Hidden Clues in Squid Game That You Probably Didn’t Realise

How many of these did you catch?
By: agnes
October 1, 2021

If you’re subscribed to Netflix, you might have seen the Korean drama, Squid Game, on Netflix’s top 10 weekly most-watched. Since its release, Squid Game has reached number one in 90 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. Due to the thrilling twist in the Squid Game series, you might have been too invested to know that there were actually hidden clues all along the way. I know I missed some, maybe even all of them. But Glitz went on the hunt and found some hidden Squid Game clues that you probably didn’t realise throughout the show.

What is Squid Game?

Directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, the show tells the story of 456 people who were invited to play six Korean childhood games in order to win large amounts of money. Squid Game focuses on eight main characters – particularly Seong Gi-hun (player 456), as he meets different players from different lives, like his junior Cho Sang-woo (player 218) who was a smart student of Seoul National University. 


Gi-hun also befriends an old man, Oh Il-Nam (player 001), and eventually forms a team with Abdul Ali (player 199) and Kang Sae-Byeok (player 067). However, (spoiler alert) what all 456 players didn’t know was the fact that if they lost any of these games, it would lead to a deadly end.

Did You Realise These Hidden Clues in Squid Game?

1. Games were drawn on the walls in Squid Game

Did you remember when Sang-woo was focused on figuring out the next game in order to prepare his team? Well, apparently the games were already drawn on the walls before Squid Game even started! Okay, fine, this may not be the easiest hidden Squid Game clue because when all 456 players were in the room, their beds were stacked and the drawings were blocked. However, as more and more players got eliminated from Squid Game, the hidden clues became more obvious yet no one realised it. 

2. Squid Game’s creepy doll did not scan Oh Il-nam

While this hidden clue was a little difficult to catch, because the scanning scene went by pretty fast, if you paused the video exactly when the doll was scanning Oh Il-nam, also known as player 001, you can see that there was no green overlay on him, only a green outline. However, when the Squid Game doll scanned all the other players, everyone had an obvious green overlay. Player 001 was also creepily happy when playing ‘Red Light, Green Light”, as if he knew he was never going to get shot.

3. The deadly night fight coincidentally ends when Player 001 screams

This was probably the first hidden clue where we realised that Player 001 may not just be the old and frail man we thought he was. Why did the Front Man in Squid Game coincidentally end the deadly night fight specifically when Oh Il-Nam started shouting? Well, some may say that ‘pity’ plays a part, but in a merciless death game, would the Front Man really be emphatic to an old man whose fate seems too obvious? Or could it be because the old man was someone valuable to the Front Man? Hmm, we’ll leave this for you to decide. But from this hidden clue, we were sure that Oh Il-Nam had played a part in this whole Squid Game.

4. Sang-woo keeping Ali’s marbles ‘safe’ was too obvious

It’s unfortunate that Ali trusted Sang-woo so much to allow Sang-woo to pull such a stunt. But as soon as Sang-woo laid his jacket over Ali’s sack of marbles, we knew that Ali wasn’t going to get back his marbles. Throughout the Squid Game, Sang-woo has consistently been the person to think critically about his next moves, or rather, Squid Game’s next move. However, he made the wrong decision when he chose Ali as his partner for the Gganbu game, as players were asked to battle their partners, and whoever manages to get all 10 of their partner’s marbles would win. It was clear that Ali was initially winning the game until Sang-woo smartly assures Ali that both of them would walk out of that game. Ultimately, Ali was killed off Squid Game in this particular episode. Did you realise this hidden clue? Or did you think Sang-woo actually tied Ali’s sack of marbles to his neck?

5. There was no information paper on Player 001 in the Squid Game file

When Hwang Jun-ho, a police officer who snuck into Squid game to find his missing brother, came across the Squid Game file for the current game, the first page was information on Player 002. While we are positively sure that many of you would have caught this hidden clue, it just assures viewers that Oh Il-Nam truly had something to do with the Squid game. 

6. Player 001 was killed off but not shown

Another obvious clue that we caught was when Oh Il-Nam lost the marbles game to Seong Gi-hun. Well, Gi-hun cheated and lied in order to win while Il-Nam ‘faked’ having dementia, as is shown toward the end of the game between the two. Player 001 then hands his last marble to Gi-hun, allowing him to win the game – meaning that Player 001 would be killed off. However, the killing of Player 001 was not shown as Gi-hun walks away with evident regret and devastation.

7. Front Man talks to someone on the phone about the game after Player 001 died

Immediately after the Gganbu game, the Front Man of Squid Game is seen picking up a call from his phone. He then thanks someone, mentioning that he ‘is glad’ that the person ‘enjoyed the game’. While this clue was cleverly hidden between talks of ‘VIPs’ arriving, we can’t help but have a hunch that Player 001, Oh Il-nam, was the person to make the call. Especially since the call came instantly after the game ended. Did you catch this hidden clue too?

8. Man putting down the golden mask had very old hands

This was by far the biggest hidden clue we realised – that when the mask is worn by the host of Squid Game was placed down on the table, the man surprisingly had very old hands. In fact, the hands matched Player 001, as we managed to recognise it thanks to the close-ups during the Gganbu episode. By then, we were extremely sure that Player 001, Oh Il-nam, was indeed the host of Squid Game. While we’re sure that the directors gave this hidden clue on purpose, many might have been way too emotional to guess, as the Gganbu game really did struck an emotional chord.

9. Front Man took a long look at Jun-ho’s ID

Did you realise the hidden clue in this scene? Jun-ho killed a Squid Game staff and snuck into the Squid Game headquarters, but not before he dumped the staff’s body out at sea along with his own police ID. Now, when the Front Man was informed of a body that was found at sea, he took an oddly long time scanning through Jun-ho’s ID. In the end, it was explained why this happened, because the Front Man turned out to be Jun-ho’s missing brother, who actually won Squid Game previously, but never seemed to go home (another hidden clue for Season 2?).

It’s no surprise that Squid Game managed to obtain 100% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. It does not only invoke a roller coaster of emotions, but these hidden clues make Squid Game much more fun to watch. We’ll be saving our dates for Season 2 for sure, would you?

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