Squid Game season 2 episode 4 recap: teaming up for the second game

Squid Game season 2 marks the return of Netflix's global phenomenon. Season 1 winner, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), may have proven victorious, but now he wants revenge.

Despite the 45.6 billion won prize, he instead decides to track down the people behind the game in a bid to take them down and end the games forever. The cliffhanger ending of season 1 saw Gi-hun about to board a flight, but when he spots the businessman who recruited him at the airport, he decides he can't leave. And this is where Squid Game season 2 returns.

Here's a recap of everything that happened in Squid Game season 2 episode 4.

Episode four opens with a forklift truck carrying coffins filled with eliminated player's bodies. These coffins are disguised as massive presents — black with a pink ribbon, like the card from the salesman's pocket. The guards begin lifting them off to place them into the incinerators.

Meanwhile, Gi-hun sits with his friend (Player 390) that he knows from the outside world. His friend says he wants to make it to the next game to win more money, but Gi-hun says that’s how the players talked when he was in the game last time, and they all died. Front Man (disguised as Player 001) approaches Gi-hun and asks if he will help them win. He says he voted to stay because once Gi-hun said he'd won before, he realised that they could play and win one more game and then leave. The other players around him agree. Gi-hun’s friend asks him what they’re playing next. He says it’s Dalgona, carving out the shapes from honeycomb. He reveals that they'll pick one of four shapes to carve; the easiest, the triangle and the hardest, the umbrella.

Player 100, the man with the massive debt, interrupts and says that if all the players survive, then the prize money will remain the same. He suggests that they keep the tips from Gi-hun between them, leaving the other players out and more likely to die. Gi-hun refuses and says he’s going to tell everyone. The son (Player 007) goes to share the information with his mum (Player 149), but she’s gone to see Jun-lee (Player 222), the woman who grabbed at her stomach in the first game, to share her lunch with her. She says, “You’re not just eating for you now," and reveals she knows now that Jun-lee is pregnant.

Front Man (Player 001) continues to question Gi-hun. He asks him why he came back and if he spent all his money. He says the money doesn’t belong to him, that it’s the blood money from the players that died. With the deciding vote, Gi-hun argues that Player 001 should’ve voted to leave, but he says if he ever ran into a player that wanted to stay, they wouldn’t be happy to see him. A young man, Player 388, approaches and says they should all work together as a team. Gi-hun's friend (Player 390) notices a tattoo on the man's arm and asks him if he was in the Marines and shows him he has the same tattoo.

Thanos' friend (Player 124), one of the men who lost the debt to Player 333, approaches him again. Player 333 says investing that in crypto ruined his life, too. Thanos (Player 230) comes over and says he lost everyone he earned rapping to that investment — over 500 million won. He steals Player 333's lunch and smashes it into his face. They begin to fight. Front Man (Player 001) approaches the fight and says they can’t behave like that. Thanos (Player 230) tells him to go home and yell at his own kids, not them. Angered, Front Man (Player 001) beats him up and shows him how good he is at fighting. The rest of the players applaud him.

That night, Front Man (Player 001) approaches Gi-hun to talk privately. He says he wants to apologize for earlier. He says his wife back home is very sick and needs a new liver, she’s pregnant too. He says he borrowed money to help pay for the medical costs, but he got in trouble because it looked like a bribe and he got fired from his job. He says entering these games was his last hope. He cries saying he wants to win the prize money to save his wife and his child.

Meanwhile, the guards are dissecting bodies for organs they can sell, but a lot are unusable. The bodies have been dead too long, they say, and they need some alive, but it's revealed that the woman from the amusement park, referred to as Guard 011, keeps finishing them off. The guards tell one of the officers what’s happening, and he calls her for a meeting with her.

She says she was doing the task she was given, confirming the kills. He replies, “How long has it been since we met each other?” He reveals it was seven years ago and that when he found her she was lying in a hospital bed after killing an entire team that was pursuing her with just one rifle. She got past the demarcation line without any help, but he felt sorry for her and gave her a chance to start over. He tells her that she agreed to do anything he said if he could help her find her child. She said she thought being there was to help people, but that’s not what’s this is. She dismisses herself.

At the police station, Jun-ho goes to visit his old boss at major crimes. He’s angry that Jun-ho resigned, but he takes him to the chief to tell him what’s going on - that Gi-hun is on the island and the games are taking place. He doesn’t believe him without evidence and tells his boss to accept his resignation. The guy from Sunshine Capital and Jun-ho instead decide to team up and look on their own - with two teams and two boats. The fisherman continues to ask a lot of questions to the other man and says that Jun-ho has told him about it already, so the Sunshine Capital begins to tell him the whole story about Gi-hun and the games.

On the island, the second game begins. While Gi-hun has lined up by the triangle, he opens the lid to see a series of complicated triangles — not the simple one he was expecting. Everyone’s angry at him, but he awakens to realize it was just a nightmare. Instead, the day begins. Finally, Jun-lee (Player 222) approaches Player 333, the man who was ringing her before they joined the games. She says he told her to buy the crypto and now she’s in debt. He notices she’s pregnant and says that he had told her to get an abortion. It’s his child. She says she didn't go through with it and she wants to raise the child, alone.

Now, the real second game begins. Thanos (Player 230) swallows another pill from his necklace. When they enter the second game, it's not what Gi-hun expected. They've changed the game. Instead, they ask players to split into teams of five. Front Man (Player 001) wants to team up with Gi-hun, as well as his friend (Player 390) and the young Marine (Player 388). They need a fifth.

Player 333 tries to team up with Jun-lee (Player 222). She’s angry with him and walks away. A woman, Player 120, tries to find a team, but no-one will take her. She instead finds Player 095, a quiet woman, and they begin to form a team of their own. The mother and son (Player 149 and Player 007), as well, struggle to find a team, but the other players only want a man, not his mother. Gi-hun’s team find a final teammate, but at the same time, Jun-lee (Player 222) asks to join and they accept. The two women (Player 120 and Player 095) team up with the mother and son, and then Player 044, the woman preaching about death during the votes.

The game is revealed — it's a six-legged pentathlon. At each 10 metre interval on the track, one member of the team will play a mini-game. If they win, they move on to the next until they complete all five — there's ddakji, the card game that the salesman players, flying stone, where players must use one stone to knock down another, a game with five die where you have to pick them up in a certain order, spinning top, where a player must wrap a rope round the top and then make it spin, and a game where a player must kick a sack five times in a row without dropping it. They have to assign a player to each mini-game.

As Gi-hun’s team are deciding, Front Man (Player 001) addresses Gi-hun by his real name. He says he overheard his friend calling him it, but Gi-hun is a little suspicious. The second game begins and two teams go at the same time. They're on a timer and if they don't complete all the mini-games in time, they die. The first two teams can't complete the mini-games in time and they're all shot.

Thanos's friend (Player 124) asks him for one of the pills in his necklace and he gives him one. This time, the guards come in right away to remove the bodies, to avoid the organs becoming unusable. They've left one man alive and they go to take him first. The woman from the amusement park (Guard 011) insists they open the coffin, and she finishes the job again, despite the officer telling her not to. The next two teams play. One of them is the mother and son team with Player 044, Player 120, and Player 095. They’re all nervous, but the game commences.