SQUID GAME Breakdown: Every Easter Egg, Clue, Hidden Detail & Ending Explained | 오징어게임 

Check out our breakdown of Parasite here - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NlSWZdAqGV4.html

The ending with the man dying on the street is not about how people will stop and help. It's all about making Gi-hun bet on his first human life, showing he is not better than any of them. Il nam won the game the moment Gi-hun took the bet.

Props to all the actors for their top tier acting, especially that old man. He definitely played me ngl

i can’t stop reading all the comments with the theories, the amount of effort and detail put into this show is INSANE

Poor Ali being betrayed was the saddest moment for me.

After the old man "dies" the frontman received a call and he said "Glad you enjoyed the game sir"..

Another thing I noticed: When Gi-Hun and Sae-Byeok are tied up and thrown out into the street after the first game, Sae-Byeok goes to walk away after Gi-Hun unties her. He then swears on his mother that he won't ask her for his money if she unties him. As soon as she unties his hands, he lunges at her demanding his money and breaking his newly made promise. The next time he sees his mother is in the hospital, and the next time afterwards is when she is dead - encapsulating the broken promise.

At the end, when Il-Nam asked Gi-Hun to bet whether anyone would help the man in the snow, Gi-Hun unwittingly ended up doing exactly what Il-Nam and the VIPs did; betting on whether someone would live or die, instead of just going to help the man himself.

One interesting thing is when Frontman found the dead body with Jun-Ho's wallet he instantly stopped actively looking for the intruder, because he knew it was his brother. He also shot Jun-Ho in the shoulder nowhere near his heart, when he normally shot people in the head, because he couldn't stand the sight of killing his own brother. Jun-Ho is not dead and I am certain he will return to the show.

Gi-Hun's character arc was foreshadowed in the first recruitment game itself. once he was pushed to edge by being slapped repeatedly, he forgot about money and wanted revenge much like in the final game he forgot about money and wanted to kill Sang woo and chose offense.

The old man faked having dementia and taking his time playing the marble game in order to be the last group of players alive, that way no other group can witness he wasn't shot and surviving, worked out perfectly because of course Gi-hun couldn't bear watching the old man getting shot after taking advantage of him by cheating.

If you look at who picked up each player when they decided to go back to the game, only il-nam doesn't have a red driver, but a black one, who is potentially the front man coming to pick him up personally.

I like how Oh Il-Nam pretends to 'lose his marbles' while literally losing his marbles. Not sure if this was deliberate as it might not be an expression in Korean, but I found it pretty fitting.

Ali was scammed and taken advantage of by his boss, saying "go ask the other guys if they got paid", later on sang woo uses that very same tactic to win in the marble game.

That clip of Gi Hun smiling for the picture never fails to make me smile as well

Did anyone mention that, in episode 9, the '7'th floor meant the seventh game (betting on the drunken man outside) between the old man and Gi-hun? The elevator had only '7' printed on the door.

The frontman tries to find the intruder hiding in his room, once the guards find the dead body that had been floating in the water with the detectives ID, he stops looking for him. He knew it was his brother from that point on and didn’t want to kill him.

I started the show at 10pm. That was a stupid idea. Binged it all in one go. Had to be up for work 15 mins after I finished it. Not a good day.

Some awesome foreshadowing: when the recruiter and Gi are playing the first game, Gi finally wins but forgets about the money and tries to hurt the person that’s been hurting him, shows how he will win the game and instead of enjoying the money he will seek to hurt the people in charge of the game for causing them all so much pain

The red and blue cards from the start may be a reference to the matrix's red pill and blue pill. The blue pill being ignorance and the red pill meaning learning the truth. It could also be why 456 had his hair died red as he knew the truth of the games.

The foreshadowing, the symbolism, the fashion, color and design choices are amazing! Korean media is amazing. Great actors.

What's really heartbreaking is, earlier Sangwoo told Ali "Call me hyung(older brother) from now on". So Ali has been calling Sangwoo "hyung" instead of sir/boss, and even before he died Ali kept calling for "older brother" ..

Honestly, the amounts of details and easter eggs they’ve put in the series is the best thing about it.

