How does ‘Squid Game’ end? Who wins the final game, Player 456’s fate and more, explained

After three seasons, hundreds of deaths, billions of Korean wons handed out, and a seemingly infinite roller-coaster of twists and turns, “Squid Game” has now dropped its final episodes on Netflix.

A series that wasn’t originally designed for a second season, “Squid Game” became a phenomenon with hundreds of millions of viewers around the world.

Season 1 introduced audiences to the Korean series in which a secret game show is played on a remote island for the benefit of a few, wealthy, masked VIPs, with only one winner allowed to take home the prize.

Seasons 2 and 3 returned that winner (Lee Jung-jae, who played Seong Gi-hun, aka Player 456) to the arena, but also delved into the lives of the armed, pink-suited guards and a bulldog detective determined to shut the whole system down.

Now that the final game (or so we think) has been played, who were the winners? Who were the losers? Let’s dig into what we know. But beware — things get dark in this “Game.”

Warning: Spoilers for all of “Squid Game” ahead.

Does Player 456 die in ‘Squid Game’? Seong Gi-hun’s fate, explained

Gi-hun goes through the wringer in Seasons 2 and 3. He bringas himself back into the game in order to subvert it, believing that his experience could foment a rebellion among the players. It turns out that in the game — as often in real life — players prefer to vote for their own personal interests rather than what was best for the collective, a brutal metaphor.

Disillusioned by humanity after several of the games, Gi-hun checks out of active participation as much as he can — until circumstances bring him a baby to protect during the game. The baby is given its late mother’s (Jo Yuri, playing Kim Jun-hee, aka Player 222) number and is permitted to “participate” in her stead.

In the final round of the game, Gi-hun and the baby make it to the last stage. They had to face off numerous final players in the last test, which involved pushing players from the top of several tall towers. But on the final tower, Gi-hun, the baby and Player 333 (Yim Si-wan, playing Lee Myung-gi, the baby’s father) are the only ones left standing. The rules dictated that one person on the tower must die for the game to end, but that person had to die after a button on the tower is pressed. Gi-hun and Myung-gi fight — and Myung-gi fall from the tower.

Unfortunately, the button wasn’t pushed before he fell, so time had not started and the death didn’t count. A death was still required to end the game. The VIPs in their protected booth expected Gi-hun to sacrifice the baby — but they clearly didn’t know him well. There’s no real winning at Squid Game, the show seemed to be saying — all that money didn’t make Gi-hun’s life a whole lot better. So Gi-hun kisses the baby, puts her on the ground and turns to the camera to say, “We are not horses. We are humans.” Then he falls from the tower and died.

It’s a bittersweet ending, but a profound one — and answered the question Front Man asked Gi-hun in Season 3: “Do you still have faith in people?”

By not sacrificing an innocent baby, we got Gi-hun’s final answer.

So, who wins ‘Squid Game’ in Season 3?

Player 222, the infant.

What about the detective, Jun-ho, who’s been investigating the Squid Game?

Hwang Jun-ho (played by Wi Ha-joon) is too late to save Gi-hun, but he is able to send the Korean Coast Guard to the island.

Jun-ho does rescue the escaped Player 246 (Park Gyeong-seok, played by Lee Jin-wook), whose daughter is hospitalized with leukemia.

Jun-ho arrives on the island looking for his brother (In-ho, aka Front Man, played by Lee Byung-hun), making it to the VIP chamber — just as In-ho retrieved Player 222, the baby, from the top of the final tower.

Jun-ho considers shooting his brother but can’t, because he is afraid of harming the baby. Six months after the game ended, Jun-ho finds the baby and the game’s prize money left for him (probably by In-ho).

Does the pink-suited guard No-eul survive?

Kang No-eul (aka Guard 011, played by Park Gyuyoung) had lost her daughter and bonded with Player 246’s child before coming to the island as a guard.

But when she discovers the organ-harvesting operation going on between the guards and the dead players, she steps up her efforts to help Player 246 escape.

She destroys all evidence he had seen on the island and is prepared to die in the Front Man’s office when she sees Gi-hun’s sacrifice. Hearing the baby, she decides not to kill herself.

Six months later, she shows up visiting Player 246 in the amusement park where he still works and where she used to work in a costume. He remains unaware that she was the one who saved his life, since she had her pink suit and mask on the whole time. She reunites with Player 246’s daughter, now healthy.

But there’s a twist: No-eul, who is a North Korean defector who was separated from her daughter, gets news that the child might be alive in China. We last see No-eul at the airport, ready to get on a plane to possibly visit her daughter.

If that sounds familiar, it’s similar to the way Season 1 ended, with Gi-hun about to go see his own daughter in Los Angeles.

Does Gi-hun live on?

Kind of. When we first meet Gi-hun in Season 1, one reason he gets into the game in the first place is so he could support his daughter. But after he wins, he becomes obsessed with ending the game.

With Gi-hun dead, In-ho (Front Man) makes the trip Gi-hun didn’t: He goes to the U.S. to see the late player’s daughter. He hands over a box of Gi-hun’s belongings to his daughter — a bloody uniform and a debit card, which probably had the remainder of Gi-hun’s winnings on it. Did In-ho change his own opinion about humanity’s worth? It seems he is preparing to do so.

Will there be more ‘Squid Game’?

Based on the final scenes, we suspect yes.

In the last scene, after In-ho finishes dropping off the winnings to Gi-hun’s daughter, he spots a woman playing the introductory card-slap game with someone in an alley. And not just anybody — he sees a Recruiter, played by Cate Blanchett! They don’t speak to each other, though she nods with recognition at him and he moves on.

Season 1 informed us that Squid Games are played around the world, and Deadline reported last year that an English-language version of the series was being developed with director David Fincher at the helm. Maybe we’ve just seen the first scene in “Squid Game: USA”?