Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Squid GameThe Korean series Squid Game has taken over the world, soaring to the top of the charts as one of Netflix’s biggest shows ever. Audiences have been enraptured by the cast of fascinating characters driven to compete in schoolyard games for a chance to win a fortune, even if one false move means their death. But no matter how compulsively watchable it is, every show must come to an end, and here I’ll be digging into the finale of the hit show to explain just what happened and, perhaps what it means for the future.
Going into the final episode, “One Lucky Day,” the series of deadly games lived up to their deadliness, with only two from the over 400 contestants remaining: Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) and Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo). Ready to take the fight to Sang-woo after he slit the throat of Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon) the night before, Gi-hun takes the offense in the final game — Squid Game. After a brutal fight, Gi-hun is about to win the game but instead offers to take a vote to shut it down so they can both go home alive, but Sang-woo takes his own life. Thus, Gi-hun is crowned the winner of the fortune, but at no small cost.
As promised, Gi-hun is given his nearly 40+ billion won (33+ million dollars), and with the exception of withdrawing 10,000 won from an ATM and putting the rest in the bank, he does just about nothing with his winnings. Struggling to deal with the horrors he experienced during the game, he’s soon given a chance to meet the mastermind behind the whole game and possibly get some answers. Turns out, this mastermind is none other than Player 001 – Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su) – whom Gi-hun thought died after their round of marbles together in episode six, (“Gganbu”).
This twist finds Il-nam alive, but very much sick from the brain tumor he said he had at the start of the series. On death’s door, he has one last game for Gi-hun, betting that no one will come to help the drunk man on the street they can see through the window, who may die if left out in the cold. Accepting Gi-hun’s challenge – saying he will kill Il-nam with his bare hands should he win – he asks the dying man why he started the Game in the first place. On top of being a game meant to entertain the absurdly wealthy with nothing else better to do, it was a chance for the dying man to experience a bit of nostalgia for the games of his youth. As well, like a sort of demented Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it was a chance for Il-nam to see if there was any good left in humanity before he goes, hence this last game with Gi-hun. At the final stroke of midnight, a passerby returns with police to help the drunk man, leaving Gi-hun victorious, but perhaps not before Il-nam got to see the result and finally succumb to death in his bed.
Perhaps with a new lease of life, Gi-hun decides to make some use of his money by getting a wild new hairdo, some nice clothes, and live up to his promises to Sae-byeok and Sang-woo to take care of their families. He gives the former’s brother, Cheol (Park Si-wan), to the latter’s mother (Park Hye-jin) to care for, including a suitcase full of cash in the process. Dressed in fancy new suit, Gi-hun is then seen on the way to a flight to visit his daughter (Cho Ah-in), when he sees the slapping recruiter (Gong Yoo) from the first episode playing a game with yet another potential player. Desperate to warn this man from getting lured to his almost certain death, he runs to the other side of the subway platform, only to miss the suave recruiter, and takes the player’s “golden ticket” so he can’t enter the game.
In the final moments, Gi-hun calls the number on the back of the card as he boards the plane, with those on the receiving end knowing it’s him, telling him to essentially mind his business, get on the plane (how do they know where he is!?), and live the rich life. But Gi-hun isn’t doing that. Stopping himself from getting on the plane, he turns back and vows to find out who else is behind the game, and put a stop to it.
The stunning success and this ending mean that we should expect a season two at some point, which would likely focus more on the background dealings of the game as Gi-hun sets off to peel back more seedy layers of the game and its operations. Time will tell if/when we will see Gi-hun back in action, or if he’ll have that bright red hair, but we can gather from this ending that the game goes far deeper than Oh Il-nam, and Gi-hun is determined to uncover who else is behind it all.