The first scene of the kids playing foreshadows the cop. The ‘secret inspector’ who moves freely through the game.

Long comment incoming! 11:53 i disagree with the use of the phrase "sang woo's moral breakdown". I believe that sang woo actually had the same morality throughout the entire show. He is a utilitarian. The way he decides what is right and wrong is simple: he tries to be kind to others, and he will absolutely do it if it doesnt come at a large cost to himself. However, he will always put himself first if he has to make a choice between living or dying for someone else (unless that someone else is his mother, perhaps). He will do anything to survive. At the start, sang woo lent ali his phone and gave ali money because those things would not cost him anything (what difference is 10000 won when you are billions in debt?) In a totally neutral no-stakes situation, he chooses to be good. This proves he is not evil. He is not the type to kill for sport, and perhaps we can even say he is good at heart. During the early and middle squid games, he is a benevolent leader towards his team, and he tries to be kind to others. However, his motivation for doing this is at least partly for his own survival. He knows that having a team he can trust will help him win the games. He also tries to exclude women from their group for the tug-of-war game, which shows that winning is his top priority. Now, lets discuss why sang-woo decided to let gi-hun take the dalgona candy with the umbrella on it. It could have been because sang woo was not sure about the game, but i think this is not true: sangwoo chose the triangle for himself, and the flashbacks showed that he recalled the dalgona candy from his childhood and made the connection. More likely it was because he knew gi-hun would be a threat in the future. Sang-woo is intelligent, he knows the truth that in the end only one person can survive and win the game. Gi-hun was not a threat yet at that point, but he would inevitably become one. And furthermore, sang-woo was probably thinking that if gi-hun was killed in the candy game, it would spare him the trouble and heartache of killing gi-hun on his own later on. It was ultimately a decision that sangwoo made for his survival. We can see that sang-woo did hesitate in his decision to let gi-hun take the umbrella. Sang-woo did feel a brotherly bond with gi-hun, as they were childhood friends. But despite that, sang-woo chose survival, because he knew only one person could win. It like everyone was already dead from the start, except the one winner. Wouldn't you do the same? I dont think that makes him evil. It just makes him pragmatic. Towards the end, we see sang-woo committing murder on the glass bridge and also killing sae-byeok. I dont think that those events were proof that he is evil. He only wanted to survive, and he acted the way he did because of the situation. He had no other options. When he murdered the glassmaker on the glass bridge, it was because there was no time left, and the glassmaker's indecision was a threat to his life and those behind him. When he murdered sae-byeok, it was because he knew that gi-hun and sae-byeok would have the majority vote to end the game. Not getting the prize money was equivalent to dying, because he was in so much debt and used his mother's house and shop as collateral as well. He could not bear the thought of his mother losing everything because of his reckless trading. Furthermore, at this point, so many people had already been killed. He even had to kill Ali, who was his friend. Sang-woo was probably thinking that he could not have come all this way for nothing. At the very end, when sang-woo decided to kill himself to let gi-hun win, i believe sang-woo did that because he knew that he was already on the edge of death from getting beaten by gi-hun. He also knew that gi-hun would try to end the game, because gi-hun isnt able to kill a friend, but that would only result in both of them returning to their normal lives, except with more injuries, shame and regret (and sang-woo would probably not survive his injuries). Sang-woo thus decided to kill himself, because he knew he would not be able to survive long anyway, and at least gi-hun could win the money and take care of his mom. This is totally in line with sang-woo's morality from the start. The way he decides what is right and wrong has always stayed the same. Sang-woo was never evil. He was only always pragmatic, he had clear goals in his mind and he would do whatever was needed to achieve them. He never deluded himself into thinking that he could survive without the death of others, because he knew only one person could win the game.

I think the gift of gihun for her daughter that is a Gun-spitting fire is foreshadowing that most players will die to gun shots and then burned. And yes, the gift box is the same as where they put the dead bodies. PS. this is the most likes I have in my yt comment. I just want to add. Squids are known for releasing black ink to their predators/prey to temporarily blind them just like how Gi-hun threw a sand to sangwoo's face to blind him temporarily as well.

