The 201 remaining survivors of the first game, shaken by the revelation that “elimination” from these children’s games actually means “death” has sent them into a frenzy. Everyone wants to quit the games and leave, begging the guards to release them. The guards remind them that they signed a contract stating that refusing to participate will get them killed. Sang-woo points out The third clause of the contract, which states that if a majority of players refuse to play, the games will be canceled, but they will lose the chance of getting the prize.
The decision is made to hold a vote, pressing a circle button to continue, or pressing the x button to quit. But the staffers of the Squid Game know what they’re doing, and as they promised early on, they fill up the piggy bank with the first round of money, resulting in 25 billion won. They reveal that each contestant is worth 100 million won, and that the total prize pot will be 45.6 billion won.
Gi-hun is the first to vote, and votes not to continue. So do many others. The vote remains neck-and-neck all throughout, but eventually, Sang-woo and other contestants willing to give the games a try, push the positive votes into the lead. The counter-argument to leaving is that their lives outside of the game aren’t going to improve. At least here, they have a chance to improve their lives. It’s player 001, the old man with the brain tumor, who gets to cast the deciding vote, breaking a 100-100 tie, selecting to quit the game.
With that, everyone is deposited back to their lives, with the promise that if a majority of people want to continue the games after a few days, the games will be restarted. Gi-hun is dumped with the pickpocket who stole his money, which hardly seems like a coincidence. Sang-woo, who is with 199, the player who saved Gi-hun in the first game, charges his phone to discover a torrent of messages from the authorities that crack a very narrow window into his personal issues. But he’s still willing to pay for 199’s food and bus travel home.
Tropes appearing in "Hell":
- Morton's Fork: The players can vote to Stay or Leave. If they stay, they risk being killed in the games if they fail them, but if they leave, their lives will continue to be miserable and risk having a slow death by loansharks and poverty. Unsurprisingly, the great majority of people who vote to leave the game returns.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Due to his habit of stealing money from her, Gi-hun's mother can't pay to take care of her diabetes, refusing an operation that could save her life. This drives Gi-hun into returning to the deadly games.
- Police Are Useless: After returning from the first game, Gi-hun immediately goes to a police station to tell them about what he's been through, but absolutely nobody believes his story because of how ridiculous it all sounds. When Gi-hun provides them with the calling card with a phone number he used to contact the game organizers, it turns out the organizers also account for this as well and connected it to a random person's number instead, discrediting Gi-hun's story even further.
- Averted with detective Jun-ho, who believes his story and decides to infiltrate the games to investigate what happened to his missing brother after remembering him receiving the same card before dissapearing.
