Netflix's new hit "Squid Game" sets up a fascinating mystery. The Korean drama (opens in a new tab) follows a deadly game in which players compete in multiple rounds of a children's game for a chance to win 45.6 billion won (about $38 million) in prize money. Players who are eliminated are immediately executed in a brutal show of complete secrecy in modern-day Korea. As we watch the players - gambler Ki-Hoon, disgraced banker Sang-Woo (opens in new tab), and North Korean refugee Saebyeok - we gradually come to understand the conspiracy behind the "game" that turns bloody violence into entertainment.

By the end of the series, we get both a winner and an explanation of the game, with a global social context mixed in with the big twist. If you've watched the show all the way through and feel like you might have missed something, here's an explanation of what happened in the season one finale of Squid Game. (Opens in a new tab)

The finale begins with Gihoon and Sang Woo tossing the coin for the final game. Gi-hoon is bloodthirsty after learning that Sang-woo killed Saebyeok (may the Queen rest in peace) in the last episode. The frontman explains to the VIPs that the squid game was the most physical and violent game among Korean children, and true to his description, the former childhood friends fight to the death with steak knives in the pouring rain.

Eventually, Gihoon gets the upper hand and holds Sang-woo to the ground, knife in hand. However, angered, he does not kill his former friend. Instead, he heads for the finish line with an attendant ready to shoot Sang-woo to death if he wins. Gihoon realizes this and instead of letting Sang-woo die, he chooses to stop the game and give him the money. However, Sang-woo stabs himself at the last moment, letting Gi-hoon accept the prize money and asking Gi-hoon to save his mother.

Completely devastated, Gi-Hoon is dropped off in Seoul with the debit card containing the prize money. On the ride home, he talks to the front man. The game master tells him to forget about the game and says, "You bet on the horse; you bet on the man. Same here, but we bet on people. You are our horses." On his way back home, Gihoon meets Sang-woo's worried mother and learns that she has died at home.

A year later, a bearded Gihoon is riding the subway. A meeting with a bank executive reveals that Gihoon has spent very little of his winnings. The reason for this is not explained much, but we see him demand 10,000 won (about $8) from the bank executive, which he spends on beer and flowers for his stall. It seems to be a decision made out of grief and the trauma he has yet to process from the game.

In the style of the spooky squid game, the flowers Gihoon buys from the woman have the game's business card on them, and he is invited to a suitable high-rise building that night. When he gets there, he discovers Player 001 (real name Oh Il-nam). He was lying in a hospital bed hooked up to an oxygen inhaler.

Il Nam turns out to be mega-rich, but his explanation is that he makes his living by lending money. Everything he said at the game was true, including his name and brain tumor, but he joined the game after years of spectating as a VIP. He was there when the games were founded, out of boredom of the rich. He attended the games not just to spectate, but because he wanted to experience the real excitement before he died.

Even on his deathbed, Ilnam called Gihoon to another game. He points out a window of a high-rise building to a man on the street who is lying drunk in the snow. He expressed his opinion as to whether anyone would help this man and revealed his true nature by calling him a "lousy, stinking, drunken, trashy man." "Meanwhile, Gihoon is clearly furious and asks Il-nam why he is alive and no one else is. Il-nam doesn't care, and offers a bet to see if anyone will help this man before midnight.

Gihoon offers to bet anything on the drunk's life. He watches intently throughout Il-nam's confession to see if anyone will help him. Il-nam asks if he can trust that Gihoon is a good man after all the games he's been through (a fair question), but Gihoon still wants to believe in humanity. At the last moment, several policemen help the man. Gihoon sees them, but Ilnam does not. He dies with nothing to counteract his dark beliefs (though it is doubtful that a single act of kindness will change anything).

While fans are obsessed with many of the show's moments (the red light, the green light puppet, the marble game, Gihoon's final transformation), the end reveal has received a mixed reaction on Twitter, as viewers who wept over Il Nam learned that he was not just a VIP, but one of the founders of the game obtained.

An evening with Ilnam, being briefed about the game and regaining faith in humanity, changes Gihoon. He cuts his beard, gives his hair a K-pop idol look, and visits Saebyeok's brother at the orphanage. While Gi-hoon goes to see his daughter in America, he leaves the child with Sang-woo's mother and gives her half of his winnings. This allows him to keep his promise to Saebyeok and Sang-woo.

On his way to the airport, while talking on the phone with his daughter, he meets a salesman (hello, Gong Yoo. He takes the game card and tells her that she must call him just before boarding the plane (literally on the jet bridge) to finish the game. The voice on the phone tells him to just get on the plane. He walks away.

Gihoon seems determined to take matters into his own hands and end the secret multinational game. The police didn't believe him at first, and the only cop who knew the truth, Hwang Joon-ho, is dead (or is he?). In any case, the open ending paved the way for a second season and turned the story into a quest to end the "game" altogether.