Lee Jung-jae Shares What He Hopes Viewers Will Take Away from Dramatic “Squid Game” Season 3 Finale

NEED TO KNOW

• Squid Game‘s final season is now available to stream on Netflix

• Lee Jung-jae revealed what he hopes viewers will take away from the season 3 finale in a new interview

• The actor went into detail about his character’s story arc and final moments

WARNING: This post contains spoilers for season 3 of Squid Game.

With Squid Game‘s final season now streaming on Netflix, Lee Jung-jae hopes viewers will take one thing away from Seong Gi-hun’s story: the importance of unity.

As fans recall, during the final moments of the pushing game, Gi-hun, Lee Myung-gi (Im Si-wan) and the baby remain as the final competitors.

Myung-gi proceeds to threaten Gi-hun, and following an intense fight, Myung-gi falls to his death. During the fight, Myung-gi also threatened to kill Gi-hun’s child. Viewers are then shocked to learn that the players failed to press the button at the center of the platform to signal the start of their match, meaning that Myung-gi’s elimination didn’t count.

This causes Gi-hun to keep his promise to Kim Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri) of protecting her baby and keeping it alive, ultimately sacrificing himself.

Before falling to the ground, Gi-hun turns to face the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) and VIPs watching and mutters the words: “We are not horses. We are humans. Humans are…”

Lee told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on Tuesday, July 8, that he hoped viewers would see how his character is “driven truly to rock bottom and the most intense darkness,” after the failed player rebellion of season 2, and “still struggles to find hope and to live a meaningful life.”

“What I hope people take away is that we all get hurt and betrayed by others, which can lead to hatred, but we still have to carry on and live together in society. We have to try to understand each other, to keep our dignity and work towards harmony,” he said.

“If we can do that — work together with others, no matter what we’ve been through — we may see a future with less division and conflict,” Lee continued. “That’s where hope lies.”

The actor said that his “character’s heart was truly genuine in only wanting to protect and save that baby,” so he interpreted his final line on the show as being “Humans are worthy of respect.”

While speaking to PEOPLE at the Squid Game season 3 premiere in New York in June, Lee told PEOPLE that he trained for both the physical and emotional scenes of the show.

“There are many scenes within the games that you need a lot of training to do physically,” he said.

“But for me, what really stood out was I went on a very strict diet for over a year, and I did that in order to portray the outward appearance of Gi-hun’s emotional journey, especially toward his last moments,” continued Lee. “And so post-diet, I lost about 10 kilograms.”

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Squid Game is streaming in its entirety on Netflix.

Read the original article on People