Awesome / Squid Game

General:

General

• The entire subplot involving Detective Jun-ho's personal investigation and infiltration into the games' organizers. Over the span of a few days, he almost exposes the entire conspiracy to the world all by his lonesome. It's a real shame that it was his own missing older brother who foiled his efforts, shooting him dead just when success was within reach.
• When you realize in hindsight that the kindly old man that claims he's doing this game to feel alive is the real Big Bad, and how for him this was an exercise in human cruelty before his brain tumor would kill him. Il-nam made a strong effort to not cheat; it's implied that it was the Front Man protecting him until they could fake his death out of respect for his mentor. He's seen time and time again how the players will betray their friends for either a chance at life-changing winnings, or to simply save their skin, and that has jaded him to believe the players are all nameless faces that have no qualms. Then Gi-hun befriended him, despite having a lot of black marks in his finances and career, and tried to save who he thought was a dying senior citizen that had no family to take care of him, let alone a reason to live. Realizing that humanity may not be lost and that Gi-hun proved he was capable of redemption, Il-nam uses his last moments to break Gi-hun out of his yearlong funk and give him a push in the right direction. Whether that means he wants Gi-hun to make something of his life, or undo his Villainous Legacy, Il-nam proved how you could make an impact while engaging in crimes against humanity.

Episodes:

"Red Light, Green Light"

• There is something awesome that the old man is the only one who doesn't panic when the players realize the "red light, green light" game is deadly, and doesn't get knocked over when the Crowd Panic starts. As the game "resumes," he strides forward with confidence and freezes on cue, smiling the whole while. That probably saved some lives as other players follow his lead, breaking their Deer in the Headlights. It's either made better or worse by The Reveal in the season finale, depending on if the man is a Fair-Play Villain that doesn't exclude himself from the rules or if he trusted that the adrenaline and Nerves of Steel would help him either survive or go out with a literal bang.
• In the first round, Ali Abdul saves Gi-hun from falling after he slipped on someone's body, just as the doll turned its head around (which would mean instant death for Gi-hun, as even if he landed and stopped moving in time, he wouldn't have had the time to cross the line before the timer expired). This is even more awesome when you consider that Ali doesn't even have to do this at all. The timer is seconds away from running out and risking his life to save Gi-hun - who's just a stranger to him at this point - could've gotten both of them killed, but Ali does so anyway - simply because it's the right thing to do. Both of them leaping across the finish line just as the timer runs out in epic slow motion is just the icing on the cake.
• Sae-byeok getting back at Deok-su for his previous beating of her by getting behind him during the game and yanking him back by his hair to get ahead. It doesn't kill him, but it's satisfying.
• Seeing Gi-hun wipe the smug look off the Salesman's face by pulling out a gun is satisfying.

"Hell"

• An enraged Ali confronts his Mean Boss about the money he's hiding from him, not buying up his excuses for not paying his earned salary for six whole months, ending up with Ali successfully stealing it away from the boss after fighting him and breaking his hand albeit accidental with the latter. Ali later uses the stolen money to make sure his wife and child can flee South Korea to their home in Pakistan safely, before deciding to join the game again to try to improve his family's financial life.
• Scumbag as he is, Deok-su killing his traitorous partner and escaping from rival gangsters by jumping off a bridge is pretty impressive.
• When Sae-byeok is smugly informed by a sketchy broker that the smugglers she paid to lead her family out of North Korea ran away with her money and she needs to pay another 40 million won to try again, she calmly hurls a pot of hot coffee in his face and holds him at knifepoint. When she leaves, he's crying...and suddenly finds that she slit his pocket and stole his money from his jacket on the way out.
• It is impressive that some players refused to return to the game. Considering they were all in dire straits, as shown by the main characters, it meant they would rather be stuck in the cycle of poverty, in exchange for a chance to live with integrity.