JunHo is still alive. It's a horror movie setting and he fell off the cliff into water and nobody checked for the body. That's top tier teasing for 'YEAH, I'M STILL ALIVE! WAIT FOR SEASON 2!" vibes right there.

Fun fact: the episode called "Hell" already foreshadowed their deaths. 1. Gi-hun swore in his mother's life. His mother died 2. Sang-woo tried to kill himself in his house bathtub. He killed himself in the last episode. 3. Sae-byeok threatened a person with a knife on a neck, She died when someone stabbed her on the neck. 4. Ali took money from his boss. He died when someone took the marbles from him. 5. Deok-su jumped off a bridge to escape from thugs He fell from the glass bridge... This movie is filled with uncountable number of easter eggs LOL

The more relevant forshadowing for Ali's death is that he had believed his bosses lies that he would be paid eventually for a really long time, despite evidence to the contrary - the same way he believed Sang-woo when he said he had a plan.

Nothing CRAZY, but I thought it was pretty funny that when Gi-hun was first approached about the game with slapping consequences he immediately tells the guy “I don’t wanna hear your religious crap” (something like that). And the way the game was ended for him was him being thrown out to the street and a Religious Preacher was the one who found him off the ground and then offered the word of the lord 😂😂. Overall great writing and great details. Love the show.

There's a foreshadowing of the winner in the racecourse scene of episode 1. The 6th and 8th horses were on the same level in horse racing, but the 6th horse reversed and won (Sangwoo: 21"8" main character: 45"6"). In this race, the 3rd place is horse no.7 (saebok: no.6”7”)

This is a stretch and a theory, but the VIPs are architects of the squid game in their own country. If you noticed, most of them had different accents and when they first entered, they said “South Korea has the best games” maybe implying that South Koreans games doesn’t compare to their or the other VIPs games. Idk tho

What I find interesting is that GI-Hun is introduced to us as a gambler and throughout the game he gambles with his life (like everyone else...not that important) like when he chooses to play with Oh Il-nam (marbles). That could of course be taken as an act of kindness/pity which it probably was (I'm reading too much into it). But at the end he could go and help the drunk person but instead he decided to bet on his life. It looks like Gi-Hun had a character development but at the same time...it honestly ended as it started. He started with not helping his mother, gambling, disappointing his daughter and wanting revenge instead of money in the game of ddjakji. At the end of the season he couldn't help his mother, gambled with the life of another human, disappointed his daughter and went to seek out revenge.

Owls can also symbolize death, which seems fitting for the man behind it all.

Tell me you're obsessed without telling me you're obsessed

in the marble game the rules only said u must take ten marbles from your partner in order to win not that u had to end up with twenty which makes me wonder what could've happened if two people just switched their marbles then possibly both of them could have survived?

The thing I was annoyed about was that they were promoting fairness in the games but then on the glass bridge they injured Sae Byeok after she passed the game and didn't even help her, so that was not fair at all.

The part after the steak dinner when they packed up everything except the knives...that was one of the darkest scenes I've ever seen in a series, especially since they were all friends trying o survive together

The front man, everytime he’s shot anyone it was a shot directly to the head except Jun-Ho who he shot in his shoulder

Is it me, or was the winner given to us in the first episode, in the order of the horse race that Gi-Hun won? Horse 6 finished first followed by 8 and 7. Gi-Hun…456. Sang Woo…218. Sae-byeok…67.

This show was so well done and written and acted. A masterpiece of horror.

Frontman didn’t disappear in 2015. He won the 2015 game and went back to his ordinary life, but had been behaving weirdly, going missing every once in awhile and avoiding calls from his cop bro and mom(probably only during the span of the games every year). That’s why the cop bro literally calls his mom talking about his bro’s recent repeated disappearance, and searches for him just before finding the invitation card and infiltrating the game. And his apartment was still there with all his belongings intact, if he disappeared in 2015 his apartment would not be rented out by him anymore. The landlady even mentions that he is late for his recent rent. And before you say it was a flashback, nope it wasn’t, feel free to go back and watch it again.

