Squid Game season three ending explained: who wins, who dies and who loses

Cosmopolitan

29-06-2025

The third and final season of Squid Game has hit our screens and we are seriously gagged at the drama, the twists, and, ofc, the deaths.
The Hunger Games-meets-Battle Royale Netflix show has given us so many jaw-dropping moments we're sad to say goodbye but, if the finale of the last episode is anything to go by, we may have more twisted games to sustain us at some point in future...
Anyway, before we look to the future, it's time to unpack the past: here is what went down in the finale of Squid Game season 3. Keep reading for your cheat sheet on who won, who lost and how the saga resolved itself...
The winner of Squid Game season 3 is...a baby?
Specifically, the baby is the child of Player 222: Kim Jun-hee, a player who is conned by her ex, Player 333, Lee Myung-gi, into buying into a cryptocurrency scam. It's revealed that she's pregnant with Myung-gi, baby and knew this going into the games, which she did in the hopes of winning a better life for herself and her baby.
After Jun-hee gives birth in episode 2, the baby enters into gameplay as it is revealed it must live or die according to the rules of the game. In a game of Jump Rope, with the baby successfully saved by Gi-hun for that round, Jun-hee jumps off the ledge, knowing that time is running out and deciding to accept her fate.
With Jun-hee out of the game, it's announced that her baby is taking her place as Player 222. When the final game is announced, Sky Squid Game, the other players are enraged and try to kill the baby first but she is protected by Gi-hun.
The number of players dwindle as Myung-gi joins Gi-hun in protecting the baby. But, when just Myung-gi, Gi-hun and the baby are left, Myung-gi (who, let us remind you, is the baby's father) attempts to kill the baby so that he can win the game. Gi-hun attacks Myung-gi, who falls to his death.
Due to the complicated rules of the game, which require you to press the button to officially start the button, Myung-gi's death doesn't count: amidst all the drama, no-one pressed the button.
Gi-hun then presses the button to start a new round and sacrifices himself so that the baby can live. Hwang In-ho, the Front Man, then takes the baby.
After a six month time jump, Hwang Jun-ho (the police officer who infiltrated the game to avenge his brother who he thinks has disappeared...but who actually is the Front Man) comes home to his flat to find the baby and a credit card loaded with all the money from the game.
The choice to have a baby win the game was, of course, unexpected. But the show's creator, Hwang Dong-hyuk, explains that is was a necessary creative decision.
"Ultimately, the baby represents the future generation,' he tells Tudum.
'I believe we also have the responsibility and duty to try everything that we can in our power to leave a better world for the future generation,' he continues. 'The baby coming out [as] the winner was in line with the meaning of Squid Game.'
As you may well remember, Gi-hun was the winner of Squid Game season 1, meaning that he is sitting on a pretty major fortune. But what happened to it?
In season 2, it was sitting on a bed in the Pink Motel, but then disappears. Season 3 gives us an answer as to where it ends up.
Front Man takes the cash, deposits it into a bank account and then flies to Los Angeles to meet with Gi-hun's daughter: giving her the money and informing her of her father's death.
When in Los Angeles, Front Man is driving downtown and hears the slap of ddakji tiles on the ground. When he looks up, he sees a well-dressed stranger playing the game with a distressed man, suggesting that there is now an LA recruiter enlisting American players to a form of the game.
The best bit? The recruiter is played by none other than Cate Blanchett.
'We thought having a woman as a recruiter would be more dramatic and intriguing,' says Hwang in an article for Tudum. 'And as for why Cate Blanchett, she's just the best, with unmatched charisma. Who doesn't love her? So we were very happy to have her appear. We needed someone who could dominate the screen with just one or two words, which is exactly what she did.'
Wowza, we didn't see that one coming!