History Recap / SquidGameS1E9OneLuckyDay

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Gi-hun's HeroicBSOD is visually evocative of a [[ShellShockedVeteran severely traumatized war veteran]] - he's quiet and despondent, barely responsive to people, wears [[DullEyesOfUnhappiness an empty expression]], has an [[BeardOfSorrow all-around messy appearance]], is shouldering a great deal of SurvivorsGuilt, and generally spends his nights [[DrowningMySorrows drowning his sorrows away with cheap booze]].

* BittersweetEnding: Gi-hun wins the games and gets the promised cash, but he is too traumatized by the entire experience to enjoy it, spending hardly any for a year. What's more is that [[AllForNothing his mother died before he returned, making his victory meaningless]], since one of his biggest reasons for playing was to get money to pay for her hospital bills. After a year passes, he eventually uses some of the money to provide for Sae-byeok's brother and Sang-woo's mother before setting to leave for the US to be with his daughter... until he sees the same man who invited him to the games trying to trick another to join it. Gi-hun manages to stop the potential victim from calling the number, and he then calls the Front Man, declaring his intention of taking the organizers down for their actions when the Front Man threatens his daughter's safety.

* HistoryRepeats: Near the end of the episode, Gi-hun spots an all-too-familiar scene: a desperate man playing ''ddakji'' with a salesman for money. Though he rushes to the scene from the other side of the train, the salesman leaves. However, Gi-hun warns the man not to take part and takes the card for good measure. He realizes that another series of games will take place soon, meaning many more people will die, [[spoiler:[[ItsPersonal especially his daughter when the Front Man threatens to put her in the games itself]].]]

* SequelHook: As Gi-hun is about to board the flight to Los Angeles to see his daughter, he finds the Salesman preying on another potential victim, intervenes, and calls the number for the games, demanding answers. He is told to board the flight for his own good, but instead turns around and leaves the jet bridge [[spoiler:when the Front Man threatens to put his beloved daughter in the games if he boards the plane]], determined to fight the organizers of the games and bring their operations down permanently.

* ThisIsUnforgivable: In the last scene, Gi-hun tells In-ho over the phone that he won't forgive the game's organizers for their murderous actions and treating the players like animals to be slaughtered for their entertainment, and declares that he will come for them to stop the games, [[spoiler:especially when In-ho threatens to put his own daughter in the games]].

* HistoryRepeats: Near the end of the episode, Gi-hun spots an all-too-familiar scene: a desperate man playing ''ddakji'' with a salesman for money. Though he rushes to the scene from the other side of the train, the salesman leaves. However, Gi-hun warns the man not to take part and takes the card for good measure. He realizes that another series of games will take place soon, meaning many more people will die, [[spoiler:[[It'sPersonal especially his daughter when the Front Man threatens to put her in the games itself]]]].

* BittersweetEnding: Gi-hun wins the games and gets the promised cash, but he is too traumatized by the entire experience to enjoy it, spending hardly any for a year. What's more is that [[AllForNothing his mother died before he returned, making his victory meaningless]], since one of his biggest reasons for playing was to get money to pay for her hospital bills. After a year passes, he eventually uses some of the money to provide for Sae-byeok's brother and Sang-woo's mother before setting to leave for the US to be with his daughter... until he sees the same man who invited him to the games trying to trick another to join it. Gi-hun manages to stop the potential victim from calling the number, and he then calls the Front Man, declaring his intention of taking the organizers down for their actions.

* HistoryRepeats: Near the end of the episode, Gi-hun spots an all-too-familiar scene: a desperate man playing ''ddakji'' with a salesman for money. Though he rushes to the scene from the other side of the train, the salesman leaves. However, Gi-hun warns the man not to take part and takes the card for good measure. He realizes that another series of games will take place soon, meaning many more people will die.

* SequelHook: As Gi-hun is about to board the flight to Los Angeles to see his daughter, he finds the Salesman preying on another potential victim, intervenes, and calls the number for the games, demanding answers. He is told to board the flight for his own good, but instead turns around and leaves the jet bridge, determined to fight the organizers of the games and bring their operation down.

* ThisIsUnforgivable: In the last scene, Gi-hun tells In-ho over the phone that he won't forgive the game's organizers for their murderous actions and treating the players like animals to be slaughtered for their entertainment, and declares that he will come for them to stop the games.

* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: Il-nam's final game with Gi-hun has Il-nam betting that nobody will help a drunk man freezing to death outside by midnight. A police car drives up and a cop and an earlier passerby step out to attend to the man just as the minute hand hits 12, proving Il-nam wrong.

* PyrrhicVictory: Gi-hun emerges victorious in the end, but at the cost of his childhood friend Sang-woo, his newfound friends such as Sae-byeok, and his mother when she succumbs to the illness he fought so hard to get the money to treat her. One year later, he becomes a miserable drifter who refuses to touch his 45.6 billion won.

