Who Died in ‘Squid Game’ Season 3?

Who Died in ‘Squid Game’ Season 3? originally appeared on Parade.

WARNING! This article spoils the events of Squid Game Season 3, now available for streaming on Netflix. Please do not read further if you do not intend to know what happens in Season 3.

TV today is certainly full of more violence, gore and death than ever before. But above them all, like a creepy child doll, is Squid Game. The hit Netflix Korean series shocked viewers when it dropped on the streamer in 2021 with its premise: A series of life-or-death childhood games where 456 competitiors enter, and only one leaves alive.

When Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) chose to re-enter the games, it introduced a whole new host of faces, each with a story to tell and a massive debt to be owed. And while a surprising few number of main characters died in Season 2, the third and final season more than made up for it. In the midst of the last batch of episodes, we got some big twists, unprecedented moments and, of course, absolutely gruesome and tragic losses.

Here is every major character who died in Squid Game Season 3.

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Who died in Squid Game Season 3?

Seon-nyeo: 044 (Chae Kook-hee)

The self-proclaimed “shaman of the sea,” 044 spent Season 2 speaking in cryptic, yet confident riddles. Despite her losing her composure in the “Six-Legged Race,” the swagger with which she walked through the dormitories – including taunting Gi-hun to his face – had her amassing a handful of followers. Those followers were expended immediately in the “Hide and Seek” game, as 044 sacrificed them to get to the exit. Unfortunately, she discovered she needed keys of three different types to unlock the path to safety.

Forced to go back into the fray, she formed an unlikely alliance with fellow antagonist 100 (Song Young-chang), only to be left high and dry when the businessman stepped through the door, taking his key with him. Cursing his name, she turned around to find Min-su (Lee David), catatonic and hallucinating after popping one of Thanos’ pills. As she disparaged Min-su for his craven behavior, he imagined her as Nam-gyu (Roh Jae-won). And so he finally got revenge on what he thought was his longtime bully, killing her. The final words out of the supposed shaman’s mouth? “Who do you think I am?”

Cho Hyun-ju: 120 (Park Sung-hoon)

Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk drew controversy upon announcement of 120, a trans character being played by a cisgender actor. However, throughout the course of Season 2, the character has gleaned massive acclaim from fans, which many praising her incredible set of tactical skills as an ex-Special Forces soldier. Indeed, she was the MVP of the Season 2 finale, which saw her join Gi-hun’s failed coup to overthrow the people running the games.

When 120 entered “Hide and Seek,” she was given the (arguably) tougher job of defending. Her role became even harder when she took it upon herself to protect Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim) and Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri) against the many attackers armed with knives. And, incredibly impressively, she was able to do so, staving off not one, but two different attackers and surviving. 120 successfully found the exit, and had all the keys to guarantee her safety. But she chose to go back for the other women, as well as Jun-hee’s new baby. Unfortunately, it was a life-changing error, as she was tragically stabbed in the back by Myung-gi (Im Si-wan).

Kang Dae-ho: 388 (Kang Ha-neul)

Dae-ho was initially presented as one of the biggest sources of comic relief in Squid Game Season 2. With a samurai hairstyle and overweening energy, he excitably became one of the first allies of Gi-hun and Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan), connecting with the latter over their shared military history. However, when it came to the militaristic operation of Gi-hun’s coup, Dae-ho elected “flight” over “fight.” After expending all of his ammo, he was tasked with running back to the dorms to get more. But he freaked out, never bringing back the much-needed magazines.

When Gi-hun discovers this information at the beginning of Season 3, it’s clear he wants revenge on Dae-ho for his actions. And Dae-ho does not make things better for himself when he remarks that Gi-hun is the one responsible for everyone who died during the attempted insurrection. Gi-hun spends the entirety of “Hide and Seek” solely searching for Dae-ho, and he’s finally able to corner him at a dead end. While Dae-ho tries to talk his way out of the situation, admitting he had fabricated his military history, it falls on deaf ears. Gi-hun strangles him to death, as Dae-ho continues to choke out, “It’s your fault.”

Park Yong-sik: 007 (Yang Dong-geun)

Squid Game is largely a show about how far people would go to harm complete strangers for a chance at furthering their own lot in life. Season 2, however, complicated things by bringing a couple of pre-existing relationships to the island. One of them is Yong-sik and his mother, Geum-ja. Throughout Season 2, Yong-sik is presented as impulsive and reckless, having wound up in the games due to his massive gambling debt. But he has one north star: The love for his mother.

Unfortunately, that’s what ultimately ends up killing Yong-sik. He successfully convinces his mom to swap roles with him in “Hide and Seek,” affirming he has what it takes to kill someone in order to pass the game. Unfortunately, that does not prove to be the case once he gets knife in hand, as he freezes up in the “kill or be killed” scenario. Things come to a head in the game’s final minutes, as he approaches Jun-hee and her new baby with the intention to kill her. He is stopped, however, by his own mother, who stabs him. All he can do is mutter her name as time expires, disqualifying him and causing the guards to open fire.

