SPOILER ALERT!! WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FROM THROUGHOUT THE SHOW!
If you’ve been on any social media, you may have come across posts that are talking about the popular show “Squid Game.” This South Korean horror/thriller show follows the lives of people who are living in immense financial debt. Due to their debt, they are offered the chance to participate in this Squid game, in which they must play 6 kid games and win all of them in order to get the prize money, but there is a sick twist…if they lose any of the games, it will cost them their lives. The show contains a bounty of blood, violence, and murder as we watch the characters who are desperate to win the offered prize money, which grows as each player dies. Squid Game discusses the struggles of the lower class and how society has made it that much harder for these people to live their lives, showing just how much money can influence their decisions.
As we continue through the show, it is revealed that while every single participant is desperate to win the money, some are worse than others. While initially, I myself believed the worse characters to be Jang Deok-Su and Han Mi-Nyeo, both of which show their not-so-innocent personalities from the get-go, it is because of that that they are not the true villains of the show.
Jang Deok-Su
Jang Deok-Su, aka Player 101, showed his true colors from the beginning, he is true scum. Throughout the show, he continues to instigate other players to enact more violence, leading to the deaths of many. However, I do not consider him to be one of the main villains as he never truly hid his intentions. From the first episode where he beats up Kang Sae-Byeok in the middle of the room, it is known that he was not the best guy. Even on the outside of the game, in the real world, he was a gangster who had killed before. He stayed a consistent dirtbag and therefore while he really was a bad guy, I don’t consider him one of the main villains of the show.
Han Mi-Nyeo
Next up, we have Han Mi-Nyeo aka player 212, who probably wasn’t a fan favorite (until the very end). While she wasn’t an innocent player, such as when she stole food from other players and helped Jang Deok-Su bully other players, to me, she was also not a true villain of this show. In episode 3, she cheats in the Dalgona game by using a lighter to cut the shape out of the candy, then right after, gives her lighter to Jang Deok-Su, which ends up saving him from dying in this game. While her methods were not moral at all, I can understand her as a player who was cunning and knew what would keep her alive. She knew the Jang Deok-Su would feel indebted to her for that save and later help her out. Granted, she probably didn’t predict his betrayal, but she knew that at least for the immediate time after this game, he would help her. She also never truly participated in the violence, rather letting Deok-Su and his goons initiate the violence. She knew that Deok-Su would not kill her and so she stayed by his side because, for a little while, Deok-Su was one of the main threats to the rest of the players. So, while she wasn’t the most innocent player there, she did what she had to survive and I can’t knock her for using the person she thought was the strongest there.
Now that we have addressed how those two are not the true villains, the following characters are who I believed were the true villains.
Cho Sang-woo
First and foremost, Cho Sang-woo aka Player 218, had been one of my favorite characters, as he appeared to be a caring guy who was down on luck as most of the other players, but how wrong I was to assume he was a good person. At the beginning of the show, we see some foreshadowing of his fake persona. As the main character, Seong Gi-hun aka Player 456, who was his childhood friend, is still under the assumption that Sang-woo is a successful investor. It is then that we slowly get a glimpse into his true colors. In the second episode, when the majority of the players decide to end the game after learning the true dangers of it, he and Ali, aka Player 199, a Pakistan citizen who is living in Korea to provide for his family, are left out in the middle of Seoul, with no way to get back to their separate homes. He gives money to Ali for the bus and even lets him borrow his phone, so we think that Sang-woo is a decent person. After they return to the game, Sang-woo continues to look after Ali, even forming a team with him and the other main characters. They appear to have a close friendship despite the environment they were in… but that statement is utterly wrong as it doesn’t even take Sang-woo a second thought to betray Ali in episode 6. During the marble game, Sang-woo ultimately kills Ali by stealing his marbles when he was not there and before Ali can truly process the betrayal, he is killed. This moment solidifies just how bad Sang-woo was and how looks are deceiving. While he has more moments as a villain, this particular part is what solidified him as a true villain for me.
Oh Il-Nam
Oh Il-Nam aka Player 001, is the true embodiment of looks can be deceiving. Throughout the show, you can’t help but feel bad and empathize for the old man as he is not only the only player that is elderly but also has a brain tumor that is hindering him. He seems very helpless at the beginning, and as the show goes on with him helping the main characters, you feel the need to cheer him on as well. However, as I said, looks are really deceiving when it turns out he was not only a player but actually one of the creators of Squid Game. He and his rich friends created the game out of pure boredom and a need for entertainment and thus this is why I felt the most betrayed. I am sure most viewers of the show felt the same way I did when we found out he was not killed in the marble game but was still very much alive after the game ended and that he was the reason for the games in the first place. He finally shows his true colors at the end of the show, displaying his hatred towards the lower class and the arrogance and narcissism of the upper class. He was definitely one of the true villains since the game was actually his idea and also because he convinced the audience that he was an innocent old man who was suffering from a brain tumor he couldn’t afford to get rid of when in fact, he was the richest person in the room.
