It can be easy to overlook how Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) ended up as Player 456 in Netflix’s Squid Game. While it’s true that Gi-hun struggled with a gambling addiction and had enormous debts to loan sharks, the primary reason he chose to participate in the games was the news that his young daughter Seong Ga-yeong (Jo A-in) would be relocating to America. After bungling her recent birthday by giving her what he thought were unimpressive gifts—”junk food” and a lighter resembling a handgun—he found himself in desperation. Thus, it wasn’t merely greed or despair that spurred his decision to join these secretive games; it was also an act of love and a fundamental desire to provide for his child.

Though some Squid Game enthusiasts may have overlooked this motivation, the third and concluding season of the Netflix sensation certainly does not. In its farewell season, Squid Game Season 3 delivers Player 456 the fitting conclusion he merits while hinting at an exciting new direction for the series. This last set of six episodes showcases series creator, director, and writer Hwang Dong-hyuk‘s most intense and heartfelt storytelling yet. The show juxtaposes stark scenes of moral depravity with its most heartwarming demonstrations of love. It is disturbing, disconcerting, and strangely empowering in ways that only Squid Game can achieve.

Squid Game Season 3 is set directly after the events of Season 2. Seong Gi-hun, otherwise known as Player 456, utilized his extraordinary prize money from the first season to do all within his power to put an end to the games. He once again entered the games with the aim of helping Detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) reach the island where everything happens. This action prompted a previous winner, the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), to join the games as Player 001. He won Gi-hun’s confidence and aided in his insurgency, only to betray him in the final moments. The conclusion of Squid Game Season 2 saw the Front Man assassinate Gi-hun’s childhood friend, blaming Gi-hun’s ambition to “play the hero” for all the ensuing chaos.

Squid Game Season 3 puts us and Gi-hun back in the games. Our hero has been emotionally trampled by the events of last season, partaking in the season’s first depraved challenge simply as a means of exactly revenge on one other player. Nevertheless, several of Player 456’s surviving allies — the pregnant Player 222 Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri), maternal Player 149 Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim), and courageous transgender Player 120 Hyun-ju (Park Sung-soon) — still look to him with a shadow of hope. As the games continue to grind the humanity out of the remaining players, these three do their all to protect each other and reach Gi-hun in his tortured state.

What Lee Jung-jae has accomplished this season, and throughout Squid Game‘s entire run, is one of the greatest television performances of all-time. In Season 1, Player 456 was a mercurial everyman, striving to survive an impossible situation with as much honor as possible. Season 2 reinvented the character as both a haunted survivor and noble hero on a quest for justice. Squid Game Season 3, however, opens with Gi-hun at his absolute lowest, beaten down by his failure and consumed by nihilistic fury. Instead of trying to survive or destroy the games, Player 456 is now battling the ultimate opponent: Himself. Lee Jung-jae somehow lets this internal darkness consume his very appearance, carving shadows into his stare. It’s incredible to behold and should put him in line for another Emmy award.

Squid Game Season 3 is also a testament to the genius of creator, writer, and director Hwang Dong-hyuk. Fans of the series have known since Season 1 that Hwang has both a dastardly cruel streak and a deeply empathetic heart. Squid Game Season 3 contains some of the most depraved twists in the series’ entire run, but ultimately argues for the inherent dignity of human beings. No spoilers, but the final season of Squid Game remembers what got Gi-hun in the games in the first place.

Squid Game Season 3 might do right by its leading man, but its supporting characters are another story. The loathsome “VIPs” are back and their English-language dialogue is as unnaturally stilted as ever. While I’m sure it’s a creative decision from Hwang, designed to further dehumanize them, it’s nonetheless distracting. Side characters like Choi Woo-seok (Jeon Seok-ho) and Park Gyeong-seok (Lee Jin-wook) get cutely pat happily ever afters that don’t quite jive with the darkness that permeates the rest of the story. Oh, and the season’s biggest twist is one of those situations that is, I guess, medically possible, but extremely unlikely. You really need to suspend your disbelief here, but then that’s been part and parcel for Squid Game since the start.

Of course, none of these issues might matter once you’ve watched Squid Game Season 3 all the way to the very end. There have been rumblings for years that Netflix has been quietly developing international versions of the Korean hit, and the final scene, featuring an insane celeb cameo, all but confirms an American Squid Game is nigh. (When Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria kicked off the New York City Season 3 premiere screening last week, she wasn’t eulogizing the show’s impressive run as she had done for the launch of You‘s final season just last month, also hinting this isn’t Squid Game‘s end as a franchise.)

Squid Game ends in a way that not only echoes its own humble beginnings, but teases a massive new chapter for Hwang Dong-hyuk’s twisted saga. It gives the character of Seong Gi-hun and the actor Lee Jung-jae the poignant send offs both men deserve, while refusing to resolve the show’s existential drama in a simple, easy way. It’s messy, magnificent, and a fitting conclusion to the sensational story that started back in 2021.

Squid Game Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.