Hi, Mystery Recapped here. Today, I am going to explain the first two episodes called “Red 1ight green 1ight” and “HeII” from the South Korean survival drama “SQU1D G4M3. ” Spoilers ahead!
Watch out and take care! Seong Gi-hun is a middle-aged man living in a small house with his mother. Gi-hun is drowning in loans and has a gambling addiction, making their financial condition very poor.
At breakfast one day, Gi-hun’s mother hands him some money to buy his daughter Gayeong a birthday dinner. Gi-hun’s ex-wife is married to a wealthy man and doesn’t let him see his daughter often, so Gi-hun is excited to see her for her birthday. He asks his mother for some more money to buy Gayeon a gift as well.
She says she is broke at first but eventually hands him a few extra wons. After she leaves, Gi-hun cunningly gets her credit card and goes to withdraw more money with his fellow gambling friend. The two then place their bets on horses but are down on their luck as they lose every round.
They do not stop wasting their money even after losing almost all of it. In the end, Gi-hun finally wins a decent sum of money and is over the moon. He even tips the lady who hands him the money and goes outside celebrating his luck.
Just then, Gi-hun notices some men approaching him angrily. They are his debtors to whom he owes a lot of money. Fearing his recent earnings might be taken, he runs inside the building again and crashes into a girl accidentally.
The debtors eventually catch him and threaten to kill him if he doesn’t return their money. A scared Gi-hun tries to give them the money he just won, only to discover his pocket empty. He realizes that the girl he crashed onto earlier was a pickpocket who stole his money.
The debtors, however, do not care about this and start hitting Gi-hun. They use a scalpel and put it into his nostrils, making him plead for his life. They say they will return after one month and leave.
Now, the man has zero money left, hence he goes back to the girl he tipped earlier and asks for his money back. He still doesn’t have enough to buy his daughter a gift so, instead, he settles to winning her one from a claw machine. But, with his luck, he cannot even get one toy into the hole.
A little kid beside him offers to help and finally wins a black gift box. They celebrate the small win and Gi-hun leaves after thanking the kid. He takes his daughter to a tteokbokki stall and the two enjoy the food.
Gayeong is worried to see cuts and bruises on her father’s face which Gi-hun says are just mosquito bites. He hands her the gift without checking what is inside the box. Gayeong is surprised to see it is a gun shaped lighter.
Gi-hun takes the gift back and promises to get her a better one next year. At last, he brings his daughter to her mother and parts after saying goodbye. Gi-hun is now at a train station where he is approached by a well-mannered and well-dressed man.
He invites Gi-hun to play a game of ddakji, a game where they should flip a card by hitting it with another card. The man claims to give Gi-hun 100,000 won if he wins but if he loses, the man will slap his face. Having nothing to lose, Gi-hun accepts the offer.
As they play, Gi-hun loses several rounds getting slapped by the man numerous times. His cheek starts to bruise badly but he doesn’t stop. At last, he finally wins a round and gets the money he was promised.
Then, the well-dressed man hands him a card asking him to call the number if he wants to play more games like this. On his way home, Gi-hun meets an old woman who is his friend Sangwoo’s mother. She boasts about her son currently being on a business trip to the US.
At night, Gi-hun and his mother are having dinner when she tells him that his ex-wife’s family is moving to the US. Hence, he won’t be able to see Gayeong again. Gi-hun is shocked but cannot do anything because his ex-wife has the complete custody of his daughter because of his financial problems.
At night, in desperation, he calls the number the man gave him and is called to a place nearby. A van pulls up in front of him and he is asked to get inside. As soon as he steps in, a gas spreads throughout the vehicle that knocks him out.
When he wakes up, Gi-hun is in a bunk bed with several other people around him. His clothes have been changed and all of his belongings are gone. Everyone seems to be as confused as him.
We see that everyone in the room is being monitored through cameras. Gi-hun meets an old man who has the number 001 written on his vest while Gi-hun has 456 written on it. The man says that he is suffering from a brain tumour.
As they talk, a fight catches their attention. The girl who has stolen Gi-hun’s money the previous day is fighting with a man who seems to be a gangster. Gi-hun interferes and threatens the girl to give him his money back.
Their argument is stopped when the facility’s staff, dressed in red suits and masks enter the room. They welcome the people and announce that they will be playing six games in six days, and those who win all six of them will win a lot of prize money. One of the participants is Sangwoo, Gi-hun’s childhood friend who was supposed to be on a business trip to the US according to his mother.
It turns out that he is wanted by the police because he owes his client a total of six hundred fifty million won. So, he lied to his mother. Shortly after, a sphere is brought to the ceiling of the room which the staff claims will be filled with money once they complete the first game.
Everyone is confused but agrees to play the game anyway. They are made to sign a rule book that has only three rules, 1, players are not allowed to stop playing once the game has started, 2, The player who refuses to play will be eliminated, and 3, The games will be terminated if the majority agrees. Everyone signs the form and gets ready for the first game.
Outside the room is a maze-like hallway. The contestants are made to take pictures and then are taken to a field that has a creepy statue of a doll on one side. Gi-hun approaches his old friend Sangwoo and asks him why he lied to his mother.
As they talk, they are interrupted by an announcement asking them to stay behind the white line. Somewhere inside the facility, the overse1er of the games gets a call from someone. He takes his place in front of the monitor and watches everyone play.