I feel like no matter who became il-nams marble partner, he would have let them win. Il-nam knew that he had special protection in the other games, but if someone were to push him off the glass bridge he'd be screwed. So he tapped out early

I figured the big reveal after the frontman got the call and said “I’m glad you enjoyed the game” I realized the whole time il nam seemed to enjoy himself the entire time and that we didn’t see him die

I may just be speculating but I don't think the triangles, squares and circles were supposed to be from a PlayStation controller. I think they just made it because these are the exact shapes needed to draw a squid game court.

I didn’t see the twist ending coming and since I hadn’t encountered any spoilers, I’m very glad I was able to enjoy this intriguing series to the fullest! Now, during the aftermath, I’m enjoying on point breakdowns like this and thus expanding the great experience of Squid Game even further.

moral of the story: be nice to the old guy and secure that bag.

This show has many Karma parallels 1) Gi Hun feeling poor and intimidated when his daughter said she ate steak, he got to eat steak as a victor in the game. 2) Ali getting his boss's fingers crushed, when his own two fingers were missing from a workplace accident. His death was a similar parallel too. 3) Jun-Ho not fatally wounding Frontman even when he didn't know who he was. Justa shot to the shoulder. His brother kinda sparing him by only shooting him in the shoulder, when otherwise he always shoots to the head.

Just a small comment, you don't have to assume that In-ho won when he was a contestant. His name is literally on the "list of past winners" that Jun-ho finds. That's how he finds In-ho's file because he cross-references the year from being the past winner to the year of the Squid Archives. No assumption necessary. We know he won.

Also the very last game they played, the old man lost on the bet and was “eliminated” like the rules he made the players to follow, once you lose, you die. The entire series emphasize on Karma, every single one who’d died, died the same way they killed somebody, 456 won cuz he didn’t intend to kill anybody so he lived. 218 stabbed himself in the neck the same place he stabbed 67. 67 always carried a knife picking pockets and she was hit by the glass where she used to pick people’s pockets. The lady who commit fraud 5 times lies all the time and was betrayed by 101.

My observation: The night in which all players were killing each other, the old man was on top of the bunker beds. When Gi-hun asks him how he reached there he doesn't answer him. He was probably helped to get there to protect him. Also, when the old man says stop, the boss takes the decision to end it

The final table seen has all three shapes. Triangle as the table, square is the pattern of the floor and circle is the platform everything sits on.

9:00 wrong, Il Nam won. The REAL bet was to see if Gi-Hun would run out and help the drunk man...but he didn't, just like the VIPs he just looked at him and wavered a persons life in a silly bet

Another easter egg I found is that at the end where gi-hun meets the old man, he meets him on the 7th floor. The final game he plays with the old man is the 7th game he plays in the squid games

Another Hint you missed, Mi Yeo mentioned that she felt powerful when she leaned back after tug of war. She died by leaning back on the glass bridge killing Deok Su with her. She was in power when she locked him with her arms and she was in power when she LEANED back falling down from the glass bridge

I dont think people picked up on at the end when they are playing the game with the homeless mans life, he is saying how wrong it is to gamble on lives, and then literally does so. He could have ran to help but didn't just to prove his point and risk someones life. I thought it was a clever little detail so wether il nam knew he won or not doesnt matter, just playing the game made his point correct

I'm not sure if number 01 died to be honest he could just be playing another trick. If you look at the EKG or whatever health monitors after he flatlines it can clearly be read in text that the 'lead off', and 'sensor off' which to me could also mean he simply removed the health monitors on his body to make the machine appear as though the patient flatlined. What are your thoughts on this?

The fact that this is 67’s first show shows that she has a lot of potential.

One cool thing that just came to me, which I do not think has been covered in any video, is that Sae Byeok is accused of being a spy from the north. For the second game she actually goes on a spy mission to see what is going on in the building.

personally, and I don't think I've seen this said by anyone else, I think part of the reason Il-nam posed as sick was so he wouldn't be picked for marbles, but I also think it gives him the out to fake his death. He could have been "carried out by casket" as the others arrive or just had "player 001 eliminated" said during the marbles game due to his age/sickness. I think it was a two fold stunt

Before Sang Woo was about to end his life, he calls his mom. While talking, his mom was interrupted by a customer asking for "Three squids" foreshadowing the three finalists Sang woo, Gihun, & Sae byeok.

