Plot: A failed rebellion, the death of a friend, and a secret betrayal. Picking up in the aftermath of Season 2’s bloody cliffhanger, the third and final season of Netflix’s most popular series finds Gi-hun, a.k.a. Player 456, at his lowest point yet. But the Squid Game stops for no one, so Gi-hun will be forced to make some important choices in the face of overwhelming despair as he and the surviving players are thrust into deadlier games that test everyone’s resolve. With each round, their choices lead to increasingly grave consequences. Meanwhile, In-ho resumes his role as Front Man to welcome the mysterious VIPs, and his brother Jun-ho continues his search for the elusive island, unaware there’s a traitor in their midst. Will Gi-hun make the right decisions, or will Front Man finally break his spirit?
Review: Four years after Squid Game premiered and became an instant pop culture hit, the third and final season is premiering to wrap up the story for good. More of the story’s second half started in season two than as a standalone chapter. Squid Game 3 is a satisfying story ending that is more intense than the previous seasons combined. Plenty of twists and surprises in these final six episodes will have audiences bingeing the final season that answers lingering questions about the various characters and their fates while leaving the door open for further forays into the dystopian life-or-death competition. The series continues to present horrifying games with exponentially deadly stakes while looking at the human beings on stage and those behind the scenes pulling the strings.
At the end of Squid Game 2, Player 456/Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) led a failed revolt against the Pink Guards to try and end the games, resulting in several players’ deaths. As Squid Game 3 begins, 456 must witness the fallout of his plan and the repercussions for those still alive. The games do not stop, and they become even more complex as teased in the trailers for the new season. While you can see glimpses of what is in store for the surviving contestants, you are unprepared for who will live and who will die. One of the strongest elements of Squid Game has always been the lack of safety for any particular characters, and this season is no different. Each of the remaining games claims the lives of fan favorites and villains, but you will not see many twists coming.
Squid Game 3 also continues the additional story arcs outside of the players, as we follow Kang No-eul (Park Gyu-young) as she poses as a guard to try and rescue Park Gyeong-seok/246 (Lee Jin-wook), as well as Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) as he tries to find the island so that he can confront his brother, Hwang In-ho/The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun). After the intriguing undercover role from In-ho in Squid Game 2, we continue to see how this latest competition and the interactions between Gi-hun and The Front Man impact how this season progresses. We also see what becomes of the relationship between the pregnant Kim Jun-hee/222 (Jo Yu-ri) and the baby’s father, Lee Myung-gi/333 (Im Si-wan). There are also all the other players we learned in the second season, whose fates will ultimately be decided in games unlike any prior seasons. The only certainty you will know about Squid Game 3 is that more characters will die than survive, the question being how it will happen.
If you are a fan of K-drama series, of which Squid Game broke open the floodgates, you will know there is an element of melodrama regardless of genre. Squid Game 2 had a lot of emotional moments that pulled me out of the drama, but Squid Game 3 keeps the tension high and the thrills at peak volume. Rather than hit us over the head with humor or sentimentality, it is very natural for the progress of these six chapters. My issue with this third season comes from the split narrative focused outside of the players themselves. With a limited number of episodes to work with, each of which clocks in at just about a full hour, following Kang No-eul as well as Hwang Jun-ho negatively impacts the momentum and will likely appease viewers in very different ways once they reach the end of the final episode. I enjoyed the main narrative, which focused on Gi-hun and the players more than anything else.
While the marketing for this season is heavily focused on this being the “final game”, that does not necessarily mean that Squid Game 3 is the franchise’s end. Without divulging any spoilers, I can say that Gi-hun’s arc, which began in the first series, gets a conclusion at the end of Squid Game 3, but calling this the end would be a mistake. There are resolved plot threads and others left open to be explored in future seasons or spin-offs, something series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has teased as a possibility. David Fincher has been rumored to be taking on an English-language Squid Game, which would likely fall within the same shared universe as this series, but we have yet to receive formal confirmation. Plenty of treats, teases, and clues in Squid Game 3 will undoubtedly lead fans to discuss what will come next, but you will need to watch to the very end of Squid Game 3 to find out what that might be.
Squid Game 3 plays out in a way that brings the story started in the second season to a close and works as a bookend to the first season. I definitely enjoyed Squid Game 3 more than Squid Game 2, but both pale compared to the now classic first season. These sequel seasons try to raise the stakes in scope and the complexity of the games the players are forced to compete in, but neither manages to replicate what made the first season so good. I am intrigued to see where Squid Game can go outside the Korean peninsula, which I hope incorporates characters still alive at the end of this season. Fans of Squid Game will enjoy this final competition, but I am glad to put this story aside and see what could be next.
Squid Game 3 is now streaming on Netflix.
