SQUID GAME: Episode 3.1

Name: SQUID GAME: Episode 3.1
Item: SQUID GAME: Episode 3.1
Author: Review

"Greed: The Root of All Evil"

Family Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

Netflix’s SQUID GAME: Episode 3.1 is an artful horror/thriller series for mature audiences, exploring a horrific South Korean survival game with a significant cash prize. Here, murder is often the only option. With Seong Gi-hun having lost the rebellion that got so many others killed, he still has to finish out the game. A pregnant player must continue against her will. Soldier 11 risks it all to help Player 246 escape for his sick daughter. Those searching for the island from the outside are being misled. Who will survive? Who will win the significant cash winnings?

Overall, the first episode of Season 3 of SQUID GAME is captivating in its storytelling, character development, and artistic design, as well as the previous seasons - possibly one of the most creatively lit and well-designed series on television. However, the violence, gore, and inescapable evil portray the very worst of humanity on screen and can be challenging to watch. The episode features a humanist worldview, where characters with more moral intentions, such as bravery, a sense of justice, and selflessness, are often victims of a merciless plot. Characters die senselessly, but the good characters give the audience a sense of hope. MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for all audiences.

Content:

(HH, Pa, LL, VVV. A, D, Ho, MMM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

A humanist worldview where the game exposes the vast, darker side of humanity as being inescapable in the face of greed and immorality. This darkness and evil highlights the morality and humanity of good characters’ actions, driving the plot through this tension. Moral characters who are not capable of murder are often mocked as weak by greedy, self-centered ones. One minor portrayal of pagan worship, where Seon-nyeo, who believes herself to be the Shaman of the Sea, who hears the “gods” of the sea and begins to amass worshippers in their desperation in the game;

Foul Language:

13 profanities found in this episode;

Violence:

Extreme level of violence including murder by shooting in many instances, bodies and much gore/blood;

Sex:

No sex;

Nudity:

No nudity;

Alcohol Use:

The Front Man is seen drinking as he watches from his screen;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

A player takes an unnamed drug hidden in a cross pendant; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

A trans-woman is one of the main characters – although she is often seen as one of the players with more overall moral actions than most in the game. Jun-hee is pregnant outside of marriage. Many examples of greed, blackmail, revenge, lying, deceit, and more throughout the series as a whole by the players, those who run the games, and much of the plot is centered around these negative themes.

More Detail:

Continuing from Season 2, Netflix’s SQUID GAME: Episode 3.1 is a blockbuster horror thriller for mature audiences, set in a horrific South Korean survival game with a substantial cash prize, where murder is often the only option. At the same time, wealthy elites gleefully bet on the outcomes from behind the cameras.

SQUID GAME 3.1 is an artistic, high-budget series that is often shocking with excessive gore and extreme violence. The characters are frequently forced into impossible decisions by the game, constantly wrestling with survival, greed, morality, humanity, and their very lives in pursuit of money: almost an allegory for the desperations of Western life.

This season is a continuation of the second game in the series; the audience knows that most characters will not survive, but witnessing the characters’ struggles and moral implications allows the audience to examine their morality more closely. Although captivating in its storytelling and high production value, the violence, gore, and immorality are very high, and extreme caution is advised.

Episode one of Season 3 picks up the storyline where we left off at the end of Season 2. First, we see Soldier 11 (No-eul) shooting Player 246 (Park Gyeong-seok) and asking him to listen to her if he wants to live. The audience knows that No-Eul met the daughter working at the theme park, but this is unknown to Player 246, indicating that she is not as cold-blooded as the others. Soldiers place 246 into a body box and mark it with a cross in blood: a secret code to send him to the operating room for organ harvesting. This apparent secret operation is making money for a group of soldiers.

Meanwhile, in an unprecedented move, Seong Gi-hun (Player 456) returns to the bunks as a surprise to the rest of the players, which was a shock, as he had led the rebellion in the previous episode against the Front Man and wasn’t expected to be allowed to live. He is now in a state of shock and grief as his best friend, Jung-bae (Player 390), has passed away. The others who fought with him were also killed due to Dae-ho not bringing more ammo back to the group. Gi-hun is struggling to cope with the failure of his mission to end the games and must continue to do so. He has a breakdown and asks for the soldiers to kill him, screaming and asking why he was allowed to live and realizing that “they” have won, beginning his catatonic-like state through the rest of the episode.

On the outside, the group searching for the island, led by the previous game’s escapee, Detective Jun-ho, has lost their drone operator in an apparent drunken overboard situation. Jun-ho believes the captain’s story, but something doesn’t add up for Woo-seok, and he begins to have suspicions about the captain of their boat. He starts investigating this on his own, without Jun-ho’s support.

As the players proceed to the next game, the bodies of those who fought are strung up the stairs, clearly as a message to the others that they are in control and the games will not stop. Jun-hee, a pregnant player and the father of her child, Myung-gi, discusses their situation before the next game starts. He says that he would do anything for her and the reward, even if it means killing everyone. She says that she would do anything to keep her baby safe, and she doesn’t trust him because his greed has blinded him, and he doesn’t think like a father.

He offers to keep her safe in the next game, and she reluctantly agrees. Gi-hun is going into this next game with one objective: to kill Dae-ho for his responsibility for the death of those who fought in the rebellion. When they enter the games, Jun-hee begins to experience contractions, but there are no exceptions in the games: you will play the game regardless. Who will survive the next round and ultimately win the games in this final season?

Overall, the first episode of Season 3 of SQUID GAME is captivating in its storytelling, character development, and artistic design, as well as the previous seasons – possibly one of the most creatively lit and well-designed series on television. However, the violence, gore, and inescapable evil portray the very worst of humanity on screen and can be challenging to watch. Characters with more moral intentions, such as bravery, a sense of justice, and selflessness, are often fodder for a merciless plot. Characters will frequently die senselessly, but the good characters give the audience a sense of hope despite the odds seeming to be ever stacked against them. MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for all audiences.