Culture

All The Best ‘Squid Game’ Memes For Those Still Reeling After That Twist Ending

Can't talk, still crying over the marble fiasco in Episode 6.

by Michelle Rennex  27 September 2021
Squid Game Memes

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If you’ve ever wanted to know what the Hunger Games would be like if it was played with only children’s games, Squid Game is the answer.

The Korean drama, that’s currently the number one show on Netflix in a number of countries, is a twisted thriller that focuses on 456 people in terrible debt who agree to compete in a kids game competition for a very healthy prize fund of ₩45.6 billion (approximately $53 million AUD). The issue? Contestants aren’t told ahead of time that elimination from any of the six rounds actually results in their death.

— Warning: Major spoilers for Squid Game ahead. —

Recruited by a man in the subway offering ₩100,000 for every round of Ddakji (Korean-style Pogs) they win, each contestant in Squid Game is simply an everyday Korean in desperate need of some cash.

So, money-hungry and with no other options in the real world, hundreds of Koreans agree to play the game — including Gi-hun, a divorced gambler living with his mother, Sang-woo, a disgraced banker on the run from authorities, Sae-byeok, a North Korean refugee desperately trying to help her mother cross the border, and Oh Il-nam, an elderly man with a brain tumour looking simply looking for one last hurrah before he dies.

When the contestants enter the game, they’re unaware that elimination leads to on-sight execution — and they only learn of this during the first game of Red Light, Green Light when 255 are slaughtered on the field.

After watching the massacre, the majority of the remaining 201 contestants vote to exit the game, and they each go back to their miserable lives. However, despite begging to leave, when offered another chance to play a whopping 187 return and the real game begins.

Over five more gruelling rounds of schoolyard games, 187 eventually dwindles down to one as Gi-hun takes out the prize. But even though he walked away with more money than he knew what to do with, the guilt from killing was so overwhelming that he didn’t touch his winnings. That is until Gi-hun is summoned again a year later, and Oh Il-nam — the innocent old man who Gi-hun protected throughout the games — reveals himself to be the mastermind behind the whole thing. Basically, Squid Game is a mind-fuck full of unexpected twists and turns set on an oddly beautiful child-like stage.

And as the series ends by suggesting that Gi-hun may reenter the game to seek revenge, we might actually get a Season 2. But until then, here are all the best memes about Squid Game, the Korean thriller that has the world on the edge of their seats:

You can stream Squid Game on Netflix now.