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| “ | Hey Se-mi, don't forget that you're a b**ch! | „ |
| ~ Nam-gyu to Se-mi before attacking her. |
| “ | "Those seeking life shall croak. Those seeking death shall live." So don't be scared. Just tell yourself that you don't care that you die. | „ |
| ~ Nam-gyu expressing his belief to Min-su that an individual can escape the fear of death if they don't care whether they live or die. |
Nam-gyu, also known as Player 124, is a major antagonist in Season 2 of Netflix's 2021 South Korean survival thriller series Squid Game. He is a former nightclub worker with a history of drug use with a vengeful nature who joins the Squid Game to pay off his crippling debts.
Throughout the season, he forms an alliance with Thanos, a rapper who lost money in cryptocurrency investments, and becomes a key figure in his team during the deadly competition.
He is portrayed by Roh Jae-won.
Biography[]
Background[]
| “ | Did the bastards who made that coin take the money and flee to the Philippines? And why are you here? Did they abandon you? | „ |
| ~ Nam-gyu to Myung-gi. |
Prior to the 36th Squid Game, Nam-gyu worked as a club promoter at Club Pentagon, where he met and became friends with the rapper Thanos.
Like Thanos, Nam-gyu invested a massive sum of money in a cryptocurrency called Dalmatian, after being advised by a crypto YouTuber "MG Coin". However, the crypto turned out to be unsuccessful and costed Nam-gyu over 300 Million Wons. Due to this, Nam-gyu participated in the annual Squid Game in hopes of gaining enough money to pay off his debts, completely oblivious to the dangers he would soon have to face.
Squid Game 2[]
Nam-Gyu is first seen with his close acquaintance Thanos, antagonizing the crypto YouTuber "MG Coin", real name Myung-gi, who had also participated in the Squid Game to pay off his crippling debt from his failed cryptocurrency. Nam-gyu and Thanos were agitated with Myung-gi, and quickly bonded over their mutual vengeance and desperation after losing all of their money, blaming Myung-gi and his advises for their current predicament, stating that it was his fault that they are in debt and threatened him to earn back every money to pay them off. Thanos and Myungi-gi argue back on forth for some time, before it soon escalates into a physical altercation, though Nam-gyu manages to restrain and calm down Thanos and brings him back, saying that people are watching.
Nam-gyu was one of the majority of people that survived the first game "Red Light, Green Light", and was one of the people that chose to press "O" to continue the game, as 24 Million Wons was not worth nearly enough pay off his debts, let alone risk his life. The next day, during meal time, Thanos and Nam-Gyu yet again began to harass Myung-gi as he was eating. Nam-gyu starts off by taunting him by asking how he still has an appetite after watching people get shot, with Thanos soon joining in and yet again threatening him by telling him that he'd better get enough money to pay them off. When Myung tries to get them to go away, Nam-gyu steals and takes away his food, further insulting him by saying that he "eats like a f**king pig". When Thanos instigates further by taking the plate of food and shoving it in Myung-gi's face, a fight breaks out between him and the latter, but he is quickly overwhelmed as both Nam-gyu and Thanos beat him up. Soon, Young-il would intervene between them, asking them if they were embarrassed for having a 1v2. When Thanos foolishly provokes Young, he quickly grabs Thanos by the neck. Nam-gyu tries to help but is quickly defeated with ease and is left on the floor in pain. Young-il deals with the duo soon and they both leave Myung-gi for the moment.
Later, before the second game begins, Nam-gyu notices Thanos taking his colorful drugs and asks what it was, with Thanos being quick to dismiss it as something he doesn't need to know. During the prelude of the second game "Six Legs", Man-gyu is seen with Thanos, with a new player in their team, Gyeong-su, and were looking for more people to recruit into their team. They found two other players, Se-mi and Park Min-su whom they promptly invite over to their team to complete their group of five. After the first two teams had died during the games, Nam-gyu was visibly anxious and asked Thanos for some of his colorful drugs, stating that he would have no problem with it as he had tried nearly every single street drug he found. With some reluctance, Thanos hands Nam-gyu the drugs to calm his nerves. With the drug taking instantaneous effect, Nam-gyu begins to harass Min-su, but is quickly shut down by Se-mi, who taunts him about his shaky hands and reliance of drugs to calm his nerves, with Nam-gyu taking an immediate dislike to her, calling her a "B**ch". They would be able to successfully finish all the mini-games and survive for another day.
