Squid Game season 3 episode 2 recap: a deadly game of hide and seek and a mother's choice

Squid Game season 3 marks the final instalment of the hit Netflix show, bringing the story to an undoubtedly intense close.

Picking up where season 2 left off, Gi-hun, aka Player 456, and the remaining players must battle through the final deadly games to fight for their survival. With Gi-hun personally seeking his revenge against Front Man. Meanwhile, Jun-ho continues his search for the island, hoping to reunite with his brother and free any survivors before it's too late.

With the 45.6 billion won prize continuing to divide players, Front Man and the VIPs watch on as they take on game after game to pay off their debts in the outside world. But, at what real cost?

Here's a recap of everything that happened in Squid Game season 3 episode 2.

The second episode begins with Player 246 waking up. The female guard holds the gun up to the doctor and he tells her they made a deal, but she shoots him dead anyway. She puts her guard uniform back on before Player 246 can see her and looks over to the doctor’s uniform and discarded mask. Meanwhile, the red team enters the arena for hide and seek. The 30-minute timer starts. Player 124 takes another pill from Thanos’s necklace. He offers one to Player 333, but he refuses.

Meanwhile, the red team head down different paths to find players. One of the blue team enters a door to hide. A red player follows them in. Another blue player leaves his door and runs to hide somewhere else. Gi-hun is looking for Player 388, but just misses him running past. Player 044 leads her four followers to try and find the exit. Player 100 unlocks a door and heads up the stairs to another door, but his square key won’t open the next one. He realises he needs another shape. Player 232 follows him in and they use his triangle key to open the next door.

Elsewhere, Players 120, 222 and 149 try to enter a door. Player 120 tries her circle key on a triangle lock. Player 222 has the triangle key, so they use that. Inside, there’s another door and Player 120 works out all three of them have the different keys they need; triangle, circle and square. They hand their keys over to Player 120. Gi-hun spots Player 388 running and chases him into a dead end, but he opens a door to a sheer drop surrounded by other doors. As Gi-hun lifts his knife up to him, he realises it’s Player 197, not 388. He looks across and sees Player 388 opposite hanging out of another door looking down at the drop.

There’s 25 minutes left. Player 007 is looking for someone to kill. Players 124 and 333 are chasing Player 235. Player 333 corners him in a room and Player 124 comes in. They overpower him and stab him. He begs on the floor that he has a kid and a wife and Player 333 stops Player 124 from killing him. He says they have to kill someone together by stabbing at the same time. Player 124 likes that idea and they do it.

Elsewhere, Player 226 runs into the team of three blue players using their keys together. Despite using their keys, they have ended up back in the main maze. He chases them down. Meanwhile, Player 333 takes the key from the player they’ve just killed. They say they need another kill to earn their place in the next game. When they’re gone, Player 125 steps out of the door next to where they were. He finds Thanos’s necklace on the ground. He opens it and takes a pill.

The team of three are running. Player 222 slips on the stairs and twists her ankle. Player 120 stands in front of her to protect her from Player 226. He tells her to move. Or, he says, she can hand over the older woman instead. Player 120 tucks her keys into her top and holds up her fists. They begin to fight. She overpowers him and gets the knife, stabbing him dead. Meanwhile, while Player 100 is working with another player to share keys, they enter a room at the same time as a red player. Player 100 pushes his teammate forward and closes the door behind him, leaving him to be stabbed to death. He waits until the red player has gone and steals his dead teammate’s key to keep using.

Player 124 and 333 find another blue player to kill and stab him together. They take his key. Player 222 hears that 333 has made it through. She says he’ll be coming to help her. Elsewhere, Player 333 tells Player 124 he needs to find Player 222. He says he’ll help him find her. But, he says they should kill any blue players they find so that less red players get through. Then, they’ll get even more prize money. Gi-hun continues to search for Player 388 and misses him again. Player 388 is being chased by someone else and he manages to fight them off on the stairs, which breaks the player's knife, but he was stabbed in the leg. He pockets the knife.

Meanwhile, the trio find a room to hide in and they look at Player 222’s ankle which is swollen and red. Player 120 thinks it’s broken. She suggests they stay put and see how it goes, but Player 222 says she’ll wait alone. The mother offers to wait with her and they send Player 120 off on her own with the keys. There’s 15 minutes left. And then, Player 222’s water breaks.

Player 007 walks past a door and notices a bloody handprint on it. He finds a blue player cowering behind the door. The player starts to plead with him. And while Player 007 hesitates, the blue player launches at him and starts fighting. Player 203 comes in and stabs him to death, just as he’s about to kill Player 007. He stands on his glasses as he leaves Player 007 in the room.

