Does Player 456 survive in Squid Game? Season 3 ending explained

Yahoo

10 hours ago

Squid Game season 3 is here and that means it is time for viewers to finally find out whether Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) will succeed in destroying the games once and for all in the Netflix hit.The character, who has entered the deadly competition once more as player 456, has been fighting to survive so that he can tear it down from the inside. However, following the events of season 2 which saw him lose his childhood friend after a failed coup the character is at a loss, believing he is responsible for the death of his pal and so many others.
Season 3 tests his faith in humanity even more, as the games continue and he is forced to reckon with his own failings as well as the selfishness of those around him. When he is tasked with helping protect Player 222's baby he has purpose again, but where will that new path take him? And will he succeed in destroying the games for good? Here is everything that you need to know.
In Season 3 the last surviving players must go through the final game of the show, the titular Squid Game, which this time is being played on top of three towers.
In the game, the players must kill at least one of their competitors by getting them off the tower within 15 minutes to pass. They can kill more than one person if they wish, so long as one player is eliminated in each round. There are eight players in total left, including Gi-hun, Jun-hee's newborn baby who has been made the new Player 222, and the child's father Myung-gi.
Myung-gi teams up with the other five players who are ostensibly in agreement over who should be killed: Gi-hyun, Jun-hee's baby and Min-su (Lee David). The latter of which is currently in the midst of a mental breakdown because of his experiences during the games and the drugs he has taken that were hidden in pop star Thanos' pendant necklace.
Gi-hun promised Jun-hee that he would protect her baby before she died, and he is steadfast in wanting to keep that oath. However the other players are equally as determined to convince him to give up the baby and let her die.
Myung-gi appears to be siding against Gi-hun and his own child for a while, but it is soon revealed he has no intention of siding with the others and he helps pick them all off. The only problem is that he reveals this too early, and the other five players all die during the second stage of the three-part game.
This means that either Gi-hun, Myung-gi or Jun-hee's baby must die in the final round for one or two of them to win the games, or they all die.
The finale sees Myung-gi try and win the games by forcing Gi-hun to give him the baby and not make it across to the next round, meaning that Myung-gi plans to kill his own child in order to win the games. He threatens Gi-hun, who allows Myung-gi to think he's won by giving him the baby but in the last minute runs across and makes it to the other side with a knife.
Myung-gi and Gi-hun scrap, Gi-hun with a knife and Myung-gi with a pole, and ultimately both end up dangling over the edge of the tower. Myung-gi ultimately falls to his death — the only problem is that neither of them pressed the button to start the game before they began fighting.
Gi-hun presses the button but rather than kill the baby like he is expected to by the VIPs he sacrifices himself so that Jun-hee's baby can live, and she is declared the winner of the games.
With Gi-hun dead, the Frontman aka In-ho (Lee Byung-hun) starts the evacuation order of the island and begins preparing to end the games for that year, but his brother Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun) and rogue Pink Guard No-eul (Park Gyu-young) are ready to stop them.
As Frontman takes Jun-hee's baby Jun-ho confronts him, but ultimately can't kill him, giving him room to escape. The island is destroyed and the police unable to catch the perpetrators, while No-eul sneaks into the boat leaving the island with the other staff members.
The story jumps to six months later, No-eul visits with the player she helped escape while Jun-ho is revealed to have left the police. He returns home one day to find Jun-hee's baby in his home, with a bank card that contains all of her winnings.
In-ho visits Gi-hun's family in America and gives them his belongings, advising them that he has died. The box contains his Player 456 hoodie and a bank card that contains his winnings from the first game. It is revealed that the games are continuing, and in America contestants are being sourced as Cate Blanchett makes a cameo as the US equivalent of the Ddakji Man.
Lee and his co-stars Lee Byung-hun and Park Gyu-young spoke at a press conference in London about the film's ending. The show's creator Hwang Dong-hyuk had shared his reservations about the ending he'd come up with, but the cast were effusive in their praise of how the director closed out the series.
"I thought that director Huang's decision that he had made... he was very determined," Lee Jung-jae said. "I'm sure that he went through a lot of internal debate and struggles because, as we all know, this series has been just hugely successful. So when it's a story that big, how do you bring that to a close as director, writer and creator? And especially for a character like Gi-hun, where do you take him?
"And so I know that he listened to a lot of other people's ideas as well, we would have discussions among ourselves, among the cast. He would also discuss it with me and the crew as well, but I believe that director Hwang came up with the most adequate, the most unpredictable, the most meaningful and the most intriguing and entertaining ending possible.
"So personally, I am very happy with the finale and you all are going to be able to see where it all ends soon. But I can guarantee you it's not going to be what you think."
Lee Byung-hun, on the other hand, implied that while the finale gives the series a satisfying conclusion he feels there's room for more if the audience craves it: "Director Hwang keeps saying it's a finale. When I first read it I felt it could be a finale but, at the same time, it could be a new start.
"I'm not sure [if it definitely is], that's my personal opinion, but if the audience's love and support increase you never know what might happen!"
Park added that she looked at the series as a fan, having come into it later than her co-stars, and so that gives her a different and interesting angle: "If I answer it's as a fan, as one of the audience. So if season 2 was the explanation of the expanded universe of Squid Game, in Season 3 all those questions will be answered really clearly.
Squid Game season 3 is out now on Netflix.