Loan sharks chase Gi-hun and his winnings vanish
Mid-call with his daughter, Gi-hun spots the debt collectors, bolts through the crowd, and finds his pocket emptied by a girl he bumped into.
Kang Sae-byeok
Every Squid Game moment featuring Kang Sae-byeok, in story order. Played by Jung Ho-yeon.
35 moments · 50 min
Deok-su corners the pickpocket and Gi-hun wants his money back
A gangster recognises a runaway from his crew, a North Korean girl with a scarred neck; Gi-hun recognises the thief who emptied his pocket.
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.
Gi-hun and the pickpocket wake up tied together
Dumped in the street, Gi-hun begs the pickpocket to untie him, swears on his mother to forget the money, then chases her anyway.
Sae-byeok visits her little brother at the orphanage
Cheol says the other kids told him he was lied to and abandoned; his big sister promises they will all live together next year.
Sae-byeok learns the broker ran off with her money
The broker's office says her family's escape must start over at 40 million won; she burns the man and threatens to rip his throat open.
Sae-byeok refuses Deok-su's offer and names his crime
Deok-su tries to pull the pickpocket back onto his crew; she exposes how he robbed his own boss and he explodes at her.
Mi-nyeo threatens to pee on the dorm floor
Locked in after curfew, Mi-nyeo screams at the masked guards until they escort her to the toilet, and Sae-byeok quietly tags along.
Sae-byeok strikes a deal in the bathroom
Sae-byeok spots the vent above the stalls and asks Mi-nyeo to buy her time in exchange for whatever she finds up there.
Mi-nyeo's toilet theatre covers Sae-byeok's climb
Mi-nyeo wails about constipation and missing toilet paper to stall the guard while Sae-byeok crawls through the ducts and watches the workers.
Sae-byeok's report: they were melting sugar
At breakfast Sae-byeok finally tells Mi-nyeo what she saw through the vent; Mi-nyeo threatens her eyes and then just craves sweets.
The giant playground and four shapes on the wall
Players enter an oversized playground and are told to pick circle, triangle, star or umbrella; Sae-byeok tells Deok-su the workers were heating sugar.
Sae-byeok says she trusts no one; Gi-hun tells her why she really doesn't
Gi-hun invites the pickpocket to shelter with his group tonight. She refuses on principle and he answers with a line about having nobody else.
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.
Deok-su and Ji-yeong mock the praying pastor
Deok-su tells the pastor to thank the old man, not God; Ji-yeong offers a sarcastic prayer of her own; Sae-byeok tells everyone to shut up.
Planning the night: attack first or build a barricade
With lights-out coming, the pastor argues for striking a weak team first, Sae-byeok says she trusts no one, and the team settles on a barricade.
Sae-byeok: it wasn't for free, pay me back tomorrow
Gi-hun settles the feverish Il-nam, then thanks Sae-byeok for helping; she refuses to make it a gift.
Ji-yeong proposes one all-or-nothing throw and a long talk first
Ji-yeong suggests settling it in a single bet at the end, and spending the time until then telling each other things they never told anyone.
Sae-byeok tells Ji-yeong what happened to her family
Asked why she came from the North, Sae-byeok says her father drowned at the border, her mother was sent back from China, and her brother is in a shelter.
Jeju Island, the Maldives and a mojito
Sae-byeok's dream is a house for her brother and a trip to Jeju; Ji-yeong tells her to dream bigger and mangles a famous movie line about mojitos.
Ji-yeong's first body: her mother, then her father the pastor
After Sae-byeok recalls plague victims burned in her hometown, Ji-yeong reveals that her pastor father killed her mother and that she killed him.
Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong finally exchange names
Before the last throw, Sae-byeok says her name out loud; Ji-yeong gives hers and admits she has no family name to go with it.
Ji-yeong throws the game: you have a reason to get out, I don't
Ji-yeong deliberately wastes her throw, tells Sae-byeok she has nothing waiting outside, and sends her to find her mother, her brother and Jeju Island.
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.
Gi-hun confronts Sang-woo over the push on the bridge
Back in the dorm, Gi-hun demands to know why Sang-woo shoved the glassmaker; Sang-woo says he will do whatever it takes to win.
Gi-hun offers Sae-byeok an alliance against Sang-woo
Knife in hand, Gi-hun wakes Sae-byeok to say he means no harm, notices she is hiding pain, and proposes they team up to beat Sang-woo.
What Gi-hun and Sae-byeok would do with the money
Gi-hun wants a store for his mother and to be a father to his ten-year-old; Sae-byeok wants her brother out of the orphanage and her mother out of the North.
Sae-byeok makes Gi-hun swear to look after her brother
Sae-byeok proposes a pact: whoever gets out cares for the other's loved ones. Gi-hun resists the implication but she insists he swear.
Sae-byeok stops Gi-hun's knife, then he finds her wound
As Gi-hun stands over sleeping Sang-woo, Sae-byeok tells him that is not who he is; he returns to find her bleeding and asking to go home.
Gi-hun screams for a doctor as Sae-byeok dies
Gi-hun pounds on the doors begging the guards for help; when he turns back, Sae-byeok is gone.