The 8 Show ending explained: How does the game really end, and who won?

Inevitably, carnage ensues as the rules take each contestant to some extremely messed up places. Big Brother, this ain't.

But how does the game end? And who actually wins?

Not the viewers, if some of the harsh reviews are anything to go by. But either way, someone has to win, right?

The 8 Show ending explained — How does the game end and who won?

Contestants 1F, 2F, 3F, 4F, 5F and 7F (each named after their respective floor in the building) work together in the end to switch the rooms and take the eighth floor for themselves, thereby stopping 8F's reign of terror.

A golf club to her head helps, but then the group's plan to take her floor and all its contents (for the hefty price of 1 billion won) backfires when they discover 1F hasn't actually bought the floor at all. He's only purchased the instructions on how to switch rooms.

So, that's 1 billion won just for an envelope. Not ideal, especially as the rooms themselves cost much, much more again. The first floor is priced at 10 billion, while the top one, floor eight, would cost 340 billion, which is far more than any of them have.

In case you're not familiar with South Korean currency, remember that Squid Game's grand prize was 45.6 billion won, for context.

With that, all hope is gone. 1F goes mad then, and holds the others at gunpoint, tying them up in a desperate attempt to keep the game going for longer and increase the overall prize money.

The former circus clown performs tricks for everyone, but the last laugh's on him when his tightrope shenanigans accidentally bring an overhead projector crashing down. 1F falls right after, and is horribly burned by the fiery wreckage he falls into.

Desperate for a solution and a way out, 3F realises that the cameras are key to their escape. If the audience can't watch the show, then there's no more game. 8F wants to stay, which is all kinds of messed up, but the rest set out to destroy all the cameras, and it works. The doors open and everyone walks out free.

Well, everyone except 1F, who died from his injuries: "I wanted to rise higher. I've spent my whole life at the bottom. A nobody like me shouldn't have been greedy. I'm so sorry."

Luckily for the others, 1F died after the game had ended, which means that they've all technically won. But have they really?

As 3F walks out of the courtyard, the first contestant to leave, speakers blast out fake applause, because it turns out there was no one in the audience.

Instead, 3F just dinds an envelope with the following message written inside: "Congratulations. The prize money will be wired to your bank account."

The stage's red curtains pull back then to reveal the words "The End" projected onto the screen.

Later, we discover that 3F was fined half of his winnings for destroying the cameras, but he doesn't care too much about that. He's still too traumatised from the two and half months he and the others lost to the game, even trying to die by suicide at one point.

With all that pain and no public audience to speak of, either, what was the point of it all? That's a question viewers might be asking themselves too, but we digress.

In the process of arranging a funeral for 1F, 3F seeks out his wife, only to discover that 7F lied about 1F's fate to her, claiming her husband is working abroad while giving her enough money to keep her going in his absence.

6F doesn’t attend the funeral, but he does send a condolence wreath, which is something, we suppose.

We soon discover that 8F rightfully fares the worst out of everyone. In a bid to relaunch her career as a performance artist, she destroyed a public art gallery, so the police throw her in prison, which is exactly where she belongs.

At the end, the four remaining contestants walk out of the funeral, presumably to never see each other again.

It's an anticlimactic end to say the least - but wait, there's a post-credits scene.

It's here that we catch up with 7F and learn that he was actually a failing screenwriter back before he joined the show.

In the aftermath of this horrendous ordeal, 7F has decided to write what he knows and pitch what happened to an entertainment executive. He loves it, obviously, and decides to give 7F the greenlight, suggesting it "could even lead to a sequel".

Clearly, the team behind The 8 Show are hoping Netflix catch on and green-light a second season in real life.

But wait, there's even more going on here, because the exec seems to hint that he himself might have been a previous contestant in the game, too, asking, "How else do you think I have so much money?" He brushes it off after as a joke, but the implication is that the game we've watched wasn't the first one ever held.

Just like in Squid Game, it seems that these kind of games are a regular occurrence for the bored and wealthy. But unlike Squid Game, an actual second season seems unlikely, although Netflix has always been more concerned with viewing figures than reviews, so we wouldn't rule this out entirely.

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