5 easter eggs from Netflix’s 'Squid Game' you probably missed

Directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk and starring Lee Jung Jae, Park Hae Soo, Jung Ho Yeon, and Wi Ha Jun in lead roles, Netflix’s popular K-Original survival thriller series, Squid Game has been a triumph. It sees 456 participants being confined on an inescapable island and forced to play games to win staggering prize money of 45.6 billion Korean Won.  

With its bloody and violent premise set in a dystopian yet modern-day Korea, the series is a scathing commentary on socio-political power, class conflicts, power play and capitalism. Brimming with tension, frustration and chaos, the show has already been renewed for a second season which is great news for fans who are desperately waiting to see how Seong Gi-hun’s fate unravels. 

The show has become Netflix’s most popular series to date and has gained worldwide acclaim, besides introducing the world to the Korean pop-cultural high. Besides the vast range of characters in the series, there are a lot of secrets and easter eggs that are yet to be uncovered. 

Before the second season premieres on the platform, here are the 5 easter eggs from Netflix’s Squid Game that you probably missed:

 5 easter eggs from Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ you probably missed

All the major deaths are foreshadowed in episode two 

In the second episode of the series, the deaths of the major characters are foreshadowed in sinister ways. The whole idea of reaping what they sow arrives when the players die the same way they are prompted to participate in the game. Ali Abdul steals (takes whatever he rightfully deserves) from his boss and is later betrayed by Sang-woo, who cunningly steals Ali’s marbles and replaces them with pebbles. The loathsome Deok-su is seen jumping off a bridge to avoid being shot by gang members and later falls to his death from the glass bridge in the penultimate game of the series. 

Sae-byeok, who threatens to slash a man’s throat, is injured by a glass shard and then brutally murdered by Sang-woo, who uses a knife to slash her throat. Sang-woo, who was seen trying to commit suicide in the second episode, ultimately kills himself in the final game to let Gi-hun win and take the money that would benefit his mother as well. 

Other foreshadowed deaths include Mi-nyeo’s tragic fall with Deok-su. She had threatened to kill the gangster if he ever betrayed her and exacted her revenge by wrapping her arms around his torso and jumping off the bridge as payback for his ultimate betrayal. 

Oh Il-Nam’s identity is hinted at throughout the show 

In the end, Oh Il-Nam, aka Player 001, is proved to be the evil mastermind behind the game and the symbol of the rich. Bored by their opulence and wealth and seek the thrill of watching the poor and the vulnerable battle it out among themselves. When Wi Ha-jun’s Hwang Jun-ho goes through the records of the 2020 file that contains the details of the participants, Oh’s name is not included as he was never an official player of the game. He merely partook in it to have one last surge of an adrenaline rush before succumbing to his terminal illness. His name, too, revealed his identity. Il-nam roughly translates to “first man” or “one” which shows that he was the first man or the game’s original creator. 

Even during the other games, it is important to note that Il-nam’s participation was indeed quite shady and flaky. From refusing to exchange the shape with Gi-hun to deliberately losing the marble game, Il-nam knew the outcome of every situation. Even when the fight breaks out, the Front Man takes action only when Oh requests it. He never dies on-screen and successfully exits before the glass bridge game, which he would have inevitably lost had he been alive. 

Gi-hun’s daughter’s gift box is the same as that of the coffins 

The box that Gi-hun won at the grabber machine as a present for his daughter’s birthday mirrored the coffins in the game. The box, too, was made of black cardboard and sealed with a ribbon, albeit a different colour. The inclusion of the identical gift box was apparently deliberate, according to art director Chae Kyung-sun. 

Chase said, “I think I focused on the mind of the person who came up with the game. I imagined he’d think he gave the contestants a chance as if he’s a god. This is my gift to you. Even your bodies being disposed in the incinerator is a show of my mercy.”

She was successful in removing any semblance of humanity, treating the contestants and their bodies like objects; their death was presented almost as a merciful gift. Even the contents of the gift box given by Gi-hun to his daughter that included a gun-shaped lighter, ominously foreshadowed the death of the players in the game where they are shot by masked men if they fail to complete a task and then burnt by the flames of the incinerator.  

The doll’s hair clip is shaped in the symbol of the court 

While people were busy being horrified by the massacre unleashed by the eerie-looking doll in the first episode of the series titled ‘Red Light, Green Light’ which sees the childhood game being turned into a perverse and bloody death-fest. While people were busy trying to grapple with the shock value of the situation, there is a tiny detail they might have missed. The doll wore a tiny hair clip that was shaped like traditional Squid Game courts. 

The hair clip included all three symbols, namely the circle, triangle, and square, shaped like the court. The pattern of the hair clip basically indicates the final game of the show, which saw Gi-hun and Sang-woo partake in the titular Squid Game where the winner would win the prize money of 45.6 billion Korean Won. 

The games are hidden in the walls of the dorm room 

All the 456 participants are confined in a dorm room with bunk beds that look like an Amazon warehouse. Shelf upon shelf of beds reduces their humanity to that of mere objects, stacked up against one another. As the players start getting eliminated and the beds are removed, the illustrations on the wall become clear: all the games are shown on the walls of the room. 

In episode eight, after only Hi-hun, Sang-woo and Sae-byeok are left as the final three competitors, the illustrations on the wall can be seen clearly.