* AHandfulForAnEye: Gi-hun tosses sand into Sang-woo's eyes in the final game, though it's little more than a distraction and it immediately starts raining to prevent him from doing so again.

-->''"Just get on that plane. It's for your own good."''

* CombatBreakdown: The final fight between Gi-hun and Sang-woo starts off as a knife fight before it degrades into them grappling at each other and hitting each other in the artificial rain.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Gi-hun's HeroicBSOD is visually evocative of a [[ShellShockedVeteran severely traumatized war veteran]] - he's quiet and despondent, barely responsive to people, wears [[DullEyesOfUnhappiness an empty expression]], has an [[BeardOfSorrow all-around messy appearance]], is shouldering a great deal of SurvivorsGuilt, and generally spends his nights [[DrowningMySorrows drowning his sorrows away with cheap booze.]]

** The [=VIP=]s are incredulous when Gi-hun refuses to kill Sang-woo or win the Squid Game. Instead, he kneels by a prone Sang-woo and offers his hand, and the chance to go home, together and alive.

-->"When we were kids, we would play just like this, and our moms would call us in for dinner. But no one calls us anymore."

The sixth and final game is the [[TitleDrop Squid game]], with Gi-hun on offense and Sang-woo on defense. The game degrades into a brutal and bloody fistfight in artificial rain where Gi-hun beats Sang-woo, but, to the surprise of the [=VIPs=], refuses to complete the game. He invokes the third clause to end the game and offers Sang-woo a chance to go back home, but Sang-woo, knowing he can't live with his guilt and refusing to go out empty-handed, stabs himself in the neck and asks Gi-hun to take care of his mother in his dying moments. Gi-hun is declared the winner of the 2020 Squid Games by default.

Gi-hun is driven back home in a limousine accompanied by the Front Man, who congratulates him for his victory. Gi-hun, seething with rage, demands answers, but the Front Man simply advises him to think of his experiences as a dream. He's then dropped off on the side of a road with a blindfold over his eyes and a debit card for a checking account with the prize money. After a brief encounter with Sang-woo's mother, Gi-hun returns home only to find that his own mother has already succumbed to her diabetes, shattering Gi-hun.

A year later, Gi-hun is still traumatized by his experiences and has barely touched his prize money. One night, he receives an invitation card with the game symbols and an address to arrive at. He follows the address to a luxury apartment complex where he finds Player 001, Oh Il-nam, still alive but on the verge of death. Il-nam reveals that he is one of the [=VIP=]s, the "Host" who co-ran the game alongside the Front Man, and the mastermind behind the game's operation and creation. Gi-hun nearly flies into a rage upon seeing that he had been lied to and demands to know the truth, even threatening to strangle Il-nam. Il-nam asks Gi-hun to play one last game with him, a wager on whether anyone will help a drunk man passed out on the side of the road before midnight. Gi-hun reluctantly agrees in order to get the answers he wants.

Il-nam explains that while he did lie about his financial situation, he was telling the truth about his tumor and he genuinely did appreciate Gi-hun's friendship. He further elaborates that over the years after becoming wealthy, he came to feel that both the impoverished and the ultra-wealthy suffered from a lack of joy in their lives, as he himself became deeply bored from being able to buy literally anything he could want, so he and a bunch of other rich people came up with the games to entertain themselves and alleviate their boredom. He also wanted to test whether humanity had any innate goodness left in it, reminding Gi-hun that despite witnessing the bloodshed in the initial game, he and the other participants still returned and risked their lives for the sake of earning the prize money for themselves. The specific games are based on Il-nam's childhood memories, and he decided to participate himself for nostalgia's sake, as his childhood where he would play games with his friends without a care in the world was the only time in his life he ever felt true happiness. Right before the clock strikes midnight, Gi-hun wins the wager when a passerby and a police officer pull up over the side of the road to help the drunk man, and Il-nam dies, though presumably not before he witnesses his loss.

Il-nam explains that while he did lie about his financial situation, he was telling the truth about his tumor and he genuinely did appreciate Gi-hun's friendship. He further elaborates that over the years after becoming wealthy, he became increasingly bored from being able to buy literally anything he could want, so he and a bunch of other rich people came up with the games to entertain themselves to alleviate their boredom. He also wanted to test whether humanity had any innate goodness left in it, reminding Gi-hun that despite witnessing the bloodshed in the initial game, he and the other participants still returned and risked their lives for the sake of earning the prize money for themselves. The specific games are based on Il-nam's childhood memories, and he decided to participate himself for nostalgia's sake, as his childhood where he would play games with his friends without a care in the world was the only time in his life he ever felt true happiness. Right before the clock strikes midnight, Gi-hun wins the wager when a passerby and a police officer pull up over the side of the road to help the drunk man, and Il-nam dies, though presumably not before he witnesses his loss.