On June 27, 2025, Netflix’s Squid Game took its last bow—and it wasn’t pulling any punches. Season three opens with the brutal aftermath of Gi-hun’s failed rebellion, forcing fans to watch as his best friend Jung-bae is murdered. The games might be ending, but the danger has never been deadlier.
This kickstarts the events of the first few episodes after hearing from other players that player 388, Kang Dae-ho, who was instructed to get the rest of the bullets for the guns back during season 2 during the rebellion scene, got scared last minute and did not deliver the bullets.

After finding this out, Gi-hun blamed the outcome and deaths all on Dae-ho, which resulted in many humorous scenes of GI-hun’s death staring Dae-ho before the next game.

In our opinion, it felt very out of character for Gi-hun to be acting like this towards Dae-ho, because during the start of the game, they became very good friends. However, it seemed as if the message they were trying to convey was how quickly people can turn on each other when they’re in survival mode.

Going into this season, we (and probably everyone else who was tuning in) knew that the majority of the characters’ deaths were inevitable. Not only because the whole premise of the show is based on death games, but because we knew at the end of the day, the Front Man and his guards were too powerful for the series to simply have some sort of happy ending in which we get to see our favorite characters survive.

As the show goes on, we see more games being played, but this time it is a bit different. Gi-hun has basically given up on trying to save the other players, both because of the rebellion and because, from the very start of season two, when he returns, the new players believed he only returned so that he could win more money.

The most memorable game we saw in the third season, which had every fan talking about, was the second episode, “The Starry Night”. In this episode, the game is a form of hide and seek. One team (the seekers) has to kill someone on the opposite team in order to pass, and that team (the hiders) has to avoid the seekers and find the exit of the arena to win.

We see familiar character group players 120 Hyun-ju, 149 Geum-ja, and 222 Jun-hee, who is still heavily pregnant at the time. We see the man who got her pregnant, player 333 Myung-gi, making multiple attempts to help Jun-hee throughout the show, but she refuses his help every time. However, during this specific game, he convinces Jun-hee to actually assist her in surviving the game, promising to protect her at all costs.

This promise came with consequences, both good and bad. Throughout the hide-and-seek game, we see a large number of characters die. Although many might say that this wasn’t the best idea to just kill off many of the beloved characters, we think the exact opposite.

The point of the episode and game is purely created to be emotional, as the second season had fans forming attachments to characters. This was perfect to set up a heartbreaking episode that has fans on the edge of their seats. Seeing the characters they loved die in the third season, therefore, caused a lot of commotion among viewers.

At one point in the game, Jun-hee twists her ankle while running with her group, which makes escaping the arena much harder for not just her but the others with her. They then decided to hide somewhere while Hyun-ju searched for the exit.

As they were hiding, the most important part of the entire episode is arguably when Jun-hee gives birth to her baby in the arena. The scene is very stressful, as she has to stay as quiet as possible, while Geum-ja helps deliver the baby and Hyun-ju keeps watch.

After witnessing multiple betrayals, such as Geum-ja killing her own son and beloved character Hyun-ju being stabbed by Myung-gi, the game finally commences.

After the events of the previous game, overtaken by the grief of murdering her son, Geum-ja takes her own life, leaving Jun-hee alone with her baby. Jun-hee and Gi-hun form an alliance for the next game, which is jump-rope, due to Jun-hee’s hindrance of having a baby and her injured ankle Gi-hun carries the baby across the bridge and reaches the other side.

More and more players cross the bridge while Jun-hee stays on the other side. Myungi-gi, Jun-hee’s ex and father of the child, comes up to her, trying to convince her to let him help her reach the other side. Jun-hee does not accept after the events of the “Starry Night game” with Myungi-gi murdering Hyun-ju effectively losing all of Jun-hee’s trust in Myungi-gi.

As the time ticks for the end of the game, Jun-hee asks Gi-hun to take care of her daughter before a very emotional scene of her jumping off the edge. This scene was very impactful. Jun-hee quickly became a very lovable character over the course of both seasons, and many were surprised that the show would kill off a previously pregnant character so quickly after her giving birth.