Back in the field, the contestants are told that the first game is “red light green light” they have ten minutes to complete the game. As the statue of a girl says red light, they have to freeze, and they can only move forward when the girl is turning around and saying green light. If anyone is caught moving, the statue will sense the motion and the person will be eliminated.
The game begins and goes on regularly for a while. That is until the statue detects a motion and one man is eliminated. He is shot dead at the very moment.
The others do not comprehend what is happening so they play the next round. But soon, they find out the people who are eliminated are killed. Chaos ensues and people start running around and getting shot.
A pile of dead bodies falls around the entrance and the place turns into a bloodbath. Only a few contestants remain frozen in fear. From the next round, everyone starts being more careful.
Gi-hun is still frozen on the ground but moves when Sangwoo asks him to. He almost falls down once but is saved by a man behind him named Ali. More people die as the game continues and in the end, some of them finally pass the game including Gi-hun, Sangwoo, the pickpocket girl Saebyeok, the old man Ilnam, the gangster Deoksu, and the guy who saved Gi-hun, Ali.
As the camera pans out, we see that they are on a secluded island, and the facility is underground. The staff clean up the dead bodies and burn them in furnaces. The surviving contestants are brought back to the room and are shaken by what they just witnessed.
Gi-hun thanks Ali for saving his life earlier. Right then, the staff enter the room and congratulate them for completing the first round. The number of contestants decreases from 456 to 201, meaning that 255 contestants were killed.
One of the girls falls down on her knees and begs the staff to let them go. The others join and do the same. Soon, everyone is asking them to let them go free.
However, the staff reminds them the second rule of the game and threatens to kill them if they refuse to play. But Sangwoo claps back with the third rule according to which if the majority agrees to end the game, they will. The staff agrees but wants to show them the price money before voting.
The sphere that was on the ceiling earlier is then filled with bundles of money. The staff claims the winner will be able to take home 45. 6 billion won.
But if they decide to stop playing, the families of the dead people will receive a hundred million won each and they will get nothing. The prize money tempts everyone and the ones who were against the game earlier start voting for it to continue. The winning vote is decided by Ilnam who votes for it to end.
Finally, they will be allowed to go home without any damage. The staff says that if the majority of them want to play the game again, they will be contacted. In the following scene, Gu-hun and Saebyeok are thrown out of a van with their hands tied.
The same happens with Ali and Sangwoo. All of them go their separate ways. Sangwoo even hands Ali some money for his bus fare.
Gi-hun goes to the police directly and tells them about his kidnapping. But they find it hard to believe that the kidnappers sent him back because he voted for it. One police officer named Junho is at the station as well.
The card Gi-hun is holding catches his attention. Gi-hun then goes back to his home only to find his mother missing. It turns out that she is severely diabetic and has been admitted to the hospital because of extreme pain.
Gi-hun rushes to the hospital to see his mother’s feet covered in wounds. The doctors say only surgery can save her life, but they cannot afford it. Elsewhere, we see the police officer Junho talking to his mother about his brother.
Junho’s brother has been missing for a few days now which worries him. At his brother’s apartment, he finds the same card that Gi-hun was showing the police earlier. He decides to follow Gi-hun and ask him about the card.
Meanwhile, the pickpocket Saebyeok goes to meet her brother in an orphanage. It turns out that the girl is a North Korean escapee whose parents are still stuck in North Korea. She wants to collect more money to get her back and get her brother out of the orphanage.
Ali, on the other hand, goes to his work to meet his boss. He has come to Korea from Pakistan to earn money but he hasn’t been paid for six months now. He has his wife and a little son at home who he has to fend for.
Ali’s boss has a bundle of money in front of him but he refuses to pay. An enraged Ali accidentally pushes him to a machine, making his fingers smash. He takes the money and runs away right after.
At home, he hands his wife the money and asks her to run back to Pakistan with their son. He assures her that he will come back later, hugging his wife for the last time before leaving. Meanwhile, Sangwoo calls his mother and lies to her about being in the US.
His mother happily asks him not to get her any gifts and ends the phone call. Right after the call, the old woman is approached by some police officers asking her about Sangwoo. They tell her that he is under investigation for stealing his clients’ money and ask her to report him if he comes to her.
The woman is shocked and embarrassed in front of her customers. At the same time, Sangwoo receives a card from the same facility again. Gi-hun, on the other hand, has no way to treat his mother’s illness.
He goes to his ex-wife to ask her for help but she refuses to help him. As they talk, her new husband and their children return home. Gi-hun walks out only to be called by the husband.
He hands him a bundle of money and asks Gi-hun to never approach his family again. An enraged Gi-hun beats him, claiming that he cannot take his daughter away. Right then, his daughter comes outside and sees her father hitting her stepfather.
She looks at Gi-hun in disappointment. Later, he walks back home, totally defeated and helpless. The police officer Junho is waiting for him outside his house.
He asks Gi-hun about the card, but Gi-hun dismisses it saying that he was just drunk when he made the police report. He has made the decision to go back to the place again and doesn't want to cause any trouble with the police. Junho tries to get him to talk but Gi-hun dismisses him.
While walking inside, he finds the card stuck to a door. He calls the number and goes back to get picked up again. Similarly, Sangwoo, Ilnam, Deoksu, Saebyeok, and Ali have decided to go back to continue the game.
The episode ends as they get inside the van and are knocked out by the gas again. Subscribe for more videos like this, turn on notifications, and leave a like to help the channel out. Thank you for watching.