"The Man With the Umbrella"

• Jun-ho managing to infiltrate the game as a guard, fake his own death to deflect suspicion, and narrowly escape protocol violations. He keeps notes on his phone, and one can hope they're backed up on a cloud considering what happens later. For the first time, the Squid Game has been completely compromised.
• Mi-nyeo breaks up a fight between Deok-su and Sae-byeok by flirting with the thug and distracting him. She's a Dirty Coward, a Consummate Liar and Opportunistic Bastard, but risked her life to save another player who wouldn't be able to defend herself against a gang. Mi-nyeo didn't even know how valuable Sae-byeok would be later, making this also heartwarming.
• Gi-hun managing to figure out how to win the second round by licking the back of the honeycomb to get the umbrella shape out easier, allowing him to turn the situation from instant loss into a win just as the timer runs out, again. Not only that, his strategy also helps save a lot of other contestants' lives as well when they began to mimic him and lick their honeycombs, with Player 001 among them.
• Ali doesn't know how to play the honeycomb game. He fortunately got an easy shape, choosing the circle because it reminded him of the moon. Yet, he sits with the pin in his mouth like a gunslinger holding a toothpick, and wins by breaking off the pieces. The man has skill, no fear, and good hands.
• Player 119 who loses the second round manages to disarm a triangle guard who is about to execute him, then shoots a square guard and holds the latter hostage. No. 119 also manages to convince the hostage guard to take off his own mask. It's tragic to see that the hostage guard is an adolescent and No. 119 shooting himself dead (with the hostage guard following suit in death thanks to the Front Man), but still. This also inadvertently led to Jun-Ho maintaining his cover, as well as getting a new mask to serve as an additional disguise.
  • He even cleanly cut out the umbrella (even if it did snap), he's the only other player aside from Gi-hun to cut out the immensely difficult shape. Special mention to how he wasn't seen among the players licking their dalgona and it was unlikely he saw him as he was sitting near the globe which was far from the slide Gi-hun was staying at.

"Stick to the Team"

• During the riot, Gi-hun and his group hold their own against Deok-su's group to protect Sae-byeok before the guards come in to stop it. Ali in particular comes in swinging a massive bunk support taller than him to ward off the entire group.
• In the third round, despite being the weakest team on the roster, Team 4 manages to win against their opponents in the vicious tug-of-war match thanks to Player 001's winning strategy and Sang-woo's last-second improvisation.
  • The closeups in Ali as he's holding the rear and leaning back when necessary. He saved them all with his dependability and brute strength.
  • Mi-nyeo is protesting when Sang-woo shouts that they need to take three steps forward towards the platform. Anyone would be scared to take what seems like a suicidal move. Then Gi-hun says they have to try or they'll fall and die anyway, and she complies without complaint.
  • The following episode, to say Deok-su and his teams' look of surprise and shock upon seeing that Gi-hun and his team survived and won their match-up is gold.

"A Fair World"

• While Gi-hun's team build a barricade in case of another riot, Deok-su comes over and tries to intimidate the team that the barricade won't hold them, but Gi-hun stands his ground and manages to convince Deok-su to not start another riot by pointing out that since he is the strongest player, his teammates who are also criminals like him won't hesitate to turn on him while he has his back turned, causing to Deok-su to become paranoid and mistrusting of his gang.

"Gganbu"

• Even though it's also a huge Tear Jerker, Ji-yeong's Heroic Sacrifice by throwing the marble game and allowing Sae-byeok to win is this. She embraces her fate and does whatever she could to help someone she believes deserves a chance to live on and fight another day. That's more than can be said for many other contestants playing the same game.

