Warning: Contains spoilers for Squid Game.
Episode 2 sees all of Squid Game’s players return home before restarting the games in the following episode, with varying reasons for why every main character decided to come back and try for the money. Squid Game tells the story of people down on their luck who join a series of potentially fatal children’s games in an attempt to win a cash prize of 45.6 billion Won. Each player is revealed to have been recruited because they’re documented as having massive debt, implying they’ll be desperate enough to risk their lives for money.
Following the slaughter of over 200 players in the first game of Red Light, Green Light, the remaining participants decide to enact Squid Game’s third clause and vote to continue or end the games. The votes are split down at 100 wanting to stay and 100 wanting to stop until the last player breaks the tie as the Old Man votes no to continuing, thus sending all of the players home. The players all leave with no money, but Squid Game’s Front Man and staff explain there will be an opportunity for the games to resume, suggesting they knew all along that the participants would want to come back.
When the players return home, they’re confronted with the same reasons why they decided to join Squid Game’s event in the first place. Crippled with debt and various life-or-death circumstances, each of the main characters, even those who originally voted no, return to play the remaining five games. While only Gi-hun’s reason for originally entering the game was given, here’s why every main character in Squid Game returned after leaving.
Gi-Hun
The Squid Game protagonist, Seong Gi-hun, originally entered the games because of his gambling problem, lack of employment, debt to loan sharks, and no way to financially support his daughter. Gi-hun joins Squid Game eager to win easy money as he did with the recruiter at the train station, but soon realizes the catastrophic nature of the secretive event. When given the opportunity to vote on whether to stay and play the games or stop them altogether, Gi-hun is given the first vote and sides with going home. Relieved to be out of the fatal games, Gi-hun returns home and tries to spend time with his daughter. He finds out that she’s moving to the United States with her mother and step-father, leaving Gi-hun no way to see her unless he can earn enough money. To make his financial need even more dire, his mother is sent to the hospital for diabetes, with no way to pay for her hospital bill or surgery to amputate her foot. Knowing he has to make money to support himself, his mother, and young daughter, Gi-hun reluctantly calls Squid Game’s Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) about returning to play.
Sang-Woo
Sang-woo’s desperation with a mountain of debt that could affect his family led him to originally vote yes on staying to play the game. Returning home after Red Light, Green Light, Sang-woo couldn’t even build the strength to go see his mother and tell her that he wasn’t the successful businessman she thought he was. Instead, Squid Game reveals he lost nearly six billion Won in stocks and futures, making it even worse by having used his mother’s shop and home as collateral. Knowing the government would seize everything his mother owns, Sang-woo nearly takes his own life before getting a card about returning to Squid Game’s arena. With his mother’s livelihood at risk, Sang-Woo becomes absolutely ruthless when returning to Squid Game’s matches and betrays his friendship with Gi-hun.
Sae-Byeok
Quickly becoming a fan-favorite Squid Game character, Sae-byeok is a young girl who has been struggling in South Korea as a defector from North Korea. She had been living as a pickpocket while also working in an undisclosed manner for Deok-su through his criminal ties, trying desperately to earn enough money to live and support her younger brother who is living in an orphanage. She then joined Squid Game as player 067 and, like Sang-woo, was one of the characters who voted to stay and continue the games. When returning back to her life in Seoul, Sae-byeok visited her younger brother who desperately wanted to know where their mother was. Netflix’s Squid Game then revealed that Sae-byeok went to a broker to pay someone to find her family members, including her mother, who were still stuck across the border in North Korea. In order to get the money to help support her brother and bring all of her family to South Korea safely, Squid Game player 067 makes the decision to return to the games.
Ali
Like Sae-byeok, Ali’s reason for returning to Squid Game’s arena was far more about protecting his family members than his own debt or gain. Squid Game episode 2 reveals Ali had a wife and baby at home that he needed to send to Pakistan with the rest of his family. With no money at home, Ali returned home from the games and tried to collect his well-earned money from his greedy boss. His boss wouldn’t give him the money he deserved, so Ali stole a folder with cash inside and ran home, giving it to his wife to buy tickets on the next flight home. With not enough money for all three to escape and knowing he would be pursued by the police for stealing, Ali returns to Squid Game trying to win the 45.6 billion Won. In one of the saddest character deaths, Ali never gets to go home, dying in the marbles game when Sang-woo tricks and betrays him.
Deok-Su
Largely poised as the villain of the season aside from the Front Man and the Old Man once his twist is revealed, Deok-su is the Squid Game player with the lowest morality. He’s extremely antagonistic and was already proven to be living a life of crime, but it wasn’t revealed until he returned home why exactly he needed all of the money. Going back to his organized crime life, Deok-su is shown to be betrayed by a friend as he brings him to a bridge where his boss intends to murder him. Insisting he’ll take Deok-su’s eyes and kidney before killing him because of the money he owes, Squid Game’s player jumps off the bridge into the water before returning to the games.
Il-Nam/Old Man
It was originally assumed that the Old Man/player 001 joined Squid Game because he had a terminal illness and likely wanted to win money for the operation, his real reason for playing is far more deceptive. Surprisingly, considering what’s later revealed, the Old Man voted no in episode 2 and became the deciding vote to send everyone home. Squid Game’s ending then features the significant twist that the Old Man was actually in charge of the games the whole time, and decided to play because he actually was dying and knew it would be his last time seeing the games. The Old Man explains that for his last games, he figured he would have more fun playing than watching, which is why he excelled at every task featured in Squid Game. When he originally voted to stop the games, it was because he wanted the other players to return by choice while knowing the real cost of losing.