Squid Game: The Saddest Moments That Made Us Cry!
Oct 28, 2026
Top Squid Game Most Emotional Moments Since
its release in mid-September 2021,
the dramatic thriller hit on Netflix, Squid Game,
about hundreds of cash-strapped contestants
risking their lives to play deadly children's games,
has since become a global phenomenon.
With its tense tone and high-stakes drama,
there were many gripping moments where you could do
nothing but grab a tissue as you totally empathize with the characters.
Here are some of the Top
Squid Game Most Emotional Moments.
10. Gi-hun's Daughter Says Goodbye
Despite being the main protagonist of the series, Gi-hun is no saint.
He's a compulsive gambler and a negligent father.
One of the most emotional relationships in Squid
Game is depicted early in the series,
with Gi-hun showing just how irresponsible he is as a father.
His daughter, Ga-young,
just wanted to spend time with her father as much as they could,
but it seems that he only disappoints,
even when she tries to hide her dismay.
She adores her father greatly,
and seeing her father be the way he often is,
is truly a heart-clencher.
Think about it, he's reminded by his mother that it's his
daughter's birthday and is given money
to take her to dinner and eat fried chicken,
but instead, he uses the money to go gambling.
And despite winning big and having well enough
to give his daughter a hearty meal and a decent gift,
he ends up losing it all only to give her
a mediocre dinner that Gayoung still appreciates
and gets her a lighter gun that he luckily
scrounges from the arcade instead.
So, when Gayoung's family decides to leave for the
United States and she says goodbye to her father
with an umbrella by the doorstep, holding back her
tears. It's a truly heartbreaking moment
that makes us cringe at the kind of father Gi-hun is.
9. Sang-woo's mother is hit with the inconvenient truth
The egotistical traitor we know
to be Cho Sang-woo was the pride of his hometown,
being the only one in his community
to enroll at Seoul National University,
graduating as top of his class
and eventually becoming an investment banker.
More importantly, Sang-woo is the pride of his mother,
whom we often see beam with joy
when speaking about her top-tier son.
Despite his intelligence and rational personality,
and sincerely caring for his mother,
he incurred heavy financial problems,
which is the entire reason why he joined the Squid Game. Apparently,
he had embezzled money from his clients
and lost it all in the stock market and futures,
leading to a debt of 6 million won.
He'd used his mother's shop and house as financial collateral,
with his actions being the cause
of his mother's financial ruin as well.
So, when the police showed up at his mother's shop
with a warrant for Sang-woo's arrest,
the face on Sang-woo's mother, played by actress Hye-jin Park,
showed all the disbelief
and shame that expressed her now shattered world.
8. Gi-hun gives his jacket to Oh Il-nam
Known as Player 001,
Oh Il-nam is the oldest and most frail competitor in the Squid Game.
While most people who've seen the show know him for who he truly is,
his depiction of an old man
suffering from a brain tumor
who's slowly losing control of his faculties still holds true.
During the game, we're shown instances where
his health rapidly deteriorates.
At one point, he wakes up in bed realizing that he
was covered in his own urine. Gi-hun realizes
this and offers his jacket
so the old man could keep his dignity in front of the other people,
despite the situation.
This moment not only shows how insensitive others can be to the
plights of the elderly but also demonstrates how,
despite his flaws, Gi-hun has respectable
qualities that Oh Il-nam himself acknowledges.
Number 7. Han Mi-nyeo and Jang Deok-soo fall together
Throughout the series,
we're introduced to characters who are often depicted to be
the kind of person you would least like
but can still demonstrate moments that you can
sympathize with. Two particular characters,
the loud-mouthed and turncoat Han Mi-nyeo
as well as the arrogant gangster Jang Deok-soo.
While both may have had some intimacy for their
own self-purposes, they also brought on each other's demise.
Deok-soo betrayed Mi-nyeo when
he left her out during another game,
leading Mi-nyeo to swear revenge against him. During the
glass bridge game, she found her opportunity
when she literally jumped onto Deok-soo, throwing them
both off the bridge. This was even foreshadowed during
the tug of war episode. During then,
it wasn't yet clear that it literally
meant leaning back to her own death.