Jang Geum-ja: 149 (Kang Ae-shim)

Though she did not ultimately win the games, perhaps no character has gone through so many changes as Geum-ja. She was initially presented as feisty and opinionated, showing a particular bias against Hyun-ju. However, as Season 2 went along, her demeanor softened, especially when she noticed that Jun-hee was pregnant. And so the oldest player in the games became the matriarch of the makeshift family inside the dorms, taking care of not only her own son, but many players around her.

Sadly, the beginning of the end came for Geum-ja during “Hide and Seek.” After helping deliver Jun-hee’s baby, the two were seconds away from safety, only to be met with Yong-sik. Forced between letting her son or Jun-hee and her baby survive, she tragically chose the latter, stabbing him to ensure his demise. Not wanting to be his loss for naught, she proceeded to beg everyone during the voting to stop the game, citing that Jun-hee and her baby needed to get out. When they refused to listen, she approached Gi-hun, revealing her own backstory with Yong-sik, and pleading that he protect the new mother. When Gi-hun showed no response, she felt there was no way out. The next morning, everyone was shocked to find Geum-ja had hung herself in the night.

Nam-gyu: 124 (Roh Jae-won)

Throughout Season 2, Nam-gyu was presented as a stooge of Thanos. But, after his death, we saw there was much more resentment lying underneath the drug-addled ecstasy of their shenanigans. Nam-gyu continued to resent Thanos posthumously, cursing his name as he happily dug into the pills the rapper brought into the games. And, through a season and a half, he had been flying high, delightfully dancing through death, including going ham on several people with Myung-gi in “Hide and Seek.”

But that high, both literally and metaphorically, came to a crashing low when he lost the cross containing his pills. The stash was instead picked up by Min-su who, after killing who he believed was Nam-gyu, decided to get his revenge. In the fifth game, “Jump Rope,” Min-su taunted him with the cross, tossing it onto the incredibly precarious bridge. And, proving the extent of his addiction, Nam-gyu successfully defied the dangers to get to it. However, once reaching it, he realized Min-su had led him astray, having already taken the one remaining pill out of the cross. All Nam-gyu could do was stare in shock as the tormentor became tormented, gruesomely taken out of the game by plummeting to his death.

Related: ‘Squid Game’ Actress Dead at 81

Kim Jun-hee: 222 (Jo Yu-ri)

The other pre-existing relationship going into this iteration of the games was Jun-hee and Myung-gi. The two were formerly in a relationship, before she heeded his faulty crypto advice that put her (and many other participants) heavily in debt. After she discovered she was pregnant, he proceeded to ghost her, never thinking he’d see her again. But he faced the consequences of his own actions when he discovered Jun-hee was also in the games, having decided to keep the baby and needing the money to raise it.

Jun-hee started Season 2 fiercely independent, an understandable perspective for a woman who would later say she wanted to keep the baby to give herself a constant companion in life. But as the season went along, she began to rely on the support system around her, particularly Geum-ja. Feeling despondent after losing her, Gi-hun stepped in, promising he would protect her and the baby to make sure they survived. Unfortunately, he only succeeded in half of his mission. Facing “Jump Rope,” the ankle injury that Jun-hee sustained in the previous game was too much of an impediment. And so, rather than have Gi-hun go back to help her, she sacrificed herself, telling him to make sure her baby survived. Before stepping off the edge, she also had some choice final words for Myung-gi, chastising him for needlessly killing Hyun-ju and saying, “That baby has nothing to do with trash like you.”

Captain Park (Oh Dal-su)

Of course, while the games are happening, there’s plenty of side plots going on in Squid Game. One of the biggest throughout Seasons 2 and 3 was Jun-ho’s (Wi Ha-joon) yearslong search for the island in pursuit of once again facing his brother (and the games’ Front Man), In-ho (Lee Byung-hun). Throughout his tireless investigation, his closest ally has been Captain Park (Oh Dal-su), who had rescued him from the ocean after he fell off a cliff at the end of Season 1. But, as we discovered in Season 2, not everything was ship-shape with the sea captain. It turns out he’s been an operative of In-ho’s the entire time, and has been sabotaging Jun-ho and company’s efforts to find the island.

Throughout much of Season 3, Captain Park was able to maintain his deceit, with Jun-ho none the wiser. But he was ultimately done in by Woo-seok (Jeon Seok-ho). The gangster was suspicious of the captain, and stayed landlocked to do a thorough search of his house. There, he found not only pictures of him with In-ho and the games’ recruiter, but an underground stash of money and even a pink uniform. Woo-seok was arrested, and the police informed him of the break-in, prompting Park to move forward with In-ho’s orders to wipe out all of the mercenaries. But Jun-ho was able to get the slip, fatally shooting him through the chest with a harpoon gun.

Park Min-su: 125 (Lee David)

Fortune does not necessarily favor the bold in Squid Game. Sometimes, all you need to do is simply stay out of the fray and survive. That’s been that path of Min-su. Relegated to be the simultaneous punching bag and close ally of Thanos and his group, his time in the games took a definitive turn during the skirmish in the Season 2 finale. When the O voters attacked, Nam-gyu went after Se-mi (Won Ji-an), and Min-su was frozen in fear, as he could watch him tear her to shreds.

