Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 has now reached an even wider audience on Netflix, which means thousands of viewers are arriving at the finale with one extremely reasonable question: Wait, that was the ending? Yes. Also, no. Season 3 ends, but the Culling Game absolutely does not. The finale is less of a finish line and more like the moment a roller coaster pauses at the top of the biggest drop while everyone quietly realizes the safety inspector may have been a curse user. This season adapts the first major portion of the Culling Game, moving the story beyond the devastation of Shibuya and into a much stranger conflict built around colonies, points, binding rules, reincarnated sorcerers, and Kenjaku’s deeply unsettling habit of treating human suffering like a science fair project. So, what exactly happened at the end of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3, and where does the story go from here? The Culling Game Is Still in Progress The most important thing to understand is that Season 3 only covers Culling Game Part 1 . The heroes have entered Kenjaku’s colonies and begun gathering points, but the larger plan has not been stopped. Gojo remains sealed inside the Prison Realm, Kenjaku remains several steps ahead of nearly everybody, and the rules of the game continue pushing sorcerers into increasingly brutal confrontations. The Culling Game is not a normal tournament arc. Nobody is waiting around for a clean bracket and a trophy ceremony. The colonies are part battlefield, part ritual and part supernatural trap. Kenjaku is using the cursed energy produced by the players to advance a plan involving Japan’s population and Master Tengen. In other words, Yuji and the others are not merely trying to win fights. They are trying to rewrite the rules of a game that was designed so Kenjaku wins no matter how many players survive. Season 3 gives the heroes some badly needed progress, but it also reveals just how far they remain from actually fixing anything. Where Yuji Itadori Stands After Season 3 Yuji enters the Culling Game carrying enough emotional damage to qualify as his own special grade cursed object. The Shibuya Incident shattered his confidence, left him blaming himself for Sukuna’s massacre and forced him to accept that the jujutsu authorities had reinstated his execution. His confrontation with Higuruma becomes one of the season’s defining moments because Yuji does not attempt to excuse what happened. Even though Sukuna was responsible, Yuji accepts the guilt. That honesty affects Higuruma, who ultimately becomes an ally rather than another obstacle. Their encounter gives Yuji more than points. It proves that he can still reach people despite believing he deserves punishment. By the finale, Yuji is moving again, but he is not healed. That distinction matters. Jujutsu Kaisen rarely lets its characters solve trauma with one motivational speech and a dramatic sunset. Yuji’s guilt remains part of him, and the Culling Game keeps placing him in situations that challenge his belief that his only value comes from helping others. Unfortunately, being Sukuna’s vessel means Yuji’s personal crisis is sharing an apartment with a much larger disaster. Megumi’s Victory Comes With a Warning Megumi Fushiguro spends much of the season proving that his quiet expression is not calmness. It is the face of a teenager calculating twelve different ways to commit tactical violence. His battle with Reggie Star pushes him into one of his most demanding fights yet. Megumi wins by understanding the limits of his own technique, manipulating the battlefield and using Chimera Shadow Garden with increasing confidence. The victory shows how dangerous Megumi has become. It also shows how far he is willing to go. Megumi is fighting primarily to protect Tsumiki, his sister, who has been forced into the Culling Game. Everything he does is built around reaching her and creating a path that allows her to escape. That goal gives him purpose, but it also makes him vulnerable. Reggie’s final words operate like a curse of their own, warning Megumi that fate may turn him into a plaything. That is not subtle foreshadowing. Jujutsu Kaisen has basically placed a giant flashing sign above Megumi reading, “This boy’s life is about to become dramatically worse.” Considering how his life has gone so far, that is an impressive threat. Yuta Okkotsu Is Back, and He Is Terrifying Season 3 also reminds viewers that Yuta Okkotsu is not simply the polite protagonist from Jujutsu Kaisen 0. He is one of the strongest active sorcerers in the world. Yuta’s battles in the Sendai Colony show him handling multiple elite opponents whose abilities would be final boss material in a less aggressive anime. He fights Dhruv Lakdawalla, Kurourushi, Takako Uro and Ryu Ishigori while attempting to protect civilians and conceal parts of his own power. His connection with Rika remains central to his strength, allowing him to access stored cursed tools, enormous reserves of cursed energy and copied techniques. However, the season also emphasizes that Yuta’s greatest advantage may be his adaptability. He does not simply overpower everyone. He observes, adjusts and chooses the right ability for each situation. By the end of his colony battle, Yuta has accumulated a huge number of points and established himself as one of the heroes’ most important players. He wants to defeat Kenjaku himself so Gojo will not have to kill his best friend’s body a second time. That is an incredibly compassionate motivation. It is also the sort of sentence that could only exist in Jujutsu Kaisen. What the New Culling Game Rules Accomplish The heroes’ immediate objective is to gather enough points to add new rules to the Culling Game. Those rules are essential because the original system traps players inside Kenjaku’s ritual. By