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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Squid Game' Season 3 Ending Explained
'Squid Game' Season 3 Ending Explained originally appeared on Parade. WARNING! This article spoils the events of Season 3, now available for streaming on Netflix. Please do not read further if you do not intend to know what happens in Season 3 After last year's excruciating cliffhanger, Squid Game returned for its third and final season on June 27. And with it, it brought three more life-or-death games and another winner to take home an astounding amount of money, as well as plenty of blood, gore and violence that made the Korean series a massive hit for Netflix when it first debuted. Season 3 was not afraid to roll out the body count, with many players losing their lives over the course of the final six episodes. And it all came to one massive close, with a possible opening for more of the show to everything to know about the ending of Squid Game Season 3. 🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 Squid Game Final Season Ending Explained The final game The final episode, "Humans Are...," opened with the three remaining players left in the game: Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), Myung-gi (Im Si-wan) and, stunningly, the latter's baby. That's because Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri) had given birth to their child while in the games, before losing her life the next day. But, heeding her final words to stay away from her and her baby, Myung-gi revealed in the finale that he wanted to leave Gi-hun stranded, then kill the baby to make sure he walked away with the money. Luckily, Gi-hun went full Tom Cruise and jumped over to the last tower, fighting him. In the tussle, both men went over the edge, hanging on by a thread. And karma ultimately came for Myung-gi, as his lifeline tore, sending him plummeting to his death. Gi-hun pulled himself back up, but the carnage was not done. The button had not been pressed yet, meaning at least one of the two remaining players had to die for the game to end. All of the VIPs watching believed Gi-hun would simply kill the child, making him the first-ever two-time winner of the games. But they didn't know the real reason he had thrown himself back in the fray. Turning his back on the oligarchs, he placed the baby down before speaking out loud (most likely to his nemesis, the Front Man). 'We are not horses," he said. "We are humans. Humans are…" And with that, he threw himself off the tower. At long last, Player 456 was no more. And Player 222, a baby who was less than three days old and had inherited her mother's number, had won the game. Destroying the island While lots of drama was happening in the last game, plenty was also happening elsewhere on the island. No-eul (Park Gyu-young) had literally clawed her way back into headquarters, looking to take down her boss, as well as wipe the record of Gyeong-seok (Lee Jin-wook), whom she helped escape the games. In the process, she discovered the file room, containing the records of every player and employee in the games' history. There, she tearfully discovered that, according to her file, her daughter had passed away in North Korea. As No-eul sits down, preparing to end her life, she hears a baby cry. Upon seeing the new child in the games, she relents, deciding to leave the island. And she has an easy out to do so, considering how things come to an end. After a two-year search filled with loan sharks and treachery, Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) at long last succeeded in his mission. He found the island that he visited back in Season 1, and was looking to reunite with his brother, In-ho (Lee Byung-hun). However, upon infiltrating HQ, he found he was too late. After finding out Jun-ho had alerted the Coast Guard to their location, In-ho set the island to self-destruct and took off with the baby in tow. All Jun-ho could do was see his brother from afar, lamenting, "Why did you do it?" The entire setting for these depraved games is destroyed, though everyone is able to get out just in time. Related: Six months later We then pick things up half a year later across multiple continents. Here are the major beats from stopping in with all of the characters who survived: –Gyeong-seok indeed made it off the island, and is back to painting caricatures in the theme park. Not only that, his sick daughter, for whom he entered the games in the first place, has happily survived. –No-eul received a call that, despite what she found in the file, there is a chance that her daughter is still alive. She ended the series by going to the airport, flying off to China to go and find her. –Woo-seok (Jeon Seok-ho), after getting arrested and imprisoned for breaking into Captain Park's (Oh Dal-su) house, got out of jail. Feeling "lost," the moneylender was looking to take up the hotel that Gi-hun bought in Season 2 to help surveil (and practice shooting) the masked men. –After picking up Woo-seok from prison, Jun-ho came home to find quite a present from his brother. On his kitchen table was the baby, still wrapped up in his mother's tracksuit. And, as the technical winner of the games, that means she also came with a debit card to an account with 45.6 billion won. It is assumed that Jun-ho would raise this child as his own, with a life-changing amount of money in tow. –In-ho himself, meanwhile, was over in Los Angeles. He visited Gi-hun's estranged daughter, informing her that her father had died. He then gives her his belongings: His 456 track suit, as well as her own card to his winnings. While Jun-ho and Woo-seok speculated as to who took Gi-hun's money from the hotel, it's now clear that In-ho did so to carry on his legacy. Let the games continue For all intents and purposes, it seems that the version of Squid Game we know is done. Conceived with only three seasons in mind, blowing up the island seemed to be a firm punctuation mark at the end of a four-year sentence, destroying the games forevermore. Or should we Korean version of the games. That's because, in the show's final scene, as In-ho is stopped