Squid Game season 3 episode 5 recap: the final game leads to devastating consequences

Squid Game season 3 marks the final instalment of the hit Netflix show, bringing the story to an undoubtedly intense close.

Picking up where season 2 left off, Gi-hun, aka Player 456, and the remaining players must battle through the final deadly games to fight for their survival. With Gi-hun personally seeking his revenge against Front Man. Meanwhile, Jun-ho continues his search for the island, hoping to reunite with his brother and free any survivors before it's too late.

With the 45.6 billion won prize continuing to divide players, Front Man and the VIPs watch on as they take on game after game to pay off their debts in the outside world. But, at what real cost?

Here's a recap of everything that happened in Squid Game season 3 episode 5.

The penultimate episode opens on guard 11 reaching the vent on the side of the cliff. She shoots it, stopping the fan from rotating and allowing her to enter. Meanwhile, Gi-hun has returned to the main room. He holds the knife to Player 100’s neck. It cuts to a flashback of Front Man sitting in front of a man wearing a full owl mask. Front Man is wearing a suit labelled as Player 132 and he’s offered a knife by the masked man to go and kill the other players. The same as Front Man has done for Gi-hun. He goes back and stabs the remaining players to death. Gi-hun can’t do the same. Instead, he imagines Player 167 is there and she tells him that he’s a good person.

Guard 11 crawls through the vents while Player 246 tries to escape on the boat. It’s foggy and Jun-ho is driving the boat across the water, too. On the radio, someone speaks to Jun-ho. He’s told to give up. It’s his brother, Front Man. He tells him if he keeps looking for the games, he’ll die. Meanwhile, the players are all waking up. They’re told the final game will begin soon. Guard 11 makes it above an apartment and hears the shower running. She drops down into the room, but then the shower stops. She hides.

The final eight players ascend the stairwell to the final game. Guard 11 holds her gun up as the officer comes back into the room. He asks if she came alone and she says she’d never follow the order to bring the player back. He asks what she wants and she tells him to delete Player 246’s record. He does so on his computer, as instructed. She says she has to get rid of the records in his brain, but before she can shoot him, he tells her there’s hard copies in the archives in the Front Man’s office. Only him and Front Man have access.

The players arrive to the final game. There are three large pillars; triangle, circle and square. Meanwhile, guard 11 uses the officer to get to Front Man’s office. In the lift, the officer turns on her and tries to grab her gun. They begin to fight and continue as they reach Front Man’s office, wrestling into the room. In the game, the players are asked to proceed to the elevator. They all get inside. At the top, they are stood on the yellow square. The VIPs are watching from their viewing window and the game announcer says they’re playing Sky Squid Game.

The officer asks guard 11 why she’s doing what she’s doing. He says he knows her and Player 246 worked together at the amusement park. She says if Player 246 dies, so will his daughter. He scoffs that she’d do all this to protect a child when she abandoned her own. She begs him to let them go. He gets out a knife and tells her she crossed the line. They begin to fight again and she gets hold of the knife. He smashes a glass over her head. He tells her he didn’t just bring her there because they’re both from North Korea. He said he thought she’d understand him. He tells her he also lost the only person he cared about as he stabs her in the side. The control room call in on his walkie-talkie. He’s told they’re waiting to start the game. He tells them to proceed and he’ll be there soon.

He turns on the screen to let guard 11 watch the final game. He tells her he should’ve thrown her into the game too. He thought since she ditched her child to save herself, she was different like him. She crawls towards the elevator, so he picks up his knife and follows her. He says she can’t get use the elevator without his mask, but she manages to open the door and pick up the gun from the elevator and shoot him to death.

At the final game, the players are told the rules. There will be three rounds. First, the square pillar, then the triangle pillar and then the circle one. Each shape they have to play a pushing game. They are to push players off alive as a group. Then, they’ll move to the next pillar. Each round will continue the same. One or more players on each pillar has to die. If they don’t do it in the time limit, all players will be eliminated.

The players start to move towards Gi-hun and the baby. But, Player 125 is hallucinating that Thanos is hanging off the edge. Thanos tells him he missed him and needs help to get up. He says he has more pills in his necklace. As Player 125 goes to reach him, Thanos changes into Player 124 who grabs at his leg and asks for the pills. Then, it switches between the two men and he fights them both off. The announcer tells the players to press the button on the ground to start the game. They have 15 minutes.

Player 100 tells them to lose one each round, so they only have to get rid of three. They want to vote who to eliminate in each round. The six players look between Gi-hun and the baby and Player 125. They start to discuss eliminating the baby, Player 222, first. They tell Gi-hun the baby doesn’t have a chance. Player 333 objects. He says instead, they should kill Gi-hun because he’ll try and protect the kid at all costs, meaning he won’t let the baby go and they'll fall together. One of the players says they should push them both off, but another argues then they’d need to get rid of more than three players if they did that. They all look at Player 125. He starts to beg and then he starts screaming at them. There’s only four minutes left, but they can’t decide which player will actually push him off. Nobody wants to do it.

