Diksha Sundriyal
Stories are not as interesting without villains, and Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ has its fair share of bad guys whom the audience loves to hate. The second season introduces another batch of players, and out of those 456 people, a couple of players emerge to be worse humans than others. Nam-gyu, aka Player 124, pretty quickly establishes himself as one of the major bad guys, and he becomes more and more unlikable with each episode. He mostly appears as a sidekick to another villain, Thanos. However, his arc takes so many twists and turns that by the end of Season 2, he becomes one of the, if not the, most hatable characters of the season. SPOILERS AHEAD
Nam-gyu’s Evolution as a Bad Guy Makes Him One of the More Interesting Characters of Season 2
At the beginning of the games, Nam-gyu immediately tags along with Thanos, the famous rapper who has fallen on hard times and is now trying to turn things around by winning the fortune promised to the game’s winner. At this time, no one, except Seong Gi-hun, knows that the losers will be killed. Nam-gyu befriends Thanos, thinking that even if he loses when he goes back into the world, he will have made an important connection with a famous person, which could come in handy. But the tables turn after the first game when it becomes clear that there are no winners but survivors. Still, having a friend in such a place doesn’t hurt, so Nam-gyu sticks with Thanos, even when the latter doesn’t seem to pay him much mind and often calls him by the wrong name.
With each game, Thanos and Nam-gyu stick together and survive, and by the end of the third vote, they are pretty thick with each other. But then, the bathroom brawl happens, and Myung-gi ends up stabbing Thanos in the neck. While his friend’s death is shocking to Nam-gyu, he doesn’t hesitate to pull out the fork that was stuck in Thanos’ neck to use it as a weapon himself. Not only this, he also steals the rapper’s cross in which he kept the pills that he’d started sharing with Nam-gyu since the second game. While they weren’t the best of friends, Thanos’ death hits Nam-gyu pretty hard, and he has no qualms about causing more bloodshed. At the time, the vote between the Xs and the Os is tied, and both sides contemplate ways to increase their numbers so that they can win the next vote. While the Xs seem to be considering their options separately, all the Os are one in thinking that they need to kill as many Xs as possible.
Nam-gyu’s Villain Arc Makes Him More Ruthless With Each Episode
Before the lights go out, Nam-gyu takes a couple of pills and goes berserk when the attack begins. He goes after Se-mi, who used to be a part of their team but then left them after the third game when Min-su unexpectedly left her behind. Min-su, hiding on the topmost bunk, tries to stop Nam-gyu by dropping a bottle on him but misses. This distracts Nam-gyu long enough for Se-mi to take the broken bottle and attack him. However, Nam-gyu is stronger than her, more so because he is on drugs. The fight ends with him stabbing Se-mi in the neck and killing her. The bloodshed comes to an end when the guards finally walk in. By this time, Nam-gyu is one of the survivors, and he recedes into the background as Gi-hun and his team attack the guards, take their guns, and stage a rebellion.
The finale sees a lot of players die all at once. From the bathroom brawl to the bloodbath in the main hall to the failed rebellion, many players die all at once, and for the Os, this is nothing but good news because a lot of these people happened to have been the Xs. This means that even if the next vote happens, the games will continue, and this is great news for people like Nam-gyu, who want nothing more than the prize money now. He has already done the worst, so whatever the next game brings, he will not hesitate to sink deeper if that’s what it takes. However, as we have seen previously, villains always get their due, no matter how long it takes. Nam-gyu is bound to die at some point. The only question is when and how. Considering how hatable he has become, it would be interesting to see whether or not his death is gratifying enough to match the severity of his crimes.
Read More: Does the Pregnant Girl (Player 222) Die in Squid Game Season 2?
