Squid Game Season 3 Features A Surprise Cameo From A Beloved Character

This article contains spoilers for “Squid Game” season 3, episode 5 — “Circle Triangle Square.”

In “Squid Game” season 3, episode 4 (“222”), the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) offers his philosophical nemesis Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) an olive branch … or rather, a very sharp knife. During their clandestine meeting, the game organizer expresses absolute disdain at the fact that Kim Jun-hee’s (Jo Yu-ri) baby has been forced to enter the game, and that the majority of the finalist players are more than willing to kill the newborn in order to save their own hides. Luckily, he has a solution: Gi-hun should take the offered blade and kill the other adult players while they’re asleep, which would bring the player count under the minimum required to play the finale, forcing the game to an early end. 

The opening moments of “Circle Triangle Square” strongly suggest that the Front Man’s true intentions are far more nefarious. As Gi-hun sneaks toward the sleeping players, we see the villain sipping a drink and watching the events unfold in the same way he likes to observe all the deadly games. This and a handful of flashbacks indicate that he’s actually using the same trick game creator Oh Il-nam (O Yeoung-su) once used on him to get one over Gi-hun in their ongoing contest of morality. 

However, just before Gi-hun takes the knife to his first victim, he has a vision of a person he knows very well: Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon), who reached the season 1 finals with him and Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo). As it happens, Sae-byeok herself died a cruel and unfair death when Sang-woo slit her throat in the dormitory before the finale. “Mister, don’t do it,” the apparition tearfully pleads to Gi-hun. “You are not that kind of person.”

Sae-byeok was /Film’s choice for the best character in “Squid Game” season 1, thanks to her tragic backstory as a North Korean defector, steely resourcefulness, and multi-layered character arc. Her brief, ghostly cameo in “Circle Triangle Square” is a pivotal one, as it convinces Gi-hun to put down the knife instead of slaughtering the other players like the Front Man did. The Front Man’s expression proves that this was the right call: As he watches Gi-hun put down the knife and walk away from Player 100’s (Song Young-chang) bed, the game organizer’s face is a mask of barely concealed anguish — both because his own actions clearly still haunt him and because he realizes that Gi-hun has refused to stoop to the same level. 

In many ways, Sae-byeok is the best and only possible character to act as Gi-hun’s conscience here. Not only did she meet her fate in a way that’s very similar to the knife plan the Front Man is pushing on Gi-hun, but she and Gi-hun grew close near the season 1 endgame. They traded backstories and even made a pact that they’d take care of each others’ families should only one of them survive. There’s also the not insignificant matter that Sae-byeok has already saved Gi-hun from committing cold-blooded murder once: Before her own death, she stops Gi-hun from killing Sang-woo in his sleep. “Squid Game” has been known to recycle twists and plot points, and it’s thematically incredibly appropriate (not to mention touching) that Sae-byeok is still looking out for Gi-hun’s soul — be it in spirit form or simply as a powerful memory. 

Gi-hun is a kind man who specifically participates in the 2024 game to bring down the whole operation — and to prove to the Front Man that faith in humanity conquers all. Unfortunately, he’s been known to lose his way, and “Squid Game” seasons 2 and 3 have been a painful downward spiral for the poor protagonist. Failed plans, dead friends, misguided revenge missions, and crushing guilt have all but swallowed Gi-hun, and by the end of the brutal Hide and Seek game, his spirit is broken and the Front Man seems to be winning the pair’s philosophy tug-of-war. 

Gi-hun’s comeback arc starts partway through season 3 when Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim) — who herself has been rendered hopeless after she was effectively forced to kill her own son (Yang Dong-geun) — lifts him from his slump in the aptly titled episode 3, “It’s Not Your Fault.” Granted, her monologue about decent people ground down by an unfair world has ulterior motives, as Geum-ja asks Gi-hun to keep his head in the game and protect Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri) and her baby. Still, what works, works. Gi-hun soon picks up the baton once more, drawing strength from his position as the baby’s de facto custodian. 

The Front Man’s Faustian knife offer is the final hurdle in Player 456’s quest for redemption: Had he killed the other players like the Front Man once did, he would have fallen from grace and abandoned his belief in humanity’s inherent goodness. The vision of Sae-byeok is a pivotal moment that turns the tide in Gi-hun’s favor and effectively marks the Front Man’s defeat in their private battle: No matter what happens next, Gi-hun has chosen the path of light when it mattered the most.