Ali lost his fingers at his workplace and then ruined his boss' hand.

This is why I love this channel. Even if you got the big two story twists early, you guys catch all the teeny details and metaphors outside of that like the two girls talking about going to an island together and I was so emotionally involved in the scene I forgot they were on an island together and wow, that's just great writing.

I think what really struck me was the idea that the games were supposed to be completely equal but Il-han being in them the doctor getting special treatment totally negated that. Goes to show you what the elite think is “fair”. It’s only fair because they don’t even have to play the game.

Little detail I found: in the first scene of the show, the black and white flashback with the kids playing the squid game, young gi-hun distracts young sang-woo by saying his mom is behind him, and thanks to that wins the game. I think this mirrors the last game, in which sang-woo repeatedly mentions his mother ("When we were kids and played games our mothers would call us for dinner, but now nobody calls us." and what he says as he dies) and loses the game because of his mother.

He wasn’t bored with his newfound wealth, he felt guilty about it and refused to use it.

You're forgetting something: Why he is very miserable for a year, because his mother had past away when he was earning his money. He couldn't save his mother, because in the first place of the money they didn't have and now he's filthy rich he's to late! It's like a final knife stab to his heart....

A tiny detail I noticed rewatching the show was that when they were returning to the game after voting to get out of it, it showed a few of the “main” members getting into the van, including il-nam himself. But when they let out the gas, it showed everyone being put to sleep except for il-nam

The fourth episode called "Stick to the team" where everyones just kills eachother in flashing lights was one of the most disturbing shit I have seen.

Also with the old man wearing the owl mask in the one part he talked about how old people don’t need much sleep which owls stay up all night all the time

Can we also just appreciate the CINEMATOGRAPHY of this show👏👏 If you don’t believe me, scene with the last marble entering the hole is proof enough

You REALLY think Jeff bezos isn’t doing some underground tekeshi’s castle type stuff!? 😂

Ultimate theory: the director of this movie had a nasty classroom rivalry with the man whose number he used on the squid game business card

The police man also fell into the ocean just like when he killed the first guard and dumped him into the ocean

I'm surprised nobody's made the connection between the gift that the guy gave his daughter which was a lighter in the shape of a gun which if most people pay attention almost not all but almost all players were killed through gunshots and then had their bodies incinerated

It’s actually amazing how the show is loved by a lot of people, even if a lot of people missed these details. It is an amazingly well done movie.

love how he won 4.56m in racing and his number was also 456

I didn't guess the old man, because I was so fixated on the frontman being the brother. I guessed that one fairly early on, so the old man was a shock to me. I thought his attitude (about being happy playing etc) was due to his tumour (if he is going out anyway due to his illnesses than he might as well not worry about the games doing it type attitude).

I was so sus of the old man at the start for some reason. He just seemed so out of place with the majority of ppl they chose for the games being within a 20-40ish age range. And with these types of shows it’s usually the ppl u least suspect to be the one behind it all so I’m happy I was on the right track LOL

It bothered the shit out of me that at the end, Gi-hun didn't choose to be the person who helped the man on the street. The rules of the game were that *someone* had to help him. Il-nam didn't say it couldn't be him. I think that definitely shows that Gi-hun's character arc is just beginning and there is a lot of development yet to be had.

My marble game theory: I think they were counting on the old man not getting picked and so he would get “escorted” out of the games to avoid the danger of the next. When he did get picked, they realized they didn’t want to kill a “real” player, and so they let the girl live and move onto the next round. Remember the rules; if someone doesn’t play the game they get killed - so why would they have spared her life otherwise? Edit: I want to thank you for a nice discussion, but please, if you disagree with my theory - no need to get nasty! Lets keep this an open space :)

The girl who was left behind by everyone wasn't killed because the old man know the pain of not included in games as he would watch others from a distance when he was young.

