Deok-su grabs the pickpocket as Gi-hun slips and is caught
A grudge resurfaces mid-game, a trembling player is told he will die if caught, and Gi-hun pleads for help as someone holds him up.
Ali Abdul
Every Squid Game moment featuring Ali Abdul, in story order. Played by Anupam Tripathi.
26 moments · 38 min
Sang-woo gives Ali bus money
Sang-woo stops Ali outside the convenience store and hands him money for the ride to Ansan, asking only that he stop calling him sir.
Ali fights his boss for six months of wages
Ali demands his unpaid pay, his boss refuses and swings at him, and the struggle ends with the boss's hand caught in the machine.
Ali sends his wife and child home
Ali hands his wife money, tells her to buy the earliest flight home with their baby, and promises to follow once his job is done.
Gi-hun's squad forms with army ranks
Sang-woo and Ali rejoin Gi-hun, Ali thanks him for the bus fare, and the group recruits Il-nam as the old major of their training-camp team.
Lunchbox memories and a list of childhood games
Over cold lunch boxes Gi-hun and Il-nam reminisce about briquette stoves, then rattle off every old kids' game Ali has never heard of.
Chocolate milk and Sang-woo's untouched breakfast
Il-nam asks for chocolate milk and guesses Gi-hun was spanked as a boy; across the table Sang-woo hands Ali his meal and Gi-hun follows suit.
Sang-woo's advice: don't keep your eggs in one basket
With no idea what the game is, Sang-woo argues the team should split across the shapes; Ali and Gi-hun vouch for the SNU prodigy.
Gi-hun chooses the umbrella
Ali takes the circle he calls Dayira, Gi-hun picks the umbrella for a childhood memory, and Sang-woo stops short of saying what he wanted to.
Sang-woo thanks Gi-hun as the team regroups after Dalgona
Sang-woo admits Gi-hun got him through the honeycomb round, Ali and Il-nam rejoin, and the announcer tallies 79 dead and a 34.8 billion won pot.
Lights-out countdown and the dormitory riot
The lights go out on a countdown and the dorm erupts in a brawl. Gi-hun and Sang-woo fight back to back, then realise Il-nam is missing.
Gi-hun defends Sae-byeok and Il-nam's cry stops the riot
Gi-hun faces down Deok-su to protect his teammate, then Il-nam climbs up and screams that everyone will die, and the masked soldiers finally intervene.
The team trades names and Il-nam cannot remember his
Gi-hun, Ali, Sang-woo and Sae-byeok introduce themselves properly; when the old man is asked, he stalls and Gi-hun covers for him.
Teams of ten: Sang-woo guesses the game and argues for strong men
The third game is announced as a team game and Gi-hun's group debates which playground game it could be and who to recruit in ten minutes.
Ji-yeong joins Sae-byeok and Mi-nyeo barges onto the weak team
Sae-byeok brings a girl instead of a man, the count stops at nine, and the rejected Mi-nyeo invites herself in as the tenth with a boast.
Il-nam teaches the team how to win Tug-of-War
Facing an all-male team, the old man lays out his childhood method: a strong leader, alternating sides, rope under the armpits, lean back ten seconds.
Three steps forward: Sang-woo's gamble on the rope
The team holds for ten seconds, starts losing anyway, and Sang-woo orders everyone to step towards the edge on a count of three.
Gi-hun's three-steps trick wins the tug of war
Cold open: losing badly, Gi-hun orders the team to step forward on his signal, the rope goes slack and the other side topples.
The team relives the win: Matrix moves and who said no
Giddy survivors replay the lean-back and the three-steps call, compare it to a bullet-dodging movie, and tease the one who cried about the edge.
Han Mi-nyeo joins the team and tries to run it
Mi-nyeo suggests ditching the foreigner, asks who the captain is, explodes at being called grandma, and insists she left Deok-su's gang by choice.
Ali and Sang-woo share a drink and their reasons
Ali offers the milk he saved from supper, Sang-woo tells him to drop the 'mister', and Ali talks about his wife, baby and family back in Pakistan.
Sang-woo picks Ali over Gi-hun; Gi-hun gives Il-nam his jacket
Sang-woo quietly chooses Ali as his partner, leaving Gi-hun to step aside and look after the old man instead.
The rules land: take all ten marbles from your partner
The announcement reveals that partners must play each other for all ten marbles, and the pairs realise what winning means for the loser.
Sang-woo begs Ali: I can't die this way
Down to his last marbles, Sang-woo pleads with Ali, reminding him of the bus fare and tug-of-war, and promises a way for both of them to live.
Sang-woo takes Ali's pouch for safekeeping
Sang-woo lays out a plan to scout the other teams and persuades Ali to hand over his marble pouch so it does not get stolen.
Ali searches for Sang-woo; Ji-yeong's last words to Sae-byeok
Ali runs through the alleys calling for Sang-woo as the eliminations are announced, and Ji-yeong tells Sae-byeok she is honored to have been her partner.