transferring points and introducing carefully chosen changes, the group hopes to prevent unnecessary deaths, protect allies and eventually create a route out of the colonies. This may sound less exciting than a Domain Expansion, but changing the rules is one of the most important victories of the season. Kenjaku created the game with rigid mechanics enforced through binding vows. The heroes cannot simply punch the rulebook until it apologizes. They must work within the system, collect points and slowly turn Kenjaku’s structure against him. Every alliance matters. Every point matters. Even victories that appear isolated are contributing to a coordinated plan. The problem is that Kenjaku understands the game better than anyone else, and the heroes still do not fully understand what the ritual will become once enough cursed energy has been gathered. Kenjaku’s Real Plan Is Bigger Than the Colonies Kenjaku is not running the Culling Game because he enjoys watching sorcerers fight, although he certainly does not seem bothered by it. The game is an experiment designed to produce a massive amount of cursed energy and push human evolution beyond its existing limits. Kenjaku wants to merge humanity with Master Tengen, potentially creating an uncontrollable cursed existence on a national scale. This plan is frightening because even Kenjaku does not know exactly what the result will be. He is not trying to create a perfectly controlled new world. He wants to produce something beyond his own imagination. Kenjaku is essentially shaking a bottle filled with cursed energy, ancient sorcerers and the entire population of Japan because he is curious about what happens when the cap flies off. The colonies are therefore only one stage of the operation. While Yuji, Megumi and Yuta fight inside the game, Kenjaku continues moving toward Tengen and the foundation of the jujutsu world itself. That broader conflict is where the next season becomes even more dangerous. Is Gojo Freed at the End of Season 3? No. Satoru Gojo remains sealed when Season 3 ends. Freeing him is still one of the group’s central objectives, and Angel’s technique may provide a way to open the back of the Prison Realm. However, finding Angel and convincing her to cooperate creates another set of complications. Gojo’s absence continues to shape the entire story. The villains are free to move without immediately encountering the strongest sorcerer alive. The jujutsu establishment has become even more corrupt and unstable. Gojo’s students are forced to make decisions without the teacher who once functioned as both their protector and the single biggest deterrent against large scale attacks. The longer Gojo remains sealed, the more the world changes into something he may not recognize when he returns. And yes, anime only viewers should remain very nervous about the phrase “when he returns.” What Season 4 Will Cover Jujutsu Kaisen Season 4 has officially been announced as Culling Game Part 2 , meaning the anime will continue the same arc rather than jumping into an entirely separate storyline. Based on where Season 3 stops, the next season is positioned to feature several of the manga’s most explosive confrontations. Kinji Hakari becomes increasingly important, including a battle that manga readers have been waiting years to see animated. Maki Zenin’s transformation continues as she confronts the remaining weight of the Zenin clan and reaches a new understanding of her abilities. Choso and Yuki Tsukumo also become central to the struggle against Kenjaku. Most importantly, the relationship between Yuji, Megumi and Sukuna moves toward a turning point that changes the direction of the entire series. That last part is best experienced without having every detail spoiled in advance. Just know that Season 3 has spent a suspicious amount of time reminding us that Sukuna is interested in Megumi. Sukuna has never shown interest in anything for a wholesome reason. Does Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 Have a Happy Ending? Calling it happy would be aggressively optimistic. The heroes have won important battles, recruited new allies and collected the points necessary to begin modifying the Culling Game. Yuji has found a reason to keep moving. Megumi is closer to reaching Tsumiki. Yuta has demonstrated that the group still possesses a fighter capable of challenging the strongest enemies in the game. Those are genuine victories. However, Gojo is still sealed, Kenjaku’s ritual is advancing and Sukuna remains the most dangerous unresolved threat in the entire story. The heroes have gained momentum, but they are still operating inside a plan created by someone who has spent centuries preparing for this exact moment. Season 3 ends with hope, but it is the kind of hope Jujutsu Kaisen likes best: exhausted, bloodied and standing approximately three feet away from another catastrophe. The Ending Is a Pause Before Everything Breaks Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 does not deliver a traditional conclusion because the Culling Game was never meant to fit neatly into one season. Part 1 establishes the colonies, introduces the game’s strongest new players and gives Yuji, Megumi and Yuta separate battles that reveal how much they have changed since Shibuya. It also quietly positions every major piece needed for the second half. Yuji is still fighting. Megumi is approaching Tsumiki. Yuta is preparing to face Kenjaku. Angel may hold the key to freeing Gojo. And Sukuna is waiting for the right moment to act. That is the real meaning of the finale. The heroes have finally begun pushing back against the Culling Game, but the most dangerous players have not yet revealed their full hands. Season 3 was the setup. Season 4 is where the board gets flipped over, the pieces catch fire and Sukuna somehow makes everything worse.