‘Squid Game’ Season 3 series review : Dystopian thriller takes a chaotic path to a sobering finish 

The eerie songs are back, the stakes are high, the games are deadlier, and contestants drop dead like flies by the minute in Squid Games’ final season. There is much hype to live up to of course, given how the show has cemented itself as probably one of the most compelling dystopian thrillers of our times. In six episodes, the final season has much to unpack, answer and wrap up with a neat little bow. Does all of this come together? 

Season 3 picks off where Season 2 ends, in the aftermath of a failed rebellion that leaves Seong Gi-hun/ contestant 456(Lee Jung-jae) a dejected shell of his former idealistic, rage-fuelled self following the death of his friend Park Jung-bae(Lee Seo-hwan). Rebellions and chaos however don’t matter in this creepy world of pinks and greens, and the show must go on. Hwang In-ho/The Front Man(Lee Byung-hun) is once again on the top of things and ensures the brutal games get back on track. 

There are tensions continuing to simmer among the contestants as well. Gi-hun’s vows revenge and stalks Dae-ho(Kang Ha-neul) given how he suspiciously abandoned the rebellion midway, Myung-gi(Im Si-wan) continues to be his seemingly selfish self towards his pregnant ex-girlfriend Jun-hee(Yu-ri), and Hyun-ju(Park Sung-hoon) and Geum-ja(Kang Ae-sim) struggle to do their best to save themselves and Jun-hee. We also have No-eul(Park Gyu-young), a pink soldier who sets out to save a contestant, and elsewhere, detective Jun-ho(Wi Ha-jun) plods along through his painfully arduous search for the deadly island where the games are taking place. 

A still from ‘Squid Game’ Season 3
| Photo Credit:
Netflix

If Season 1 did a fine job of depicting the dystopian trappings of capitalism, the economic disparity it breeds and a bloody fight for survival, Season 2 turned its focus on Gi-hun attempting to challenge The Front Man and a clash of ideologies — how according to him, humanity would always triumph over greed and desperation. In Season 3, with each game getting even bloodier than usual, the contestants almost seem to be in a battle of sorts to bring out their depraved best. If the ‘good ones’ like Hyun-joo (a terrific Park Sung-hoon), Geum-ja and Jun-hee attempt to get by, the evil ones truly begin to run amok. The two new games, ‘Hide-and-Seek’ and ‘Jump Rope’, sees new villains emerge and the heart-breaking deaths of some of our favourites — it is all about the survival of the most conniving, even when there is a baby involved. 

These are now roles that Lee Jung-jae and Lee Byung-hun are well acquainted with and given how excellent their big confrontation is when they finally come face-to-face with each other, one wishes they were given more screen time together in this season. The final season belongs to the show’s supporting cast; Park Sung-hoon once again makes us root for Hyun-joo and breaks our hearts, Yu-ri shines as the vulnerable, conflicted Jun-hee and Im Si-wan finally gets to sink his teeth into a character who keeps you guessing right until the end. 

If you had revelled in the absence of the VIPs, the cringey, English-speaking overlords purportedly funding and betting on the contestants in the brutal games in Season 2, they are unfortunately back at it with renewed vigour this time around. In their extended screen time, they turn into commentators of sorts on the games happening and seem to have been written into the script solely to be an unwarranted distraction from the proceedings. It still baffles me as to why the makers did not opt to cast established actors for the new season, given how the feedback after Season 1 for these characters had been overwhelmingly negative. 

A still from ‘Squid Game’ Season 3
| Photo Credit:
Netflix

The run up to the largely heartbreaking, yet expected finale while tightly written, feels chaotic given the multiple parallel storylines. Jun-ho’s storyline in particular feels largely frustrating, given how his search at this point feels much too overdrawn, with some unnecessary bloodshed thrown in as well. 

And while the show does not go out with a bang, the sobering conclusion feels expected. There is no expiry date on greed and what desperation can drive one to do, and when Gi-hun decided in Season 2 to go into the games once again, what followed felt inevitable. It does however feel like a punch to the gut every time a contestant we were rooting for dies in Season 3(there are MANY deaths), and this is probably Hwang Dong-hyuk’s biggest success as a creator and a writer — to give us characters to root for despite the grimness of it all. 

Squid Game Season 3 is not a perfect season of television — that distinction unfortunately solely belongs to Season 1, where the bar was set so high that Season 2 struggled under the weight of the expectations that followed. While we are left with many questions we were hoping to get answers for, we probably have to contend ourselves with the show’s chief takeaway: that in the tussle between humanness and greed here, a sliver of hope will emerge a winner. Well, at least sort of. 

Squid Game Season 3 is currently streaming on Netflix

Published – June 29, 2025 12:05 pm IST