"VIPs"

• An understated moment in the fifth round comes from a player who's a mathematician. In the Luck-Based Mission-nature of the game, he calculates his odds and realizes that he's doomed either way, as he deduces that his chances of clearing the bridge are next-to-impossibly low. Nevertheless, he just chuckles to himself and leaps forward unhesitatingly, managing to go through three correct panels before falling to his death. That's admittedly pretty impressive.
• When VIP #4 takes Jun-ho into a private room, he disrobes and attempts to coerce Jun-ho into having sex with him... only for Jun-ho to grab and twist the VIP's nuts, pull a gun on him, and interrogate him. His Surprisingly Good English make it even cooler, as does the fact that he uses all of the VIP's own words against him ("If you can satisfy me in five minutes, I'll change your life").
  Jun-ho: Satisfied? If you can satisfy me in five minutes, I might let you live. Now, tell me everything you know about the game.
• From the same round, Mi-nyeo keeps her word on killing Deok-su if he betrays her, finally getting her revenge by wrapping her arms tight around him and throwing herself and him through a panel.
  • After seeing Deok-su spend the entire game being a remorseless bully and causing the needless deaths of many other players (even shoving one off the bridge moments before being confronted by Mi-nyeo), along with showing his true colors by refusing to advance once he's at the front of the pack, the fact that he spends his final moments as a powerless, trembling wreck at the hands of Mi-nyeo is quite satisfying.
  • As an added bonus, Mi-nyeo even used the very technique she learned in Tug-of-War (thrusting up her lower abdomen) to eliminate them both. Given that she was the one during that game who was complaining and protesting the most, it’s really badass seeing that not only did she learn from that game after all, but the single most useless team member would create a Dying Moment of Awesome against one of the most vile players in these games.

"Front Man"

• At the start of the episode, Gi-hun and Sang-woo have a brief spat where the former calls out the latter for pushing the glassmaker to his death in the fifth game. Having had enough, Sang-woo berates Gi-hun and proceeds to call him a pathetic idiot responsible for his life being a failure. Gi-hun, however, is unaffected, and instead fires back at Sang-woo at how despite being a genius who had bright prospects, he's stuck with him in this Deadly Game, forced to compete alongside other poor people for the slim chance of getting money. This response leaves Sang-woo speechless and unable to do anything but glare.

"One Lucky Day"

• The entire final showdown between Gi-hun and Sang-woo in the sixth round's Squid Game, with both of them going all out and employing everything they have at their disposal to get the other side to stay down. After a lengthy and brutal Battle in the Rain, Gi-hun emerges victorious. He then proceeds to top that by refusing to win the game and the ultimate prize, denying the VIPs their satisfaction, because he's had enough of all the killings. He then tries to convince Sang-woo to end the game instead so they can both go home together. Though it doesn't end well, it shows that in the end, Gi-hun still doesn't lose his humanity even with everything he's been through. Even before meeting Il-nam again one year later, Gi-hun has already won the final bet he's going to have with him.
  • The fight itself is also very cool simply because of how real it feels. Despite both Gi-hun and Sang-woo having served in the military (and thus having a basic idea of self-defense), neither of them are skilled fighters, and most of the fight is just an emotionally-charged brawl between two men running on fumes and desperate to survive. Tellingly, it starts off as a knife fight with both men in suits, but quickly degrades into them wrestling in the mud with their suits in tatters.
• After the Time Skip, when Gi-hun meets the Host of the games, who turns out to be Il-nam, and learns about the truth behind the games. Il-nam challenges him to one last bet: to see whether or not someone will come to help a poor drunkard who's lying on the streets outside the apartment building they're in. Just before the clock strikes at midnight, a police cruiser eventually comes by (along with a passerby who passed the drunkard earlier) and saves the man from death, proving once and for all that there is still good in humanity, which restores Gi-hun's will to live once more, and proving to Il-nam just before his death that the world is not all cruel and merciless as he made it out to be.
• Gi-hun finally gets his act together and is on his way to see his daughter in America when he encounters the Salesman who got him to play ddakji in the first episode putting some new poor schmuck through the same humiliation. Unable to catch the Salesman in time, he snatches the recruitment card away from the new guy to save him from making a terrible mistake and calls the number himself, demanding answers. Though the Front Man warns him to stay away for his own good, Gi-hun is unfazed by the threat. The last shot of the season is him turning around, newly resolved, and walking away from the plane, determined to put an end to the cruel games once and for all and bring the organization to justice.

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