Number 6. Sang-woo takes his own life.
We all know that Sang-woo is a selfish and manipulative man
who's willing to mislead
and use other people to gain any advantage in the game. He's killed
and allows others to die in order to inch closer
to winning all that cash for himself.
However, when there were two people left,
and he ended up being defeated,
Sang-woo found a chance to redeem himself by stabbing his own neck.
While some may have nothing but animosity towards Sang-woo,
his final sacrifice and the last words he uttered
reminding Gi-hun to take care of his mother
showed that, in the end, he still had some moral fortitude left in him.
Number 5. Gi-hun's mother died alone
Throughout the series,
viewers are provided the main perspective of how impactful the
Squid Game has been for each player, through the life of Gi-hun.
No matter how wretched her son
was at certain times, she still hoped that he would turn
his life around. One of the most gut-wrenching
scenes is when Gi-hun returns home to find
that his mother had passed away, alone and helpless in
their apartment. 4. Detective Hwang Joon-ho finds his brother
Police Detective Hwang Joon-ho is a key character throughout
the series, being the only entity of
rightful authority in the entire show.
He's the only one trying to take the game down,
investigating to a point that he goes undercover himself
not just to find those responsible but
to search for his own missing brother.
Even when he finds himself getting involved behind the game's
curtain, evading every risk to a point of escape,
the shocking revelation of who the person he's
searching for and the one he's been trying to stop were one
and the same. The fact that they
both shot at each other and how Hwang Joon-ho
seemingly falls over a cliff to his death
makes this a gripping and emotional rollercoaster packed
in a short series of scenarios.
3.
Sae-byeok is murdered One of the most endearing characters in the
entire series, crowd-favorite Kang Sae-byeok is mysterious
and reserved for all the right
reasons.
Despite the fact that she's a defector from North Korea,
even changing her own accent
to avoid the obvious, she's been risking
her life in order to reunite with her family
and take them across the border.
Despite her young age, she has endured so much,
and it's her own wits and willpower
that brought her so close to winning it all.
when she's actually taken out by Sang-woo after
getting severely injured during the glass bridge
round, it's a shock that shook everyone to the core.
2. Everything during the marble game
Squid Game 6 episode featured a marble game where
a player is tasked to pick a number of marbles,
place it in a closed fist,
while the opposite player had to guess the number of marbles on
whether it was odd or even.
Throughout the game, there were many instances that brought on heavy
emotions, from Jiyoung making the ultimate sacrifice
for a newfound friend to Oh Il-nam
seemingly saying goodbye to his gangbu.
But the most painful moment was Ali realizing
how he had just been tricked by Sang-woo.
As another standout character in the series,
the timid and humble Ali Abdul was an illegal immigrant
from Pakistan who came to South Korea
with his wife and child. Struggling as an outsider
in a demanding world, Ali is forced to play his
part in the Squid Game,
if only to provide for his wife and newborn baby. From the start of the
games, Ali played a pivotal role in the survival of our tiny gang.
He lifted Gi-hun by his shirt
during Red Light, Green Light
and was an important anchor during the tug-of-war,
and even within the confines of their situation,
he was able to develop friendships with other
people. The most notable bond he made, ironically,
also turned out to be his most treacherous one.
So, when Ali realizes that the marbles
in his pouch had been replaced to rocks,
our hearts collectively sank
because we all saw the trust Ali had placed on Sang-woo.
1. Gi-hun as a better man
At the end of Squid Game, the tone of the series becomes more somber,
encapsulating the struggle that Gi-hun has just gone through.
And while we witness him dye his hair red for some reason,
whether it's a symbolic move of
inner anger or an affinity towards undergoing his red light,
his actions show how he tries
to make amends and find redemption.
He takes Se-byeok's young brother out from the orphanage,
leaves his money with Sang-woo's mother,
and even tries to fly to the US to visit his daughter.
He's far detached from his former self,
but as we've seen, his story has not yet ended.
So what do you think about these top Squid Game most emotional moments?
Let us know in the comments below!

