Squid Game is over.
Kaput.
Doneso.
The finale has aired on Netflix, and now we have a gaping hole in our lives. But now that it’s gone, let’s reflect on the last episode of the series.
Squid Game, if you’re living under a rock, is a Netflix K-drama centring on Seong Gi-Hun (Lee Jung-jae), a down on his luck gambler with crippling debt who was offered the chance to earn a crapload of money by participating in a game hosted by a mysterious society. That “game” was a battle royale to the death, but Gi-Hun came out on top somehow.
The second season depicted a PTSD-ridden Gi-Hun trying to take down the secret society. But instead of leading the authorities to the “game”’s location, he is inadvertently stranded and once again forced to fight for his life… and everyone else’s. After a failed insurrection that caused many contestants to meet their end, Gi-Hun is rage-filled and inconsolable. But can he keep it together to survive Season 3, whether that be by convincing the others to quit or by being the last one standing once more?
There are twists and turns in the final season, some of which were baffling or just plain confusing. I’m trying to work through my thoughts on whether the ending was perfect, infuriating, or simply meh. Needless to say, this article is gonna have some HEFTY spoilers in it, so you’ve been warned. And, if that isn’t enough of a warning:
SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT FORWARD FOR THE SQUID GAME FINALE!!!!
In the final round of the final game, the contestants were reduced to Jun-hee’s (Jo Yuri) baby (known as Player 222), Gi-Hun, and Lee Myung-gi (Yim Si-wan), Jun-hee’s baby daddy. MG Coin, as he was also known (because he was basically a sketchy crypto guy), had Gi-Hun cornered and was ordering him to hand over the baby so he could easily win the final round… by dropping the baby off the side of a tall tower and killing it.
Not cool, dude.
Gi-Hun managed to get the better of Myung-gi, causing him to fall to his own death, but unfortunately, the last round wasn’t started properly. That meant it was a choice between Gi-Hun killing a newborn or killing himself. He chose the latter, taking a dive and dying on impact (we’ll get to this in a bit).
The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) saves the baby from the island’s self-destruct sequence and escapes. A few months later, he drops Player 222 off with his brother, installing him as their guardian, and then travels to America to give the late Gi-Hun’s possessions and winnings from the first game to his estranged daughter.
As he drives around LA, The Front Man notices a well-dressed Cate Blanchett playing ddakji with a homeless man. It seems like the games will continue in the US…
Let’s deal with the elephant in the room. There are two distinct endings I want to talk about: the main ending is the end of the “game”, and In-ho’s distribution of wealth. I would consider his walking away from Gi-Hun’s daughter after bequeathing her his things (including his bloodstained tracksuit that would definitely give her psychological trauma) the true ending of this show.
Then, there’s the Cate Blanchett of it all…
Look, there’s almost no defending that final scene. Yes, it’s a tease for what may be on the horizon for a US reboot (that I don’t think anybody asked for), but why sully the original show with this… I CAN’T EVEN CALL IT A BREADCRUMB! IT’S A WHOLE-ASS LOAF! I like Blanchett, and I have no problem with her being in a spin-off, but none of this really made any sense.
For one thing, why are they playing ddakji? American kids don’t play that game, so why are you choosing something they wouldn’t know the rules for? They could have easily made it paper football or something a little more recognisable, but nooooooo!! The second thing is the look Blanchett gives In-ho while he watches this unfold. Why the heck does she know who he is? Most of his KOREAN organisation had no clue who he was! It was utterly nonsensical.
So, yeah. The second ending was unequivocally silly, and I wish it didn’t exist.
Putting aside the events that got us there – namely, the quickest birthing scene known to man and its subsequent aftermath – having Player 222 take their mother’s number and place in the game was really odd. It meant that, on top of the final sky squid game, there was an intermingled game of baby keepaway, and it was kinda goofy.
What didn’t help were the final participants of the game. I’ve talked about the final stage of the last game, but going into the first of three, there were nine contestants, including Gi-Hun, the baby, and MG Coin. Of the six other contestants, I could only really recognise Player 100 and the deplorable Min-su (I hated him so much). The other four were side-side characters that the audience knew had no chance of winning the game. The stakes were lessened because of it.
And then there’s Myung-gi and Gi-Hun’s respective choices. MG hadn’t been evil throughout this show. He’d been shady for sure, but he cared about Jun-hee and the child. We’re supposed to believe that he would kill his own progeny? I dunno man. I guess he’d been shown to be selfish, but I feel like this one was out of character, even for him. That might be a leap.
Speaking of leaps, it was ridiculously dissatisfying to see Gi-Hun tumble off the ledge to sacrifice himself, especially after I was screaming at the TV for him to START THE GORRAM GAME before taking out MG. But, more egregiously, showing the reflection of the self-destruction of the island in his eyes gave us hope that he wasn’t dead, despite all evidence to the contrary. There ain’t no way he could have survived, and they shouldn’t have left any room for interpretation.
Now I’ve said all of that, I need to say that I land on the other side of the fence. The ending was the perfect full-circle moment, which was the only choice to end the series. Glossing past the turbo labor from Jun-hee and the four may-as-well-had-no-name redshirts that began the final game, what remained was a masterpiece.
Gi-Hun had always been a believer that people were good. At the end of Season 1, he wagers Il-Nam, the creator of the game, that someone would help a drunk in the street as proof that people are inherently benevolent. This is despite all the f*cked up sh*t he’d just witnessed in the game. In Season 3, he’d been worn down a great deal, but he still believed, and in the end, he practiced what he preached, trading his life for Baby 222.
The baby was a stroke of genius because it was a pure, innocent life. If you end up in the game, it’s likely that something in your life has been pretty sketchy, right? Moreso, if you get to the final, you’ve probably had a hand in or actually killed another player. They all operate in shades of grey. But the baby was a baby. It didn’t deserve to die. And, having MG be one of the guys to try to end it? Woof. Heavy stuff.
Gi-Hun’s refusal to cheat on the eve of the final game, although it led to his demise, also demonstrated his commitment to his message. Although he had killed Dae-ho (the rat) with his own hands earlier in the season, he decided not to murder the other contestants in their beds to avoid the game altogether. Killing them in cold blood as In-ho had done was just not in his nature, and it wasn’t what he wanted to portray to the douchy VIPS.
Squid Game’s consistency with its message made this ending, where Gi-Hun saved an innocent child by sacrificing himself, absolutely perfect. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
What did you think of Squid Game’s finale? Do you want to see it be rebooted in different countries? And, if so, what games would you want them to play, and why is it British Bulldog?
