| Season One | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Light, Green Light | Hell | The Man with the Umbrella | Stick to the Team | A Fair World | Gganbu | V.I.P.S | Front Man | One Lucky Day | ||||||||||
Gganbu (깐부) is the 6th episode in Season 1 of the Netflix TV series Squid Game.
Official summary[]
Players pair off for the fourth game. Gi-hun grapples with a moral dilemma, Sang-woo chooses self-preservation and Sae-byeok shares her untold story.
- —Official Netflix synopsis
Plot[]
The 39 remaining players proceed to the next game and have to pick a partner. Seong Gi-hun notices that Oh Il-nam had peed himself the previous night and covers it up by tying his jacket round his waist. As the players walk through the staircase room, they see the bodies of Byeong-gi and his co-conspirators strung up. An Invisible Manager tells the players that they're seeing those who broke the rules for their own benefit and violated the most important principle of the Squid Games: "Each and every one of them is considered an equal within the walls of that facility.". Players realize what will happen to them if they cheat and the Announcer apologizes for the terrible event.
Hwang Jun-ho explores the Front Man's office, trying to get more information on him. While this is happening, the players are told to partner up with someone. Gi-hun decides to team up with Cho Sang-woo, but then Sang-woo tells Ali Abdul that they should team up, since with Ali's strength and Sang-woo's intelligence they can win. Player 276 goes to find a partner and Players 244 and 196 team up, then Il-nam gives Gi-hun his jacket and tells him to put it on, in case no one wants to team up with him because he lost his own.
Jang Deok-su teams up with Player 278 and Ji-yeong offers to team up with Sae-byeok, to return the favor of helping her get a team in Tug of War. Player 062 tries to convince Gi-hun to team up and he assures him that he won't find a better option, 062 tells him that he is a Math teacher at a high school and that he plays Soccer every day, then he reveals to Gi-hun that everyone wanted to team up with him, but he believed that he and Gi-hun could win together. Gi-hun has his doubts since they don't know what the game is and 062 tells him to team up quickly, 062 tells him at that rate, he won't be able to get a partner and will be left alone, he mentions that the cheater was executed and there're only 39 players left (an odd number), so there will be 1 left, 062 thinks that person will be automatically eliminated and that it will be Il-nam (who is alone). 062 asks Gi-hun if they can team up and extends his hand, but Gi-hun ultimately decides to team up with Il-nam, to prevent him from being left alone. By this point, everyone has a partner besides Han Mi-nyeo, who is taken away by their guards, causing the players to think that she will be eliminated.
They are then introduced to the fourth game, Marbles. To win the game, the players have to try to get all of their opponent's marbles without any sort of violence while playing a sub-game with them. The person who ends up with no marbles is killed off and eliminated. They have a time limit of 30 minutes. If no one wins by then, both players will be eliminated. Their opponent in the game is who they chose to be their partner. This comes as a shock to everyone as they had partnered up with someone they trust, not knowing what the game really was. Players 069 and 070, the married couple, are shocked to discover that only 1 of them will survive. The four main pair-ups are Sang-woo and Ali, Il-nam and Gi-hun, Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong, and Deok-su and one of his cronies, Player 278.
Sang-woo and Ali begin playing the game. Ali supposedly doesn't know how to play that well, so Sang-woo teaches him, and Ali ends up gaining the upper-hand quickly. Sang-woo quickly grows nervous of Ali, and though Ali is clearly unhappy about beating Sang-woo, the latter forces him to keep playing. Eventually, Sang-woo is down to his last marble and furiously accuses Ali of cheating. Ali denies this, and before Sang-woo can grow more violent, he is stopped by one of the guards at gunpoint.
Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong start talking. Neither of them want to participate in the game, so they spend the next 30 minutes talking to each other. They start revealing their pasts to each other, with Sae-byeok telling Ji-yeong that a plague in her home village in North Korea had killed her grandfather, grandmother, and older brother. Sae-byeok explains that her family decided to escape to South Korea, seeking a better life, but only she and her younger brother crossed the border successfully, as her father was shot and drowned attempting to cross and her mother was caught and deported back. Ji-yeong reveals that she and her mother were abused by her father, who was a pastor and would pray for forgiveness every time he abused them. One day, after coming home from school, she found her father had murdered her mother, and Ji-yeong killed him out of retribution. She had received the Squid Game card the same day she was released from prison. Ji-yeong asks Sae-byeok what she would do if she wins, to which Sae-byeok replies she'd get her mother out of North Korea, buy a nice house for herself and her family to live in, and maybe go on a vacation to Jeju Island. Ji-yeong chides her for having such a basic vacation in mind, telling her to aim for something more extravagant and promises to take her out on a girls' night out shopping before somberly remembering their situation.
