Hey! If you're here, it's probably because you, like me, devoured season 3 of Squid Game, and likely now can't stop thinking about it.

Spoiler warning and side note: If you did not watch seasons 1-3 of Squid Game, major, MAJOR spoiler warning! Don't scroll down, unless you're wanting to spoil the show for yourself, and see what you're in for. After learning some basics about search-engine optimization, it apparently is very bad to encourage your own article viewers to not scroll down.

But I highly value not wasting my readers' time or energy, and accidentally spoiling a show is definitely a waste of time and energy... and a big bummer overall. So, this is why I warned you, at my own article's expense. In addition, I've already spent a lot of time wasting your time explaining why I'm not going to waste your time. Wow, that was a lengthy bit. On to the actual content!

Introduction

Image Credit: Netflix from Wikimedia Commons

Remember when season 1 dropped back in 2021? A lot of people know the show absolutely blew up and became the most-watched on Netflix. The idea of debt-ridden contestants risking life and limb in twisted childhood games was definitely a fresh concept that reminded us of societal desperation, and the nature of humanity. We also see the main character, Gi-hun (Player 456), lose pieces of himself, even though he wins $45.6 billion won ($32.9 million USD as of September 2025) from the games.

Image Credit: Minho Jeong from Unsplash

Then came season 2, which dove deeper into the madness. Gi-hun is dedicated to taking down the games after seeing 455 other players, including his childhood friend Sang-woo, die gruesome deaths. He tries to track down the Recruiter who gets people to join the games, and the Front Man, who is rumored to be behind it all... only to get stuck back in the games after failed attempts trying to kidnap the Front Man and track the location of the hidden island the games are located on.

The Front Man was revealed at the end of season 1 to be Hwang In-ho, the brother of detective Hwang Jun-ho, who is ironically helping Gi-hun stop the games. Jun-ho has continued his undercover detective search for years, but he's been failing to find the island, too.

And now, season 3, released on June 27 of this year, stitches all that chaos into a finale. It’s six brutal episodes that smashed Netflix records, racking up more than 60.1 million views in just three days, which is truly a global debut that nobody saw coming. This is the final season, according to creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, who designed it as the closure to Gi-hun’s journey. (Contrary to popular belief, there is no Squid Game season 4 for the original Korean series, but there may be a separate U.S. spin-off series.)

So, with that setup, buckle up, because I'm going to go through the breakdown of the top 10 moments that completely shocked me, ending with the one that left me gasping hardest.

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The Moments

#10: Geum-ja Kills Her Own Son

This scene really hit me in a way that I can't describe. It was shocking, but it also ripped open and revealed raw many serious themes that Squid Game has held.

Geum-ja, the elderly mom in the show, is hiding with Jun-hee (Player 222, who is pregnant with a baby) while Hyun-ju protects them in the hide-and-seek game. Her own son, Yong-sik, is a seeker who must kill a hider within 30 minutes or be eliminated. He hasn't been able to muster the courage to kill anyone the entire time, and as the clock ticks down, he shows up, knife in hand.

Desperate, Yong-sik's intention seems to be killing Jun-hee or her infant. But in that split second, Geum-ja stabs him from behind with her hairpin that contains a hidden knife.

Director Hwang Dong-hyuk says that the audience is conditioned to expect the mother to die for her child, but he twisted that, making her do the unthinkable for a baby that she just helped birth. The situation turned into a major moral dilemma that forces us to question whether protecting innocence justifies sacrificing our own flesh and blood. Geum-ja saw her son becoming someone monstrous, and she wanted to save not only Jun-hee, but her son from becoming that person. And in the end, her suicide later that night proves how unbearable the guilt was.

TheWrap's interview with Geum-ja's actor, Kang Ae-shim, added that Geum-ja has always been fiercely protective of her son, but witnessing new life being born triggered a primal urge to guard the universe of innocence, even at the cost of her own child. This is a deep reflection of humanity in its most impossible moment.

#9: Myung-gi Stabs Hyun-ju

Before the above tear-your-heart out moment during hide-and-seek, Hyun-ju helps Jun-hee give birth. She leaves the room they're hiding to search for the exit that can be their escape from this deadly game, and she finds it. Although Hyun-ju would've been able to unlock the exit and escape while leaving Jun-hee and Geum-ja behind, she chooses to return and tell them that she found the exit. But shortly after she hesitates in the doorway, Myung-gi stabs her.

