1 of 5 | Ji-hun (Lee Jung-jae) gets fancy in “Squid Game” Season 3, on Netflix Friday. Photo courtesy of Netflix
The third and final season of Squid Game, premiering Friday on Netflix, is still loaded with surprises before it concludes the provocative South Korean television phenomenon.
Season 3 picks up immediately after the end of Season 2, which concluded with Ji-hun’s (Lee Jung-jae) failed rebellion against the death game. Forced to compete in the last three games, Ji-hun has given up.
He has few allies left among the contestants, as most wanted to continue playing for the grand prize anyway, and some even suspecting him of trying to cheat. Mother and son Geum-ja (Kang Ae-sim) and Yong-sik (Yang Dong-geun), trans woman Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon) and pregnant contestant Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri), however, believe Ji-hun was trying to save everyone from more games.
The new games put Squid Game twists on childhood games that international audiences are likely more familiar with. Like the tug of war variation in Season 1, these challenges turn innocent games into death traps.
Some of the unique Squid Game rules make these games seem rather one-sided. When players start trying to outsmart those rules and make alliances with opposing teams, however, it becomes apparent the advantages don’t lie where they initially appear.
The escalation of games shows how much more depraved the game makers have to make the rules in order to avoid desensitization to mass death. Betrayals between players are more insidious than the deaths that result from failing the game.
This is what the game masters count on when they recruit desperate cutthroats to play.
There is a high body count and some beloved characters viewers have been following thus far won’t make it. The deaths are creatively varied too, so they don’t become repetitive. Few players die exactly the same way.
The physical execution of the new games is also elaborate. Director Hwang Dong-hyuk captures close-ups of the actors executing the physical maneuvers necessary to survive, but intercuts with wide shots of teams of stuntmen in green jumpsuits performing the same actions.
Two storylines outside the game continue: the Pink Guard sniper No-eul (Park Gyu-young) is still exploring the exterior machinations of the game, and Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) is still leading a boat crew to locate the island where the game is occurring.
Those stories get less screen time, but pay off in the finale. The show mostly revolves around Ji-hun and the players in the game.
Some reveals cannot even be alluded to without spoiling, which is a testament to how creator Hwang keeps evolving the story. The conclusion of Squid Game is not more of the same, but rather the inevitable push to the narrative’s extreme.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
