Squid Game Season 1 Episode 3: The Man with the Umbrella

Opening Scene: Awakening into Uncertainty

After voluntarily returning to the Squid Game, the 187 remaining players awaken in the massive dormitory. They are again dressed in green tracksuits, stripped of personal belongings, and monitored by the faceless guards in pink jumpsuits. Fear and tension fill the air, but this time there’s a grim acceptance. They know what’s coming.

Gi-hun (Player 456)  looks around, his eyes heavy with doubt and exhaustion. He sees familiar faces: Ali (199), Sae-byeok (067), Sang-woo (218), and Player 001 (Oh Il-nam)—the elderly man who oddly seems at peace with everything.

New social dynamics begin to emerge. Players are starting to assess each other, not just as people, but as potential allies or threats.

A Warning Ignored: The Doctor and the Secret

This episode begins to pull back the curtain on the mechanics behind the game. One of the guards secretly sneaks a player—a doctor, Byeong-gi (Player 111)—into a hidden room to  harvest organs from the corpses of the dead. In return, they offer him inside information about the upcoming games.

This is the first glimpse that not all is as “fair” as it seems. The presence of an underground organ-harvesting operation introduces a darker layer of corruption, suggesting that even within this cruel, calculated system, there are backdoor deals and exploitation.

The idea of “fair play” — one of the principles supposedly upheld by the game’s masked creators — is now in question.

Forming Alliances

After dinner, the guards leave only one bottle of water and a piece of bread for each player. Tensions rise as players scramble to claim their food. The competitive structure of the game starts to bleed into daily life.

Gi-hun, Ali , Sae-byeok, and Il-nam begin to bond over mutual respect and gratitude. Gi-hun proposes that they form a team. Though hesitant, Sae-byeok joins after a quiet conversation with Gi-hun, revealing a more vulnerable side beneath her stoic exterior.

Meanwhile, Sang-woo  is reintroduced as someone growing more calculating. He appears warm toward Gi-hun but is increasingly keeping his cards close. He begins to manipulate events subtly, focusing more on survival than loyalty.

The Next Game: A Child’s Puzzle with Deadly Stakes

The players are brought into a bright, surreal playground filled with candy-colored stairs and walls—a nod to  MC Escher ’s “Relativity” and a sinister twist on childhood nostalgia. They are told to choose one of four symbols before they know what the game is:

– A circle
– A triangle
– A star
– An umbrella

Gi-hun, torn between indecision and pressure, chooses the umbrella —the most complex of the four.

The game is revealed to be “Dalgona” (or Ppopgi) , a Korean children’s game where players must carefully extract a specific shape from a thin piece of honeycomb candy without breaking it. If the candy cracks, the player is eliminated—by gunfire.

Players quickly realize the implications: simple shapes like circles and triangles are easier, while intricate ones like stars and especially umbrellas are nearly impossible.

Tension, Sweat, and Survival

As the game begins, panic sets in. A single mistake—too much pressure, a trembling hand—results in a player being shot in front of the others. Cries and gunfire echo across the room, accompanied by the sickly-sweet smell of the sugar.

Gi-hun struggles with his umbrella shape. As sweat drips down, he notices the candy reacts to heat. Desperate, he starts licking the back of the candy  using his saliva to melt the edges and make the cut easier. Others notice and begin to copy him.

Sang-woo, who knew what the game would be (from the symbol and past experience), had suspected the candy challenge and  intentionally chose an easy shape (the triangle). He also saw Gi-hun going for the umbrella but said nothing, letting him walk into near-certain death. This marks a critical turning point in Sang-woo’s morality—he’s willing to let others die to protect himself.

Gi-hun ultimately succeeds, finishing with just seconds to spare. Sae-byeok and Il-nam also survive.

Chaos Erupts: A Player’s Death Triggers a Riot

Just as the tension begins to ebb, one player finishes just in time—but a bead of sweat drops onto his candy, breaking it. In rage and fear, he attacks a guard and takes him hostage, demanding to be released. But before he can do anything, the Front Man appears and coldly executes him and the hostage guard alike, maintaining authority through brutal efficiency.

The scene is a reminder: even if you rebel, there is no escape.

Behind the Masks: Secrets and Surveillance

Later that night, another subplot thickens. One guard removes his mask and goes to a secret room where he and others dismember corpses to sell their organs. This activity isn’t part of the official game but an unauthorized side business by corrupt guards.

The doctor, Player 111, is complicit, driven by survival and the promise of knowing upcoming games. But tensions begin to rise even among the guards, as mistrust and greed surface.

Meanwhile, Hwang Jun-ho, a police officer who infiltrated the game facility disguised as a guard (introduced briefly in Episode 2), secretly investigates the masked men and tries to gather evidence. His presence adds another layer of suspense, as he sneaks through the facility’s complex infrastructure.

Power, Paranoia, and the Human Condition

After the day’s deadly game, paranoia grips the players. Whispers of forming alliances and protecting each other spread. Deok-su, the gangster, starts to build his own faction, using brute force and intimidation to claim dominance.

The previously “equal” players are beginning to stratify into hierarchies, mimicking the society they tried to escape. The guards may be masked and the games anonymous, but human nature reasserts itself.

Gi-hun and his group agree to take turns sleeping so someone is always watching. Rumors swirl that players may start  killing each other at night to reduce competition before the next game.

Themes and Symbolism

“The Man with the Umbrella” is one of the most layered episodes in *Squid Game*, loaded with symbolism and moral dilemmas:

1.Deception and Trust
– Sang-woo’s betrayal—his choice to withhold knowledge—shows how the fear of death twists even long-held friendships. He isn’t evil, but he prioritizes survival over honesty.
– Gi-hun remains trusting, but for how long?

2.Luck vs. Skill
– The Dalgona game looks innocent but is a lottery of life and death. Some players had a much easier chance at surviving due to random shape selection.
– It reflects the arbitrariness of societal opportunity, where some are handed easier paths while others are doomed from the start.

 3.Systemic Corruption
– The organ-harvesting subplot reveals that even within the structured, rule-bound games, corruption thrives.
– It hints at a larger theme of exploitation within exploitation.

 4. Masks and Identity
– The guards’ identical outfits symbolize loss of individuality and blind obedience. But behind the masks are people—flawed, fearful, and greedy.
– Jun-ho’s infiltration reminds us that the boundary between observer and participant is thin.

Final Moments: Tension in the Dormitory

As night falls, dread sets in. The players lie in their bunks, staring into the darkness, uncertain who might attack or what the next game will be. Gi-hun keeps watch over his team, realizing the psychological warfare has only just begun.

Elsewhere, Jun-ho sneaks deeper into the facility, following a guard into an elevator. He’s risking everything to uncover the truth, unaware of how far the rabbit hole goes.

The episode closes with a growing sense of claustrophobia and fear. What began as a twisted game is quickly unraveling into an all-out war of survival—not just against the system, but against each other.

Conclusion

Episode 3 of Squid Game, The Man with the Umbrella, raises the stakes not just physically, but emotionally and ethically. It explores the thin line between collaboration and betrayal, the illusion of fairness, and how desperate people behave when survival is pitted against morality.

With the games growing deadlier, alliances forming, and secrets unraveling behind the scenes, the episode deepens the narrative while pushing viewers to ask: How far would I go to survive?