and became the most popular show on Netflix, Korean shows have now become a fact of life. But "Squid Game" is still unique. A tour de force of drama and violence combined with the colorful palette and infectious fun of kids' games, "Squid Game" is hard to look away from. But it's even more impactful because of its commentary on late-stage capitalism and class struggle.

The story of the show revolves around Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), a down-on-his-luck man who is struggling to make ends meet. To get some quick cash, he's recruited for the "Squid Games" by the Salesman, who promises him if he can win simple kids' games, he can earn a lot of money. But Gi-hun is shocked when he finds out that the losers of the games are killed, putting a dangerous new spin on his involvement. In Season 2, things become even more dire when Gi-hun enters the games for a second time. But who started the Games, and how do all the major players fit into the story? Read on for an explanation of the entire "Squid Game" timeline.

Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su) is a player in the first Games that Gi-hun was in. He is an old man who has a brain tumor, and sometimes he appears to have problems with dementia. But while that all may be true, what's not true is that he was killed during the games. In fact, he was saved from a gruesome death because he is the originator of the games. Gi-hun discovers this when he gets a card summoning him to Il-nam's apartment. Il-nam is dying, but before he goes, he tells Gi-hun why he invented the games.

He explains that the one similarity between the very rich and the very poor is that nothing holds any pleasure for either of them anymore. Il-nam, a moneylender who got rich, and his wealthy clients felt this. So, as he says, they got together and thought about what they could do to have some fun. The Games were the result.

The first Games happened in 1988. That means the Games have been going on for some time. Though they have likely gotten more sophisticated as time has gone on, it's probably fair to say that the basics were there when they started: Children's games that anyone can play and win, and perhaps the murder of the losers. In the log of the Squid Games going back to 1988 that we see briefly in the fifth episode of Season 1, there has only been one winner per year. So even though there is the promise that more than one person can win, at least so far, only one person has ever triumphed.

This is perhaps by design because if more than one person won the games, they may have gone en masse to the authorities, leading to the games being shut down. Of course, that didn't happen, and now the games are too well hidden for the creators to be worried about the secret getting out.

Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun), the current Frontman, won the games in 2015. In-ho, we learn in Season 2, had a sick wife who died in 2019. In theory, In-ho entered the games to pay for her treatment after he was accused of taking bribes and was let go by his boss. However, we can't be sure that his wife was sick in 2015 when he won the Games. If anything, it's possible that In-ho disappeared well before his wife died, given that, according to Jun-ho, he went away after he talked about getting an invitation to the Games.

All we know for sure is that, despite the achievement of winning the games, In-ho couldn't save his wife. Since then, In-ho has taken a lead role in the games. Somehow in that time, In-ho has become cynical about people. Perhaps his wife's death gave him the push he needed to become indifferent to people's suffering — or maybe he started out that way. Regardless, the Games appear to have the perfect Frontman.

Kang No-eul (Park Gyu-young) is a soldier in the games. She takes out losers with a large gun and keeps order. And apparently, she's been doing so for seven years. But before this, she was a soldier in North Korea. In fact, her boss in the games remembers that she took out the whole team that was pursuing her with a single rifle and got across the Line of Demarcation all on her own. The thing this man doesn't mention, however, is that No-eul is a mother with a small child whom she left behind in North Korea.

She desperately wants to find this child, but it's been seven years, and no one will help her anymore. They all say her child is dead. So No-eul understands what it's like to have no hope. This is what she resonated with when she initially decided to join the Games; her boss told her that she'd be helping the hopeless by ending their misery. She still believes in that mission, even as she watches people in abject terror over the threat of losing their lives.

Before he participates in the games, Gi-hun is living what those who run the games would call a failed life. He doesn't have much money. He also drinks and gets in fights at bars, at least according to Sang-woo's mother. He lives with his mother and seems to rely on her for most things, asking her for money and getting frustrated with her when she only gives him so much. In fact, he steals her bank card and takes money out of her account, not because she's told him her PIN but because he guesses it. Though the money his mother gave him was for dinner with his daughter for her birthday, he wants to use it to play the ponies, which appears to be his main occupation — something he's only successful at part of the time. 

This time he wins, but a girl steals the money he won, and he must ask the woman who he tipped to get his cash back so he can take his daughter to dinner and buy a present from a vending machine for her. He is so desperate for cash that he happily plays ddajki with the Salesman (Gong Yoo). He gets slapped a lot because he loses a lot, but he also wins enough that he's happy. In fact, despite his life of desperation, he seems happier in this segment of the show than in any other. But when his mother tells him his daughter is moving to America with her mother and stepfather, Gi-hun calls the number the Salesman gives him to participate in the Games, because he'll need funds to get his daughter to stay in Korea.