South Korea - the owl symbolism - An owl outside your house is a symbol of death. But, also, it's a symbol of change. You may be in a period of transition. If you have a huge, life-changing decision to make, an owl is there to show you the way.

Something I realised was that everyone that watched the series are basically the VIPs because we all wanted to watch the games to see what would happen.

The rules for the playground game version of the squid game mirror the plot of the TV show: the ‘secret inspector’ (Jun Ho aka the cop) infiltrates the squid (Squid Game island), then attacks it from the inside out (forces the VIP to confess on video), before getting pushed out of bounds (off a cliff).

He pick triangle in the coin toss. To let his friend know he realize he tried to screw him in the 2nd game.

Sang Woo possibly picked Ali for the Marble game knowing Ali had strength, but was naive and lacked knowledge of any games. Thus Ali could be manipulated if the 2 man team was actually a Vs concept as it turned out to be.

In the marbles game Il Nam also says that his son's birthday is soon, and Gi Hun's birthday is soon too. Yet another connection to the father-son theory.

The Detective is still alive because his masked brother usually shoots people in the head he wants dead.

Might have been mentioned already but when Gi-Hun and Sang-Woo have to pick a shape to play the finale, Gi-Hun immediately says 'triangle'. Sang-Woo picked the triangle in the Honeycomb game as he knew he would have an advantage then, so Gi-Hun's choice suggests that he realises now how long Sang-Woo had been deceiving them.

If no one had chosen Il-nam for the marble game I think he would have been “eliminated” instead of being taken back to his bunk. He would have been the odd man out and by him not being chosen all the other players would have believed him dead, protecting him from potential elimination on the glass bridge. I believe that’s why he faked being sick, so he wouldn’t be chosen as a partner and could then return to his host duties. When Jun-ho is looking through the archives he finds a black box with a pink ribbon that contains the names of all the previous winners. In-ho is one of the winners, that’s how Jun-ho knows to look him up in the 2015 book. I’m looking forward to learning more about these two characters in future seasons. Side note, writing the names of characters is so frustrating when you keep getting “auto corrected”

One thing I've always been confused about is that I thought they positioned the games as if multiple players could win, but with each game, you realize that the number of people who could win gets smaller and smaller.

Another thing throughout the show is the psychological impact that starvation has on the contestants. The first meal included basic components of a standard meal, the second meal was a biscuit thing and some milk, third was the water and an egg, then a potato, and finally some corn. This is until they "ranked up" and began to eat steak dinners. This could symbolize the minimalistic way of life or could represent how good things were to how bad things have gotten (besides the steak dinner as a sign of victory)

Another small detail that I’ve not seen posted anywhere online: In episode 2 when Jun-Ho enters In-Ho’s abandoned apartment, we can see the apartment is small and modeled exactly like the rooms the masked workers sleep in on the island - from desk location, to the bed. This shows that In-Ho more than likely became a worker after winning the games in 2015 and wanted to stay in an apartment modeled after their rooms on the island. He probably then worked his way up to become the Front Man. I also believe he is the first and only Front Man.

I am pretty sure that the guards are chosen in a different way from the players, since they clearly have been doing their jobs over several games. The guards have a complex side hustle, which would have required contact with the outside world and time to set up. You don't just come up with that in one game. The guards do not die at the level of the players, so playing the red vs blue flip game would not work for selecting players vs guards.

Opportunity missed! If I was the owner of the squid game phone number I would have changed my answering machine message to instruct callers to meet at a certain time and place "to participate in the Squid Game." No doubt hundreds would have met up a that spot only to find out they've been pranked :D

Jun Ho is definitely still alive. Anyone shot in the shoulder makes a full recovery as per movie/television law. No matter if they fall off a cliff or fall into lava afterwards. 😂😂😂

"frontman" was police too. when his brother found his file, it says he graduated from korean national police university. that means frontman was elite police before.

I had a feeling something was up during the marble game with player 1. A part of me thought it was just his dementia/brain tumor kicking in but there was something about how the guards weren't pushing them to play the game faster.

Korean directors are 🔥🔥🔥 haven’t seen something this good since parasite