One of the most interesting characters is definitely Myung-gi, with how he reacts to Jun-hee’s death. He is an extremely flawed and complex character. During the duration of the games, it is shown how gradually Myungi-gi turns more into a shallow, greedy person, doing whatever it takes for the cash prize. After Jun-hee’s death, Myungi-gi fully loses control and quickly becomes a very hated character, highlighting how even though he is objectively attractive, he is an extremely greedy person who only cares about himself. Which is just an example of how this show’s characters are so well written, even the more hated ones.

Finally, we get to the very last game to decide the one winner of Squid Game. In this game, the remaining players are put onto a platform high above the ground. In order to get to the next round, the players have to push someone off of the platform, killing that person and moving the rest of the group to a new platform for the next round. It’s incredibly important that they press a button on the ground on each platform to signal they are beginning the round; otherwise, any person pushed off will not count.

At this point, when the game begins, Myung-gi, Gi-hun, and the baby are still alive, along with a few other extra players. Knowing that the Front Man and multiple VIP observers who have come from around the world are watching the game, Gi-hun is determined to ensure the baby survives, as the baby is now considered a player.

As the game progresses, we at first see characters we don’t know much about being pushed off the platforms, and survivors moving to the next rounds. Soon, we end up with three last players: Gi-hun, Myung-gi, and the baby.

It was interesting to see what Myung-gi would do, having to choose between his baby’s life or his own, but we weren’t surprised when he eventually chose himself when he realized he had to make this decision, and that there was no other way for the two of them to go home.

Nearing the end of the game, Myung-gi and Gi-hun fight for survival. After battling it out for a long time, we were happy to eventually see Myung-gi be the one to fall off the platform.

Then came the final round: Gi-hun and the baby.

The Front Man and VIPs watched with anticipation, just like viewers at home were. On one hand, it would be interesting to see Gi-hun win again, but at the same time, it didn’t seem likely that the baby would die. Either way, how it actually ended sparked a lot of controversy.

As Gi-hun knew people were watching, as if it were some sort of game of chess or a show, he stared directly at them.

He then said, “Humans are not horses. Humans are…” and fell to his death without finishing his sentence, sacrificing himself for the baby and leaving the observers with a powerful message.

This meant that Jun-hee’s baby was the winner of the game and all of the prize money.

Although this was unexpected and a shocking plot twist, the way the rest of the show wrapped up sort of tainted this twist.

We see Hwang Jun-ho, the police officer from the past two seasons who has been searching for his missing brother, finally find the island the games take place in ,and his brother, aka the Front Man and Hwang In-ho, is located.

We were excited to see how it would go down with Jun-ho finding out his brother is the Front Man and the games are run by him. Instead of any interesting twist, however, we were met with disappointment.

After three whole seasons of seeing Jun-ho desperately trying to find his brother, all that happened between his brother and him is seeing the Front Man holding the baby, being lowered on one of the platforms from the last game, and saying one word: “Why.”

It was incredibly disappointing and somewhat frustrating that all of that work and difficulty Jun-ho went through, going from island to island, all led up to a singular word.

Wrapping up the season, Jun-ho is shocked to find the baby, along with all the prize money, in his home. It seemed to us that his brother decided to let the winnings (and the “winner”) of the game go to Jun-ho as some sort of strategy, whether it be an apology or simply wanting to get rid of everything.

Finally, there is a time jump, and we are taken to California. The Front Man is driving in his car when he notices something strange. He lowers his window and sees a woman playing ddakji (a traditional children’s game in Korea) with a man in an alley, which immediately tells us one thing: Squid Game will continue in America.

Although it looked like it was just a part of the show, it was confirmed soon after that there would actually be an American version of Squid Game coming out on Netflix at some point in the future.

We think, now that the original version is over, Squid Game is just being milked. An American version isn’t necessary in any way, and in fact would take away from the “magic” of the original show.

Having an American version of the show just feels like a cheap cash grab, taking the life and charm of the original show. We also have very little hope for this American version because the VIP actors in season 3 were not very good and added practically nothing to the story.

All in all, Season 3 was definitely Squid Game’s weakest season. The beginning of the season was quite promising, having a good mix of intense and sentimental scenes, but the ending was very disappointing and felt soulless compared to the previous seasons.