Meanwhile, Deok-su is losing to Player 278, and starts to get angry. He reminds the guard near them that the game was created with "equality" in mind, and that everyone is equal. He asks if he could be able to have a second chance against Player 278. The guard says yes. The pair decide to throw marbles into a hole in the ground, and whoever lands the throw gets to keep all the other marbles that have also been thrown in previous attempts. Player 278 is about to win when, in a twisted turn of events, his own marble knocks Deok-su's marble into the hole, making Deok-su the winner. Deok-su is beyond ecstatic and laughs at his henchman's fate, before rushing over to collect their marbles. Player 278 runs away before a guard can shoot him, but runs into more guards who gun him down quickly.
Gi-hun tries to play the game with Player 001, but the old man seemingly has suffered a severe lapse in his lucidity. He wanders around the game arena, saying this is his home neighborhood and tries to find his house. Because of the old man's confusion, it takes a lot of insistence for Gi-hun to convince him to play. When Il-nam finally accepts to play marbles, Gi-hun finds himself losing until he has one marble left, but realizing 001 cannot remember his bet, lies to him and begins winning back their marbles. Eventually, Player 001 finds himself out of marbles and asks 456 if he could borrow one marble. Gi-hun apologizes, and is about to hand over his marbles to a guard, when 001 reveals he has one marble left. Gi-hun then frantically counts his marbles and sure enough, he is one short and has not won yet. However, instead of continuing the game, 001 gets back up again and continues "searching for his house".
Sang-woo then begs Ali for his life and for his family, as he can't die and leave his mother. But Ali says that he has a family and a life too. Sang-woo, however, tells Ali of a plan where they can both survive, by finding other teams that have not yet finished their games. Sang-woo explains that when the timer runs out, some teams may still have no winner, and the guards will have the remaining players play a new game in teams, which they can then both win. Sang-woo sends Ali to find stronger players to recruit into their team, and ties Ali's pouch of marbles around his neck to prevent anyone else from stealing them. Ali seems hesitant, but ultimately trusts Sang-woo and goes off to find other pairs. However, while Ali is away, Sang-woo reveals that he had hidden all of the marbles for himself, and informs a guard that he has won the challenge.
Ali Abdul realises he's been betrayed by Cho Sang-woo, moments before he is shot dead by a Soldier.
As the game's timer starts running out, Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong play the game. They decide that whoever throws the marble closest to the wall near them, wins. Sae-byeok throws her marble and it lands reasonably close to the wall, but to her immense shock, Ji-yeong simply drops her marble, allowing her to win. When Sae-byeok angrily confronts her, Ji-yeong explains that ever since they started opening up to each other, she realized that she had nothing left to fight for in the outside world, while Sae-byeok still had a reason to live, and tearfully requests for Sae-byeok to live her life to the fullest if she is ever able to leave alive. As Sae-byeok is led away, Ji-yeong calls out to her one last time, and emotionally expresses her gratitude towards Sae-byeok for playing the game with her before getting shot dead, while Sae-byeok cannot bring herself to look at her friend in her last moments, only being able to listen in anguish and devastation. Meanwhile, Ali has finished searching the compound, but sees Sang-woo already at the exit about to be led out by a guard. Shocked, Ali checks his pouch to and finds only small pebbles. He realizes that he has been deceived by his friend before being shot by a guard, while Sang-woo can only look away.
