Squid Game – K-drama Season 3 Episode 5 Recap & Review
Episode 5
Episode 5 of Squid Game Season 3 begins with No-eul entering the base via a vent. Gi-hun returns to the bunker and tries to kill the rest of the players, starting with Player 100. While In-ho watches, it cuts to a flashback of his game. Old Man aka Chairman Oh makes In-ho the same offer. And while he is shaken, In-ho kills the remaining 5 members. At present, Gi-hun stops after he hallucinates Sae-byeok.
Trouble is afoot for those on the sea. The pursuit team gets closer to 246 by tracking his boat. Jun-ho keeps searching for the island and In-ho finally radios him. He tells Jun-ho to stop or he will die. Jun-ho refuses.
No-eul sneaks into the Officer's room and makes him delete the digital records of 246. Before she can kill him, he reveals that there is a hard copy but only he and the Frontman have access to the archives. Once they are in the elevator, he attacks. They reach the floor but lose the gun in the elevator.
The Officer wonders if No-eul has feelings for 246. She reveals that she is doing it for his daughter. We learn that her daughter died in North Korea. The Officer reveals that he is partial to her not because of their shared hometown but because he too lost a loved one. He stabs her and lazily follows as she crawls. While he monologues, she reaches the elevator and shoots him with the abandoned gun.
The final game is Sky Squid Game with 3 rounds. The players need to push one or more alive players off a tower to move to the next round. Round 1 begins on a square tower. If they do not eliminate anyone within 15 minutes, everyone will be killed. Each tower has a button they need to press to start the timer and the round.
Unable to decide on which Red Team member to kill, the Blue Team agrees to be democratic and vote on their victims. But there is one problem – they need to separate Gi-hun and the baby, so they have 3 targets for all 3 rounds. Myung-gi suggests killing Min-su first to get it over with.
Min-su doesn't make it easy but Myung-gi takes out the pole in the middle of the tower and pushes him off. Min-su hallucinates Se-mi and apologises to her before falling to his death.
No-eul looks for 246's file in the archive and finally finds it.
The players move to the second tower. Gi-hun realises that he has the upper hand as he sets up base on the edge. If the Blue Team kills him and the child now, they will have to pick among themselves for the last round. As the team frets, the hyper 203 starts the timer and Round 2 begins. He insists that Gi-hun will pick his own life over the kid but the rest know that 203 is wrong. Frustrated, 203 gets violent. Myung-gi interjects with an idea.
On the sea, the pursuit team finds 246 and shoots at him. He shoots back but he soon runs out of bullets. Before they can kill him, Jun-ho finds them and kills the pursuit team.
Back to the game, the Blue Team plays Rock, Paper, Scissors and the loser tries to convince Gi-hun that they will draw lots on who to kill. All they need is for him to join them in the center of the pillar (where they plan to grab the child from him). If he refuses, Plan B is for the loser to grab the child while Myung-gi pushes off Gi-hun with the pole. Unsurprisingly, Gi-hun refuses to move and the loser attacks. But Myung-gi pushes off the loser.
Everyone is shocked and Myung-gi tries to convince Gi-hun that he is the child's father. The Blue Team thinks he is lying but Gi-hun recalls Myung-gi trying to help Jun-hee in the jump rope game. Seeing that Myung-gi has the pole and Gi-hun has the knife, the Blue Team suggests drawing lots for real. As the two hesitate, the team suddenly betrays their own member, Player 39 and breaks his leg. They offer to kill 39 in the next round but Gi-hun refuses, wanting to play fair.
Having had enough, 203 and another player attack him. After a scuffle, Gi-hun and Myung-gi kill them. Player 100 is nervous as he tries to agree to whatever Gi-hun wants. However, Myung-gi pushes him off, citing that the prized money has just increased.
Gi-hun doesn't look happy but it gets worse as 39 decides to kill himself. Gi-hun and Myung-gi try to stop him but he refuses to be anyone's pawn. He jumps off and the round ends. Only Gi-hun, Myung-gi and the baby remain at the end of Squid Game Season 3 Episode 5.
The Episode Review
It is always Myung-gi taking it too far, isn't it? With the crypto, with the Hide and Seek game and now with killing Player 100. If he hadn't been greedy, it wouldn't have come down to him, his kid, and Gi-hun. Great work, Myung-gi!
Squid Game Season 3 Episode 5 is a pretty good penultimate episode, otherwise too. No-eul finally goes head-to-head with the Officer and we learn a whole lot about her. Their dynamic is also explained as they not only know each other from before, but they have a closer bond due to their shared experiences of losing a loved one. Jun-ho makes some headway too and we can rejoice. It only took the poor guy two seasons, 12 episodes and a couple of years in the Squid Game world.
We do wish the show had left some more important characters for the final game. Killing Min-su and then the rest of the Blue Team did not pack the emotional punch as Season 1's penultimate episode. It also made Gi-hun and Myung-gi's survival predictable, as no way the final showdown would consist of inconsequential characters like Player 100.
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