Then, Player 333 pulls the pole from the middle of the square out of the floor. He uses that to move towards Player 125 while keeping his distance. He pushes him off the edge as he imagines his friend that Player 124 killed holding his hand and falling with him. The other players congratulate Player 333. Meanwhile, the pursuit team are chasing Player 246 in his boat. Guard 11 is in Front Man’s office and opens a door, seeing the body of Player 001, Commander Oh, and his owl mask next to him. Another door is locked, so she shoots it open. Inside this room is another door to a stairwell. She descends and finds another locked door, which she shoots as well. Here, she finds all the hard copies in the archives.

For the final game, a bridge appears for the players to walk across to get to the triangle pillar. The VIPs contemplate how the players will separate Gi-hun and Player 222 to kill them between pillars. Before Player 100 presses the button to start, Player 333 stops him and says they need to separate Gin-hu and the baby before they start the timer. They vote to eliminate the baby next. Even Player 333 agrees. Player 353 pulls the pole from the pillar and asks Gi-hun to hang the baby on the end of the pole. They argue that they’ll push both of them off. But he says they’d have to pick another person to die on the next pillar.

Player 203 presses the button and the 15-minute timer starts. He says they should just push them both off. Gi-hun tells Player 353 to do it, but Gi-hun tells him they’re already talking about pushing Player 353 off next. He can’t do it. Player 203 tries to take the pole off him, but he won’t let go. They start struggling with the pole between them. As they argue, Player 333 says he has an idea. Meanwhile, guard 11 searches for Player 246’s file and finds it. As Player 246 continues his escape, the pursuit team starts firing at him. They shoot at his motor stopping the boat altogether.

At the game arena, the men are playing rock, paper, scissors. They play as a group with anyone in the minority losing, which is Player 100 and Player 336. Then they play each other and Player 336 loses meaning he has to get the baby. Meanwhile, the guards pull up to Player 246’s boat. As they go to shoot him, someone else shoots them to death. It’s Jun-ho and his teammate on their boat.

The men have tied all their jackets together and around Player 336's waist. He tells them not to let go of him. Player 333 tells him if he can’t get hold of the baby then to pull both of them into the center with him. He says he’ll push Gi-hun when he does. Player 336 walks towards Gi-hun. He tells him they’re going to draw lots and eliminate players collectively by pulling strips of fabric and whoever gets the shortest loses. He tries to lure Gi-hun in, but he refuses. He says to bring the lots to him.

When Player 336 asks for them, Player 100 says he needs to count again to be sure. Suddenly, Player 336 lunges forward and grabs Gi-hun, pulling him in as the men pull at the jackets. Gi-hun pulls out the knife Front Man gave him and cuts the jackets. He then holds the knife up to Player 336’s throat. Player 333 starts approaching from behind with the pole. He starts running and tells Gi-hun to get out of the way as he pushes Player 336 off the edge. He turns to Gi-hun and tells him he’s with him.

The remaining players say they don’t need to kill anyone else. So, then they suggest drawing the lots. They vote and four of them agree they should draw lots, with the majority, their idea wins. Player 333 says that they could betray them. They says he betrayed them and it was his suggestion to kill the baby in the first place. Then he admits to them all that he’s the father of the baby. The VIPs rejoice at the drama. One of them says Front Man bringing Gi-hun back was the best idea of all. Player 333 tells Gi-hun they should team up since they have weapons.

Suddenly the other players turn on Player 039 and start beating him up. Player 100 says they should beat him half to death and then carry him over the bridge. Then, at the next pillar, they can push him off. They continue to beat him and then break one of his legs. Gi-hun starts walking towards them with the knife. He tells them it’s not the right way to do it. Instead, they should draw lots. They try to beg with Player 333 to stop. But then they try and grab the pole from him and the knife from Gi-hun. A struggle starts between the players and Player 203 gets hold of the knife to try and stab Gi-hun. Player 333 manages to push Player 353 off the edge. And Gi-hun stabs Player 203 before he’s nearly strangled to death.

The baby is crying on the floor where Gi-hun left her safely. Player 100 remains with Player 309 still on the floor. They're now against Player 333, Gi-hun and the baby. Player 100 starts to beg as Player 333 walks towards him with the pole. Player 333 says they’ll get 15.2 billion each if he pushes Player 100 off and so, he does it. He turns around and sees Player 309 crawling towards the edge. Player 333 asks him not to fall because they can talk about it, but he does it anyway. That leaves Player 333, Gi-hun and the baby for the final round. A round in which one of them needs to be pushed off the edge.

All episodes of Squid Game are available to stream now on Netflix.