The Min-su of Season 3, however, had definitely more courage. Granted, a lot of that was fueled by Thanos’s pills, which he got his hands on from Nam-gyu. After taking one of them, he killed Seon-nyeo, believing her to be Nam-gyu. Then, in Jump Rope, he got the last laugh over his tormentor, leading the addict out to the bridge. Min-su took the final pill himself to get past the high-stakes game and, while it successfully got him to the other side, it put him in a frantic state going into the final day. The last game, “Sky Squid Game,” tasked the remaining players with pushing each other off a series of tall towers. In the first round, Myung-gi successfully turned the majority against Min-su, saying he was both unpredictable and an easy boot. Seeing the faces of his fallen friends and foes, he lashed out at the competition, yelling, “What did I do to deserve this?” He was then greeted by a vision of Se-mi, as he tearfully and remorsefully took her hand. In actuality, he was being pushed off the tower by Myung-gi, killing him.

Im Jeong-dae: 100 (Song Young-chang)

Im Jeong-dae (Song Young-chang) lacked many of the skills and killer instincts needed to win the games on his own. What he does have, however, is the power of persuasion. A businessman who owes 10 billion won, his aggressive behavior made him the most vocal of the group that consistently voted to continue playing. He, perhaps more than any other character, is a symbol of use people merely as players in a game of greed, as he is not afraid to make a scapegoat or throw anyone under the bus so long as he gets ahead.

While deplorable behavior, making Jeong-dae one of the secondary antagonists of the series, it does get him all the way to the final game. Yet again, he serves as the mouthpiece of the majority, calling for a democratic process to systematically get rid of Min-su, Gi-hun and the baby. However, Myung-gi’s turn on the second tower throws things into disarray. After a series of skirmishes, all of Jeong-dae’s allies are dispatched, and he is left cornered. The businessman defaults into his typical negotation tactics, offering some of his share of the prize money if they don’t kill him. But his numbers are no match for the bloodlust of Myung-gi, who pushes him off the tower.

Lee Myung-gi: 333 (Im Si-wan)

All of the Squid Game players chose to participate because they found themselves in an insurmountable amount of debt. And, for the iteration across Seasons 2 and 3, many of them were in that state due to Myung-gi. He once ran a channel known as “MG Coin,” giving financial advice to his followers. And one particular bad tip broke badly, bankrupting many people who heeded his counseling. That includes not only Jun-hee, his girlfriend at the time, but Myung-gi himself.

Upon entering the games and seeing Jun-hee, Myung-gi made a concerted effort to show he was a changed man, willing to do anything to protect her and their unborn child. Unfortunately, once the baby was actually born, he began to show a brand-new side of himself. Myung-gi underwent a heel turn in Season 3, becoming one of the most bloodthirsty contestants in the latter games. Not only did he stab Hyun-ju in the back, he also dispatched of nearly everyone in the final “Sky Squid Game” single-handedly. Unfortunately, his selfishness got the better of him, as he was left with himself, Gi-hun and his baby going into the last round. Upon crossing the brige, Myung-gi threatened Gi-hun, saying he will leave him behind, then kill the baby to win the life-changing amount of money. Luckily, Gi-hun got across, as the two men got into a skirmish. They both went over the edge, where Myung-gi’s knife slashing got the better of him. Hanging on for his life by a jacket torn to shreds, it was only a matter of time before he fell, killing him.

Seong Gi-hun: 456 (Lee Jung-jae)

It’s fitting that the final death of Squid Game be of our main character, the man who was able to avoid it throughout two full versions of the games. After winning in Season 1, Gi-hun was a broken man, ready to move on from the traumatizing events that left him a billionaire. But, upon seeing the recruiter at the airport, he affirmed a new life’s mission: Find the Front Man, and end the games once and for all. Unfortunately, in re-entering the fray, that proved easier said than done. Despite Gi-hun’s protestations, the majority of the players were too selfish and violent to stop things. And even when Gi-hun tried to mount a coup to infiltrate behind the scenes, all it culminated in was the death of many more players, including his friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan).

Gi-hun was catatonic throughout half of Season 3, clearly feeling In-ho’s claim about humanity being inherently evil was correct. What snapped him out of it, however, was Jun-hee’s baby. At the request of Geum-ja, he promised he would protect the two of them to make sure they left the games intact. And, while he wasn’t able to carry that forward wth Jun-hee, he found himself standing at the end with baby in tow. Watching from their ivory tower, the VIPs thought for sure Gi-hun would now kill the child, making him the first-ever two-time winner of the games. Instead, Gi-hun turned his back to them. “We are not horses,” he said. “We are humans. Humans are…” Before he could finish the sentence, he fell backwards off the tower, killing himself and officially ending the games.

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Who Died in ‘Squid Game’ Season 3? first appeared on Parade on Jun 27, 2025

This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 27, 2025, where it first appeared.