Warning: Contains spoilers for Squid Game.
Squid Game is a complex survival drama that uses death games to tackles themes of crime, injustice, and wealth inequality – but why did Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) emerge as the final winner? Squid Game protagonist Gi-hun is also known as player 456, a number that’s also on his Squid Game tracksuit. Gi-hun also won 4,560,000 won after he betted on horses during his daughter’s birthday, which happens in episode 1 of Squid Game. These are the first telltale clues that Gi-hun is the fated winner of the 45.6 billion Korean won grand prize.
Like many of the other players in Squid Game, Gi-hun is a gambler who is extremely mired in debt. Gi-hun’s problems with gambling led him to lose his job, as well as his daughter and wife, from whom he is divorced. Apart from Gi-hun’s motivations of getting custody of his daughter and paying for his mother’s medical bills, his backstory is highly similar to that of his fellow desperate players. But since Gi-hun is the protagonist, it is he whom viewers first see being recruited by The Salesman (Gong Yoo of Train to Busan and Coffee Prince). In the final titular game, Gi-hun and his childhood friend Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo) face off against each other, and Gi-hun emerges as the winner and sole Squid Game survivor.
But why did the winner have to be Seong Gi-hun? The short answer is that Gi-hun winning Squid Game satisfies viewer expectations, as Gi-hun is not only the highly relatable protagonist, but also arguably the show’s most beloved character. More importantly, the long answer to this question is that Gi-hun’s actions, before and after winning the game, help in driving home Squid Game’s points regarding wealth inequality and the dangers of gambling. During the final game between Seong Gi-hun and Oh Il-nam, who is revealed to be the billionaire founder of Squid Game, Il-nam explains how he and the other VIPs bet on the games for fun and see the players as horses, which is also a callback to Gi-hun’s horse betting days. The fact that Gi-hun doesn’t spend much of the 45.6 billion Korean won grand prize, at least at first, is telling of how deeply he was traumatized by the things he did and witnessed. When Gi-hun finally decides to spend his money, the first thing he does is to do right by Cho Sang-woo and Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon), before deciding to visit his daughter in the U.S.
With Gi-hun’s hair dyed red in the Squid Game finale, he even sacrifices seeing his daughter for the greater good in the very last scene, opting to turn around instead when he finds out that the next Squid Game is underway. While the Squid Game finale is open-ended, Gi-hun seems determined to find a way to stop the death games from happening again. In short, Gi-hun’s altruistic nature, as well as his burning hatred of how billionaires get away with atrocities, make him the perfect winner for punctuating Squid Game’s main discussions.
These characteristics are also what makes Gi-hun a fan favorite. At the same time, Gi-hun isn’t the only fan favorite in the cast. There’s also immigrant worker Abdul Ali (Tripathi Anupam) and North Korean defector Kang Sae-byeok, also known as Squid Game player 067, who are both also altruistic and resourceful like Gi-hun. However, it was only Gi-hun who looked after Il-nam during the games - despite actively believing he was risking his life to do so - and who continued to try and balance pragmatism with compassion right up until the end.
While there are other players who, like Gi-hun, have characteristics that can help drive home Squid Game’s points about the injustices and consequences of wealth inequality, they might not think twice about just leaving their traumatic past behind and enjoying the grand prize. And apart from being congruent with the series’ main themes, Gi-hun has enough of a fiery disposition – and a hair style to match – to potentially become a real threat to the VIPs in Squid Game season 2.