This totally blindsided me. He kills the protector to keep playing, and most importantly, he didn't even have to. Myung-gi had teamed up with Nam-gyu to kill more players so that the money prize split between them would be greater.

Selfishness here is far more powerful than good intentions. Myung-gi sees Geum-ja, Jun-hee, and the baby, but he does not advance to attack them though, because killing his ex-girlfriend and child would be too much. The scene still drives home how nobody's safe, and nobody's 100% moral.

Image Credit: Kiko Camaclang from Unsplash

#8: Min-su Tosses Thanos’s Cross

Jump Rope, the 5th game in season 3, is terrifying enough. Similar to glass bridge but far less luck-based, you walk across a bridge suspended far up in the air and have to consistently jump over a swaying rope. Amid that, Min-su throws Thanos's cross onto the bridge (which is used to store drugs), luring drug-addicted Nam-gyu onto the bridge, who falls over a razor-sharp drop to his death once he realizes that there were actually no pills left in the cross.

Even though many members from the audience contend that Min-su never really had any character development, he was always a timid character who turned into a drug addict in the footsteps of Thanos and Nam-gyu, it seems that he's challenging fate in this scene, and it's not because he's high. He is trying to assert who he is, a small flex that screams character growth. And it's surprising that he's gotten so much bravery since we first saw him hiding as Se-mi was killed last season.

Image Credit: Kavita Shringi from Unsplash

#7: In-ho Offers Gi-hun a Horrifying Bargain

The night before the final game, everyone goes to bed after a supposedly festive dinner. Yet, as everyone is sleeping, Gi-hun is called away and into a private confrontation with In-ho, the Front Man. He is offered a terrifying bargain: kill the other players in their sleep, so that Gi-hun and the baby can stop the game and split the money.

It's the only right thing to do, because the other players always voted to continue the cruel games. Right?

It's such a gut-punch moment, because In-ho reveals his backstory, too. In a flashback, we realize that he was offered the same to win, and that's what he chose. Now, it's his turn to dangle Gi-hun's soul for blood money.

#6: Woo-seok Uncovers Captain Park’s Guard Past

Jun-ho's fridge-cold detective skills barely move the plot across years. In season 1, he infiltrated the island and captured lots of evidence of the game's atrocities, only to get shot in the water by his own brother and lose his phone in the ocean when he had almost sent them to the police department. In season 2, he searches aimlessly with Captain Park for the island, to no avail.

But Woo-seok, an employee and best friend of Mr. Kim (a loan shark), joins forces with Gi-hun and Jun-ho to find the island after Mr. Kim's murder by the Recruiter during a game of rock paper scissors minus one with Russian roulette. And in just a few days, he figures out that Captain Park was a former guard in the games and part of the recruiter's network, by noticing Captain Park's suspicious behavior, staying behind, and breaking into his house to find photos of him fishing with the Recruiter.

That's more effective investigating than Jun-ho's accomplishments in two seasons. Props to Woo-seok for actually doing detective work, that was crazy!

My hot take: Jun-ho is not useless. We all know that he took years to figure everything out, only to no avail, but at least he’s someone In-ho considered “reasonable” enough to take care of the baby at the end of the show. If he didn't exist, I wouldn't be sure the baby would fall into safe hands.

In addition, in Season 1, he made great accomplishments by uncovering all of the island's secrets in just one week! His unfortunate fall and loss of his evidence only reflects the reality of how law enforcement often can be slow to act and ineffective in stopping systemic crime, something the director intended.

Image Credit: Willian Justen de Vasconcellos from Unsplash

#5: Gi-hun Kills Dae-ho

In the hide-and-seek game, it isn't just the drama and tragedy between Yong-sik, Geum-ja, Hyun-ju, and Myung-gi that is shocking. Gi-hun surprisingly shows an extremely negative attitude at Dae-ho after he didn't return with ammunition during their instigated rebellion, and keeps staring at him. During the game, he hunts down and chokes out Dae-ho, who had once been an ally and friend.

Many agree that it's not a reasonable move, and just someone's rage unhinged. But remember, this is Squid Game. When faced with life-or-death situations and human corruption, you can only expect to be raw and impulsive.

In this case, Gi-hun's irrational violence reflects his broken state. His trauma doesn't excuse the murder, but it makes him so real, and all the more human.

