Netflix has produced plenty of pop culture phenomena, but arguably none of them quite captured the popular zeitgeist as thoroughly as Squid Game. With the third season airing in 2025, the series is confirmed to be finished, clocking in with a final episode count of 22. That is really not a huge number, but it also means that Squid Game largely managed to avoid overstaying its welcome. Sure, season 3 might be a touch more divisive than its predecessors, but it is still a blast to sit through. Now that the story is completed, we can finally ask and answer "which are the best episodes of Squid Game?"
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The series is filled to the brim with complex characters, relatable plot threads, suspenseful moments, poignant criticisms of the capitalist model, and a bunch of ruthlessly violent games. Not all Squid Game episodes are of equal quality, and the following entries are the best ones in the series.
9 Friend Or Foe
An Action-Packed Season Finale That Left Viewers Wanting More
- Season: 2
- Episode: 7
The intense finale of Season 2, titled Friend or Foe, felt like the much-needed climax that viewers were eagerly anticipating for over two seasons. After so many brutal deaths, so much despair, and so much manipulation from their billionaire overlords, Seong Gi-Hun and his allies finally managed to fight back against the Pink Soldiers and slowly make their way to the control room in order to put an end to these games once and for all.
For a show that usually focuses on slow and intense scenes, the action in Friend or Foe worked quite well and was perfectly choreographed. While many beloved characters, like Jung-bae or Gi-Hun, really proved their worth during this showdown, the highlight of the episode was undoubtedly Cho Hyun-ju, who led part of the rebellion with both courage and skill. Friend or Foe's only glaring issue is its abrupt ending, which made it feel more like a mid-season break instead of the season finale it was supposed to be.
8 One More Game
A Long And Challenging Game With A Satisfying Conclusion
- Season: 2
- Episode: 5
The episode titled One More Game functions as the anticipated conclusion of the six-legged pentathlon game introduced in the previous episode. After both the viewers and the other players in the show witnessed how complex, long, and challenging these 5 games were, it was finally time for some of the new main characters to give it a shot, and all the waiting was definitely worth it.
The first team managed to overcome the challenge in clever and satisfying ways, not to mention that they all got to show off a bit of their personalities and backstories in the process. Cho Hyun-ju accidentally becomes the leader of her team, and one of the overall best parts of the episode. One More Game also concludes with a victorious (and hilarious) montage of Gi-Hun’s team successfully going through each game, although Player 001’s last-minute misdirection almost made them lose, which slowly set up the real intentions of the mischievous main antagonist.
7 The Man With The Umbrella
Who Knew That Playing With Candy Could Be So Intense?
- Season: 1
- Episode: 3
Season 1 of Squid Game had many legendary episodes that became synonymous with the show (and Korean television in general), and The Man With The Umbrella was definitely one of them. This is the episode that introduced the iconic game of Ppopgi, in which players had to slowly and carefully remove a stamped shape from a Dalgona in 10 minutes, or they would be eliminated.
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A premise as simple as this one ended up working perfectly, as every single scene of the main characters trying to extract their respective shapes from the Dalgonas was completely filled with tension, successfully keeping viewers on the edge of their seats. Gi-Hun’s brilliant discovery is a major highlight of this episode, not to mention that Cho Sang-woo’s small betrayal slowly planted the seeds of distrust among the players.
6 The Starry Night
The Death Game Concept At Its Thrilling Best
- Season: 3
- Episode: 2
Overall, Squid Game season 3 is probably the weakest of the trilogy, although it is still widely entertaining and features almost exclusively good-to-great episodes. "The Starry Night" is the pick of the bunch, and it is arguably one of the series' best overall representatives. Yes, hide and seek had been done before (and produced another one of the best Squid Game episodes), but this version is arguably even more intense. By this point, the audiences know these characters inside out, and they should be as invested as possible in their survival.
"The Starry Night" is one of the bloodiest episodes in Squid Game, and some moments even venture into horror territory. Nam-gyu is at his terrifying best throughout this game, as he basically becomes a slasher killer during the early parts of the episode. If episode 1 of season 3 did not quite hit the mark with you, and you found yourself tempted to move on from the show, I recommend at least giving the second episode a try.
5 Bread And Lottery
Kicking Off The Second Season With A Ruthless New Game
- Season: 2
- Episode: 1
The very first episode of Season 2 had one important goal: To instantly hook viewers who waited for more than three years and prove that Squid Game could still be as intense and engaging as ever. Needless to say, Hwang Dong-hyuk and his team successfully pulled this off, because Bread And Lottery is an incredible episode that encouraged people to binge through the rest of Season 2.
