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| “ | I'm just a messenger who delivers invitations. | „ |
| ~ The Recruiter stating his purpose to Seong Gi-hun. |
| “ | What's wrong? Feeling your mind start to race? The odds that gun will kill you are one in two now. That probability is pretty high, right? Now you're afraid, wondering what else you can do. I bet I know what's going through your head. "I already have the gun. Who cares what the rules are? I'm just gonna aim at this asshоlе, pull the trigger a couple of times, and blow his ugly face off." Well, am I wrong? If you want to meet the person you mentioned earlier, the key is in my pocket. You can simply shoot me with that gun and take it. But I'll have you admit one thing. That you're a piece of trash, just like everyone else. A piece of trash who got lucky and made it out of the dumpster. | „ |
| ~ The Recruiter's monologue to Seong Gi-hun during their game of Russian Roulette, as well as his final words. |
The Recruiter, also known as The Salesman, is a major antagonist in Netflix's K-drama Squid Game. Originally a member of the Masked Men, he quickly rose from within their ranks from a Worker to a soldier. After earning the trust of Oh Il-nam, he was then allowed to be a recruiter.
As a Recruiter, his job is to approach desperate people in crippling debt or severe financial issues to invite them to the annual Squid Games for the opportunity to win the prize money. Apart from this, he enjoys spending his free time conducting "Social Experiments" where he offers homeless people the choice between Bread or Lottery, something he derives a sadistic pleasure out of. Sadistic even by the Masked Men's standards, the Recruiter uses his calm and polite persona to hide a special hatred for vagrants and other unfortunate people like Seong Gi-hun.
He was portrayed by Gong Yoo in his first villainous role.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- He has a very nihilistic view of the participants' lives, stating that "These things aren't human" and merely just trash. Moreover, he possesses a strong disdain for the poor and impoverished individuals, performing cruel social experiments on them in his free time.
- He is not genuinely affable, as he reveals to Gi-hun just how much he hates people like him. It is more so a façade to persuade people to join the Squid Games.
- While he has comedic moments where he jumps and smashes all the loaves of bread to the point of exhaustion and his various slappings towards his victims playing Ddakji, he does it only to mock or hurt the people that he tormented. This showcases not only his sadism and total lack of empathy for less fortunate people, but also how insane he is.
- Although the standards of the Squid Game series are astronomically high, the Recruiter stands out for being the primary reason that people end up in the games, as he is the one to give the players the invitations while perfectly knowing full well what awaits them, along with his uniquely sadistic personality, his personal brutality, and his petty classism.
- His patricide is also a unique and especially cruel crime, especially when even Il-nam and In-ho are shown to love their family members, with the latter even intentionally avoiding killing his brother despite the threat he poses.
- His murder of his father - whilst offscreen villainy - is perfectly plausible considering his psychopathy, his sadism, and the nature of the Squid Game workers. Not to mention, he has nothing to gain by lying to Gi-hun about it.
- His patricide is also a unique and especially cruel crime, especially when even Il-nam and In-ho are shown to love their family members, with the latter even intentionally avoiding killing his brother despite the threat he poses.
- Even though he appears to be honorable — paying ₩100,000 to the winners of the ddakji game, abiding by the rules of Russian Roulette by shooting himself in the head upon losing, and honestly informing Gi-hun about the invitation to meet the Front Man in his pocket - these acts are ultimately pragmatic. He usually wins the ddakji game and takes sadistic enjoyment in slapping the players when they lose and even when the players win, he only pays them just to appeal to them rather than to be genuinely altruistic. As for his loss in Russian Roulette, he chose to commit suicide not out of honor, but out of spite after Gi-hun taunted him about being the Front Man's lapdog. Not wanting to admit it, he played by the rules purely to preserve his own ego.
Background[]
- Prior to becoming the Recruiter, he was already working as one of the Masked Men, kidnapping people to bring them to the games and then burning and disposing of their bodies when they lose, before eventually being promoted to a Masked Soldier, where he shot and killed many players who were eliminated.
- When one of the eliminated players was revealed to be his father, he killed him without remorse, even going as far as to proudly stating to Seong Gi-hun that he realized he was "cut out for this".
- For a long time, he has been approaching and recruiting hundreds of people into the Squid Games, where a majority of the people participating are killed. Given that he has been working for over three years, he is responsible for condemning over a thousand people to their deaths.
- He intentionally preys and specifically scouts out desperate people in heavy debt, knowing that they are most likely going to accept his offer. He also never tells them the dangers they will face during the games. In the cases of people like Thanos, he'll even go so far as to prey on suicidal people.
