‘Squid Game’ Season 3 Ending Explained: Who Survives Squid Game?

Squid Game Season 3 hit Netflix today, finally revealing the fates of Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), pregnant Player 222 (Jo Yu-ri), and mother/son duo 149 (Kang Ae-shim) and 007 (Yang Gong-geun). Will Detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) ever get closure with long lost brother In-ho, aka the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun)? What’s going on with the well-meaning sniper No-eul (Park Gyu-young)? Does heroic transgender contestant Hyung-ju (Park Sung-soon) survive? Do the games finally get stopped? Is this really the end of Squid Game? And what’s the meaning of that wild cameo we see at the very, very end of Squid Game 3?

**Spoilers for Squid Game Season 3, now streaming on Netflix**

Squid Game fans have always known that this is a brutal show, full of heartbreaking deaths, but Season 3 keeps that tradition alive in astonishing ways. Series creator/writer/director Hwang Dong-hyuk cooks up some seriously macabre plot twists that involve a mother killing her son, multiple deaths by suicide, and a baby literally forced to play Squid Game.

However, some characters do manage to not only survive Squid Game, but actually thrive? In the final minutes of Squid Game Season 3, the Netflix show jumps six months into the future to show some long-awaited reunions, the start of a new buddy comedy set in the Pink Motel, and one kid’s happily ever after. The last scene of Squid Game Season 3 even teases a star-studded American spin-off set in Los Angeles.

So who dies in Squid Game? What happens to Player 333 (Yim Si-wan) and Player 222? Does Gi-hun die? Who survives Squid Game Season 3?

Squid Game Season 3 Ending Explained: Who Survives Squid Game?

Welp, grab the tissues, because a whole bunch of your favorite Squid Game characters die in Season 3.

The first game played in Squid Game Season 3 is “Hide and Seek.” Players are split into two teams: Blues have to hide with the help of keys and Reds have a half hour to kill at least one Blue with a knife or they die. The big deaths in Squid Game Season 3 Episode 2 “The Starry Night” include Gi-hun killing Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul) in revenge for botching the rebellion, Player 100 (Song Young-chang) tricking the “Shaman of the Sea” Seon-nyeo (Chae Kook-hee) into giving him the final key to escape, and Myung-gi (aka Player 333) stabbing Hyung-ju in the back, not realizing she had spent the whole game protecting Jun-hee, Geum-ja, and Jun-hee’s newborn baby.

The most dramatic death in this episode, however, is probably Geum-ja stabbing her own son, Player 007, with the knife she had hidden in her hair stick. 007 was running out of time to kill a Blue and refused to take his mother’s life. Instead, he attacked Player 222 and her infant daughter. Player 149 stabs her own son, forcing his elimination. In Squid Game Season 3 Episode 3 “It’s Not Your Fault,” she takes her own life, strangling herself in the dormitory.

The next game is “Jump Rope.” Min-su (Lee David) has stolen Thanos’s crucifix of drugs from bully Nam-gyu (Roh Jae-won) and uses it to coax him to play the game out of panic. Nam-gyu eventually falls to his death. Player 456 carries Player 222’s baby across the bridge to safety and wants to circle back to help the injured young woman cross as well. However, she knows there’s no time and she has no shot with a broken ankle. She jumps to her own death, choosing to die by suicide vs. as a victim to the games.

The last game is a version of Squid Game played atop three massive pillars. One of the ten remaining players — which includes the baby now playing as 222 — must be pushed off per tower. Whoever is then left, splits the winnings. Min-su, now going through withdrawal himself, falls to his death. Myung-gi and Gi-hun work together to spark a brawl between the rest of the men that ends with them and the baby strapped to Gi-hun as the last ones standing. Player 333 then makes it clear he intends to sacrifice his own child to take all the money. Player 456 fights him and Myung-gi eventually falls to his death.

Because Gi-hun and Myung-gi were too distracted by their own fight to “start” the game on the last tower, either Player 456 or baby Player 222 must die. The Front Man and VIPs are stunned to watch Gi-hun defiantly sacrifice himself as a last declaration of his own humanity. Only the baby survives the games.

While this is all happening, North Korean defector and talented sniper No-eul saves the life of father Park Gyeong-seok (Lee Jin-wook) and destroys all evidence of his life to protect his sick daughter. She almost takes her own life, but is inspired by Gi-hun’s actions to live.

With the help of former loan shark Choi Woo-seok (Jeon Seok-ho), Detective Hwang figures out that the Captain Park (Oh Dal-su) is working with the enemy. He and at least one other mercenary are able to survive a violent showdown with the Captain. Jun-ho then stumbles upon the injured Gyeong-seok, who directs him — and the Coast Guard — to the private island that hosts the games. Although Jun-ho scubas to the island to confront his brother, asking, “Why?”he’s too late. The game facility is blown up and everyone involved with Squid Game is able to escape, including No-eul.

Squid Game Season 3 ends with No-eul going to China to reunite with her long-lost daughter, Woo-seok and his minion taking over the Pink Motel, and the Front Man leaving the baby winner of Squid Game (and her winnings) with brother Jun-ho. We also learn that the same broker who helped No-eul find her daughter managed to pull off a final “happy” ending for Season 1 stand out Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon). Her mother and brother are finally reunited in South Korea.

Squid Game USA? What That Cate Blanchett Cameo Means for the Rumored David Fincher Spin-off:

Squid Game Season 3 ends far from Korea, in a city full of masked men stealing people from their families and where thousands of human beings are forced to live in squalor on the streets. I’m talking, of course, of Los Angeles, which is conveniently where Gi-hun’s daughter Ga-yeong (Jo A-in) now lives with her mom and stepdad.

The Front Man goes to Ga-yeong, who also now goes by “Jenny,” to tell her about her father’s fate. He gives her a box with his belongings, which include the blood-splattered 456 tracksuit and a gold card with the remainder of his winnings.

After this, the Front Man is chauffeured through the city and he notices a woman in a sharp suit playing ddakji with an unhoused man in an alley. This woman is none other than two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett. She makes eye contact with the Front Man in a way that suggests the two know each other.

Cate Blanchett’s cameo can only mean one thing: there is a version of the games taking place in the United States of America.

For years, there have been rumors and reports that Netflix has been developing an English-language Squid Game spin-off set in the US. David Fincher has been attached as a potential director and Dennis Kelly is supposedly the showrunner. Blanchett’s very showy appearance in the Squid Game finale should be taken as a tease that she’ll be back, in Gong Yoo’s “Salesman” role, in an eventual American Squid Game series.

Squid Game is over. Squid Game will never die.