Squid Recreation Season 3’s Alternate Gi-Hun Ending (And Why It Modified)

“Squid Recreation” season 3 concluded the sequence on a fairly bleak word. Not solely did Detective Jun-ho by no means handle to close down the video games (and even a lot as make a dent within the operation), however the video games themselves ended poorly for 99.56% of the gamers concerned. Of the 456 individuals who took half within the recreation, solely two survived. One was Participant 256 (who was discreetly rescued by sympathetic guard Kang No-eul) and the opposite was Participant 222, a cute CGI child. Even our most important character Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) died ultimately. He sacrificed himself as a way to save 222’s life, throwing himself off a ledge after a season filled with ache. 

It is a darkish finale, but it surely wasn’t all the time the writers’ plan for Gi-hun. As showrunner Hwang Dong-hyuk defined in a latest interview, he was initially eager about maintaining Gi-Hun alive all through your entire sequence. That does not essentially imply, nevertheless, that Dong-hyuk was planning to have Gi-hun throw poor child 222 off that big triangle. As he defined: 

“I did take into consideration having Gi-hun stay. I considered an ending the place Gi-hun would make it out of the sport in a method or one other, and he would go to America to see his daughter. However within the means of writing it, I had a change of coronary heart. I believed what story do I need to inform by the present? Additionally, I checked out what was occurring all over the world on the time and the way there was much less hope for humanity. I considered Gi-hun sacrificing himself for this child, simply as all of us ought to for our future technology. That was a better-fitting ending for each the present and the character.”

Whereas followers actually needed Gi-Hun to outlive the video games in a single piece, Dong-hyuk finds his destiny inspiring. Not solely is Gi-Hun’s last act a noble one, however his sacrifice positively impacts the lives of a number of individuals round him. Even these annoying VIPs appear moved by his choice; it forces them to replicate (at the least for a second) on their very own depravity, and for as soon as none of them appear to have something to say. 

Kang No-eul particularly is moved by Gi-Hun’s selection. She’s about to finish her personal life till she sees him sacrifice himself, and that is what conjures up her to maintain on residing. Dong-hyuk famous that No-eul (whose title represents “nightfall”) is somebody who has been caught residing with “deep unhappiness and guilt that she wasn’t capable of save her child.” She redeems herself by saving Participant 246, but it surely’s not till seeing Gi-hun’s dying that she’s prepared to rekindle hope that personal her youngster would possibly nonetheless be alive in North Korea. 

“I needed her to be somebody who goes past what occurs at nightfall and as soon as once more begins to dream of a brand new day,” Dong-hyuk stated. He added: 

“The symbolism behind youngsters [in the show], it is not simply concerning the organic youngster of 1 character, however I needed that to represent any type of hope we could have for the longer term in addition to our will to stay. … I needed to painting this message the place all of those characters and whoever is watching are dreaming of what is to return sooner or later.”

Dong-hyuk famous that In-ho, the sport’s ominous Entrance Man, was additionally moved by Gi-hun’s last moments. He and Gi-hun have spent the previous two seasons locked in a battle of ideologies. The optimistic Gi-hun believes that individuals are value defending, whereas the bitter, hardened In-ho believes that people are inherently monstrous and self-serving. 

All through most of “Squid Recreation” season 3, it positive looks like In-ho’s been confirmed proper. Gi-hun’s rebel falls aside, all the opposite gamers find yourself killing one another, and even the child 222’s personal father is prepared to throw him off a cliff if it means saving his personal pores and skin. However Gi-hun will get the ultimate phrase by sacrificing himself. He refuses to take the simple, self-serving route that In-ho took to survive his personal time within the video games. As Dong-hyuk put it:

“By sacrificing himself, Gi-hun’s actions have positively touched one thing in In-ho’s coronary heart, perhaps a really small sliver of hope that he had hidden deep down in his coronary heart. I additionally suppose it could have triggered some disgrace in him, as a result of that [sacrifice] was one thing he wasn’t capable of do for himself. With the gaming enviornment in Korea being utterly ruined and seeing this child who made it out of the sport, there was an enormous change inside the Entrance Man, and I feel that was triggered and led to by Gi-hun’s actions. I needed that to be what the viewers feels as nicely.”