Every Main Squid Game Character Who Survives Season 3

This article contains major spoilers for “Squid Game” season 3.

In “Squid Game,” the titular death match has never had more than one survivor (that we know of). Season 1 drove this point home to devastating effect, offering Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) an unwitting victory that leaves him utterly broken on the inside. The Netflix series’ first cliffhanger highlights this innate brokenness, which quickly turns into justified rage when Gi-hun decides to commit his life to dismantling the games. This second chance comes around in season 2, where he is offered another chance to participate. But this time, he is armed with foreknowledge about the competition’s battle royale-esque challenges and just how bloody they can get.

However, “Squid Game” doesn’t take advantage of Gi-hun’s unique position beyond the first “Red Light, Green Light” challenge, as it preoccupies itself with the exaggerated cruelty of the other participants, who emerge as unquestionably evil people instead of morally grey characters. Even the ones who do not let go of their humanity are unceremoniously killed off, including the fiercely protective Player 120/Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon) and the endearingly sweet Player 222/Jun-hee (Jo Yuri). 

A mix of tragic injustice and arbitrary luck leads to the deaths of many, including Gi-hun, who sacrifices himself to ensure that Jun-hee’s newborn child (the new Player 222) is the uncontested winner of the games. While the series leans heavily into depressive bleakness with Gi-hun’s shocking death, the baby’s hopeful fate proves there’s still some sense of justice in this twisted world.

However, things are still fairly complicated, as some characters have uncertain futures despite the fact that they survive. Among them, there are those who survive by default, such as the guards stationed on the island. Apart from these secondary fates, here are the major characters who are alive by the end of “Squid Game” season 3, wherein almost all of them are offered a second chance at life.

The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) has been a mystifying presence since season 1, especially due to his familial connection with Detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun), who is equally clueless about his brother’s involvement in the games. We finally get a chance to glean his motivations in season 2, as he participates in the games as Player 001 while assuming the pseudonym “Oh Young-il” (just like his predecessor Oh Il-nam in season 1, hence recycling the same emotional twist). 

We infer that the Front Man joined the games to save his terminally ill wife and her unborn child, but was unable to prevent their deaths despite winning the prize money in the end. Although this provides us with essential context for his transformation into the Front Man, it is not nearly enough to explain his contrarian impulses and his long-term goals with respect to the games.

By the end of season 3, the Front Man survives, as he leaves the island with the newborn child after a (pointless) confrontation with Jun-ho. He also makes some attempts at decency, as he leaves Jun-hee’s child with Jun-ho along with the winner’s share, and delivers the news of Gi-hun’s death to his daughter (while also giving her the remaining prize money). This doesn’t mean that he’s done with the games, only that this version of the competition is now over, as the organizers came very close to being discovered and exposed to the world. 

As the surprise reveal at the end denotes (with Cate Blanchett embodying the latest Recruiter, a potential tie-in to David Fincher’s English-language series that is currently in the making), the games will continue outside South Korea, with or without the Front Man supervising these iterations.

Jun-ho’s wild, eventful adventure on the island in season 1 positioned him as a promising character, as he came off as a smart, dedicated detective whose efforts were cut short by forces outside of his control. Season 2, however, immediately squandered this build-up, as it relegated Jun-ho to the turbulent seas, which he blindly navigates to make his way back to the island. His game plan has never been coherent, as it is unclear whether he aimed to simply confront his brother or expose the games as a whole, as there were no contingency measures in place to ensure the latter. To think that a seasoned detective (who is intimately aware of the manpower that the organizers wield) planned to storm an island with a dozen armed men is ridiculous; it paints Jun-ho as naive and incompetent.

After spending two whole seasons searching for the island, Jun-ho finally reaches the location, but only after being betrayed by Captain Park (Oh Dal-su), who gets almost all of his hired men killed. This laborious journey ends up being a nothingburger, as Jun-ho’s frantic questions aimed at the Front Man are left unanswered, and he is forced to escape soon after the structure blows up. A few months later, he receives the note along with the child, having been suddenly given the responsibility of looking after a baby. It’s unclear how Jun-ho feels about this development, but there’s good reason to believe that he might perceive this as closure for his complicated relationship with the Front Man.

Player 246/Park Gyeong-seok (Lee Jin-wook) is first introduced through the eyes of Kang No-eul (Park Gyu-young), who later joins the game as Guard 011. Both Gyeong-seok and No-eul used to work at the same amusement park as mascot performers, which allowed the latter to learn that Gyeong-seok’s daughter has blood cancer. Gyeong-seok’s reason to join the games is pretty clear from the start, as he only wants to earn enough to ensure treatment for his daughter’s terminal illness, which explains why he isn’t as bloodthirsty as the other participants. Although we don’t know much about Gyeong-seok, his identity as a father who is desperate to save his child is more than enough to earn our sympathies.