- While Thanos is noticeably the only player not seen being slapped by The Recruiter, likely due to him being close to suicide, this wouldn't be out of compassion but due to pragmatism to not push him into jumping, especially as he'd be more likely to join the game's than other's.
- When the players lose to him in the ddakji game, he slaps them in the face, and he is even willing to do it to a pregnant woman like Jun-hee.
- He intentionally preys and specifically scouts out desperate people in heavy debt, knowing that they are most likely going to accept his offer. He also never tells them the dangers they will face during the games. In the cases of people like Thanos, he'll even go so far as to prey on suicidal people.
Season One[]
- He recruited several players, like Seong Gi-hun, Cho Sang-woo, Ali Abdul, Jang Deok-su, and several others, by playing Ddakji with them and knowing they won't be able to resist joining the Games due to their debts, thus making him responsible for their deaths and Gi-hun's trauma and guilt.
- Despite him clapping when Gi-hun won ddakji, it was not out of honor but to let Gi-hun's guard down into joining the Games.
- While he does mouth Gi-hun good luck, this was really out of patronization rather than wishing him actual luck.
- Despite him clapping when Gi-hun won ddakji, it was not out of honor but to let Gi-hun's guard down into joining the Games.
- A year later, he recruited more players for the next game, being spotted by Gi-hun slapping a stranger as they played Ddakji. He recognizes Gi-hun and gives him a mocking wave goodbye as he gets on the next train. Luckily though, Gi-hun at least saved the man from going through the same thing he did.
Season Two[]
- Three years later, during Gi-hun's manhunt for the Recruiter, after finishing his recruitment of player's for the 2024 game's (being spotted playing with Lee Myung-gi), he was seen playing a very twisted game with the homeless people, approaching them and offering them the choice of between bread and lottery. When the majority of vagrants chose the lottery and lost, The Recruiter dumped out all the bread in front of the homeless individuals, before sadistically smashing it all in front of them, stating that it was them that wasted it and not him.
- When Kim Jeong-rae and Choi Woo-seok (two loan sharks hired by Gi-hun) are able to track down and confront the Recruiter, he physically beats and subdues them with his suitcase without hesitation, kidnapping them afterwards.
- After kidnapping Jeong-rae and Woo-seok, he plays a sadistic game of Russian Roulette in the form of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Minus One, where he forces the two people into playing the game and shooting the loser of each round with one bullet inserted into the chamber of the revolver until one of them died.
- Upon growing bored of neither of them dying, the Recruiter reverses the odds of the game and inserts five bullets into the chamber instead of one. After Mr. Kim chooses not to play to save Woo-seok, who accidentally picked two rocks, the Recruiter coldly shoots him in front of Woo-seok, sadistically smirking afterwards. This deeply traumatizes the loan shark and motivates him to join the protagonists in resisting the Squid Games after the Recruiter's demise.
- Although he spared Woo-seok's life after he won, this was likely because he considered it to be no fun to simply kill them both in the aftermath of the game. Additionally, this was also done out of pragmatism due to him requiring information on Gi-hun from Woo-seok.
- Later, he confronts Gi-hun in his apartment. When the Recruiter grows annoyed at Gi-hun's continued insults at him for being nothing but a mere "dog", he plays one final game of Russian Roulette with Gi-hun, intending to prove that he is not special for winning the Squid Game, and mocking him as "trash that made it out of the dumpster". However, when Gi-hun miraculously survives the fifth shot, he turns the insults back on the Recruiter, delivering a final, karmic blow before he meets a well-deserved death for his crimes.
- He shows no remorse for his crimes even in the face of death. His reason for killing himself isn't because he finally realizes he’s a pawn of the Front Man and wants to be free from it, but because of his arrogance over being called a lapdog to the Front Man and his sadistic enjoyment overall in his last game.
Trivia[]
- He and Jang Deok-su are the only Squid Game villains to be Pure Evil thus far.
- The Recruiter has had his morality scale changed for some time. During Season 1, he was considered to be Villainous Benchmark since he failed the Heinous Standards too much against many other villains. Following the release of Season 2, he was approved as Near Pure Evil since his sadism and petty hatred of the poor allowed him to pass, but was held back by a honorable moment. However, once it was decided that his honorable moment was just his massive ego, he was then approved as Pure Evil.
- If it is ever revealed that the Recruiter was not the only one who was recruiting the participants and there are others like him, it might strip him of his Pure Evil status as he would fail the system standards. However, chances are low since, even if there are other recruiters like him, he still manages to stand out among them as one of the most evil due to his sheer sadism.
External Links[]
- The Recruiter on the Villains Wiki
- The Recruiter on the Squid Game Wiki
