Why Squid Game's Ending Reveal Doesn't Work

Aight the old man not having cuffs on during the tightrope game was some pretty good attention to detail, thanks for pointing that out y'all

He also cried out to stop this madness, when the fighting broke out at night.

Everyone already said what was what you completely gut wrenchingly missed so yeah, you missed the point it's so painful I can't even write 500 paragraph

"The game isn't fair". Almost like... THAT'S THE POINT LMAOOOO

It was the woman who came across the man on the street who got the police and came back to help him

What wait, it wasn’t just some random police who found the homeless man. That lady who found him earlier had left to call and bring the police to help him.

Look, I like Schaffrillas, but my god his opinions on certain things really get on my nerves sometimes

I actually liked the twist, call me stupid or whatever, but I also really disliked the season 2 tease. This should have been a one-off season, or as you said, an anthology with a new cast of characters, maybe with Gi-Hun returning as the spearhead of the organization trying to take them down towards the end

U talk like u know it all but you don't And u didn't really pay attention to the episode

2 years late but imagine how good it would have been if the situation was that the VIPs were taking advantage of this dementia riddled old man to run their game and laugh at the poor and their former boss as they died

It's been confirmed that the police guy is returning in season 2, so they can resolve that plotline.

Schaf, Il-Nam is a perfect example of a twist villain done right. Disney could never

I haven’t seen this show, but it sounds kinda depressing and pessimistic

yeah they definitely break their own rules. Like, the glass expert just happened to have a skill that would help him during a game so they NULLIFY IT? But what about everyone else who had any knowledge or skill that would help them? At some point you cant make things totally even. The honeycomb game was only "even" in that they get to pick a shape but without knowing the purpose it may as well be random and at that point some people are screwed. Makes me wonder what would have happened to the old man if he broke his honeycomb.

This is completely random, but I love the Metroid Prime soundtrack in the background.

Not watching. I entirely disagree. Disliked.

The last bet of was about ilnam showing he isn’t any different. It was him making his first bet on human life

The old man didn’t have locks during tug of war

Did you watch the show? Lol

Old Man being one of the game-runners might be a twist for the sake of having a twist, but I still feel all the scenes of him pulling the heartstrings of the viewers still had an impact. Those segments really hit home what a scumbag he was while still portraying him as old, helpless, sympathetic, and ill. Even the deplorable characters in modern (and good) television should still have shades of grey, similar to how "good guy" have shortcomings and aren't completely perfect.

Im so aggre with you

In a way it's the final twist of the knife. His suffering, his sins, his accomplishment... It all meant nothing. None of it made him a better person, just sad and angry. And not someone who thought to go help the homeless man. I'd have enjoyed if he cheated the game by helping the man himself too. But if we need a positive spin, at least we can say if we're ever going to be able to trust people the day gganbu says we can't... We must first become trustworthy, so that we can say with certainty when the time comes that trust can be given and not simply assumed because we have nothing else.

The comments section has given me more insight into the ending, which I really appreciate, especially the thoughts of corruption and how Il-nam made Gi-hun corrupt as well. He talked with Gi-hun after making the bet, which stalled him and distracted him from making the logical conclusion of going to help the homeless man himself. It could've also been that despite it all, Gi-hun still thought of him as a friend and didn't want to leave the dying man's side. In truth, I think the scene also recemented Gi-hun's addiction to gambling, even giving that dopamine of a last minute "victory".

It was only really the last scene that ticked me off. After he claimed how much he loved his family and discovering his mother died alone, you would think that that would be enough to push him more towards "spend time with your loved ones while you can," but NOPE! He's a protagonist with a sense of justice! He can't live a normal life with the thought of that 'game' continuing! Even if the chance of succeeding is near impossible, he has to try to take these people down! But not because he's a hero. He's still a gambling addict who doesn't know when to stop. And it even overrides whatever importance he had on family and interpersonal relationships.

What do you mean it was obvious that the old man is the boss the real plot twist is we not seeing him as the bosse

If you give it some thought, it’s pretty much Total Drama Island with Steroids

As someone that doesn't love the ending of the show and who has rewatched since experiencing that disappointment and confusion, I think that the marbles scene still holds weight since what Gi-Hun is experiencing is still genuine. His frustration, panic, desperation, and guilt are all still very raw and insanely well acted even if you know he's being deceived with hindsight.

