Squid Game Recap: What Goes Around Comes Around
I’m not just saying this because it involves opening and closing doors, but the game in the penultimate episode of this season is truly unhinged. Up until now, winning a game didn’t need to come at anyone else’s expense. There was no quota for how many people were allowed to cross the finish line in Red Light, Green Light; one group finishing their six-legged race didn’t stop anyone else from getting a turn on the track. But Mingle forces players to shut the doors behind them, leaving other people outside to die. It’s sick, it’s twisted, and it makes for gripping TV — especially because six episodes in, we now know these characters well enough for their betrayals and deaths to start feeling like gut-punches. This is my “Gganbu” of the season, the return to form I’ve been waiting for.
Like I said in my last recap, Mingle is basically musical chairs if you swap the chairs for rooms with occupancy quotas. The groups-of-ten round introduces us to the rules. When time’s up, the doors lock, and everyone who isn’t in a room with the right number of people is shot. (Without No-eul’s interference, the soldiers’ organ-harvesting business is booming.) The room requirements strain alliances. Unless you volunteer as In-ho does, it’s not pleasant to realize that you’re being left to find a new group by yourself; Seon-nyeo finishes the groups-of-four round with a newfound grudge.
When it’s time to split into trios, Nam-gyu and Thanos (high out of their minds, of course) suggest a game of rock, paper, scissors. Player 380, Se-mi, extends a hand to Min-su so they can go find someone together and be a couple looking for a third in the least fun way possible. But Min-su plays scissors and leaves her to fend for herself. This is extra upsetting because Se-mi specifically said in the last episode that she teamed up with him because she thought he wouldn’t deceive her. And while she lied to Thanos and Nam-gyu about her age, she let him know that she was actually younger than him. She thought they had an honest connection. Min-su is relieved to see that Se-mi survives, but she avoids his relieved gaze.
During that same round, two players grab Yong-sik and separate him from Geum-ja. Luckily, Gi-hun and In-ho scoop her up. But when In-ho questions why she’s on her own, she tells him to watch his mouth and passionately defends her son’s character. She doesn’t want anyone to think that Yong-sik is a bad person … and that includes Yong-sik himself. When he approaches her apologetically after the round, barely even able to speak, she’s the one who comforts him.
By the groups-of-six round, it feels even more likely that stragglers will die. Players are struggling to find empty rooms. Hyun-ju claims one for Young-mi, Jun-hee, Geum-ja, Yong-sik, and Dae-ho. But when Young-mi gets knocked over while sprinting over, Myung-gi pushes Hyun-ju and follows her in before slamming the door. Young-mi makes it to the locked room, staring through the slit with tears in her eyes. With her final breath, she addresses Hyun-ju with the word that signifies affection and respect for an older female friend: “Unnie.”
I’d argue that this is our first major death. We barely knew the people who died in Red Light, Green Light, and all the main players we’ve been following survived the six-legged race. I actually don’t think Young-mi was super fleshed out as a character. What are her defining traits beyond being soft-spoken and liking Hyun-ju? Still, I guess that’s all we need to understand why it’s so traumatizing for Hyun-ju to watch Young-mi die after calling out to her.
Hyun-ju grabs Myung-gi and screams that it’s his fault. However, Myung-gi points out that if Hyun-ju had run outside, she and Young-mi would have died, along with everyone in the room. “I saved your lives!” Myung-gi yells, looking around defensively. After he demands that someone say something, Jun-hee says he’s right, and Hyun-ju’s face crumples.
The final round splits players into pairs, as In-ho correctly predicts. Since there are 50 rooms and 126 people left, that guarantees at least 26 deaths. In-ho pushes someone away from the door when he and Jung-bae find a room. But there’s already a player inside who refuses to get out. With time running out, In-ho puts him in a chokehold and breaks his neck with his bare hands. Is there a moral difference between killing someone and holding the door shut so that someone else can kill them? I’m sure some people might say no, but Jung-bae definitely seems more disturbed by In-ho’s actions than his own.
By the way, we’ve finally got some action happening over in our rescue crew B plot, which is interspersed throughout the episode to add an extra kick of tension. Jun-ho’s drone picks up on a door on the ground that turns out to be a booby trap that kills one person and injures another. Captain Park suggests that they call it a day, but everyone’s extra motivated to find the culprits now. After Woo-seok points out that they’re likely being watched, Jun-ho decides to make the mission more covert. He tasks Captain Park with delivering new instructions about radio and phone usage to the second team. Hmm … that’s putting a lot of faith in a guy who keeps pronouncing “drone” incorrectly, but okay.