Gi-hun and 455 others decide to participate in the Games that year. But when they realize in the first game, red light, green light, that those who move when the robot calls red or don't make it to the finish line are killed, they aren't so high on the Games anymore. Over half of the players die in the first game. As a result, a narrow majority of the players vote to stop the games.

Gi-hun goes to the police, but no one except Jun-ho believes him about the Games. Then, Gi-hun finds a reason to come back. He learns his mother is sick with diabetes, and neither of them has the money to pay for her treatment, especially because Gi-hun cancelled their heath insurance. Determined to win and get the money for her, Gi-hun finds himself returning to the Games. Others come back for their own reasons. For example, Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo) decides to come back because, though he has the appearance of success, he has stolen money from his clients, racked up incredible debt, and faces arrest. Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon), a North Korean defector, wants to pay a broker to bring her parents over and get her brother out of an orphanage. But they all have one thing in common: They are all desperate for money.

While many of the players decide to return to the games after their brief hiatus, the other games are equally brutal. They keep playing, though. By the time of the final game, the last three are Gi-hun, Gi-hun's childhood friend Sang-woo, and Sae-byeok. Before the final game, Sang-woo kills Sae-byeok. Though Gi-hun laments this death, it's hard to say if she would have made it anyway. Sae-byeok already had a terrible wound on her abdomen due to the glass bridge from the prior game exploding, and she wasn't doing too well.

Although Gi-hun begs him not to, in the final game — squid game, something they used to play together as children — Sang-woo stabs himself and asks Gi-hun to take care of his mother before he dies. Gi-hun wins the games because of this, but it seems he wishes he hadn't, because he doesn't use any of the money he won for over a year. In fact, Gi-hun seems to have serious survivor's guilt and wants to stop the games for good — if he can find them.

Just before the final game, the Frontman shoots his brother Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), a cop. Jun-ho had infiltrated the games because he thought he might find In-ho there as a player. Clearly, he got more than he bargained for.

Jun-ho came to the island because Gi-hun went to the police during the hiatus in the Games. All the police thought Gi-hun was delusional except Jun-ho — he believed Gi-hun because he was describing something very similar to the invitation his brother got to participate in the Games. Jun-ho follows Gi-hun after he makes his decision to reenter the Games, then chokes out one of the guards so he can use his pink jumpsuit to hide himself during his investigation.

He wreaks all kinds of havoc behind the scenes, but it comes to a close when he's confronted by the Frontman and his guard. The Frontman takes off his mask and reveals himself to be Jun-ho's brother, In-ho. In-ho tries to get his brother to join him in the Games, but Jun-ho isn't willing. So instead, In-ho shoots him in the shoulder and sends him falling off a cliff into the water below. Fortunately, Jun-ho is picked up by Captain Park (Oh Dal-su), but he couldn't prevent Jun-ho from falling into a coma — something he's just coming out of at the beginning of Season 2.

After Gi-hun wins the Games and comes back to his home, he discovers that his mother has died from her illness. At first he believes that she's just asleep, but then he realizes when she won't open her eyes that she has passed away. Though he now has all the money she could possibly need to treat her illness, he is too late. It's a tragic outcome, and it only gets worse.

Soon after his mother dies, his daughter goes to America to live with her mother and stepfather. While Gi-hun now has the money to challenge their claim on her, and therefore make her stay in Korea with him, between the Games and his mother's death, he doesn't have it in him to try. So his daughter goes, and although he misses her, he doesn't get on the plane for America to visit her, instead deciding to stay in Korea and look for the people behind the games.

Near the Christmas holiday, Gi-hun is drinking by the beach when a woman selling flowers comes up to him and tells him that they'll wilt if she doesn't sell them by the end of the night. He buys one, and finds a note attached to the flower. It's from his "Gganbu" asking him to come to his building on Christmas Eve at 11:30pm. Gganbu is the name that Il-nam had used when they were playing in the Games, so Gi-hun knows who has summoned him — he just doesn't believe it. After all, he thought Il-nam was shot in the Games. So when he comes to see Il-nam on Christmas Eve, he asks him a simple question: Why would anyone do that to people?

Il-nam, however, is more interested in betting on the drunk man outside who is very close to freezing to death. While Il-nam bets against the man and has a fatalistic view of humanity, Gi-hun bets for him. Gi-hun believes someone will come to save the man, and in Il-nam's final moments, Gi-hun turns out to be right — someone does come. But Il-nam passes away at the same time and never sees this miraculous turn of events. Gi-hun insists that Il-nam knew the man was saved before he died, but it's hard to know for sure. What is certain is that his death means that the Frontman has taken over the Games.