Gyeong-seok undergoes hell after joining Gi-hun’s plan to revolt against the organizers, as he is shot after the revolters are surrounded by guards. Unbeknownst to him, it is No-eul who shoots him non-fatally, as she knows that unconscious bodies are ripe targets for the organ trafficking gang, who are quick to bring Gyeong-seok to the operating table. As Guard 011, No-eul shoots everyone at the scene except the doctor, whom she coerces to save Gyeong-seok’s life, even offering her own blood for a transfusion. After he’s conscious, she asks him to pose as a guard before escaping on a boat together.

However, No-eul is blackmailed into returning to the island, which prompts her to leave Gyeong-seok alone on the boat. Confused and terrified, he manages to shoot the pursuing guards with limited ammo, and is saved in the nick of time by Jun-ho and his partner. Six months later, we see Gyeong-seok with his daughter, who now seems to have completely recovered from her illness. 

No-eul’s motivation to join the games as a guard can be traced back to her desire to be reunited with her daughter, whom she had inadvertently left behind after defecting from North Korea. Throughout seasons 2 and 3, this simmering guilt eats at No-eul’s conscience, although she seems to have no qualms about killing participants, as she was one of the snipers during the “Red Light, Green Light” game. She also refers to some of the playerbase as “trash” on a separate occasion, although it is unclear whether this disdain is genuine or simply an act.

This callous apathy is in stark contrast with her determination to help Gyeong-seok, as she goes to great lengths to ensure that he makes it out alive. When her boss questions her motives during a violent confrontation towards the end, No-eul reveals that she’s helping Gyeong-seok save his daughter, as she reminds her of her own. Even when her boss mocks this selective empathy and grievously wounds her, No-eul remains firm, fighting viciously to kill him instead.

After burning down the room that contained all player/guard records, No-eul contemplates suicide, but Gi-hun’s brave sacrifice stops her from taking such a drastic step. Perhaps Gi-hun’s selfless act reaffirms the tender hope that she can still search for her daughter, and that she must keep persisting for her sake. Six months later, No-eul learns that her daughter is alive in China, after which she is last seen at the airport en route to that destination. She meets Gyeong-seok and his daughter one last time, although she doesn’t mention anything about the island or the fact that she helped save them both.

Although Choi Woo-seok (Jeon Seok-ho) is first introduced as a loan shark who works for Kim Jeong-rae, his loyalty to Gi-hun and his cause makes it easy for us to root for him. After Gi-hun recruits Mr. Kim to search and identify the Recruiter, both Kim and Woo-seok get kidnapped by him and are subjected to a traumatic game of Russian roulette. Kim’s death solidifies Woo-seok’s determination to expose the game organizers, and he consistently assists Jun-ho after Gi-hun returns to the games a second time.

It might be tempting to sideline Woo-seok as a secondary character, but it’s worth noting that Jun-ho would’ve never reached the island without his intervention. Woo-seok was the only person to warn him against Captain Park (a warning Jun-ho didn’t heed until it was too late), and went to great lengths to obtain proof of Park’s connection with the games. Despite being arrested by the police, Woo-seok places a well-timed phone call to Jun-ho, essentially saving his life by giving him a heads-up about Park’s betrayal. In the end, Woo-seok buys the hotel Gi-hun was holed up in at the beginning of season 2, intending to renovate it (perhaps with the intention of honoring his memory in a gesture of goodwill).

Last but not least, we have the VIPs, who somehow manage to flee before the explosion. Although we’re not privy to their names, their collective identity as the affluent who gamble with the lives of participants is abhorrent enough to warrant indifference toward their fates. In keeping with their general attitude (as seen in season 1), the VIPs in this iteration of the games are as cruel and out-of-touch as ever, gleefully indulging in hedonistic excess during an orchestrated death match served up as entertainment. Their perception of those who do not share their wealth/status is rooted in horrific dehumanization, as they keep betting on distressed players as if they’re inanimate pawns in a game of chess.

One of season 3’s most egregious twists is that Jun-hee’s newborn is enlisted as a player on a whim, and one of the VIPs bets on this helpless child without a second thought. For them, every immoral act is a line that can be crossed without remorse, as the end goal is thoughtless entertainment at the cost of actual human lives. Since “Squid Game” clearly frames these masked individuals as the faceless one-percenters who hoard resources and exploit the average person without consequence, it’s hard to care about their survival. 

When we think about the countless innocent deaths that the games have brought about, our ire is naturally directed at the VIPs, whose presence validates the existence of these cruel games in the first place. Perhaps, in a different iteration of the games, they will be the ones begging for mercy.

Season 3 of “Squid Game” is currently streaming on Netflix.