History Recap / SquidGameS1E5AFairWorld

* TallPoppySyndrome: Gi-hun acknowledges that Deok-su is the strongest player there - which means that the murderous thugs he's surrounded himself with are very likely to stab him in the back, since they can't beat him fairly. Deok-su is supremely unnerved by this, calls off the night's riot out of paranoia, and can't fall asleep afterward.

* WhamShot: While investigating, Jun-ho uncovers collections of files with one reading "LIST OF PLAYERS, 1988" on the cover. Jun-ho then comes across a list of winners - with only one player per year, and with his brother, Hwang In-ho, as the winner of 2015.

* FairPlayVillain: The Front Man is ''not'' happy when he discovers the organ harvesters in his staff were bribing Player 111 with foreknowledge of coming games in exchange for his cooperation. He couldn't care less about their side-hustle, but providing a player with an unfair advantage is intolerable and punishable by death -- of both the staff involved and the player.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: While Jun-ho manages to infiltrate the facility with the staff's face-concealing mask and voice changer, he not only has no idea how things work on the inside (such as how he only speaks when given permission), but ends up being found out because he can't remember something that the actual #29 did.

After utilizing Sang-woo's Plan B, Gi-hun's team win their tug-of-war match, but most of them are unnerved at having to kill the opposing team. Expecting another riot, Gi-hun's team builds a barricade, which Deok-su mocks until Gi-hun turns the tables by pointing out to Deok-su that he shouldn't fully trust his teammates, all of whom have similar criminal histories. That night, Gi-hun's teammates take turns on watch, but Deok-su's team does not attack. It is then that Player 001 catches a delirious fever.

Meanwhile, Jun-ho learns about the black market organ harvesting operation the other guards are running with Player 111 He's expected to help deliver the product with another guard. As they get ready to swim out off the island to meet with their clients, Jun-ho's partner reveals he knows Jun-ho is not a real guard and a confrontation ensues, with Jun-ho killing the other guard. Meanwhile, the rest of the operation comes to a crashing end when the Front Man catches them. The Front Man executes the remaining members of the conspiracy for giving a player an unfair advantage and kills Player 111 as well. Upon seeing the dead guard, he calls for a facility-wide manhunt for Jun-ho. Jun-ho avoids detection and gets into the Front Man's living quarters. He finds an office with an archive of records of the games going as far back as 1988, and that his brother, Hwang In-ho, was the winner in 2015.

* AdultFear: Jun-ho fears that his big brother was cut up like sashimi with his eyes gouged out, after the red light green light game, with his organs donated. The staff he holds at gunpoint tearfully tells him that it wasn't a guy, it was a woman.

-->''"He's still here somewhere. Find him."''

* FreezeFrameBonus: Aside from some additional shots of Il-nam clearly not cuffed to the rope, there's also a shot of a member of the opposing team ''breaking their shoe'' after they fall down. Said member is thrashing on the floor struggling to catch his footing while his naked foot is visible, with the destroyed shoe on the ground.

* FairPlayVillain: The Front Man ''not'' happy when he discovers the organ harvesters in his staff were bribing Player 111 with foreknowledge of coming games in exchange for his cooperation. He couldn't care less about their side-hustle, but providing a player with an unfair advantage is intolerable and punishable by death -- of both the staff involved and the player.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: While Jun-ho manages to infiltrate the facility with the staff's face-concealing mask and voice changer, he not only has no idea how things work on the inside(such as how he only speaks when given permission), but ends up being found out because he can't remember something that the actual #29 did.

* FairPlayVillain: The Front Man takes it very poorly when he discovers the organ harvesters in his staff were bribing Player 111 with foreknowledge of coming games in exchange for his cooperation. He couldn't care less about their side-hustle, but providing a player with an unfair advantage is intolerable and punishable by death -- of both the staff involved and the player.

Gi-hun's team win their tug of war match using Player 001 and Sang-woo's strategies, but most of them are unnerved at having to kill the opposing team. Expecting another riot, Gi-hun's team builds a barricade, which Deok-su mocks until Gi-hun points out that Deok-su's teammates have to turn on him sooner or later. That night Gi-hun's teammates take turns on watch, but Deok-su's team does not attack. However player 1 catches a delirious fever. Jun-ho learns about the conspiracy with Player 111 for black market organ harvesting, but the conspiracy ends when the Front Man catches them. The Front Man executes the remaining members of the conspiracy, including Player 111, and has a facility-wide manhunt for Jun-ho. Jun-ho breaks into the Front Man's office and learns that the game has been running for over 30 years, and that his brother, Hwang In-ho, was the winner in 2015.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Deok-su feels so comfortable with his group of fellow thugs that he doesn't consider a gaping hole in his security until Gi-hun points it out to him: his men really don't ''trust'' him, they just know he's the strongest and are using that--and that same strength also makes him huge competition. If a fight were to break out, getting rid of Deok-su would probably be someone's priority. Deok-su is so rattled by this realization he doesn't go through with an attack after all.

* ItIsDehumanizing: Utilized in the English dub and subtitles. During the organ harvesting subplot, the guards talk about a "zombie" who turned out to be NotQuiteDead and woke up halfway through the harvesting. Korean doesn't really use gendered pronouns, but the English language versions chose to use "it" to refer to the zombie. This word choice does double duty in showing us just how little the guards care about the players and hiding from the audience and Jun-ho that the zombie in question is not Jun-ho's brother, like he believed based off a mention that the zombie only had one kidney, but an unnamed woman.

* WhamShot: While investigating, Jun-ho uncovers collections of files with one reading "LIST OF PLAYERS, 1999" on the cover. Jun-ho then comes across a list of winners - with only one player per year, and with his brother, Hwang In-ho, as the winner of 2015.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutfit: While Jun-ho manages to infiltrate the facility with the staff's face-concealing mask and voice changer, he not only has no idea how things work on the inside(such as how he only speaks when given permission), but ends up being found out because he can't remember something that the actual #29 did.

* BackAlleyDoctor: What player 111 assumes as part of an organ harvesting side-hustle with some of the staff. Also revealed that he once killed a patient, which probably has something to do with why he ended up in the games in the first place.

* BreakTheHaughty: Deok-su is confident that his team will kill Gi-hun's that night and walks up to him to gloat about it. Gi-hun points out that his "team" is really just a group of back-stabbing thugs who would [[NoHonorAmongThieves betray each other at the drop of a hat]]--''especially'' their supposed leader, who as the strongest player poses the biggest threat to them. Deok-su clearly had not considered this and becomes incredibly paranoid and distrustful of his associates.

* OrderliesAreCreeps: The staff members are creepy enough as it is, but it turns out the ones in cahoots with player 111 also took turns raping the not-quite-a-corpse of one of the eliminated women players.