Squid Game Season 3's Finale Has Critics And Audiences All Saying The Same Thing

Contains spoilers for "Squid Game" Season 3

It's as close to a happy ending as a bleak show like "Squid Game" can get — and critics and audiences have some pretty mixed-to-negative feelings about it. In the series finale, after dealing with multiple crises of faith and refusing to bow entirely to the cruelties of human nature, Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) makes the ultimate sacrifice and tosses himself from the final pillar during the push game. 

That makes Kim Jun-hee's (Jo Yu-ri) baby the winner of the games; Front Man Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun) takes the baby with him just before he blows the island sky high. Audiences are then treated to a montage of the various people who Gi-hun directly and indirectly helped find happy endings of their own, from No-eul (Park Gyu-young) to his own daughter. The series ends with a rich woman played by Cate Blanchett engaging in a game of Ddakji with a homeless man in a Los Angeles alley, whom a passing In-ho gives a nod to — a hint that the games are an international thing.

The ending has drawn mixed feelings from critics: it has a 89% approval score, just above Season 2's 83%, on Rotten Tomatoes. But fans are much angrier; some of them have called it one of the worst series finales ever, comparing it to the way "Game of Thrones" ended. That's quite a damning comment, and it wasn't the only one. 

With the VIPs still alive, The Front Man still on the run, and Gi-hun's dream of closing the games down for good a failure, the conclusion of "Squid Game" was bound to be polarizing. While some critics have called the ending brilliant, fitting, and emotional, others had plenty of negative things to say about how it ends.

Some had issues with Hwang In-ho's escape. "He will get no comeuppance, nor will any of the VIPs, the guards, or anyone else. This perhaps is fitting given the themes Hwang was writing about, but it's dramatically unsatisfying for a show with such a pulpy aesthetic," said Rolling Stone critic Alan Sepinwall. SlashFilm's Chris Evangelista called the finale disappointing and the show's morals pat. "For 'Squid Game' to take us through three violent seasons and conclude in a manner that seems to be saying little more than 'Everything sucks, what more did you expect?' feels like a bit of a letdown," Evangelista wrote.  

Multiple critics noted that the choice to stop and wait for the characters to vote to continue the games was interminable. "By the time 'Squid Game' finally crawls over the finish line, there's no sense of the triumph you might get from completing a really good story — only of relief that this entire grueling experience is finally over," The Hollywood Reporter's Angie Han opined, a sentiment echoed by a surprisingly large number of fans.

Fans who congregate at the "Squid Game" subreddit were less than thrilled about how disappointing the series finale was for them. A number of them noted that the ending felt like a promo for an American "Squid Game" spin-off that has yet to exist. "Suddenly ['Game of Thrones'] finale doesn't look as terrible. This was awful, it didn't deliver on anything except to give [us] a teaser for US show apparently," claimed u/Spirited_Pay4610. "I can't wait to go see Zendaya push Sydney Sweeney off a swing into metal spikes in Squid Game: America," snarked u/No_Occasion_8408. 

Plenty of viewers also felt like Hwang Jun-ho's (Wi-jun Hoon) storyline was a complete waste of time, as he not only fails to bust the games, but sees his brother for a grand total of four seconds before being separated from him again. Others were annoyed by the fact that Gi-hun's goals failed and that his characterization didn't make sense. The feelings of all these fans were encapsulated by this single comment: "What are your thoughts after watching Squid Game S3? Here's mine — I wished I never watched it," posted u/Mikushubby. Ouch.