Squid Game season 3 ending explained: How does the hit drama come to a close?

However, he became obsessed with putting an end to the games once and for all to stop the pain and misery they cause to innocent people. He returns to the island but The Front Man stands in his way.

Season 3 picks up in the aftermath of Gi-hun’s failed rebellion and the death of his closest friend, Jung-bae. The audience sees a new side of Gi-hun as he is left powerless and pushed to his breaking point by The Front Man, who wants him to lose his faith in humanity.

The final season contains the same bloody action, gripping drama and heartfelt storylines that captivated audiences in the first season.

Who wins the Squid Games? What happens to Gi-hun? Will there be another season of Squid Game? All of your questions will finally be answered as the final season of the global phenomenon premieres on Netflix.

Who won the 34th Squid Game?

There is an unexpected winner of Squid Game, and it’s a new participant who only joined towards the end of the competition.

After giving birth and injuring her leg during hide-and-seek, Player 222 is left vulnerable for the ‘Jump Rope’ game, and she ultimately dies. Before she died, Gi-hun rescued her baby and vowed to protect them.

After the death of Player 222, the sick and twisted VIPs suggest that the baby become a player in the game and inherit her mother’s number, to "make the games more exciting". This angers the contestants as their share of the money is reduced.

The soldiers tell the remaining nine contestants that in the upcoming game, they will have to choose three contestants to be eliminated and the rest can live and take their share of the money. Six group together - including Im Jeong-dae (Player 100) and Lee Myung-gi (333) and target Gi-hun, the baby and Min-su (125.)

The Front Man calls for a meeting with Gi-hun, where he reveals his true identity as In-ho / Player 001. He knows that the six contestants are going to target them, so he offers Gi-hun and the baby a lifeline. He places a knife on the table and tells Gi-hun to kill the remaining contestants in their sleep and he can walk away with the baby as the game could not go ahead with only two contestants.

The protagonist takes the knife and holds it up against the throat of a contestant while they are sleeping. However, he is unable to go through with it after he sees a vision of Sae-byeok (played by HoYeon) - who was murdered in a similar way in season 1 by Sang-woo. She tells him, "Don’t do it… You are not that kind of person."

The final game is ‘Sky Squid Game’, held on three pillars - square, triangle and circle. Players can only proceed to the next pillar when a minimum of one player is pushed off. Whoever is left standing after the third game is complete walks away with their share of the money.

After teaming up with Gi-hun on the second pillar, Myung-gi betrays him and wants to kill him before reaching the final game - which means he is willing to kill his own baby to walk out with the money alone. After a fight, Myung-gi is eliminated, which leaves Gi-Hun and Player 222 - however, one must die as the game has yet to begin.

Throughout the season, The Front Man wanted to push Gi-hun to his breaking point and make him question his own beliefs and faith in humanity.

However, in one last defiant act, Gi-hun maintains his humanity and sends one final message to The Front Man before sacrificing his own life, "We are not horses. We are human. Humans are…"

Player 222 is declared the winner and is taken away by The Front Man. The baby is delivered to Hwang In-ho’s house with a note that says ‘Player 222. Winner.’ Attached to the card is a golden credit card that contains the 45.6 billion won prize money for winning Squid Game.

What happens to No-eul?

Season 2 opens up with No-eul (Park Gyu-young) - a North Korean defector who had to leave her child across the border. In her new life in South Korea, No-eul is facing economic difficulties and trauma and enters Squid Games as a pink soldier.

After the failed coup at the end of season 2, No-eul and the rest of the pink soldiers are sent to eliminate the dissenting players - including Player 246, the father of Na-yeon, who No-eul meets at the theme park she worked at and discovers she was suffering from blood cancer.

Instead of killing him, she makes him fake his death and hide in the casket where he is sent to the incinerator room. Here, she rescues Player 246 and escapes the island with him.

However, she receives a call from the captain telling her to come back and threatens Na-yeon in the hospital. No-eul returns to the island alone and confronts the captain and takes him up to the control room by gunpoint to delete any record of Player 246.

During this violent interaction with the captain, it is revealed that he is also a defector from North Korea - which explains his loyalty to her in season 2. He lost a loved one after he was unable to get a kidney transplant so he defected to South Korea where they are "readily available".

After burning Player 246’s records, she finds her own papers and finds a photo of her husband and daughter, saying that her husband was executed and her daughter was dead. She sits on The Front Man’s seat and puts a gun to her own head.

At the end of the final episode, No-eul is having her portrait painted at the theme park by Player 246 - although he doesn’t know who she is. After suffering from blood cancer, Na-yeon is seen fit and healthy after money was raised for her care.

No-eul receives a phone call from the broker that she hired to find her daughter, saying that they think they have found her daughter alive and well in China and she is last seen catching a flight to be reunited with her.

Why was Cate Blanchett in the Squid Game finale?

Squid Game season 3 ended with a huge plot twist as In-ho flew to Los Angeles to deliver a package to Gi-hun’s daughter with her late father’s belongings, including his Squid Game tracksuit and a golden credit card - just like Hwang In-ho was given for Player 222.

After leaving her house, The Front Man is being driven through LA. After stopping near an alleyway, he rolls his window down as he watches two people playing Ddjaki. One of the players was Cate Blanchett - playing the Gong Yoo role as the recruit for the Squid Game.

During the game, she looks over at The Front Man and gives him a knowing smirk. This suggests that In-ho has taken the games to America, where he will oversee operations.

It is unknown whether Cate Blanchett will play a role in any potential spin-off series, as no concrete plans have been made just yet. However, we're sure that we're not the only ones who would love to see the Oscar-winning legend in the Squid Game universe!

Will there be another season?

This is the million-dollar question, or should we say the 45.6 billion won question!

Will there be another season of Squid Game? The Gi-Hun saga is officially over, and when asked if he’d "do it all again", writer-director Hwang Dong-Hyuk said, "I’m not sure I have the stamina." However, he didn’t rule out the possibility of future spin-offs.

Similarly, during an appearance on Jimmy Fallon, Lee Byung-hun teased a potential Front Man spin-off, which is an exciting prospect for audiences.

As the season ended, it became clearer what a Front Man spin-off would look like. In-ho had a flashback and it was revealed that he was once a participant of the Squid Games as he sat with a masked Oh Il-nam - Player 001 and the founder of Squid Games.

Just like Gi-hun, In-ho was given a knife to kill the remaining contestants in their sleep. However, unlike Gi-hun, In-ho went through with it to win the games.

A potential spin-off would likely show The Front Man overseeing more death and destruction in Los Angeles while we see flashbacks of how he became the masked villain after winning Squid Games.

If the upcoming spin-off is set in LA, then it could be interesting to see Gi-hun’s daughter play an important role in the series as she investigates her father’s death and the unusual circumstances around it.

Squid Game season 3 is coming to Netflix on Friday 27th June 2025. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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