‘Squid Game’ Just Topped the Series’ Saddest Storylines With an Even More Devastating Twist

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Squid Game Season 3.Netflix and creator Hwang Dong-hyuk‘s hit dystopian South Korean drama, Squid Game, has released Season 3’s final five episodes, picking up just as the players’ rebellion has been quashed. The surviving contestants are led back to the housing facility and forced to play in three more deadly games that saw more grisly deaths. In Season 1, we watched the horrible demise of Player 067, Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon), in the middle of the night as the games were almost over. Season 2 gave us the brutal murder of Player 390, Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan), and the toll it took on Player 456, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae). But Season 3’s saddest and most impactful death is the tragic loss of the game’s oldest and wisest contestant, Player 149, Jang Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim), who is there to play alongside of, and on behalf of her needy, degenerate gambling son, Player 007, Park Yong-sik (Yang Dong-geun) to pay off his debts. She is forced to make an impossible choice in Episode 2, and it proves to be a shocking twist too much for the opinionated, but loving and strong mother to live with.

Geum-ja Has Such a Powerful Storyline in ‘Squid Game’ Season 3

Player 149, Jang Geum-ja’s storyline is so incredibly complex and heartbreaking because, in Episode 2 “Starry Night,” she has to endure something so unimaginable (even against the horrifying backdrop of such a brutal competition) to protect Player 222, Kim Jun-hee’s (Jo Yu-ri) baby. It was more than she, or likely any mother, would be able to live with, as she was found the next morning, having hung herself during the night. The silence that befalls the remaining players, particularly 222 and 456, as they see her as the lights come up, speaks loudly to the weight of her protective presence and what was lost when she made that fateful decision.

Ultimately, she did what she thought had to be done to save the baby, but talk about an impossible choice that she had to make in the blink of an eye. The clock was ticking down over her shoulder, and just as the audience thinks they are going to witness the horror of infanticide, it is suddenly replaced by a completely different, but equally stunning, kind of murder — filicide. We see a mother take the makeshift blade from her hairpin and stab the threat in the back, taking the life of her only son, her own flesh and blood that she brought into the world. It was a horrifying situation, and there was simply no way Geum-ja would be able to live with herself afterward.

Geum-ja’s Death Is Made Even More Painful Because of the Residual Effect On the Baby

A newborn baby with a shirt blanketed over it that has the numeral "222" in Squid Game Season 3, Episode 4. — Image via Netflix

Hearing the baby’s cry over the final few episodes was a constant reminder that, despite his best efforts, Gi-hun (456) was not her mother or Geum-ja. A fact that is driven home even harder after 222 bravely sacrifices herself for her daughter in the waning moments of the cruel jump rope game. It was the sobering residual effect and reality of her suicide, a sound that kept you thinking, “Even if this baby somehow escapes the Squid Game alive, who will she have to care for her and take care of her?” Geum-ja’s character arc ended up stealing the show and being the most powerful of Season 3, the moment she took the pregnant Kim Jun-hee under her wing as she went into labor during the hide-and-seek game and showed a natural predisposition for midwifery.

But what made her death an even more poignant twist was that she was proving a perfect caregiver to the baby as 222 was recovering from childbirth and had a broken ankle. Almost as if she were attempting to right the wrongs that she thinks may have contributed to her dead son’s lack of agency, confidence, and independence. Or whatever the quality was that led him to feel like he had to (and could) kill a helpless baby to save himself. Her pleas to both Gi-hun to promise to take care of 222 and her daughter at any cost, and later her agonizing call for the group to end the game for the sake of the mother and child, showed how her maternal instinct was far too powerful for her to handle after having killed her son. To see her body lifeless was one of the most shocking and disturbing deaths in Squid Game. And Kang Ae-shim hit all the right notes in an unforgettable performance, making this one of the most heartbreaking moments in a show full of heartbreak.

Squid Game is currently available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.