Gi-hun starts to use his money after Il-nam's death, and one of the things he uses it on is Sae-byuk's little brother, Kang Cheol (Park Si-wan), the person she had escaped North Korea with, and Sang-woo's mother (Park Hye-jin), who runs a store and thinks the world of Sang-woo. Gi-hun starts by getting Cheol out of the orphanage. He takes Cheol for a meal and then he drops him off with Sang-woo's mother. He can't take care of Cheol because, at that point, he's going to America to see his daughter, so Sang-woo's mother is the best choice.

Gi-hun also drops a suitcase off with Cheol, and while Sang-woo's mother thought it was Cheol's clothes, it turns out to be filled with money. There's a note in it from Gi-hun that says it's the money he owes Sang-woo. Even though it's unclear if Gi-hun ever told Sang-woo's mother what happened to Sang-woo, what is certain is that he did what he could to do right by her. And it turns out Gi-hun couldn't have picked a better caregiver for Cheol. In the two years since Gi-hun put them together, Cheol has made friends and is thriving under Sang-woo's mom's care.

When the Frontman tells Gi-hun to get on the plane bound for America, Gi-hun realizes that the Frontman knows where he is. But how? It turns out that the people at the Games have always known where he is because they put a tracker on him. Now Gi-hun wants to get it out. He goes to a drugstore, gets a utility knife, strips naked in the bathroom, and searches his body for the tracker. He finds it behind his ear and cuts it out.

While there are certainly other ways the people from the Games can get information about what he's doing and where he's going, Gi-hun has taken one of their most convenient ones. Without the tracker, they can't keep an up-to-the-minute trace on him at all times. And as far as Gi-hun's concerned, it's a great victory over them.

Since Gi-hun took out his tracker, he's recruited a band of mercenaries, run by his former bookie, Mr. Kim (Kim Pub-lae). The mercenaries have been tasked with finding the Salesman who brought Gi-hun into the Games, and they troll the subway to do it. But it's been two years, and they're no closer to finding him.

Until Mr. Kim and his associate Choi Woo-seok (Jeon Seok-ho) come across the Salesman playing ddakji in the subway with someone. The pair decide to follow him. They see him get bread and lottery tickets and offer one or the other to the homeless people in a park. Then they watch him destroy the bread after most of the people reject it for a lottery ticket that didn't win.

They follow him to another location and, even though Gi-hun tells them not to, they decide to take him on all by themselves. They get knocked out for their troubles, and they come to in the Salesman's apartment. There, the Salesman has them play a sadistic game of rock, paper, scissors minus one, where they play two hands and then take one back. When Woo-seok plays two rocks and Mr. Kim plays a scissors and paper, it looks like Woo-seok will die for his trouble, but instead Mr. Kim decides not to pull one of his hands back, disqualifying himself. In a big death that will make your jaw drop, Mr. Kim gets killed as a result, dying for his friend. Meanwhile, Gi-hun arrives in the area, but because he can't find his mercenaries anywhere, he's forced to go home.

After Jun-ho comes out of his coma after a year, he enlists Captain Park to look for the island where the Games take place. He doesn't remember where the island is, and he's hoping that Captain Park can help him find it. Captain Park takes him from island to island, but as Captain Park points out, there are hundreds of islands within a 10-kilometer radius of where Captain Park found Jun-ho, and it's not even clear if Jun-ho drifted from his original location.

Jun-ho has gone looking on many islands over the past two years, and he's no closer to finding the island where the Games took place. In fact, he tells Captain Park he's stopping the search. That is, until he pulls Gi-hun over and realizes he recognizes him from the Games. He traces Gi-hun to Sunshine Capital, where he finds Gi-hun's address at the Pink Hotel. He shows up there and, after some initial hesitation on Gi-hun's part, starts working with him to find the island.

After Mr. Kim dies, the Salesman gets Woo-seok to tell him where Gi-hun is. That's how the Salesman is at the Pink Hotel, where Gi-hun finds him. He tells Gi-hun how he ended up in his current position: He was working for the Games incinerating bodies when they put a gun in his hand. After that, he killed his own father, who was a participant in the Games, and realized this was the job for him. 

The Salesman then proposes a game: Russian roulette, but without spinning the chamber after each round. Gi-hun agrees, and they proceed to play until the Salesman loses. But before he does, he tells Gi-hun that the key to the person he wants to talk to is in his pocket. When the Salesman dies, Gi-hun finds the Salesman has an invitation to a club on October 31.

