Squid Game 3-finale review
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| ▲ This still provided by Netflix features Gi-hun in "Squid Game" Season 3. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ This still provided by Netflix features the Front Man, played by Lee Byung-hun, in "Squid Game" Season 3. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ This still provided by Netflix shows In-ho, played by Lee Byung-hun, during his time as a Squid Game contestant, before he became the Front Man. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ This still provided by Netflix features the guards from the third season of "Squid Game." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
Squid Game 3-finale review
'Squid Game's' bleak finale argues games never end
By Woo Jae-yeon
SEOUL, June 27 (Yonhap) -- The deadly games in Netflix's global sensation "Squid Game" finally came to an end Friday with its third and final season, concluding the saga that began in 2021.
While the fate of hundreds of desperate, cash-strapped contestants is seemingly sealed, the finale leaves one critical question unanswered: Are the games really over?
Unfortunately for those expecting a complete resolution, the finale offers none. Instead, it leaves the answer hanging in the balance, proposing a chilling idea that the games are doomed to continue as long as humanity remains torn over its most fundamental questions: Are people innately good or fundamentally evil? Are they capable of building a better world for the generations that follow?
With the finale's ambiguous ending offering few easy answers, audiences are likely to crave both closure for the characters' individual stories and clarity on the creator's ultimate take on these weighty themes.
The protagonist Gi-hun, played by Lee Jung-jae, believes in the value of human life and the essential elements needed to preserve humanity.
His conviction is crystallized in a powerful confrontation with the masked VIPs who inhumanely watch the deadly competition as if it were a mere chess match.
"We are not horses," he tells them, just before proving his statement to them. "We are human beings."
In their final showdown, the Front Man challenges Gi-hun, asking, "Do you still trust people?" A flashback then reveals the Front Man's own past, showing him ruthlessly harming other participants to ensure his own survival.
Yet, when presented with a similar life-or-death choice, Gi-hun's actions provide a starkly different answer. He can't bring himself to kill after seeing a vision of the North Korean defector Sae-byeok from Season 1, saying, "Don't do it. You are not that kind of person."
The quest of police detective Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun) to understand what turned his brother into the Front Man, the game's enigmatic and cold-blooded overseer, might be one of the series' most frustrating loose ends.
By the finale, Jun-ho never even has a proper conversation with his brother, let alone gets to the bottom of his transformation, leaving the storyline feeling like all build-up and no payoff.
Perhaps this story was left open by design, as director Hwang has repeatedly hinted at a potential spinoff exploring the Front Man's backstory.
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