Some "Squid Game" fans are claiming to remember a dialogue exchange that could indicate a big connection between the Front Man and another major figure — but as everything with this show, not all is as it seems.
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00:00Some Squid Game fans are claiming to remember a dialogue exchange that could indicate a
00:04big connection between the frontman and another major figure. But as everything with this
00:08show, not all is as it seems.
00:10The fan theory is based on what seems like a throwaway line in the second season's fifth
00:14episode, where Player One, Wong N Ho, who is secretly the frontman who runs the whole
00:18show, gives his carton of milk to Jun-Hee.
00:20Just take it. I don't want it. I can't drink milk anyway.
00:24A meme that's been shared quite a bit on Axe has an altered quote where the first season's
00:28player one, Oh Il-Nam, states outright that his son couldn't drink milk. This has led
00:33to considerable debate about whether N Ho is Il-Nam's son, with some insisting that's
00:37the case. Problem is, Il-Nam doesn't say it so directly in the actual show.
00:42After Song Gi-Hun ineffectively asks for chocolate milk because he had a hard time digesting
00:46the regular kind, Il-Nam says,
00:48As a kid, I'm willing to bet you got spanked a lot.
00:51How did you know?
00:54My son did too. He was just like you, friend.
00:57So is Il-Nam's comment there about Gi-Hun's lactose intolerance or just his troublemaking
01:01personality? It's harder to tell in the show's dialogue than the purported screenshot makes
01:05it out to be. It doesn't mean that it couldn't be true, but it's not as strong a connection
01:10as it may seem if you haven't watched season one in a while and remember Il-Nam's exact
01:13wording.
01:14Some Axe users also pointed out another complication, in that we already know one key detail about
01:19N Ho's family. Namely, he's the brother of police officer Hong Jun-Ho. But some theorists
01:23think the scene where Jun-Ho has dinner with his mother holds the key to that.
01:27I just don't want him to think I loved him any less, or feel that since I wasn't his
01:32birth mother, I put your needs first.
01:36Some took that line to mean that In-Ho is adopted, which could keep the theory that
01:39he's Il-Nam's son afloat. Others aren't buying it, though, taking that line to mean that
01:43Jun-Ho and In-Ho still have the same father, making them half-brothers. Plus, if In-Ho
01:48was adopted, how would Il-Nam know him well enough to recall his behavior and compare
01:52him to Gi-Hun? Would he have been adopted as an older child? Why would Il-Nam have given
01:56him up for adoption, given that he seemed close to him?
01:59There are a lot of questions left to answer to make all the elements of this theory really
02:02line up. A Reddit thread about the theory makes another point that seems to shout red
02:06light, namely that lots of Korean adults are lactose intolerant. A Cambridge University
02:11press study from 2017 found,
02:13Generally, dairy consumption is much lower in Asians, especially in Koreans, because
02:17dairy foods are not a part of the traditional Korean diet, and 75% of Koreans have lactose
02:22intolerance.
02:23Not only does this raise the question as to why the guards are serving milk on the island
02:27to begin with — maybe it's part of the psychological and physical torture — but it also makes
02:31a revelation involving someone not drinking milk less than a smoking gun. As one Reddit
02:35commenter noted,
02:3775% of Koreans are lactose intolerant. 75% of Koreans are Il-Nam's son.
02:42So could this theory bear out in Squid Game Season 3? There are definitely some reasons
02:47to doubt it, but the show has proven it's full of surprises.