Squid Game’s historic streaming run comes to a close this week with the debut of its third and final season. And though its climax plays out in somewhat straightforward fashion—especially given the events that precede it—it nonetheless concocts a way to end in stunning fashion, courtesy of an out-of-left-field cameo from one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed A-listers.
(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
Squid Game’s conclusion finds hero Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), on the precipice of victory, sacrificing himself to honor his pledge to fallen Jun-he (Jo Yu-ri) that he would protect her newborn child—meaning that the baby, who’d taken its mother’s place, wins the entire 45.6 billion won reward.
This touches In-ho (Lee Byung-hun), aka the Front Man, who blows up the contest’s island-compound playground and escapes before he’s caught by his police-officer brother Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) or the encroaching Coast Guard.
In-ho subsequently leaves the triumphant tyke in the care of Jun-ho along with a bank card containing its winnings, after which he visits Gi-hun’s estranged daughter in Los Angeles to hand over her dad’s belongings and prior cash prize, which he stole from the dead man’s apartment.
Thus Squid Game goes out on a bittersweet note in which hope—also felt by guard No-eul (Park Gyu-young), who heads to China to potentially reunite with the child she thought was dead—is balanced with sorrow.
Before its clock runs out, however, the series delivers one last bombshell when, while departing Gi-hun’s daughter’s L.A. home, In-ho’s Escalade stops at a light, granting him a view of an alleyway where a new black-suited Recruiter is playing ddakji with a destitute man.
That the game has spread to the United States is a revelation that suggests the franchise could continue onward with an English-language twist (and hopefully free of this show’s awful VIP dialogue). But the real eye-opener is the identity of this Recruiter: Cate Blanchett.
Sharing a knowing look with In-ho in-between doling out vicious slaps to her ddakji opponent, Blanchett cuts an ideally cruel, menacing figure as the Squid Game employee, and her presence conjures up all sorts of tantalizing ideas about a possible big-budget, all-star domestic spin-off that builds upon the hit South Korean original.
Whether that materializes or not is anyone’s guess, but creator Hwang Dong-hyuk’s coda tease proves a surprise with plenty of provocative promise.
The post Shocking ‘Squid Game’ Finale Ends With Wild A-List Cameo appeared first on The Daily Beast.