I feel the exact same way about Wednesday...
Amazing show, brilliant character work and conflict.
The last episode threw all of it away.
But of course I couldn't say that the show is bad because of one episode, I still love it but was gravely disappointed

you misinterpreted a lot of things 🙄 The ending was fine. Its the subplot that is a problem

true

Just watch Kaiji dude

How can you not as a person dislike the old guy now?

I personally hated the series but there’s a great point in the bet between these two characters. Now the old man says “hey kid lets play our final game huh? fun. yeah. bet no one helps this person till midnight” and the main character is like “what? no. someone sure will” and they stand and wait. now if i remember correctly seconds prior to this our protagonist was yelling and shaking the old man calling him out for being psychotic and not caring about people yet he does the same?! WOW. WHAT A GREAT COMMENTARY. Society is hypocritical?! Whoo! He treated this person’s life as nothing more than a bet - a game, he was happy not because someone helped but because he won the bet. The old man showed him that he actually lost the moment he didnt rush outside to help the person and that they are the same, just what the old guy did affected more people in a far more drastic way but it’s a whole thing you get it. Thats why this gives the main character the motivation to actually do some good with the money, keep some promises and dye his hair ig. I always love your analysis and yeah the ending doesn’t make sense on many levels (in my humble opinion little made sense in the series but whatever) you actually criticised the only thing that made any sense to me. It carried an actual deep message and meaning which was surprisingly good. Saw no one in the comments touching on this topic so hey i thought I will even though it’s a year late.

When the police guy was going through the players of that year, you can see that player 1s file is gone, when the VIP places the gold mask down, you can see his old hands, when Il-nam plays red light, green light, he isn't scanned, when the murder night happened, he called the guards to help. They didn't throw this plot twist in because "we can", they had decided from the beginning that Il-nam is the host from the beginning. He voted against the games going on because it wasn't fair, half of the players wanted to leave, to force them to play wouldn't have been fair of him.

How the hell was this 1 year ago. Fucking crazy

The kids ruined this shiw its a masterpiece even with the bad ending but the Godamn community

I just watched this season,the ending wss over the place like WTF A YEAR LATER ,,and He was gone Give up on the Last Game and Like WTF,, does he love his daughter OR NO

You missed the point a little, I think. The whole ‘everyone has a fair advantage thing’ was itself a lie. It represented how ‘the game’ (be it Squid or Real Life) is rigged, even as cultural ‘everyone knows’ or ruling propaganda (like shooting your own guards or hanging them for breaking the rules - which in itself can easily be more about not tolerating disobedience rather than representing fairness) might try to tell you otherwise and that your miserable circumstances are either your own fault, or just the result of bad luck.

^_^ If it was really about fairness, they wouldn’t flash the lights at night to support violence, or explode the glass bridge in such a way as to harm the survivors - and if they were harmed, they would have given them medical care and time to recover in order to reverse the outside influence they tainted the game with.

But they didn’t.

I watched it all in Korean with Chinese subtitles and I don't know either of the languages

I literally said to my friend, "he is gonna help the dying man when he almost freeze" and that never happen.
At least my friend said "your idea was much better"

Bfdi.bfdi.bfdi

I was crying SO HARD when the old man "died", it was so painful to watch oh my god

He’s terminally ill. He’s probably rather die in a game than in a hospital bed

I also watched squid game before the social media hype.

Actually on that scene where he doesn’t board the plane: There’s a theory the squid game ppl actually hacked that plane and was gonna explode it which is why they told him “it’s best u just get on that plane” because they suspected him to try to expose/take them down. Overall tho I def agree the twist villain isn’t that great and takes away such an emotional scene in the marbles game which had me bawling my fucking eyes out.

i think the subplot with police is great because it shows police incompetence and failure, otherwise we'd end up with another good cops save the day finale. one policeman can't solve capitalism, and his brother chose to be supportive of this system

Can someone please tell me what the outcome theme is?!!

Squid Game is just worse Kaiji