Reuniting with beloved characters like Seong Gi-Hun or Hwang Jun-ho and witnessing all the changes they have been through in the last three years was definitely intriguing, but the true star of Bread and Lottery was the recruiter. Gi-Hun’s relentless search for him, the recruiter’s sick experiment with the homeless people, and his shocking game of Rock, Papers, Scissors with Kim and Woo-seok were all expertly crafted, written, and acted scenes that proved Squid Game was back, and that it still had a lot to offer. Lastly, the final game of Russian roulette between Gi-Hun and the recruiter not only perfectly re-established the protagonist but also demonstrated that these suspenseful & violent games could still exist outside the titular main event.
4 Red Light, Green Light
The Simple Game That Started It All
- Season: 1
- Episode: 1
A show with a premise as unique and creative as Squid Game needed a flawless first episode that could almost immediately hook any new viewers and, thankfully for both Hwang Dong-hyuk and Netflix, Red Light, Green Light did exactly that, to the point that the success of the show can be entirely attributed to this sole episode.
In just 54 minutes, Red Light, Green Light did everything it needed to do. It slowly introduced every major character and their financial hardship, only to later put them in these mysterious games where they can earn money to pay their debts. Furthermore, Red Light, Green Light is the perfect game to introduce audiences to the gimmick of the show, because it’s something relatively simple that everyone around the world can understand, and yet it doesn’t take long for all the brutal violence to start, showing the games' true colors in the process. Additionally, this is the episode that poses the question: Were the characters’ financial struggles worth risking their lives? Viewers who wanted an answer had to keep watching the show.
3 001
A Fresh New Take On The Iconic Opening Game
- Season: 2
- Episode: 3
After viewers waited for 2 long episodes, Season 2 finally kicked off the games with the third one, titled 001. Once again, contestants had to play a game of Red Light, Green Light with a creepy robot, but this time around, there was something different: Seong Gi-Hun, the winner and survivor of the first season. It didn’t take long for him to lead the rest of the contestants in order to try and save them, despite their skepticism.
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Gi-Hun’s plan worked well for a while, and it also allowed the new cast of characters to show their unique personalities. Nevertheless, it didn’t take long for everything to go wrong, and people quickly began dying violently left and right. As a result, the montage of the massacre set to the new remixed version of “Fly me to the moon” remains as one of the most shocking and incredible sequences in the entire show. 001 proved that, despite Gi-Hun’s efforts, this new version of the games was going to be as brutal as ever. Another thing that cemented this episode as one of the best in the series was the mind-blowing plot twist at the very end, when it’s revealed that the Front Man joined the games in order to mess with Gi-Hun’s plan from the inside.
2 Hell
Showcasing The Harsh Reality Behind The Games
- Season: 1
- Episode: 2
After a shocking and brutal round of Red Light, Green Light, the players were given the opportunity to leave the games, and naturally, they all agreed to do so. However, immediately after returning to the “real world”, they realize that there’s not much for them there. Their lives are still miserable, their debt still haunts them, and there’s nothing they can really do about it.
A show with a premise as dark as Squid Game needed to take its time to justify the idea of people risking their lives for money, and yet, Hell defied expectations with a well written narrative that has a lot to say about the real world. That’s where the episode's clever twist lies: The word "hell" in its title isn’t referring to the games, but to the harsh world the main characters have to live in. The final scene of everybody going back to the games remains one of the most haunting moments in the entire show.
1 Gganbu
A Heartbreaking Episode That Proved Nobody Was Safe
- Season: 1
- Episode: 6
Squid Game pulled a brilliantly evil trick on its audience: Over the course of 5 episodes, it slowly made viewers feel like the main cast of characters – Seong Gi-Hun, Cho Sang-woo, Kang Sae-byeok, Oh Il-nam and Ali Abdul - were truly untouched and that it was impossible for them to die, despite the fact this idea went completely against the main premise of the show. However, in the sixth episode, they are all forced to team up in pairs for the fourth game, only to then discover that they have to face each other in a game of marbles. This moment truly is the most upsetting plot twist of the entire season, and maybe the entire show.
Gganbu is still remembered to this day as the most tragic and heartbreaking Squid Game episode, and it rightfully earned this reputation thanks to the impeccable writing and incredible acting of everyone involved. Seeing all these beloved characters being forced to play against each other while a melancholic air of nostalgia surrounds them is as suspenseful as it is engaging. Of course, while witnessing the unfair deaths of Oh Il-nam and Ji-yeong was incredibly sad, the highlight of this episode was Ali’s death. He was one of the most lovable and sympathetic characters in the entire show, and yet, he was suddenly betrayed by his friend, Sang-woo, at the very last moment. Many viewers around the world screamed at their screens and heavily cried during this episode, which goes to show how big of an impact it had.
Squid Game
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- 2021 - 2025
- Directors
- Hwang Dong-hyuk
- Seasons
- 3
- Streaming Service(s)
- Netflix
