Like The Hunger Games as well as various other dystopian life-or-death stories before it, Netflix’s Squid Game flights on the thrilling trope that also the weakest personalities should never ever be ignored.
After enjoying all 9 episodes of the Korean drama collection, we still have every scene starring Oh Il-nam, also known as gamer 001, swirling around in our heads like the confused mathematics female meme.
Exactly how does a personality that’s externally so breakable and empathetic handle to damage our hearts as well as blow our minds to the factor of mystifying rage? Well, having loads of cash and a plan of attack assists.
Oh Il-nam’s Game Play
When Seong Gi-hun initially awakens in his bunk bed at the training facility, one of the first details he picks up on is that every gamer has actually been appointed a number based on when they were hired. As the last of the 456 gamers to authorize his contract, Gi-hun is player 456. In what seems like a delighted coincidence at the time, the initial individual Gi-hun speaks to is gamer 001, a senior guy called Oh Il-nam who copes with a brain tumor that appears to take a toll on his memory.
The fact that Il-nam was picked as the initial gamer in the game– even though he’s years older than all of the other individuals– flies under the radar at the beginning of the program, however it later on becomes clear that he was picked initially for an important factor.
Taking pity on the older male for going to such a physical and mental drawback in the video game, Gi-hun befriends Il-nam ahead of the preliminary. When it comes to be clear that the video games they’re joining are potentially deadly, Il-nam is unfazed as well as handles to inch across the line with a smile on his face in the Red Light, Green Light video game also before Gi-hun makes it throughout. A closer take a look at the crosshairs of the robotic leading the video game indicates that it could not have actually been targeting Il-nam at all, increasing uncertainties amongst viewers that his age isn’t his only dubious characteristic.
After the games are briefly canceled, Gi-hun has a shock encounter with Il-nam at a corner store a couple of blocks from his home. When Gi-hun asks Il-nam what he’s carrying out in the location, Il-nam discusses he was checking out a pal as well as takes a seat with Gi-hun to discuss a package of ramen noodles. Both get along, and also Il-nam utilizes their time with each other to discuss his desire to reenter the games. Influenced by Il-nam’s words as well as his mother’s clinical costs, Gi-hun likewise makes a decision to return.
Oh Il-nam’s Elimination As the games continue, Gi-hun and also Il-nam kind a partnership with Ali Abdul, a factory worker from Pakistan, and Gi-hun’s previous classmate Cho Sang-woo. Regardless of his psychological as well as physical negative aspects, Il-nam is able to wind through the dalgona candy obstacle in rounded two as well as supply a tactical plan for the rest of his group in the tug-of-war obstacle, an approach so detailed that it feels like he might have been alerted about the video game ahead of time.
While his other gamers do not appear to detect his strange actions– as well as neither did we up until the second watch– Il-nam gets by without much hassle. Yet subtle ideas tell us that something isn’t as it appears about his character.
When cops policeman Hwang Jun-ho turns through the data in the Front Man’s storage room, an instant scene reveals that gamer 001 does not also have a data in the system, while all the other individuals from years past are clearly noted. The Front Man also seems to have a reward to maintain Il-nam alive, given that he aborts the raid in the dorms just after Il-nam screams to the cameras that he’s terrified, allowing dozens of various other players to pass away.
This sympathy prolongs heavily to Gi-hun, that stays up in the evening to get to know Il-nam and also even offers him his jacket after he wets himself from anxiety over the raid. In the fourth episode, “Gganbu,” the gamers team up to play a marble video game of their option. Unwilling to put themselves at a possible negative aspect, the players decline to partner with Il-nam up until Gi-hun, who currently considers him a pal, consents to be his teammate. Equally as the game starts, Il-nam’s brain lump obscures his memory, making him believe that the makeshift town the guards have led them to is in fact the community he grew up in.
Gi-hun areas Il-nam and considers him his “gganbu,” or best buddy, he understands Il-nam is very lucky when it comes to marbles and also makes the tough decision to use the older man’s memory loss to his benefit. After a couple of more rounds of the even or weird guessing game they’re playing, Gi-hun manages to take all but one of Il-nam’s marbles.
When Il-nam rises to stray around the area, Gi-hun panics and also begs for the last marble. At this point, Il-nam exposes that he had not been having a memory gap in any way as well as understood Gi-hun was deceiving him during. Still, he advises Gi-hun that they’re buddies and also consents to provide him the last marble. As Gi-hun strolls off toward the guards, a gunshot sounds, signifying Il-nam’s death, despite the fact that it isn’t revealed on screen. For lots of fans, Il-nam’s fatality following his father-son link with Gi-hun was one of one of the most heartbreaking in the series– and also it would certainly have been, if he were in fact dead.
Oh Il-nam’s True Identity
In the last episode of season one, Gi-hun takes care of to beat Sang-woo in a round of Squid Game. He takes residence the prize money but is not able to refine his sorrow over all he experienced in the games up until he obtains a card inviting him for one last meetup in a high-rise neglecting Seoul. It’s there that Gi-hun sees Il-nam, though bedridden and also really afflicted by a mind growth, is still to life.
Overwhelmed, he pays attention to the older man discuss himself, recognizing that Il-nam was one of the VIPs the whole time and also was simply playing the game for the adventure of it. Moments later, Il-nam dies, leaving Gi-hun with overlooked questions.
Flashbacks reveal that Il-nam was actually real mastermind behind the video games and was also above the Front Man, aka Hwang In-ho, a former participant in the police and games officer In-ho’s sibling. One translation of Il-nam– “il” meaning “sun” or “very first” and also nam” indicating “man” or “kid”– additionally determines Il-nam as the leader of the covered up men. With simply mins left in the very first season, the surprising twist had our jaws on the floor.
As awful as his personality became, Il-nam did provide us a good enigma to fix, and also isn’t that part of the factor Squid Game had us hooked to start with? View this behind-the-scenes video from the show to reveal even more of the mystery behind the camera.