All 7 Squid Game Season 2 Episode Titles Explained

Major spoilers for “Squid Game” season 2 follow.

“Squid Game” season 1 was a massive hit for Netflix when it dropped in 2021, and fans demanded a second season. After some negotiating, Netflix and series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk agreed to not one but two more seasons, with season 3 set to bring the show to a close. We won’t get to that final season until next year at the earliest. For now, though, we finally have “Squid Game” season 2, which arrived right after Christmas to give fans a whole new series of deadly children’s games. In an attempt to keep this new season as surprising as possible, Netflix has been playing almost every detail about season 2 close to the vest. In fact, the streaming service didn’t even want most of the new episode titles to be revealed until after season 2 began streaming. 

Now that season 2 is here, we can finally dive into each episode title and what it means. To be fair, most of these titles are pretty straightforward once you watch the episodes. But if you still want a bit of a breakdown of each title, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s take a look, and remember: there will be plenty of spoilers here, so if you still haven’t watched season 2 and want to go in fresh, turn back now. 

In the first episode of season 2, titled “Bread and Lottery,” we learn that two years have gone by since the events of season 1. Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), the winner and sole survivor of the deadly games from season 1, has spent the last two years using his prize money to try to track down the people who run the games so he can stop them once and for all. During that time, Gi-hun has hired an entire team of men to help him locate the mysterious figure known as the Recruiter, played memorably by Gong Yoo (one of only four actors from the first season returning for season 2). So far, Gi-hun’s men have had no luck finding the Recruiter, even though they search the subway system seemingly every day.

Eventually, though, the Recruiter does finally surface. Two of Gi-hun’s men, Mr. Kim and Choi Woo-seok, follow the Recruiter and watch as he performs a strange task. After going to a store and buying a bunch of scratch-off lottery tickets and a bunch of rolls of bread, the Recruiter heads to a public park where he approaches a series of homeless and down-on-their-luck people and makes them an offer: they can have one lottery ticket or they can have one roll. Most of the people end up choosing the ticket and losing. While the Recruiter could hand them the bread as compensation, he instead takes the leftover rolls, dumps them on the ground, and stomps them into mush. It’s just one of the many ways the show highlights how people desperate for money can be easily exploited for sick entertainment.

In the intense final moments of the first episode, Gi-hun comes face to face with the Recruiter and the two end up playing Russian Roulette. During the course of the game, the Recruiter tells Gi-hun that the “keys” to locating the people who run the games are in the pocket of his suit jacket. The episode then ends with the Recruiter shooting himself and dying. Episode two, titled “Halloween Party,” picks up immediately after this. Gi-hun digs into the dead man’s pocket and finds a card advertising a Halloween party at a local nightclub.

Later in the episode, Gi-hun, having teamed up with cop Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) and Choi Woo-seok, head to the Halloween party. Once there, several of the infamous masked guards in pink jumpsuits arrive and guide Gi-hun to a limousine outside. In the limo, Gi-hun converses with the mysterious Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), aka Hwang In-ho, who is Hwang Jun-ho’s brother, via a speaker system. During the conversation, Gi-hun declares he wants to play the games again, and the Front Man obliges, filling the back of the limo with some sort of gas that knocks Gi-hun unconscious. It’s then revealed that the Front Man has been sitting in the front passenger seat of the limo the entire time, hidden behind a partition. 

In episode three, titled “001,” Gi-hun wakes up to find he’s back in that all-too-familiar room with bunk beds. Now back at the games with a whole new set of players, Gi-hun learns the people running the games have implemented something new: after each game is played, the players will be given an option to vote to stay or leave. If they vote to leave, they’ll be allowed to divide up whatever prize money has accumulated so far (remember: the amount of prize money increases after each game, depending on how many people are killed). At first, the majority of the new players have no idea that the games they’ve agreed to play are deadly. But after they play the first game, which like in season 1 is “Red Light, Green Light,” and a whole slew of players are killed, attitudes change.

After that first game, the players are indeed given the option to vote. While many players, now fearing for their lives, want to go home, a significant number of players, desperate for more money, want to stay. The voting begins, and the players are instructed to vote in descending order according to the numbers they’ve been assigned. Gi-hun, Player 456, votes first, and the numbers continue to count down from there. Eventually, the vote is tied and comes down to one player, Player 001. At this moment, the camera deliberately avoids showing us Player 001’s face as he walks to the voting buttons. In a shocking twist, Player 001 votes to stay, which means the “STAY” votes win and everyone has to play another deadly game. It’s here where Player 001 turns and faces the camera, and we finally see who he is: In-ho, aka the Front Man. Gi-hun has never seen the Front Man without his mask, so he has no idea of his true identity — but we do. This reveal that the guy running the show is secretly playing the games is a direct callback to season 1, where we eventually learned that Player 001, an elderly man named Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su), was actually the creator of the games in disguise.

