Netflix’s The 8 Show Ending Explained

The Korean series The 8 Show might, at first glance, seem like a Squid Games knock-off, but it’s so much more. If that final episode left you scratching your head or you missed out on it entirely, here’s The 8 Show ending explained. 

What Happens in The 8 Show?

The premise of The 8 Show is that eight strangers are locked up in a building for a hostless game show. The longer the show goes on, the more money they make, but if the timer in the communal area counts down to zero or if someone dies, it’s game over. 

But as the show progresses, the top floors end up exerting power over the lower floors, not least because the food arrives in the 8th Floor’s room (the characters are known by their room). By Episode 5, things are very messed up indeed, and the more entertaining the unseen viewers find it, the more time is added to the countdown. 

Netflix’s The 8 Show Ending Explained

The final episode of The 8 Show begins with the lower floors in control. They’d overthrown the higher floors, who were making them play dangerous games to entertain the viewers and beat the hell out of them. However, the upper floors regained control and progressed to sleep deprivation torture. Eventually, the lower floors fight back and tie up their captors – again. But this time, it sticks. 

Over the course of this eighth and final episode, we learn more about the contestants:

• 8th Floor is a performance artist who has lost popularity
• 7th Floor is a TV writer
• 6th Floor is an ex-baseball player who was fired for being involved in illegal gambling. He lost his job after assaulting his boss.
• 2nd Floor is a manual worker, possibly in construction, who was willing to pay for her colleague’s medical treatment.

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The episode begins with a bombshell. 1st Floor is planning on spending one billion won to change rooms, but when he pays, he’s sent a price list for changing rooms. The price list reveals that the prices are more than any of them can afford. So, 1st Floor, who has a sick daughter in the outside world, has wasted all that money. 

That leaves 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th Floors free, but with no way to end the show short of killing someone. The sadistic 8th Floor is still tied up, as is 6th Floor. But, as part of her agreement to help the others, 5th Floor gets the reward she wanted. She’s allowed to castrate 6th Floor with no anesthetic. 

Ultimately, 1st Floor holds everyone at gunpoint, forcing them to tie each other up because he can’t afford to leave. As a circus performer, he puts on a tightrope walking show and bounces off the tightrope, jumping high into the sky. 

But as with several of the show’s scenes, this is revealed to be a hallucination. 1st Floor pulls the projector down as he falls, which bursts into flames, adding to his injuries. 3rd Floor begs the hosts to pull the plug, but the clock only goes up.

He and the other free contestants go around destroying cameras until the host ends the show, and they leave to recorded applause. 1st Floor dies immediately after, though since the show has already ended, we don’t find out if his death would actually have ended the show. 

All the contestants get paid. 3rd Floor gets 1,531,435,500 won, around $1.1 million, which we can assume goes toward paying off his debt. He also pays for a billboard for the others to come together for 1st Floor’s funeral. We also learn that the contestants spend two and a half months on the “show.”

2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th turn up for the funeral. 6th sends a massive wreath, suggesting he feels some guilt, and we find that 7th has given his prize money to 1st’s wife, enough to set her up for life and presumably cover her daughter’s medical bills.

We also find out that 8th hired a bulldozer to destroy an art gallery, calling it a performance piece, and had to pay all her winnings in compensation and is now in jail.

And that’s how the show ends. The show is never public knowledge, and we don’t find out who was hosting or watching it.

Did The 8 Show’s Ending Have a Message?

The 8 Show‘s ending touched on a few themes, but the biggest one was that of wealth and class and the gap between the rich and poor. 8th Floor could afford so many lavish things because she was making so much more money than the lower floors. And even before the top floors resorted to violence, they had so much power over the lower floors.

But the top floors acquired their power essentially randomly, implying that money is a corrupting influence. It’s also disturbing just how easily some of the floors, not just the top ones, were willing to let 1st Floor be their “sanitation worker.”

There’s also commentary on the voyeuristic aspects of TV and online video and the drive to go to greater lengths to entertain. On top of that, there’s an examination of what it means to be a “good” person and people’s capacity for violence. 3rd Floor, for example, refused to take revenge on 8th Floor, even knowing what she’d done to him and the others. 

Perhaps the one lesson to take away from all this, though, is that if you’re ever invited on a gameshow, bring a Portaloo. And that’s The 8 Show ending explained.

The 8 Show is streaming now on Netflix.