Before he goes to the club to see the person behind the games, Gi-hun gets a tracker implanted in his teeth. He has a dentist take out one of his molars in what looks like a very painful procedure. Then he has it replaced with a fake tooth that has a tracker inside. The dentist is sworn to secrecy, paid off, and isn't seen again.

While this may seem like an extreme measure, it's necessary since Gi-hun is planning to go into an unknown situation at the club with the people from the Games. Despite the fact that he may be alone when they find him at the club, he can be traced via his tracker to anywhere in the world. It seems like the perfect plan, and stealthy too, since no one will check inside his teeth for any contraband.

Gi-hun shows up at the club on October 31, and finds that everyone is wearing masks because of Halloween. It's the perfect cover for those behind the Games to sneak in a couple of their masked guards and steal Gi-hun away. Gi-hun gets into a limousine, and Jun-ho, who is tailing him, tells the others to follow it. But there are snipers on nearby roofs, and they take out each of the cars that are following the limo. So Gi-hun does the one thing he can think of: Asks to be let back into the Games.

The next thing he knows, he's waking up in the players' room at the Games. As a returning winner, he knows something the others don't. As the first game starts, he tries to warn the others, but he's not successful until the first person is shot. Then they all listen to him. But there's a wrinkle in the Games this time. After each game, they vote on whether to leave and put a stop to everything or to stay and continue playing. Despite listening to Gi-hun in the first game, too many of the players are enamored by the money they could win if they continue playing, and a majority of them vote that way. The same happens after the second game. But when they vote after the third game, there is a tie. Further complicating things, in a twist that feels like deja vu, the Frontman is posing as Player 001, introducing himself as Oh Young-il.

Meanwhile, Jun-ho, Woo-seok, and the team of mercenaries look for Gi-hun, who is now on the island where the Games take place, making their search all the more urgent. They divide themselves between two boats so they can cover more ground, and go in different directions. The boat in which Jun-ho and Woo-seok are sailing is run by Captain Park. They find the tracker Gi-hun put into his tooth to be able to be tracked to the Games. But instead of his tooth, the tracker is in the tackle box of a fisherman on a random island.

Also, when the team goes to check out a possible entrance to the island, they get blown up instead. One of the mercenaries dies as a result. Then, one of the men catches Captain Park sabotaging their drone. He calls him out, and in a clue that was hidden in plain sight, Captain Park kills him like a trained professional and throws his body overboard. Clearly, Captain Park is not the friend that Jun-ho thought he was. But is he working for the Games?

After the third game, the fifty-fifty split of players who voted in favor of leaving the Games and staying, as well as a brawl in the bathroom that resulted in several deaths, ensures everyone is out for blood. But instead of turning it against the players who want to stay, Gi-hun makes sure a cohort of the people who want to leave direct their anger toward those working for the Games. He and the others hide as the players attack one another. Then when the guards come in, they take them down and steal their guns.

Gi-hun takes anyone who can use a gun and attempts a coup d'état. They hold the soldiers off for a little while as they battle in the hallway leading to the Frontman's office. Gi-hun and his friend Jung-bae (Jo Yu-ri) further their agenda by splitting off and going for the control room. Meanwhile, even with a mistake that everyone missed in the finale, Kang Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul) is sent to get ammunition from the pockets of the dead soldiers in the room where the players stay.

When Dae-ho doesn't come back, though, Cho Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon), the transgender woman who leads the players in their battle, leaves them to find out what's taking Dae-ho so long. She discovers Dae-ho cowering by the back wall in the room with the non-combatant players. She's about to leave with the ammo herself when the Game's soldiers come in. Jang Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim) stops her from taking them on singlehandedly, while all of the other players in the hallway die.

When Gi-hun and Jung-bae go for the control room of the Games, they quickly need help, so they call Young-il for backup. Young-il agrees to come to their aid with two other players. He finds them on the stairway in the management wing of the building, but they're pinned down by fire from the Game's soldiers. Young-il tells Gi-hun he believes there's a way around back that he and his two men can take. This seems like a great idea, because then the soldiers will take fire from both sides, and Gi-hun and his combatants might just win the day.

But as Young-il goes there, instead of shooting the soldiers, he shoots the two players who are with him. He then radios Gi-hun that the soldiers got all of them, including him. Now that Young-il is "dead," he can reclaim his title as the Frontman. He dresses in his black mask and grey robe and confronts Gi-hun and Jung-bae, who have surrendered. The Frontman tells Gi-hun to witness the consequences of his actions as he shoots Jung–bae. 

While that ending would be traumatic enough, there's more. In a brief post-credits scene, we see the doll that runs the red light, green light game next to another boy doll, as a railroad crossing sign turns from a red light to a green light. What could this post-credits scene mean for Season 3? We'll have to wait and see.