Meanwhile, Player 222 is delivering her baby and she bites on the jacket to stay quiet. Player 044 continues to lead her followers, saying she can hear voices calling her to find the exit. When she uses her key to enter a room telling them it’s the way out, she immediately backs up and runs off leaving them behind. Player 124 and 333 jump out and start stabbing the players to death. Player 044 and 388 run into each other. He’s got his broken knife. She continues to run and finds Gi-hun. She says she just saw Player 388 with an injured leg just down the hall, so he should kill him instead. Gi-hun leaves to find him.

He follows a trail of blood on the floor from Player 388's stabbed leg. The women continue to help Player 222 have her baby, but there’s only 11 minutes left. Player 125 finds Player 044 and he says he’s looking for his friend that died at the hands of Player 124 to save her. She runs off and hides in a room. As she turns round, she finds a door labelled ‘Way Out’, but to open it she needs all three keys. She only has one. Player 007 continues to look for someone to kill, but he’s crying. Player 044 leaves her room looking for keys and uses fallen blue players blood to mark the arrows to guide her back to the exit.

Elsewhere, Player 100 is almost cornered by Players 124 and 333, but before they turn the corner he uses a dead player’s blood to smear on his face and lays on the floor. Player 124 stabs the body next to Player 100 and just as he’s about to stab him, too, Player 333 leads him away. Player 044 turns up and tries to steal his necklace, but realising he's actually alive, they team up. He has two keys. While she pretends she uses voices, she looks at the arrows in blood she’s left to guide the way.

Meanwhile, Player 222’s baby is born. A girl. Player 149 uses the knife in her hair clasp to cut the umbilical cord and wraps the baby in a jacket. A red player comes in and Player 120 grabs her knife to fight him. She overpowers him and stabs him to death. Another red player approaches, sees what’s happened and leaves. Then, she realises she’s found her way to the room with the exit. She uses her three keys and opens the door. Before she steps through, she heads back for the other two women and the baby. She’s been stabbed, but she limps back to tell them. But, as she stands there in the doorway, Player 333 stabs her to death. He enters the room and finds Player 222 and her baby sitting there. Player 124 tries to come over and see who's inside, but Player 333 closes the door and leaves.

Gi-hun is still following the trail of blood that Player 388 has left behind. The blood suddenly stops halfway up the stairs and Gi-hun turns around and heads back to the door. Player 388 is cowering behind. Meanwhile, the mother takes all three keys from Player 120’s body. She says they need to find the exit and it must be nearby. Elsewhere, Player 044 and Player 100 reach the way out with their three keys. They open the door together, but Player 100 pushes Player 044 back inside the game, taking one of the keys and shutting the door behind him. When she turns round Player 125 is there. He’s asking for the woman again, his friend that was killed.

Player 388 begs for his life to Gi-hun. He says he wasn’t a soldier and lied because he just wanted to team up so he had a chance to survive. Gi-hun tells him it’s his fault. He begs that he was going to bring the ammo back, but he couldn’t. Gi-hun grabs him and tells him he killed them all. As he begs, he grabs the broken knife from his pocket and starts to stab at Gi-hun.

Back with Player 149, Player 222 and her baby, they search for the way out and find it. There’s three minutes left. Player 125 continues to beg to Player 044 for his friend. She starts to insult him and he hallucinates that it’s Player 124 instead. To this, he stabs her to death. Then, he imagines it’s his friend that he killed and cowers into the corner. As the mother is using the keys to open the door, Player 007, her son, finds them. Elsewhere, Player 388 accuses Gi-hun of doing everything he’s done so far just to win the game himself. They continue to fight.

Player 007, her son, enters the room and tells his mother he’ll die if he doesn’t kill someone and tries to go for Player 222 holding her baby. Player 149, his mother, says instead to stab her and then he’ll go through and Player 222 and her baby can escape. Meanwhile, Player 388 runs to a door and opens it to the sheer drop again. Gi-hun finds him and they carry on fighting. Gi-hun strangles Player 388 to death. Player 007 continues to struggle with his mother and breaks free, running towards Player 222 before he sees the baby. He tells Player 222 he's sorry and goes to stab her, but his mother stabs him with the knife from her hair clasp before he can do it. The game ends.

Gi-hun sits on the floor and tells himself it’s all his fault. He holds the knife to his own chin, but the guards shoot it away and knock him out. Player 149 holds her son, Player 007, as he dies and he tells her he’s sorry. The guards come in and shoot him to death.

All episodes of Squid Game are available to stream now on Netflix.