Since Gi-hun played the games and survived already, he assumes he has some inside knowledge this time around involving how to play (and win). But even though the first game in season 2 is “Red Light, Green Light” like in season 1, the games that come after are brand new, which means Gi-hun has no advantage. In episode four, titled “Six Legs,” the second game is revealed to be a six-legged pentathlon. The players end up having to not play one game, but five minigames. Breaking up into groups of five, the players have their legs strapped together and have to move in unison around a circular track. As they move along, they must stop and play a series of minigames and reach the finish line before the clock runs out (they have 5 minutes total). The minigames include ddakji, the familiar envelope flipping game the Recruiter used to play before his demise; flying stone, which involves knocking over one small stone with another small stone; gonggi, which is similar to jacks; spinning top, which is what it sounds like: spinning a top; and finally, jegi, which is similar to hacky sack. 

Episode five is titled “One More Game,” and this becomes a kind of rallying cry for the players. Even after two deadly games in a row, many players still want to keep playing. Why? Because they’re all in serious debt and feel like this is the only way they can ever be financially free. After more players are killed during the six-legged pentathlon, players are once again given an opportunity to vote. Some players who voted to stay last time have understandably changed their minds and plan to vote to leave this time, but many players want to play — you guessed it — one more game. These players gather into a group and begin chanting “One more game!” over and over again. You can probably guess where this is going: once again, the “STAY” votes win, and the players must play … one more game. 

Every time the players vote to leave or stay, they’re given a velcro patch to attach to their jumpsuits. Players who vote to stay are given a patch with an O on it, while players who vote to leave are given a patch with an X. This patch system almost instantly causes factions to form: the O/STAY players huddle on one side of their quarters with the bunk beds, while the X/LEAVE players gather on the opposite side.

In episode six, titled “O X,” the players are given the option to vote yet again after playing the third deadly game, Mingle. This time, the results are different: since the number of players has dwindled a bit due to deaths, the vote ends up tied, with 50 players voting to leave and 50 voting to stay. According to the rules, the players will be given another chance to vote the following day. As you might assume, none of the players are happy about this — the O/STAY group are angry and want to keep playing, while the X/LEAVE folks are anxious to get the hell out of there. As the episode ends, several players are in the bathroom when a full-blown physical fight breaks out between some of the O/STAY players andX/LEAVE players. It’s a fight that will result in even more casualties, and a sign that the players have completely turned on each other. 

Episode seven, titled “Friend or Foe,” is the season finale, and it concludes on a big cliffhanger. After all the death and chaos, Gi-hun reasons that the only way to end things is for the players to rise up and revolt against the guards. He gathers a bunch of his new friends, all of whom are X/LEAVE voters, to help him pull this off. Unfortunately, one of these friends is player 001, who is secretly the Front Man. Gi-hun has no idea about this, and makes 001 his right-hand man as the revolt begins. 

At first, the plan looks like it might succeed: Gi-hun and several other players overpower some of the guards and take their weapons, shooting their way out into the sprawling island compound where the games are played. Eventually, though, the resistance fighters start to run out of ammo. To make matters worse, player 001, aka the Front Man, decides that enough is enough. He stops being Gi-huns friend and goes back to being his foe. First, he stages things to convince Gi-hun that he’s been killed. Then, he slips back into his Front Man costume, complete with mask, and reveals himself like Darth Vader at the beginning of “Star Wars: A New Hope.” Several of the resistance fighter players are killed, including Gi-hun’s friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan). As for Gi-hun, he’s captured, with the Front Man tauntingly saying “Witness the consequences of your game” before the end credits begin to roll. 

And the “Friend or Foe” title doesn’t just refer to the Front Man. The season finale also reveals that the seemingly friendly Captain Park, a fisherman who has been helping Jun-ho sail around looking for the mysterious island where the games have been held, is up to no good. During one climactic scene, one of the mercenaries that Gi-hun has hired to help track down the Squid Game organization discovers Captain Park messing around with the drone they’ve been using to scout various islands. Captain Park tries to play this off as harmless, but when the mercenary fails to buy his story, Captain Park stabs this poor sap and dumps him over the side of the boat. While we still don’t have 100% confirmation that Captain Park works for the Squid Game people, this scene sure seems to be implying that. We’ll get the full answer whenever season 3 arrives in 2025.