Also, when he looks for someone to join their team before the game is revealed and fails, he doesn’t seem so worried about not filling the slot. He boasts that he’s played many of these games in his youth, but it seems like he knew about the tug-of-war challenge before everyone else and came prepared.
The Tug-Of-War Strategyĭuring the tug-of-war competition, Il-nam leads his team to victory with an extremely detailed strategy on how to win. When Gi-hun offers to swap shapes with Player 001 before the honeycomb challenge in Episode 3, he refuses and sticks to a star because he already knows the game and knows the easy choice. However, in the following episode, Il-nam randomly bumps into Gi-hun outside of a convenience store and ends up convincing him to rejoin the games. He decides to end them, which could be because the game’s philosophy is built on voluntary enlistment. YOUNGKYU PARK The Chance Encounter With Gi-Hunīy the end of the first episode, when players opt out of the game, Il-nam votes last, probably because he actually has the final say. Another giveaway? He was way too happy running toward the finish line while others died all around him. The doll can be seen scanning players with a green overlay each round to detect movement, but when her eyes flicker over Il-nam, the green layer isn’t there. If the jumbo killer robot turns to catch players moving, they’re shot dead.
The first game they ever play in the series is Red Light, Green Light, or Mugunghwa Kkochi Pieot Seumnida (The Mugunghwa Flower Has Blossomed). “Il” also means “one” or “first.” “Nam” or “남,” meanwhile, translates to “man” or “boy.” So his name literally translates to “first man.” He’s definitely the pioneer.
“Il” or “일” translates to “sun” in Korean, but there’s another more fitting translation. His name, Il-nam, which he reveals in Episode 6, should’ve been another. The fact that he’s 001, the first hand-picked player in the games, should’ve been the first clue.
Here are the clues that were there all along and pointed to Oh Il-nam’s true identity. He’s no ordinary player, though, and is later revealed as the mastermind behind the twisted games. The frail old man with a brain tumor develops a close friendship with Lee Jung-jae’s Seong Gi-hun, the only one who includes him as Il-nam finds it difficult to get picked in teams. Played by Oh Yeong-su, Il-nam competes with 455 debt-ridden players in deadly playground games for a chance at taking home 45.6 billion won (or $38 million). There’s one in particular whose hidden identity becomes the most shocking revelation of the season: Player 001’s Oh Il-nam. Lovable people turn bad, pesky annoying characters make you root for them in the end, and then there are those who break your heart only to later turn it stone-cold. Well on its way to becoming Netflix’s biggest show globally, the Korean survival series is rife with shocks, twists, and character shakeups that even the shrewdest viewers wouldn’t see coming. If you consider emotional roller coasters fun, then Squid Game should be number one on your watchlist.