As the rules of the games give way to all-out mayhem, the humanity of everyone involved falls away. In its final act, “Squid Game” is seemingly determined to show the pure evil lurking within each human being that just needs the right excuse to come out.

Designed as the back half of the story it began in December 2024, Squid Game’s third season satisfies by placing a premium on its lethal schoolyard bouts, all of which afford race-against-time opportunities for its well-drawn characters to reveal their true natures in the heat of the moment.

“Squid Game” is back for what is said to be its final round, with a six-episode third season on Netflix. If only all beneficiaries of free-floating, pandemic-boosted nihilism would fade away as quickly.