in traffic, he hears a familiar sound: The *smack* of a ddakji envelope. As he looks out, he sees another recruiter (Cate Blanchett) is yet again engaging in a game with a down-on-his-luck man in an alley. She looks back on him and smiles, and he does the same before pulling away. Talks of an English-langugage version of Squid Game have certainly been out there, with David Fincher at one point attached to the project. And it's unknown if this ending officially confirms if one is on the way. However, even on the surface, it shows there are multiple versions of the games, whether simultaneously running or with an American version having taken up the mantle after the Korean version was destroyed. Despite the happy endings for many characters, it's a sign that, try as you might, the games will still be on.'Squid Game' Season 3 Ending Explained first appeared on Parade on Jun 27, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 27, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword
Malay Mail
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
Of ‘Squid Game' and family trauma
JULY 7 — Note: There are no spoilers ahead. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the real appeal of the Korean mega-series Squid Game (Season 2 was released earlier this year and the final season just dropped last week) is not the fact that contestants are gambling their lives via children's games; it's the fact that their deadly participation in said contests refracts the trauma and breakdown in modern family life. Freudian-inclined philosophers like Slavoj Žižek, Richard Boothby, and Alenka Zupancic have argued that popular media serves as a cultural mechanism for registering and working through complex emotions and societal tensions. As such, shows like Squid Game — and in fact almost every major movie or TV series — may be offering audiences a way of 'processing' frustration, pain and tragedy in the family by way of entertainment and fantasy. Consider how commonplace are the troubles in the family with regards to the show's main characters. As such, shows like Squid Game — and in fact almost every major movie or TV series — may be offering audiences a way of 'processing' frustration, pain and tragedy in the family by way of entertainment and fantasy. From the first season, we learnt that the chief protagonist, Gi-Hun, is a degenerate gambler who lives with his mum after being estranged from his wife. He loves his daughter deeply but is close to losing her as his ex-wife and her husband plan to migrate to the States, thus taking the daughter away from him. Although scared shitless about everyone dying from the first game, Gi-Hun continues playing after learning about his mum's growing health problems and the prospect of never seeing his daughter again. In Season 2, the family nightmares continue. No-Eul is a North Korean defector traumatised by the loss of her husband and, especially, her daughter. Thus, as one of the 'workers' on the island where the games are played, she risks her life to help one of the participants with a cancer-stricken child, too. Probably the most difficult situation parent-wise was when Geum-Ja joined the games without the knowledge of her son, Yong-Sik, because she wanted to support or even save him given how his massive debts spurred him to sign up to play as well. Finally, an arc which is brought forward from the first season, policeman Jun-Ho's pursuit of his long-lost brother In-Ho (the 'Front Man' of the games). When I reflected on my experience of the series, I noticed that the most moving parts for me were precisely these moments of family precariousness. There are many people in our own communities going through similar struggles and problems; to view such difficulties presented and played on the screen cannot help but add that extra all-critical 'spark' to such films. Any parent with a child struggling with poor health can easily relate to a character dangerously breaking rules to help another sick child. Likewise, we all can relate to the trauma of having intensely 'murderous' feelings towards our siblings whilst at the very same time being obsessed with their well-being. It's almost as if the horror of the Games mirrored the breakdown in the characters' family relations. Freud 102 I suppose we'll never understand why the film industry requires broken families for successful movies. But perhaps Freudian theory can help. Sigmund Freud suggested that we're all made up of a type of supra-biological DNA. As children, everybody had to negotiate our entrance into the world of law, order and norms. This transition, from childlike Paradise to an adult's world of rules 'screwed us up' psychically. We are all infected with a loss necessitated from 'growing up', it's a wound that never leaves us, a condition through which we experience the world. Now guess who are the first individuals we need to interact with in relation to this 'primordial' loss? Bingo. Our loved ones, the very first people we know aka family. So anything which reminds us of this loss and the people inextricably linked to it will 100 per cent grab our attention. Ditto, superhero movies and awesome TV shows about people getting shot because they can't stand still when the giant doll says Stop. There is something about family trauma and brokenness which 'endorses' a show's plot, granting it a kind of validity and 'urgency' which few other issues can provide. Even movies like Armageddon, Deep Impact and 2012 needed the frame of broken families to 'make sense' of global catastrophe; it's as if the world coming to an end just wasn't enough to spur the plot along! Does this all make sense? I think it's certainly worth reflecting on. Whatever the case, we're a long way from A Little House On The Prairie, aren't we? * This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
Korea Herald
02-07-2025
- Sport
- Korea Herald
Ex-KBO manager Lee Kwang-hwan dies at 77