At the dormitory, Nam-gyu is visibly upset that there were more survivors, and that they wouldn't be able to get more money from the prize pool. He then orders Min-su to count the players remaining. However, Se-mi interrupted, saying that the masked guards would come in and announce the amount of players left anyways. This causes Nam-gyu to gain even more hatred for her, causing tension to rise. Thanos would soon stop the rising tension and then calm them down. Thanos asked everyone what their ages were, and when Min-su states that he was 27, Thanos orders Nam-gyu to treat him like a friend and not order him around since they were the same age. When Se-mi states that she was born in 1996, Thanos tells Nam-gyu and insists to call her as Noona, as she was the eldest among them, much to his annoyance.
During the second voting session, Nam-gyu threatens and intimidates Min-su into voting "O", telling him to not "betray us", with Min-su being pressured into doing so. Later, in the bathroom, Nam-gyu and Thanos confronts Lee Myung-gi, accusing him of being a "traitor" for voting X and choosing to leave the game. They questioned how he planned to pay off their debts with how little the accumulated prize money was and pressured him to stay in the game. Myung-gi, in turn, remarked about Thanos's forgetfulness and his incident at his concert, which greatly annoyed him. Before Thanos could retaliate, Gi-hun's team entered the scene, notably Young-il, and both teams ultimately decided to leave Myung-gi alone for the time being.
During the third game, "Mingle", Nam-gyu and their team survive the first of mingle that required ten people, though it is not shown who they took, or whose group the joined to survive. In the second round that required four people, Thanos kicked Gyeong-su out of the team, both literally and figuratively. So, Nam-gyu, Thanos, Se-mi and Min-su survived the second round by sticking together, even if it required them to kick Gyeong-su out. In the third round that required three people, Nam-gyu and Thanos insisted that Se-mi and Min-su secure their position as the third person in a bout of rock, paper, scissor. Se-mi tried to take Min-su with him by holding her hand for him, only for Min-su to pick scissors in response. Mistaking this as Min-su beating Se-mi in rock, paper, scissor, Nam-gyu and Thanos takes him along with them to survive the round of mingle. Nam-gyu also survives the fourth round that required six people off-screen, and it is unknown who they paired up with to survive. During the final round of the game, which was revealed to be two people, Thanos and Nam-gyu take each other and leave Min-su behind and manages to survive the final round, therefore winning again and making out alive for the next day.
After the third game, Thanos and Nam-gyu finds a Min-su, who is shown to have survived the final round. Thanos and Nam-gyu begins to further coax Min-su into their team of "O" by fake complimenting him, with Nam-gyu himself saying that he was hard-to-kill and cold-blooded. During the third voting session however, Min-su votes "X" in favor of stopping the games, much to Nam-gyu's surprise and anger. He and Thanos later corners Min-su in the bathroom and yet again tries to coerce Min-su into voting "O" tomorrow.
Myung-gi comes to Min-su's rescue and interrupts them before they could hurt Min-su. It started off as an argument which soon escalated into a full-on brawl after both parties provoked each other. During the brawl, Thanos is killed by Myung-gi with a fork, and Nam-gyu ends up fighting Player 331 in the scuffle. When player 331 seemed to have gained the upper hand and punches Nam-gyu down next to Thanos. When seeing Thanos' dead body, instead of being shocked or even sad over his friend's death, Nam-gyu's first instinct was to try and takes Thanos' drug tablets which were stored in his cross necklace. When Player 331 and continued on his assault, Nam-gyu takes the fork out of Thanos' corpse and stabs Player 331 with it, brutally killing him in the process.
