(Credit: Netflix)

Weekends with Netflix couldn’t have gotten any better. Since the June 27th premiere of Squid Game season three, the social radar has been abuzz with takeaways, reviews, and, of course, spoilers. But for those still on the boat of daze, Best of Netflix has you covered. Although the gap between seasons two and three wasn’t as long as the first one, fans were visibly losing their calm. With the upswing in fan theories, all they could think about was whether Seong Gi-hun survives.

Now that season three is done and dusted, we hate to break it to you, but Gi-hun doesn’t make it. In the premiere, Seon-nyeo foretells that her fellow players won’t make it out alive. And by episode six, viewers realise there’s truth to it, at least to some extent. No original Squid Game player actually survives the blood-soaked, twisted games, not even Gi-hun, despite being a former champion.

But Gi-hun’s death becomes elemental in conveying the message Hwang Dong-hyuk envisioned. He was the only wildcard in the game who wanted to put an end to it all. However, the Front Man was hell-bent on crushing his noble principles, such that he gave up on humanity once and for all. The question that remains is: Was the death a win for the Front Man’s point of view? Since he couldn’t care less about whether Gi-hun dies or survives, what does his death mean?

To get there, however, fans need to think about Squid Game’s winner.

Who wins Squid Game?

Player 222, AKA Jun-hee’s baby, who was born in episode two, wins the blood-curdling game. Sky Squid Game, which was the last round, required players to navigate three separate towers suspended high above. The towers are shaped like a square, a circle, and a triangle. To qualify, a player must push at least one player off the platform. However, in order for the deaths to count, one of the players must press a button placed on the ground to start the round.

Although Gi-hun protects the baby throughout the game, we see Myung-gi, Jun-hee’s baby’s father, trying to kill her. He defends the baby in the first two rounds. However, when Gi-hun, Myung-gi, and the baby are the only survivors, things get way darker. The face-off between the adults soon escalates to a knife fight, but as both seem to fall off the structure while Gi-hun tries to save himself and Myung-gi.

Despite his efforts, Myung-gi’s jacket tears off, and he falls to his death. But the defining moment is that neither Myung-gi nor Gi-hun pressed the button. As a result, now Gi-hun has to face the baby. It’s not like he doesn’t have options, but he chooses what’s most difficult for many but easier to some. He presses the button, ends his own life, and lets the baby live and, most importantly, win.

Gi-hun’s sacrifice brings his story to a circle. Reddit theorists were a bit caught up in the idea of how he wasn’t meant to be the “good guy,” especially over his estrangement with his daughter. But in that final moment, Lee Jung-jae says, “It is almost like Gi-hun’s looking at his own daughter”. Additionally, the speech he delivers to Front Man and the VIPs makes one thing clear: if it was a battle of wills the Front Man was seeking, the winner is Gi-hun.

Dong-hyuk explains that the baby represents Gi-hun’s rediscovery of his “humanity and conscience”. “I eventually came to believe that, no matter how hopeless and dark the world may seem, perhaps we still have a chance if we can find a glimpse of hope within ourselves,” he says. As for what to take away from Myung-gi, the director explains, he is a reflection of “society’s ills”. That said, what happened to Player 222?

How did Jun-hee die in Squid Game?

During the competition of Hide and Seek, Jun-hee gives birth to her daughter. But before that, she had already severely injured her ankle, rendering her incapable of competing in Jump Rope. Consequently, she urges Gi-hun to protect her baby and take her across the walkway.

Although Gi-hun intended to return to get Jun-hee, apprehensive that her baby would perish if he were unable to cross the rope again, she steps off the platform. While the arc of Jun-hee and her baby was inspired by Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men, how did the baby enter the game? And what happened to the baby after Gi-hun’s death?

Jun-hee’s baby’s indoctrination into Squid Game

As it turns out, the VIPs had a lot to do with Jun-hee’s baby’s participation in Squid Game. In episode three, one of the VIPs explains how they had placed their bets on Jun-hee. But after she dies, their craving for more blood heightened the urge, suggesting that her baby take her place. The Front Man agreed, and the rest is history.

Following Gi-hun’s death, when the Front Man orders immediate evacuation, he saves Jun-hee’s baby. Through this act, Dong-hyuk wanted to show that deep underneath, Front Man still has some humanity left. But according to actor Lee Byung-hun, he had softened way before. In the six-month time jump landing in episode six, it’s revealed that Front Man invaded his brother Jun-ho’s apartment to leave Jun-hee’s baby and her 4.56billion won.

As for Gi-hun’s money, Front Man flies to LA to meet his daughter Ga-yeong, giving her the money while informing her about Gi-hun’s death. While some may perceive this as an act of kindness, Jung-jae doesn’t.

What does the Squid Game final scene mean?

Squid Game’s third season finale scene left many screaming, and understandably so. After Front Man exited from Ga-yeong’s abode in Downtown LA, he was stopped by the sound of something he’d heard before: the slap of ddakji tiles. When curiosity gets the best of him, he looks over to find a well-dressed stranger, Cate Blanchett, playing the game that started it all with an overwhelmed man. “We thought having a woman as a recruiter would be more dramatic and intriguing,” said the director, adding, “If Gong Yoo is the Korean recruiter, I thought she [Blanchett] would be the perfect fit as the American recruiter.”

Squid Game season three also tied the loose ends regarding Captain Park, who’s revealed to be an associate of Front Man and the game. For those thinking about Pink Guard No-eul and Gyeong-seok, they both survive and escape. It’s been hinted that No-eul’s daughter might still be alive, although it was originally said that her entire family died. And finally, we see Sae-byeok’s brother Cheol reunite with their North Korean mother.