‘Squid Game’ is back for its final season. Here’s what to remember

When “Squid Game,” a dystopian drama from South Korea, debuted on Netflix in September 2021, few could have predicted its outsize success. It swiftly became the streamer’s most-watched show, snagged Emmy wins for its director and star and spawned a reality game series and countless Halloween costumes.

And while fans had to wait three long years between Seasons 1 and 2, the third and final season — which arrived Friday in its entirety — comes just six months after viewers last checked in with the hapless contestants, who must compete for both cash and their lives. Filmed back to back, Season 3 picks up right where Season 2 left off — with the heroes’ would-be mutiny quashed and their futures precarious.

For those with short memories, here’s a quick refresher on how we got here.

It’s all fun and games until someone loses

The first season introduced the contest, in which down-on-their-luck contestants vie for riches on a remote, secret island by competing in children’s schoolyard games like “Red Light, Green Light” and “Tug of War.” The twist? Losers in each round are killed (typically, in a hail of gunfire), a wrinkle that is revealed only after the first game begins. Uber-rich spectators watch the proceedings for sport, and in a pointed commentary about the value of human life, each death adds to the overall pot awarded to the last person standing — as much as 45.6 billion South Korean won (about $38 million).

That winner, Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), an affable gambler estranged from his young daughter, emerged from the arena with heavy pockets and an even heavier heart. In the final moments of Season 1, haunted by what he had seen and done, he abandoned his plans to reunite with his daughter, choosing instead to put a stop to the game.

Forging alliances outside the game

At the beginning of Season 2, Gi-hun had been searching for two years for evidence of the game and its elusive Front Man (the contest’s puppet master, played by Lee Byung-hun), which he hoped to present to authorities. He eventually teamed with Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun), the resourceful cop who infiltrated the game to look for his missing brother, only to be shot by the Front Man and plunge off a cliff into the sea at the end of Season 1. In a plot twist, the Front Man is Jun-ho’s brother, In-ho, but Jun-ho has not shared this information with Gi-hun or the police force he works for.

Before long, Gi-hun was on his way back to the island (voluntarily) to try to dismantle the game from within. Jun-ho, meanwhile, enlisted the pilot of a fishing boat, Captain Park (Oh Dal-su), who saved him after the events of Season 1, to help him find Gi-hun before it’s too late and the culprits disappear. On the boat with him were a team of paramilitaries, hired by Gi-hun to end the game by force if necessary.

… and within it

Donning the familiar emerald tracksuit and bib No. 456 from Season 1, Gi-hun once again forged alliances with other players. These included a mother-son duo with debts to pay (Kang Ae-sim and Yang Dong-geun); a transgender woman who was a sergeant in the Special Forces (Park Sung-hoon); a soon-to-be-mother (Jo Yuri) and her crypto-influencer ex-flame (Yim Si-wan); and an old friend, fellow gambler Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan), who refused to lend Gi-hun money in Season 1.

There was also Player 001, the Front Man in disguise, who called himself Young-il and feigned sympathy for Gi-hun’s quest to stop the game. Young-il appeared to have a difficult backstory, too — crushing debts and a sick, pregnant wife — that was at least partly corroborated by an earlier conversation between Jun-ho and his mother (Lee Joo-sil). But the Front Man continued to pull the levers behind the scenes. Like Player 001 from the first season, who was actually the game’s creator, he seemed invested not only in winning but also in obliterating Gi-hun’s fundamental decency and optimistic view of human nature.

How does Gi-hun’s mission end?

In Season 2, the games remained inventive and bloody, but they sometimes took a back seat to the extracurricular machinations. One involved the voting, held after each game, whereby contestants choose whether to play on, or quit and split the winnings. Another followed a principled guard, No-eul (Park Gyu-young), who objected to an organ harvesting scheme carried out by some of her pink-clad colleagues.

The main outside-the-game plot, however, played out in the season’s final act: Gi-hun’s insurrection.

After a particularly contentious vote, followed by a brutal night of contestant-on-contestant violence, Gi-hun and a small band of supporters overwhelmed the guards sent to reestablish order. Armed with the guards’ weapons, they then made their corpse-strewn way toward the game’s control room but ran out of ammunition mid-mission, prompting their group to split up.

With Jung-bae at his side, Gi-hun continued to advance, believing he would find the Front Man when they reached their destination. The Front Man executed two mutineers while still disguised as an ally, then transformed back into the implacable game master. Masked, with his voice distorted, he confronted a helpless Gi-hun and Jung-bae.

“Did you have fun playing the hero?” he taunted Gi-hun before shooting Jung-bae in the chest. In the last glimpse of Gi-hun, he was pinned to the floor by two guards, screaming and unable to look away from his friend’s lifeless eyes.

Where is Jun-ho?

Whether they were chasing red herrings or opening explosive hatches, Jun-ho and his motley crew of mercenaries seemed to be the unluckiest expedition team ever. That is, until Captain Park stabbed and tossed overboard a mercenary who asked too many questions, revealing (to viewers, at least) that bad luck had little do to with it: Park was in cahoots with the people behind the game all along. For now, Jun-ho and company are still in the dark, still at sea and no closer to their goal.

The latest tally

By the end of Season 2, most of Gi-hun’s in-game allies, aside from Jung-bae, had managed to survive. A few antagonists, like the drug-addled club promoter Nam-Gyu (Roh Jae-won) and the deeply indebted Jeong-dae (Song Young-chang), were still kicking too. But things are looking grim for Gi-hun and his fellow players. As the series hurtles toward its denouement, will Gi-hun’s faith in humanity win out? Or will the Front Man’s nihilistic cynicism prevail?