After the brawl, Nam-gyu scapegoats the 'O' team in the bathroom for causing the deaths of Thanos and two other X players. Nam-gyu is later seen on his bed, holding Thanos' cross necklace, spitefully cursing Thanos for treating him like an idiot before opening the case and taking two of the tablets to calm his nerves.
During the "Special Game", when the 'O' players start a riot and begin to slaughter as many 'X' players as they can to decrease their numbers so that there won't be much left to vote, Nam-gyu was all in with them, leading the charge and brutally murdering Player 185. During the chaos, Nam-gyu faces off against Se-mi. Se-mi and Nam-gyu fight each other a while, with both of them now openly expressing their hatred for each other. Though Min-su tried to save her by distracting Nam-gyu with the glass bottle thrown at him, it was all in vain as Nam-gyu still manages to overpower Se-mi and kills her by stabbing her repeatedly in the neck in blind rage and kills her.
With the the team being fully disbanded, it was not shown what became of Nam-gyu after Seong Gi-hun's failed attempt at overthrowing the guards, but it is assumed he survived until the end.
Personality[]
Nam-gyu is shown to be a more violent, unfeeling and sadistic individual than even Thanos during the Squid Games' progression. While Thanos attempted to display an affable persona and sometimes treated his teammates with respect, even demonstrating remorse for Gyeong-su's death, Nam-gyu was regularly hostile to those around him, with the exception of Thanos. He especially enjoyed bullying Myung-gi and harassing Min-su, to the point where Thanos called him out on his behavior multiple times. Nam-gyu told his teammates that if someone doesn't care whether they live or not, they can ensure their survival, which is reflected in the games.
He is an avid drug user, evidently addicted to the drugs Thanos used during the Squid Games. According to his own words, he had previously tried every single street drug he could find. Under the effect of Thanos' drugs, Nam-gyu became much less scared and anxious. However, this simultaneously caused him to act more irrationally. After Thanos' death, Nam-gyu took his cross necklace and later consumed more than one of the colourful drugs inside. This extra tablet was presumably taken to ease his anxiety.
Nam-gyu is callous and uncaring towards the lives of other contestants, expressing frustration that not enough people died in each round as more people dying would have led to a more significant prize-pool. Though he initially avoided violence due to the many witnesses, Nam-gyu later had no qualms against murder. In the 'Mingle' game, he was shown to help Thanos kick two other players out of the way in order for them to take a spot for themselves during the final round. Later during the bathroom brawl where the 'O' and 'X' team fought each other, Nam-gyu took the fork in Thanos' neck and used it to brutally murder another player.
He possessed a special hatred for Se-mi, who bruised his ego earlier in the 'Six-Legged Pentathlon'. He referred to her as a "b**ch" before violently attacking her in the 'Special Games'. Despite Se-mi's attempts to fight back and Min-su's assistance, Nam-gyu managed to successfully kill her in a blind-rage, further amplified by the drugs he took beforehand. Before this, Nam-gyu had also murdered Player 185 at the beginning of the 'Special Games'.
It is unclear whether Nam-gyu and Thanos had a genuine friendship, as Nam-gyu cursed Thanos after his death for always treating him like an idiot. When Thanos was killed by Myung-gi with a fork, Nam-gyu's first instinct was to take the fork and drug tablets from his corpse. However, Nam-gyu's body language in the aftermath suggests that he was quite shell-shocked by the event, as he dragged his hand across his face, visibly trembling and even sniffling. Furthermore, he always stepped in to protect Thanos whenever the latter got into altercation's with other people. Whether Nam-gyu was cold and unfeeling towards Thanos, or was simply trying to bury his emotions, is open to interpretation.
Trivia[]
- There is a small running gag in season 2 which Thanos keeps misnaming him as 'Nam-su', with Nam-gyu having to correct him everytime.
- His relationship with Thanos mirrors that of Jang Deok-su and Player 278. However, while Deok-su and 278 turned against each other, Thanos and Nam-gyu remained friends throughout the game. Unlike 278, Nam-gyu ended up being more vicious than his boss.
External Links[]
- Nam-gyu on the Squid Game Wiki
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 Villains
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Masked Men Players Others | ||