During all of this, Gi-hun follows Player 001 around, begging him to keep playing. The old man suggests betting everything on one game, to which Gi-hun is outraged. However, 001 then reveals that he was aware of Gi-hun's deception the whole time and has been letting him win. Disgusted at his own actions, Gi-hun begins to cry, but Player 001 hands him his last marble, letting him win anyway, saying that they're "gganbu" who share everything with each other. 456 sobs uncontrollably while the old man hugs and reassures him, telling him that he made his time in the games more enjoyable. Eventually, the timer hits zero, and Gi-hun is forced to leave his friend. Before Gi-hun is escorted out, Player 001 tells him he finally remembers his full name: Oh Il-nam. After Gi-hun left Il-nam with a soldier, a gun shot is heard and the announcer says that Player 001 was eliminated. Gi-hun continues to slowly walk away, crying.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun
- Park Hae-soo as Cho Sang-woo
- O Yeong-su as Oh Il-nam
- Wi Ha-joon as Hwang Jun-ho
- Jung Ho-yeon as Kang Sae-byeok
- Heo Sung-tae as Jang Deok-su
- Kim Joo-ryoung as Han Mi-nyeo
- Anupam Tripathi as Ali Abdul
- Yoo Sung-joo as Byeong-gi
- Lee Yoo-mi as Ji-yeong
Guest Starring[]
- Im Ki Hong as Jung Min-tae
- Lee Sang Hee as Do Jung-soo
- Kwon Yoo-joon as Masked Front Man Stand-in
- Kim Shi Hyun as Player 244
- Son Won Kyung as Player 360
- Yoon Young Kyun as Player 040
- Kim Dong Won as Player 303
- Kwak Ja Hyung as Player 278
- Kim Yoon as Player 122
- Kim Dong Hyun as Player 196
- Yang Mal Bok as Player 453
- Christian Lagahit as Player 276
- Kim Yoon Tae as Player 069
- Park Jong Beom as Player 357
- Kim Ha Young as Player 032
- Jang Hyun Jin as Player 083
- Jung Woo Hyuk as Player 096
- Moon Byung Joo as Player 021
- Go Byung taek as Player 407
- Moon Jung Dae as Player 151
- Hwang Youn Hee as Player 308
- Lee Doo Suk as Player 062
Co-Starring[]
- Jeon Young Soo voices Game Guide
- Lee Ji Ha as Player 070, Player 069's Wife
Deaths[]
- Player 130 (Shot after losing to Player 062 in Marbles)
- Player 040 (Shot after losing to Player 303 in Marbles)
- Player 303 (Cheated with Player 040)
- Player 032 (Shot along with Player 083)
- Player 083 (Shot along with Player 032)
- Player 122 (Shot along with Player 357)
- Player 357 (Shot along with Player 122)
- Player 068 (Shot after losing to Player 151 in Marbles)
- Player 229 (Shot in chest after losing to Player 096)
- Player 278 (Lost to Jang Deok-su and shot repeatedly)
- Player 043 (Shot after losing to Player 407)
- Player 085 (Shot in chest by a soldier after losing to Player 453)
- Player 081 (Shot by a soldier after losing to Do Jung-soo)
- Player 276 (Lost to Player 021 and shot by soldier)
- Player 158 (Shot after losing to Player 308 in Marbles)
- Player 070 (Lost to Player 069 and shot by soldier)
- Cho Su-jin (Shot alongside Player 183 for failing to complete a game of marbles within the time limit. (error))
- Player 183 (Cheated with Cho Su-jin)
- Player 196 (Shot in head by soldier after losing to Player 244)
- Player 413 (Shot after losing Player 360 in Marbles)
- Ali Abdul (Shot in head by Soldier after being tricked by Cho Sang-woo)
- Ji-yeong (Shot in the left temple after purposely losing to Kang Sae-byeok in Marbles)
Trivia[]
- During the scene where Player 278 looks at Deok-su, he says "Look at that. One more right here." The subtitles say "(sniggers)" but then it was rewritten as "(snickers)" due to someone saying it was racist.
- This episode is similar to The Starry Night.
- This episode features the game of Marbles.
- Lee Byung-hun, the actor for Hwang In-ho, is actually mentioned by Ji-yeong in this episode, whenever referring to the movie Inside Men.
Mistakes[]
- While Player 040 and Player 303 are shown partnered up before the fourth game and walking together to their assigned spot, Player 040 is later seen playing and losing against Player 126. This player and Player 303 are never seen again after the game ends.
- Player 081 is seen walking with Player 017 to marbles, but Player 413 is 017's real partner.
- Players 407 and 043 were partnered in marbles, and 043 was announced to be eliminated, but he was later seen playing with Player 413.
- In a round of Il-nam and Gi-hun's game, Il-nam wagers 4 marbles while Gi-hun wagers 3. However, when Gi-hun gives his marbles to Il-nam, he has 4 and Il-nam has 3.