Lee Kwang-hwan, who managed the LG Twins to the 1994 Korean Series title with a revolutionary use of his pitching staff, died Wednesday at age 77. Lee had been receiving treatment for lung issues on the southern island of Jeju in recent weeks. Lee managed four franchises for 11 seasons total in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), including two stints with the Twins. In 1994, he led the Seoul-based club to their second Korean Series championship. Lee was also the inaugural manager of the Woori (currently Kiwoom) Heroes in 2008, after they had taken the place of the cash-strapped Hyundai Unicorns. Lee lasted just one season there and it ended up being his final KBO managerial job. Lee had 608 wins as manager, the 11th-highest total in league history. After serving as a hitting coach for the OB (currently Doosan) Bears from 1982 to 1985, Lee received coaching training overseas, first with the Saitama Seibu Lions in 1986 and then with the St. Louis Cardinals in Major League Baseball in 1987. He returned to South Korea to begin his managerial career with the Bears in 1989. Lee is largely credited with installing a starting rotation system and specializing roles for relief pitchers during his first tour of duty with the Twins in the mid-1990s. While other KBO teams were running their pitchers into the ground, with a starter one day coming out of the bullpen the next day, Lee's Twins had starters go every five days. In 1995, Lee opened a baseball museum on Jeju and donated about 3,000 pieces of baseball memorabilia from his personal collection. Lee served as head of the KBO's player development committee from 2006 to 2007, and again from 2013 to 2019. He also helped nurture future coaches as the director of the KBO Baseball Academy from 2010 to 2015. In his last public appearance, Lee threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Twins' season-opening game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium on March 22 this year. All five games for Wednesday had fans and players observe a moment of silence in Lee's honor before their start. Players and coaches lined up outside their dugouts and took off their caps before bowing their heads for a few seconds, while fans in the stands did the same, as stadium scoreboards displayed Lee's photos from his managerial days. (Yonhap)
The Guardian
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Squid Game season three breaks Netflix viewership record
The third and final season of hit Korean series Squid Game has broken records to achieve the biggest ever TV launch for Netflix. Over its first three days, there have been over 60.1m views, a new high for the streamer with over 368.4m hours viewed. The second season launched with 68m views but over a four-day period last December. It has already become the ninth biggest non-English language season ever with the first and second seasons occupying the top two slots. Reviews have been mixed to positive with the Guardian's Rebecca Nicholson calling it 'nowhere near as pointed as it was' in previous seasons. While this has been called the final season, David Fincher has been rumoured to be developing an English language remake for the streamer. The director has worked with Netflix before on political drama series House of Cards, film industry biopic Mank and Michael Fassbender action thriller The Killer. Earlier this year, it was announced that he would work with them once again to direct a sequel to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood based on a script by Quentin Tarantino. The streamer has already found success with competition spin-off Squid Game: The Challenge with a second season on the way. When asked about future Squid Game projects, series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk told Variety that he hadn't heard anything official yet about a remake. 'If they wanted to do a following season, then I think it's obvious I would have to participate and lead,' he said. 'But if it's the US version that they're making, I think sharing of ideas would be enough. I have no intention of being completely hands-on in a project like that. Having said that, if Netflix asks and if I feel like my contribution is needed, then as long as it's not something that would interfere with whatever I'm working on at that time, I would be happy to provide what they need from me.'
The Guardian
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Squid Game season three breaks Netflix viewership record
The third and final season of hit Korean series Squid Game has broken records to achieve the biggest ever TV launch for Netflix. Over its first three days, there have been over 60.1m views, a new high for the streamer with over 368.4m hours viewed. The second season launched with 68m views but over a four-day period last December. It has already become the ninth biggest non-English language season ever with the first and second seasons occupying the top two slots. Reviews have been mixed to positive with the Guardian's Rebecca Nicholson calling it 'nowhere near as pointed as it was' in previous seasons. While this has been called the final season, David Fincher has been rumoured to be developing an English language remake for the streamer. The director has worked with Netflix before on political drama series House of Cards, film industry biopic Mank and Michael Fassbender action thriller The Killer. Earlier this year, it was announced that he would work with them once again to direct a sequel to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood based on a script by Quentin Tarantino. The streamer has already found success with competition spin-off Squid Game: The Challenge with a second season on the way. When asked about future Squid Game projects, series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk told Variety that he hadn't heard anything official yet about a remake. 'If they wanted to do a following season, then I think it's obvious I would have to participate and lead,' he said. 'But if it's the US version that they're making, I think sharing of ideas would be enough. I have no intention of being completely hands-on in a project like that. Having said that, if Netflix asks and if I feel like my contribution is needed, then as long as it's not something that would interfere with whatever I'm working on at that time, I would be happy to provide what they need from me.'
