Continuing my trend of seeing the best in polarizing characters (or outright villains), I’m not analyzing MG Trash Coin right now, because I will crash out. Instead, let’s look into the mind of everyone’s favorite dimwit: Seong Gi-hun.

It’s easy to view Gi-hun as a hypocrite, because he is one. However, Gi-hun operates under a different code of morality. One that’s not Black & White, Black & Gray, or Gray & Grayer, but one that’s Blue & Orange.

It’s a moral compass that makes no sense to anyone but Gi-hun. Ironically, it might just be the irrationality of his morality that finally gets to the Front Man.

*Spoilers*

At his core, Gi-hun has a good heart. However, he was never a particularly good person. A deadbeat father who ditched his daughter. First in favor of gambling and alcohol, later in favor of revenge.

My boi is on a quest to sacrifice his life for the greater good while being unwilling to sacrifice himself for those closest to him. Gi-hun died for Jun-hee’s baby, but was unwilling to live for his own daughter.

Nevertheless, it’s his inherent goodness, and his belief in the inherent goodness of others, that drives his decisions. Gi-hun believes in a sort of Imago Dei: that all humans have inherent worth by virtue of being human.

Consequently, seeing people lose their humanity and sacrifice each other for a chance at wealth causes him to crash out. Especially because he won the won, yet he’s more miserable than he was before the money.

Season 2 brings us to a short-haired Gi-hun who’s on a quest to end the games for good.

This is a noble venture rooted in his belief that humans should not be reduced to play things for the entertainment of the wealthy elite. He’s out to win the greater battle against capitalism and greed, but not necessarily save any individual lives. This is somewhat of a change from the Gi-hun of season 1 who was willing to throw it all away just to go home with Sang-woo.

Gi-hun joins the games again to dissuade the participants from playing while simultaneously hoping that Hot Cop and his goonies stumble upon the Island and rescue them (not a dumb idea given Hot Cop found the Island already, but “Because Plot” didn’t allow that to happen).

That said:

• anyone in the games is already on their 13th reason
  • several characters mention death or jail awaits them outside the games (or something worst…)
• Gi-hun is rich and has no motivation at all to continue
• Gi-hun is also bitter, hopeless, and knows the games are not about money but entertainment for the VIPs
  • that said, he seems to have forgotten the same desperation or hope that drove him to return after leaving is largely what drives these folks

Convincing the others to leave was always doomed to fail, because Gi-hun’s anger renders him unable to see what drives the other players.

Consequently, Front Man takes it upon himself to prove that not only will people willingly continue if given the chance to leave with money, but that Gi-hun is no better than he is.

And Front Man/In-h0 isn’t completely heartless; rather he shows tepid shades of guilt. However, In-ho believes anyone would do what he did if pushed to the edge. probably as a cope. Gi-hun’s fall would prove to him even the best of humanity will lose themselves to greed and self-preservation, justifying his own actions when he won the games.

Hence, the Special Games begin where everyone is given the option to leave with their money after each game. To Gi-hun’s shock, these people keep playing. And his arguments were pretty unconvincing. His best plan was his revolt which possibly-maybe-perhaps would’ve worked if Dae-ho hadn’t BSODed and failed to reboot). However, the failure of the revolt and loss of his bae Jung-bae is his 13th reason.

Gi-hun is and has always been a simpleton, thus he directs his angst at the simplest reason for his failure: Dae-ho.

Now, my boy did not deserve to go out like he did, but in Dae-ho’s death we see Gi-hun’s whack morals come into play.

This is a contrast to the Gi-hun we’ve come to love. The man who has always believed each life has value. How could he allow many X’s who trusted him to die as part of his revolt? Why did he kill Dae-ho only to not even punch Front Man, who killed his best friend and was the real reason the revolt failed?

The answer is poor writing.

That Gi-hun never reflected on killing Dae-ho is terrible writing. For him to barely react to Front Man who had killed his best friend and betrayed him? Awful, awful writing.

However, for the sake of this pointless analysis I’ll say that Gi-hun was so burned out he simply lacked the energy to even be angry at Front Man. His simple mind could only comprehend the most basic of facts i.e. the revolt failed because Dae-ho didn’t bring the bullets. Then, once the writers botched Dae-ho’s character and had him try to off Gi-hun, blinded by despair he kills him or some bs like that.

After that, all he could do was protect Jun-hee’s baby while going into a losing game. It’s hard not to imagine the sheer hopelessness he must’ve felt knowing an innocent child was about to die. Plus, he’s one of the few who fully knows the games are not intended to have more than one winner, which explains his utter lack of spine in the last few episodes.

In the final game, Gi-hun doesn’t really care about winning or living, he just wants to ensure Jun-hee’s baby survives. Had MG Coin used a single brain cell and realized the baby’s money = his money, things may have turned out differently for him. Luckily, because of bad writing this never dawns on him and he fully BSODs, forcing Gi-hun into a battle. One that Gi-hun wins.

Gi-hun doesn’t doesn’t trust Coin and with good cause (Jun-hee literally preferred to leave the fate of her child with a stranger than with it’s father). Ironically, even there we see Gi-hun’s true ideals emerge. He can’t even bring himself to just drop MG Coin after a near duel to the death, despite knowing they both may fall.

Then, he sticks it to the VIPs and kills himself, ensuring the baby wins. More importantly he wins the greater albeit invisible ideological battle he’d been fighting against Front Man all along.

Gi-hun’s final speech echoes back to his conversation with Il-nam after winning the games. Il-nam believes humans are terrible and have no innate goodness after watching the games for years.

It’s the same attitude In-ho has; it’s why he allows the baby to become a participant, believing Gi-hun’s desire to keep the baby safe will cause him to toss his morals aside and kill the participants as they sleep.

Yet Gi-hun doesn’t do any of that and ironically, the baby prevents the remaining participants from voting to leave before the final game because the baby would leave with “their” money.

This is capitalism 101: creating enemies out of each other, but particularly creating enemies at of those who are often most vulnerable. It never occurs to anyone in the Squid Games that these VIPs have this money and could easily just give it to the participants at any point during the games.

Clearly, the VIPs have some vast network where they know who’s financially struggling, because they target very specific people for the Squid Games. Yet, rather than display altruism, donating their immense wealth to charity, or like literally doing anything useful, the VIPs create a death game where the poor are fighting each other.

Capitalism makes an innocent child a target simply because the others perceive this child to be taking something from them that they deserve (even though the money isn’t even theirs yet). Sounds a lot like Republicans not wanting tax payer money to give children free lunches, but I digress.

Much more could be said about the poor writing in last few episodes but ultimately, Gi-hun stays true to his ideals, which may have been convinced In-ho that humanity isn’t all terrible.

The last episodes show In-ho leaving the baby with his younger brother and dropping off some of Gi-hun’s belongings (money) with Gi-hun’s daughter. It’s the slightest crack in the amour he’s built around his emotions. The slightest fracture in his belief that all humans are self-serving animals.

After all, why would a self-serving animal save a baby no one even knows is alive, who no one will ever come looking for? Why reach out to Gi-hun’s daughter at all when she has 0 interest in her father? Giving her Gi-hun’s bloody clothes almost seems like a subconscious attempt at revealing the games, something Gi-hun had been trying to do all along.

While In-ho’s intentions are left open-ended, Gi-hun’s is a closed case.

Even after falling short on his ideals, ultimately Gi-hun stood on business. In the end, he died as he lived: as a man with a good heart who believed in the goodness of others and the sanctity of all life.