Who Died In Squid Game Season 1?

This article contains spoilers for "Squid Game" Season 1.

Netflix's new survival drama "Squid Game" is full of suspense, betrayal, and moments that went too far for fans. The show follows contestants who take part in several life-or-death children's games in an attempt to win a giant cash prize of ₩45.6 billion ($38.7 million USD). Each player has their own reasons for joining the game, whether to settle debts or pay for medical bills, and they're assigned numbers at the start of the contest.

The lead protagonist is a man named Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) who is assigned the number 456. Throughout the show, we're introduced to several other players, including Gi-hun's childhood friend Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo), an elderly man named Oh Il-nam (Oh Yeong-su) known as Player 001, a mysterious young woman named Kang Sae-byeok (HoYeon Jung) known as Player 067, and a calculating gangster named Jang Deok-su (Heo Sung-tae).

While fans may start to root for certain characters as the show goes on, no one is safe, and there can only be one victor by the end — unless a majority of the contestants agree to end the game, thus sending everyone home empty-handed. So, who dies in "Squid Game," and who makes it out alive?

The first game is Red Light, Green Light, and it serves as a brutal introduction to the rules of the competition. Dozens of unsuspecting contestants quickly learn that "elimination" means death, and the traumatized survivors watch as the first losers of the game are mowed down by the mysterious red-hooded game referees. While none of the main characters are killed in this first game, more than half of the overall contestants are dead by the end of it.

The second game takes place after the contestants are offered a chance to leave the game peacefully, though many of them return to continue playing. The first alliances are also formed in Episode 3, and Gi-hun, Sang-woo, Player 001, and Player 199 — named Abdul Ali (Anupam Tripathi) — join forces, which proves to help them in future games. No main characters die in the second game either, though there are also dozens of casualties and even a hostage situation where a game official is shot and killed.

The high number of deaths in the first two games in "Squid Game" helps to show the audience just how cruel the competition is, as well as some of the lengths characters would go to if it means they can survive a little longer.

In Episode 4, a riot breaks out among players, and several are killed in the chaos. Though it isn't directly related to any specific game, the riot results in more alliances and distrust among the entire group. The next game is a mystery at first, but contestants are told to form groups of 10 players, and Gi-hun's team includes many of the show's central competitors.

Soon, the players realize the next game is tug-of-war — but obviously not just any old game of tug-of-war. The stakes are higher in this twisted version, and the matches are played on platforms high in the air, where losing means your whole team falls to their deaths. While Gi-hun and Deok-su's teams win their respective matches against other teams, all of the players on the losing sides are killed in the same brutal way, and about 40 deaths result from this one round.

The fourth game is also shrouded in mystery, and the players are instructed to pair up without knowing why. However, there is an odd number of players, and the remaining contestant is an erratic woman named Han Mi-nyeo (Kim Joo-ryoung), who is whisked away by game officials to an unknown fate.

Each player then gets a bag of marbles, and the contestants are told to play any marble game of their choosing. At the end of 30 minutes, the player with the majority of their marbles wins, and their opponent is eliminated. Again, tons of players are killed off during this game, including several of the main characters.

Before they play their match, Player 240 tells Sae-byeok her real name, Ji-yeong, because they start bonding as they tell each other their personal stories. Ji-yeong ends up letting Sae-byeok win so she can reunite with her family after the competition, and Ji-yeong is eliminated. Deok-su ruthlessly beats his opponent, who also happens to be one of his henchmen called Player 278 (Kwak Ja-hyoung). Sang-woo gets close to losing, but he tricks the good-natured Ali into giving him all of the marbles, and Ali is also killed off.

Gi-hun uses Player 001's deteriorating state of mind against him and tricks him so he can win. Before losing, however, 001 confesses he knew Gi-hun was tricking him the whole time, but he still lets the younger man win. As Gi-hun guiltily walks away, we hear a gunshot, signifying 001's elimination.

When the players return after the marble game, Mi-nyeo is revealed to be safe and sound — she got to sit the game out since she didn't have a partner. She then makes it clear she's over Deok-su, who she'd earlier hooked up with inside a restroom before he betrayed her by leaving her off of his teams. Before the next game, Player 069 (Kim Yun-tae) dies by suicide due to the guilt of defeating his wife in marbles.

The remaining players are led to the next game, where they have to cross a bridge made up of either regular or tempered glass panels. Each player is assigned a number, and the players have to cross in that order without knowing which panels will drop them to their deaths. Oh, and they're timed, so everyone who doesn't make it across in 16 minutes dies, too.

All of the first players to cross die because they have no idea which panels are safe to walk on. As tensions rise, some players push others who can't make up their minds, sacrificing them for everyone else's benefit. Deok-su refuses to move ahead of the group when everyone in front of him dies, and Mi-nyeo agrees to walk in front of him to risk her own life. Instead, she wraps her arms around him in a vice grip and falls backward, dropping them both to their doom.

The only contestants left at the end of the bridge game are Gi-hun, Sang-woo, and Sae-byeok.

After the time runs out on the bridge game, the remaining glass panels are shattered, and a glass shard seriously injures Sae-byeok. That night, Gi-hun, Sae-byeok, and Sang-woo are led to a fancy final meal, where they also get to keep their steak knives for future use. In the middle of the night, Gi-hun leaves Sae-byeok's side to get her medical help since she's bleeding profusely, but Sang-woo uses the opportunity to stab Sae-byeok in the neck and kill her, leaving only the two men left.

The two former best friends Gi-hun and Sang-woo face off in the final game, called the Squid Game. Gi-hun chooses to go on the offensive, and the two men fight intensely using their fists and their knives. Gi-hun gets the upper hand by the end, but while he's angry at Sang-woo for killing Sae-byeok, he refuses to kill Sang-woo, and instead calls off the game. Before he can successfully do it, though, Sang-woo kills himself, making Gi-hun the winner.

To top it all off, at the end of "Squid Game," Gi-hun learns that not only was Player 001 still alive, but he was also apparently behind the entire messed-up competition, to begin with. We'll have to wait until "Squid Game" Season 2 to see if Gi-hun can avenge his dead friends and put a stop to the cruel games once and for all.