Back in the sleeping area, we’re checking in on our player relationships. Min-su’s betrayal of Se-mi has impressed Nam-gyu and Thanos. And after pairing up with him in the final round, Jun-hee isn’t as prickly with Myung-gi as before. I think I see a flicker of hope on her face when he asks if they can start over and raise their baby together. But once he starts outlining investment plans, she’s out. (I mean, Myung-gi is kinda functioning as Hwang Dong-hyuk’s cautionary tale about the real-life Korean youth trying to get rich quick through volatile cryptocurrencies, so I don’t blame Jun-hee for not trusting that his new schemes are as reliable as he says.) Meanwhile, Seon-nyeo, trailed by her faithful new disciples, tells a grieving Hyun-ju that she has placed a curse on that entire alliance and is praying for them to die.
With 100 survivors, at least six Os need to change their mind for the Xs to secure the majority. In-ho says that provoking the Os now could cause a fight, so Gi-hun doesn’t try to win anyone over before the vote kicks off. Jung-bae, Se-mi, Min-su, and Hyun-ju switch to X. Yong-sik thankfully doesn’t make Geum-ja fulfill a promise to hang herself and becomes the sixth O to switch sides, joyfully turning around to shout to the crowd that they’re going home … except they’re not. One of Seon-nyeo’s followers switches from X to O, looking reverentially up at the shaman. The best the Xs can do now is tie, with In-ho casting the deciding vote. Jung-bae has started to tell Gi-hun and Dae-ho that he’s a little scared of In-ho. But when he picks X, Jung-bae decides to keep what happened in the room to himself.
A tie means that the players will vote again tomorrow. In-ho declares that the Xs need to convince some Os to switch sides, even though he previously said doing that might cause violence to break out … oh, you’re not slick, sir. The campaigning gets off to a cute start as Yong-sik and Geum-ja appeal to the foodies in the house, but things quickly go south. As Xs and Os point and yell at each other, Gi-hun takes a loaded look at the fork provided for today’s meal. He knows from personal experience that silverware can be an effective weapon. It won’t be long before we get proof that that’s still true.
Thanos and Nam-gyu trap Min-su in a bathroom stall, pressuring him to change his vote. Thanos sees Squid Game as an opportunity the universe granted him when he was suicidal, and he’s “so fucking angry” that Min-su might cut it short. Myung-gi accuses Thanos of interfering with the vote. He and a group of Xs end up protectively stepping in front of Min-su, while a group of Os comes to support Thanos. Nam-gyu and Thanos provoke Myung-gi by bringing up Jun-hee, and Myung-gi swings at Thanos. He misses, but it’s enough to make Thanos … snap (lol). He knocks Myung-gi to the ground as multiple other fights break out, and a terrified Min-su makes his escape.
“Your money, your girl, your life, they’re all mine,” Thanos snarls in between punches. He’s cursing in a mix of Korean and English (“You fucking … son of a ssibal … biiiittch”). Given his namesake, his face appropriately turns slightly purple with anger as he strangles Myung-gi. Suddenly, however, there’s a loud squelch: Myung-gi has shoved a fork up into the flesh under Thanos’s jaw.
And that’s all we’re getting before the finale! Whew. So far, we haven’t strayed too far from a pattern that we’ve already seen before, down to the players starting to violently turn on each other. We’ll have to see if Gi-hun can do anything in one episode to stop the game from just playing out until the end again.
Parting Shots
• In the first Mingle round, Seon-nyeo takes a long look at Jun-hee’s pregnant belly, then tells Gi-hun that there’s a reason he’s still alive and was brought here. She looks between them pretty pointedly, but I’m not sure why … maybe I’m missing something obvious, and y’all can help me out in the comments?
• We don’t see much of No-eul this episode, but I assume she was the pink soldier staring at Player 246 during the game. (According to the credits, his name is Gyeong-seok, but I think so far our players have only called him Prince Charming.) I hope his daughter is doing okay. It would be sad if she woke up in the hospital wondering where her dad is.
• Winner of the episode: I kinda feel like everyone had a bad day, but if I had to pick, maybe Yong-sik? Just because his mom loves him so unconditionally. I think I cried more than him when they reunited.
• Loser of the episode: Min-su. Violence clearly freaks this guy out, and he inadvertently becomes the catalyst for a bloody brawl. Did he even get a chance to pee?