WARNING: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Squid Game season 3.Squid Gametells a tightly woven story, wrapped up neatly in its short three-season run, and we see now how the seeds were planted from the beginning to underscore the series' main themes at the end.Squid Gamefollows the character transformation of Lee Jung-jae’s Gi-hun, a neglectful father and gambler deep in debt who becomes a would-be revolutionary when he survives the games — and when that revolution fails, is pushed into an even darker headspace, where he has to decide what he will fight for when dismantling the entire operation is not within his power.
Squid Gameseason 3 has audiences divided, as the final few games play out much like the tournament inSquid Gameseason 1, with all but one of the players being killed. As many now know,Squid Gameseason 3 endswith Gi-hun sacrificing himself when there can only be one winner of the game being played, andhe chooses to save Jun-hee’s (Jo Yu-ri) newborn baby instead of himself.Gi-hun’s final stand is characterized again by his belief that it is worth it to protect others, accompanied by a symbolic motif that appears throughout the series.
Gi-hun’s Final Words Were A Callback To Squid Game’s First Episode
We See Gi-hun Betting On Horse Racing In Squid Game’s Pilot
When we are introduced to Gi-hun inSquid Game’s first episode as a deadbeat and a gambler, one of the things we see him doing is betting on horse races, attempting to win some money to take his daughter out for her birthday.He actually has a good day on this occasion, although the money he wins is promptly stolen by Kang Sae-byeok (Hoyeon), whom he properly meets later when they are both enlisted as players in the games.Meanwhile, the motif of horses being living things that people bet on for entertainment comes up several more times.
As Gi-hun ideologically wars with the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) and the creator of the games Il-nam (O Yeong-su), the concept of people being substituted for horses is alluded toif not said outright. The games exist because a group of very rich people were so bored with all the luxuries they could afford that they had to construct a scenario where they could bet on actual humans to experience some kind of thrill. However, Gi-hun calls the practice out as horrific until the end. His final statement starts with “we are not horses,” calling back to this recurring symbol that began in the pilot.
Gi-hun Died Without Losing His Faith In Humanity
Gi-hun Protected The Baby As Others Did
As well as fighting for the atrocities of the games to end,Gi-hun is always arguing with the series' villains that he is right in believing that humans are fundamentally good.During his confrontation with Il-nam, while the latter is on his deathbed, they play a “game” betting on whether any passerby will help a homeless person who is freezing to death. Gi-hun ferociously clings to the fact that he “won” this game (someone goes to the police for help) for years to come. The idea that humans will choose each other over profit becomes a tenet of his worldview.
And, there are many times when he is proven right, as several members of theSquid Gameseason 3 castprotect each other when more deaths would mean more money to go around. They are usually pushed to their absolute worst when they must choose between saving their own life and another person — and yet they sometimes still choose that person.Gi-hun dies for the same reason, as he believes that the baby is worth savingafter several other people died protecting Jun-hee so the baby would be born in the first place.
Why Gi-hun Didn’t Finish His Sentence About Humans
Gi-hun Couldn’t Say All The Things That Humans Are – But Some Of Them Are Good
Gi-hun’s full final message before he lets himself fall from the last tower in Sky Squid Game is: “We are not horses. We are humans. Humans are…” These words summarize his two core beliefs: that the VIPs have no right to treat humans as playthings, and that humans aren’t inherently evil. The callback to his own habit of betting on horses summarizes the first point, while the latter is more complicated. Series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk says in the Netflix specialSquid Game in ConversationthatGi-hun’s last sentence was left incomplete to illustrate the complexity of humans:
But as I wrote that all out, it became clear I couldn’t sum this up in a single line. People are far too complex to be defined categorically like that. And if I sent the viewers a message that was so explicit, so normative and didactic, it would actually serve to limit the message itself. So, I decided the rest of what I wanted to say would instead be expressed physically by Gi-hun, through his actions, through his deeds, and the sacrifice he makes to save that child.
We have seen this throughout the show as people are put into extreme circumstances: some will fight to protect each other. Others are completely confused by the fact that someone would care at all about someone they just met. Some of the players' only focus is the money, while those like Gi-hun, while they certainly do need the money at one point, decide that it is not worth the bloodshed. As divisive as the conclusion toSquid Gameis turning out to be, Gi-hun’s final act perfectly brings everything full circle in the show’s characteristically tragic fashion.
