Squid Game Season 1 Episode 5 Recap

Who's in the cast:
Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun (Player 456)
Park Hae-soo as Cho Sang-woo (Player 218)
O Yeong-su as Oh Il-nam (Player 001)
Jung Ho-yeon as Kang Sae-byeok (Player 067)
Heo Sung-tae as Jang Deok-su (Player 101)
Anupam Tripathi as Ali Abdul (Player 199)
Kim Joo-ryoung as Han Mi-nyeo (Player 212)
Wi Ha-jun as Hwang Jun-ho
Yoo Sung-joo as Byeong-gi (Player 111)
Lee Yoo-mi as Ji-yeong (Player 240)
Lee Byung-hun as the Front Man

Sang-woo's gamble pays off. When Gi-hun's team suddenly lurches three steps forward, the other team stumbles and loses its footing. Gi-hun's team pulls with everything they have, and the opposing team is dragged off the edge. The survivors ride back to the dorm in stunned silence. Player 244, a pastor, thanks God for the victory, while Mi-nyeo mocks him and points out that their win meant ten other people died.

Back in the dorm, everyone praises the old man's strategy and Sang-woo's quick thinking, but when Mi-nyeo gushes over the three-steps trick, Ali reminds her that she was the one crying that she wouldn't go near the edge. She snaps back by calling him an illegal immigrant. Mi-nyeo also insists she left Deok-su's team by choice. Sang-woo notes how suspicious it is that Deok-su ditched the women right before a game that needed strength, almost as if he knew in advance. Expecting another attack, the team builds a barricade out of bed frames and agrees to keep watch in pairs. Deok-su laughs off the barricade, but surprisingly orders his gang to rest tonight. His inside man, the doctor, has gone missing.

During the night watches, Sang-woo and Ali share some saved food and talk. Ali, who is 33, has a one-year-old son and came to Korea to earn money for his family. He insists on calling Sang-woo "sir" out of respect, and Sang-woo tells him to drop it. Later, Gi-hun keeps watch with the old man and opens up about his past at Dragon Motors. When the company laid off a large group of workers, he joined a long strike, barricaded inside the factory just like this. A coworker died, and that was the start of his life falling apart. The old man then comes down with a high fever, and Gi-hun takes care of him. Sae-byeok quietly lends a hand, and when Gi-hun thanks her, she tells him it isn't free and he can pay her back tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Jun-ho, still posing as Guard 29, joins the organ-harvesting crew on their nightly run. He finds out that Guard 29 was part of the scheme, and that the crew heads out to sea by boat to deliver organs to another vessel. While the doctor works, the guards chat about an earlier victim they nicknamed "the zombie," a player who woke up on the table and was then killed. The zombie only had one kidney. Jun-ho is shaken, because his brother gave him one of his kidneys. Things fall apart when the doctor demands to know the next game and learns the guards don't know yet. He panics, kills one guard, and holds the others at gunpoint.

Elsewhere, a guard named Number 28 shows Jun-ho a hidden escape route for VIPs, rigged with explosives. When 28 grows suspicious of Jun-ho's voice and demands to see his face, Jun-ho is forced to kill him. He then confronts another guard about the zombie. The terrified guard swears the zombie was a woman and tells Jun-ho that files on every player are kept in the leader's office. Jun-ho shoots him.

The Front Man catches up with the doctor and the surviving guard. He tells the doctor and the remaining guards that he doesn't care whether they sell organs. What he cares about is that they broke the one rule that matters here: everyone plays a fair game under the same conditions. Then he has them executed. With alarms blaring and guards searching for him, Jun-ho slips into the Front Man's office. He finds records showing the games have been running for decades. In the list of past winners, he finds the 2015 champion: Player 132, Hwang In-ho, his missing brother.

Player tracker

Eliminated this episode

• ❌ Ten players on the opposing tug-of-war team: dragged off the edge
• ❌ Byeong-gi (Player 111): executed by the Front Man for breaking the rules
• ❌ Guards: Number 28 and another guard are killed by Jun-ho, and the doctor's guard accomplices are executed

Still standing

• ✅ Gi-hun (Player 456)
• ✅ Sang-woo (Player 218)
• ✅ Oh Il-nam (Player 001)
• ✅ Sae-byeok (Player 067)
• ✅ Deok-su (Player 101)
• ✅ Ali (Player 199)
• ✅ Mi-nyeo (Player 212)
• ✅ Ji-yeong (Player 240)
• ✅ Player 244, the pastor

Up next: Squid Game Season 1 Episode 6 Recap. Missed the last one? Read the Squid Game Season 1 Episode 4 Recap. See every episode in the Squid Game Season 1 episode guide or browse all Squid Game recaps.