It has been long enough now that most anyone who planned to watch the finale of Squid Game has probably watched. For those who still haven’t binged their way through the final six episodes of the three-season Netflix series, bookmark this review and come back since there are plenty of spoilers.
Squid Game was initially thought to be a single season, but after the South Korean series took Netflix by storm, breaking viewership records, it’s no surprise it returned. It took more than three years for the second season to premiere and a third and final season, which was filmed back-to-back with season two, was released six months later. It brought the story full circle, delivering heartfelt and tough messages along the way about class disparity, socioeconomic status, wealth, greed, and treatment of the less fortunate.
A Synopsis of Season 3 of Squid Game
Squid Game seasons two and three follow the same trajectory as season one, but with a new set of 456 players and a refreshed selection of childhood playground games to partake in. Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) had been living unhappily since winning the games, despite having more money than he knew what to do with. He was desperate to put an end to the games and the torture it put vulnerable people through. So, he set up an elaborate plan to do so with the help of a team. But when the plan failed, he was stuck on the island, forced to participate again.
He tries to plan a revolt from within, but that goes terribly wrong by the end of season two. The fallout for season three is that Gi-hun has become a shell of his former self. He has all but given up but also refuses to give up. He wants to prove to The Front Man/Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun) that people are, or at least can be, inherently good. And he wants to convince the other surviving players that they can be. But the greedy, selfish, awful people playing with him don’t make this easy, far outnumbering the good ones.
In the end, Gi-hun keeps making it through round after round, often by some stroke of luck or by the skin of his teeth, usually with unbelievable circumstances working in his favour. In the final game, he’s forced to make an impossible choice: save himself or Kim Jun-hee’s (Jo Yu-ri) baby who, in a twisted storyline, is forced to play when her mother dies.
With Gi-hun being a good and just person, he makes the right choice. But before he plummets to his death, he looks the VIPs right in the eyes through the monitors where he knows they are watching and declares that they, the players, are not horses. They are people. For the first time, the obnoxious Westerners are speechless, saying more than the show ever has in their awkward silence.
Squid Game Season 3 Review
While I wasn’t a fan of season two, feeling as though the series lost the sense of what it was supposed to be about with ridiculous characters like Choi Su-bong “Thanos” (Choi Seung-hyun) and storylines outside of the games that detracted from the primary message, season three brought everything back into focus.
If nothing else, the moral of the story in season three is that there are awful people in the world who would sell their souls, and the souls of everyone around them, for a quick buck. In fact, there are a lot of them. They’re usually those with nothing to lose, hence why the games are strategic in who they target to recruit. But not everyone in this category is the same. Not everyone who has lost everything is willing to sacrifice others for the sake of greed. This is clear in many of the early votes when those choosing to stop the games are almost as many as those insistent that they continue.
Gi-hun is the obvious poster person for the moral, kind-hearted, selfless person. But he was overshadowed this season by a few others. Cho Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon) is a stand-out, a former special forces solder who joined the games to pay for her gender-affirming surgery. Time and time again, she put herself on the line to protect others, right to her bitter end. Even when faced with the decision to save herself, she chose not to leave others behind. She’s the true hero of the season who showed not only that people can be inherently good, but often, it’s the people you fail to appreciate who surprise you the most.
While Jung-jae does a wonderful job, once again, of portraying Gi-hun, he fades to the background through most of the season, in a catatonic-like state, refusing to move, eat, even vote. He rarely speaks, choosing instead to deliver blank glares, as though he can’t find the words. Even his game-playing scenes, like during Hide ‘N Seek, have him channeling Michael Myers with a quiet, menacing presence instead of the rally cry he had in season two. He isn’t the same man anymore, but he’s insistent to stick to his guns and prove that goodness can prevail. Even if he’s the only one doing so. All it takes is one person, after all.
Various scenarios through the games will rip your heart out, including the tragic storyline between a mother and her son, those who choose to sacrifice themselves for others, and conversely, some who are willing to do deplorable things even when given the chance to make the right decision instead. People truly can be awful.
Transcending any of the individual characters, however, is the core lesson of the show, which more quietly bubbles to the surface following the second season’s focus on action and entertainment. Interestingly, it hits home most not with the players, but with the reactions of others. The fact that the VIPs have nothing to say when they watch Gi-hun plummet to his death to save the baby says more than any dialogue in the entire series.
The Front Man seemingly deciding to leave the games after witnessing Gi-hun’s selfless act was icing on that cake. Combined with Kang No-eul (Park Gyu-young) choosing not to die by suicide after witnessing this decision and being rewarded in more ways than one in the end, was beautifully presented for maximum impact. Sometimes, those who have lost everything can still make the right decisions when shown the way.
It was fitting that the series didn’t suggest a happy ending for all, that the games would cease to exist now that the facility has been burned to the ground, all the soldiers having evacuated to evade capture. As the surprise cameo appearance from Cate Blanchett in the final moments proves, the games will go on. For every Front Man who has an awakening, there’s another to take his place. (The moment was also likely a vehicle to promote the upcoming American spin-off of the series).
In the end, I was left feeling satisfied, appreciating even Gi-hun’s death. There really was no other fitting end than his demise, and he did so in the most heroic fashion. In his death, he changed the course of the game, and may have given those who were once part of it, whether soldiers or VIPs, a reason for pause. He accomplished the mission he set out to complete, even if some truly good people became collateral damage along the way. Player 456, eliminated.