Season 3 - 6 episodes (2025 June 7)
Watch Squid Game on Netflix
Created by: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Starring: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon, Lee Byung-hun
Rated: TV-MA
Watch the trailer
Plot
Hundreds
of cash-strapped players accept a strange invitation to compete in
children's games. While surviving the games provides a 45.6 billion-won
payout, if you lose the games you die.
Season three continues where the second stopped with the winner of the 33rd games still grieving.
Verdict
This season doesn't stand on its own. It's the second half to season two, and you must watch that season. You can't rank one without the other. Together, this is the same concept as the first season, made to be bigger, longer, and more intense. The second season built the relationships and ended a few as well. This season doesn't have the interpersonal drama, it's a run to the end where alliances are strained and greed overcomes everything. After last season's revolt Gi-hun attempts to limit casualties. That's difficult with the very nature of the games, but he's unrelenting until the very end.
It depends.
Review
Season two and three should have been one season as the second one ends on a huge cliff hanger, stopping mid-way between games. While the second season did a formidable job of building on the first season and expanding the plot, the season was simply incomplete. That should have been part one with this as season two part two, or the two seasons should have released as one. The first season was fun enough, boosted by everyone stuck indoors during the pandemic. Season two and three are an obvious attempt to stretch the concept and length of a show that was a hit.
Season one
was a wild ride. If you need a quick refresher, Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae),
player 456, was recruited to play the games because he was desperate for
money. During the games he befriended a
frail old man who turned out to be one of the wealthy men that created
the games. Gi-hun won.
During the games
police officer Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) infiltrates the facility, trying to
find his brother who participated in the previous games only to discover
his brother works as one of the masked guards.
In season two Gi-hun returns to the games to stop the cruelty and deaths. Plays can vote to opt out and stop the games, but only if a majority votes to do so. Gi-hun leads a revolt at the end of season two that is ultimately stopped. He's the only survivor and the games continue.
My suspicion that season three should be season two part two is confirmed when this season picks up right where season three concluded with no context or introduction. Gi-hun staged a revolt at the end of season two, his fate unresolved. The game organizers put Gi-hun back in the game. They don't punish him directly, but they did kill his friends and everyone that revolted. The games have never been subtle, and thus I question why they spared Gi-hun. The obvious answer is plot armor.
Gi-hun deals with regret and grief over those that died. The games continue. Despite all that's happened he can't convince the others to opt out. The greed is too great in the majority of players. This season and the last is less about sadistic games and more about pitting allies against each other. Hide and seek is especially brutal, and then episode four features jump rope. While Gi-hun has become more daring in his goal to spare people, another player finds a way to remove nearly everyone else from the game.
Then there is the baby. It's such an obvious ploy to raise the stakes, and it does a great job at that though that becomes more than a bit contrived.
With each death, the remaining survivors get a bigger payout. Even at the last game the greed wins out and more players want to play to increase their payout. Gi-hun's mission to stop the games was in vain. The orchestraters want to ensure the remaining players vote to play, so they assure them there will be a choice in who survives the last game. Gi-hun is the odd one out, the other players conspiring to eliminate him.
The first season told this story best. It was compact and shocking. Seasons two/three lacked the advantage of a fresh concept. There are a lot of arcs, the detective trying to find the island, the guard with an ulterior motive, as well as the actual games. I'd rather this focus just on the games and the players, but I'd guarantee Netflix wanted to expand on this surprise hit with as many episodes as possible designed to retain subscribers.
We get a fitting end to the show with the conclusion to big arcs and hard hitting payoffs. This just never escapes feeling like a redux of the first season. It's unavoidable when the concept is the same.
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