Between Squid Game's compelling characters and life-and-death stakes, it's impossible to look away. But even if you forgot to blink, here's another round of tiny but important clues you may have missed in Season 2. Spoilers ahead.
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00:00Between Squid Game's compelling characters and life-and-death stakes, it's impossible
00:04to look away.
00:05But even if you forgot to blink, here's another round of tiny but important clues you may
00:10have missed in Season 2.
00:11Spoilers ahead!
00:13In the frontman's office where he watches the games, there's an automaton band that
00:16plays Fly Me to the Moon.
00:18The frontman controls a machine with a remote, and the automatons are set up as an American
00:22jazz club.
00:23Each of them plays an instrument, or in the case of the female automaton, sings.
00:26In Episode 1 of the first season, the band plays over Red Light, Green Light, and plays
00:30again at the end of Episode 8, when Sabiuk dies and is cremated.
00:33In the second season, the automatons make a comeback.
00:36They can again be heard over part of Red Light, Green Light, which takes place in the third
00:40episode this time.
00:41What you may not have noticed is that this time the song is faster, with more layered,
00:44modern orchestration.
00:45That is, until the frontman abandons his office and the song stops.
00:50There's no denying that K-pop is one of the world's largest music genres, with diehard
00:54fans spread across the globe.
00:55As Squid Game is an incredibly popular South Korean production, it's not surprising that
01:00the cast would feature a few noteworthy K-pop entertainers.
01:03While Choi Sung-hyun, aka T.O.P., gets plenty of screen time as Thanos, he's not the only
01:07K-pop star to take part in the games.
01:09He's joined by two others who are famous both in and out of South Korea.
01:13Choi Yuri, who appears as Player 222, the character of Kim Joon-hee, hit the world stage
01:18in 2017 via a reality TV competition called Idol School.
01:22The show featured dozens of K-pop wannabes hoping to join a new girl group.
01:26While she didn't win that competition, she competed the following year on a similar show,
01:30Produce 48, where she placed third and earned a spot in the group IZONE.
01:34This made Yuri a star, and after her three-year contract with the band ended, she launched
01:37a successful solo career.
01:39Squid Game is her first major acting role, but it likely won't be her last.
01:43Yim Si-wan entered the K-pop industry in the band G.E.A., which debuted in 2010.
01:47The group was enormously successful, and Si-wan parlayed that fame into an acting career.
01:52He began appearing in K-dramas in 2012, and eventually moved into feature films.
01:57Si-wan is Player 333, Lee Myung-gi, a crypto-influencer who's hounded by Thanos and others after his
02:02failed cryptocurrency suckers $10.3 million out of his formerly loyal followers.
02:08The second contest in Squid Game Season 2 is the Six-Legged Pentathlon, where five players'
02:13legs are locked together for a race against the clock.
02:15They must travel around the track together and play five childhood games, each handled
02:19by a different player.
02:20Any mistakes are likely deadly, and this is especially true for Song Gi-hun's team.
02:24He's joined by Player 001, Oh Young-il, a.k.a. Hwang In-ho, who slyly sabotages their game,
02:30possibly to make it more difficult.
02:32The way he does this is rather insidious, as it involves using his non-dominant hand
02:36for the game he plays.
02:37Young-il is responsible for the spinning top game, and as he winds the cord around the
02:40top, he uses his right hand.
02:42At the end of Squid Game Season 1, In-ho as the frontman shoots his brother while holding
02:46the pistol with his left hand.
02:48People don't typically fire guns using their non-dominant hand, which suggests In-ho purposefully
02:52uses his right non-dominant hand to wind the top.
02:55Fail!
02:56Sorry, guys.
02:57That's on me.
02:59The team quickly breezes through their challenges before it's his turn, when the spinning top
03:03sets them back for a frightening chunk of time.
03:05And ultimately, when he gets it right, he uses his dominant left hand.
03:09It's unclear why he would do such a thing, as having the team lose would likely screw
03:12up whatever plan he has in place to mess with Gi-hun.
03:15But several eagle-eyed viewers spotted this detail, suggesting that the frontman is playing
03:19a game most viewers would never notice.
03:22A subplot in Squid Game Season 2 involves player 333, Lee Myung-gi, who's on the run
03:27after scamming his followers out of more than $10 million.
03:30This type of scam isn't included in the season on a whim.
03:33It's actually a huge problem that's cost many South Koreans a great deal of money.
03:37"...currently wanted for fraud and violating multiple communication and investment laws.
03:42Total debt, 1.8 billion won."
03:44In 2021, months after the first season dropped, Squid Coin cryptocurrency began trading with
03:49a valuation that soared to over $2,800 per coin.
03:53The scam involved a purported online Squid Games platform, in which the coins would be
03:57used to participate.
03:58The coins' price skyrocketed, but it became impossible to resell them, dropping the value
04:03to $0.00.
04:04As a result, every Squid Coin was worthless, and the developers cashed out, having scammed
04:09more than $3.4 million from their investors.
04:12"...are you guys going to compensate me if I can't trade my coins?"
04:15While that scam was directly related to Squid Games, and likely inspired the scam created
04:19by player 333, it's hardly the only crypto scandal to happen in South Korea.
04:24"...in short, there's not a lot that investors can do.
04:26It's not clear who was behind the project, let alone who withdrew the money."
04:30In 2024, South Korea police arrested 215 people suspected of carrying out a crypto scam believed
04:37to have netted $228 million.
04:39Over 15,000 people lost their money to the criminal organization.
04:43These scams and others make the inclusion of the so-called MG Coin in Squid Games Season
04:482 topical to South Korean culture.
04:50It's no wonder player 333 is despised by the people he scammed.
04:53In Season 1, the frontman who wears an iconic black mask is revealed to be Hwang In-ho,
04:59the brother of police officer Hwang Joon-ho, whom he shoots in Episode 8.
05:02In Season 2, the frontman decides to play the game himself, entering the competition
05:06as Yong-il, player 001.
05:09This is important because in the first season, player 001 isn't who he presents himself to
05:13be either.
05:14Season 1's player 001 is an elderly gentleman whom Gi-hun befriends and keeps safe.
05:19However, Gi-hun eventually takes advantage of 001's forgetfulness, brought on by a brain
05:23tumor to win a game of marbles, sentencing his friend to death.
05:27It's ultimately revealed that player 001 doesn't die.
05:30His real name is Oh Il-nam, the financial tycoon who created the Squid Game.
05:34After winning the game, Gi-hun is summoned to Il-nam's deathbed, where he confronts him.
05:38But even though Gi-hun learns player 001 was the plant, when Season 2 begins, the whole
05:42thing seems to have slipped his mind.
05:44He shows no suspicion whatever of the new player 001.
05:47It's glaringly obvious to the audience that one should never trust player 001, but for
05:52some reason, Gi-hun never makes the connection, falling victim to In-ho's machinations.
05:56Viewers who watch Squid Game dubbed are inevitably going to miss a lot of nuances in the original
06:01performances, while those who watch the original Korean version might be confused by those
06:05same factors.
06:06One language-based detail that stands out is the way Thano speaks random lines in English,
06:10both when he's rapping and in regular conversations, often when introducing himself or cursing.
06:15Why does he do this?
06:16Listen to K-pop!