Before Dae-ho is killed, he admits that he was lying about being a marine. That is, if you watched the English dub. The original Korean version intended for Dae-ho to admit that he was a Social Services Personnel, a type of military service for those deemed unable to serve in the regular army.

In many Asian cultures, especially in older generations, people aren't seen as strong or a "real man" if they haven't completed this service, which reveals the reason why Dae-ho had lied, rather than just being deceptive. This adds even more depth to the entire scenario.

Your thoughts: What do you think? Is Gi-hun's killing justified, or should we empathize for Dae-ho? Feel free to comment, if you'd like to!

#4: Myung-gi’s Final Turn as Villain

In the final game, Sky Squid Game, players must press a button to start each round. A player must be eliminated by being killed or pushed off the platform in order to move on to the next round, and there are three platforms in total. As tension peaks, Myung-gi sides with the team of players that are seeking to eliminate Gi-hun and the baby, but he thinks of ways to eliminate others and save the baby on the first two platforms. Although this seems to be an act of care for his child, his human greed is soon to be revealed.

On the last platform, Myung-gi forces Gi-hun to hand over the baby, and dangles the baby over the edge, threatening to drop her. However, it's known that he meant to say "I can do it" and not "I will do it," and the English dub was translated incorrectly. At the very least, you can tell that Myung-gi is hesitant to actually drop the baby, but that doesn't stop him from being a bleak symbol for society, threatening to sacrifice future generations for personal gain.

My hot take: Myung-gi’s selfishness is very deeply baked. Even if he seemed protective earlier in the game to stall the others eliminating his baby, he’s also corruption in flesh. You can tell based on his interactions with Jun-hee, their abusive past, and how he votes to continue the games for more cash instead of voting to end and split up what they already have.

Image Credit: Tim Bish from Unsplash

#3: The "Lunchbox" Falls

During Sky Squid Game, before Myung-gi's final threats, Player 100 makes a dark suggestion: beat up one of the players until they're half-alive in preparation for the next round, and drag them to the next platform to immediately throw them off once the round is started. He and his allies beat up Player 039 for this purpose and call him the "lunchbox," supposedly "packed and ready to eat".

But when Gi-hun, Myung-gi, and the baby are left in the game, the "lunchbox" makes a sudden move. "I don't want to be your lunchbox," he says, and flings himself off the platform, leaving the remaining players having to fight among themselves. Whether you think it's a selfish move, or rightful after how he'd been beaten up, it was most certainly not expected.

#2: In-ho Gives Gi-hun's Prize Money to Ga-yeong

After the games are over, In-ho delivers prize money and Gi-hun's bloody tracksuit to his daughter Ga-yeon in the United States. Even though you might think of it as a nice move, it's not nice. Sending her a reminder that her dad ignored her for years, and telling her that she'll never see him again? This is psychological warfare, and without any context given, she'd likely think her father died committing heinous crimes.

Image Credit: Olenka Kotyk from Unsplash

#1: We Are Not Horses

In the very last round of Sky Squid Game, Myung-gi falls from the side of the platform after a dangerous dangle off the edge, leaving Gi-hun and the baby. But a terrible realization quickly comes to light: THEY DID NOT PRESS THE BUTTON TO START THE ROUND! That meant Myung-gi's elimination meant nothing, and someone still had to be eliminated after a button press in order for a winner to proceed. It was either Gi-hun, or the baby at the edge.

My hot take: A lot of people might get annoyed at the fact that everyone forgot to press the button to start the round, and believed it was a plot device. But I think it was a good detail. The average person would miss the button or forget it in panic, and ignore that feature.

Gi-hun could kill the baby and survive, and continue to find a way to stop the games in future seasons. Or, he could refuse to do anything, and face the consequences. But instead, he throws himself off the platform for a deadly drop. And here were his last words: "We are not horses, we are humans. And humans are..."

His sacrifice embodies everything this show has ever been: flawed, broken, and showing all aspects of human intention that someone should have faith for, and disappointment for. It’s heartbreaking and heroic all at once. And while a lot of people wished for a better ending, is that really what humanity always has to offer in reality? Think about it.

Wrapping Up

Squid Game never gave easy answers, and Season 3 earned its place as a dark, unforgettable capstone that it should be. These were the ten moments that shocked (and perhaps shattered) me, whether they were surprising, funny, brutal, sorrowful, or unmistakably human. Which of these scenes got you the most? I'd love to hear, and you are welcome to think about it... just be warned, I might need a therapy session over it.

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