No Ju-han / Netflix
In season two of "Squid Game," the game's steward — known as the Front Man, or Hwang In-ho under the mask — enters the game himself. Though he's already related to one other character in the show, a new theory suggests he could be further tied to the games.
In season one, detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun) infiltrated the games in search of his older brother In-ho (Lee Byung-hun). In-ho wasn't a player in the games with Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), however — he was the one running them. But in season two, In-ho infiltrates the games as player 001 using the name Oh Young-il.
In-ho mostly seems to be there to break Gi-hun's spirit, treating him like a comrade until he sabotages Gi-hun's rebellion in the season finale. He's not the first player 001 to betray Gi-hun's trust: In season one, the game's creator Oh Il-nam plays alongside Gi-hun as well before revealing his true identity in the outside world.
One moment in season two has fans thinking that In-ho and Il-nam may be further connected — but it's far from conclusive.
Noh Juhan/Netflix
In season one, episode three, Gi-hun asks one of the guards distributing snacks to players if he could trade his regular milk for chocolate milk, saying that he's never been able to digest plain milk. The guard refuses, but Il-nam remarks on Gi-hun's preferences.
"I bet your father spanked you a lot when you were young," Il-nam says.
"How did you know?" Gi-hun asks.
"My son was just like you," Il-nam replies.
In season two, episode five, In-ho doesn't drink his plain milk either. After the guards serve the players a similar bread and milk snack, In-ho passes his milk to the pregnant Jun-hee instead of drinking it.
"I don't drink plain milk," he tells her.
The "milk theory" has proliferated on social media platforms like Reddit and X. However, one image in support of the theory being circulated online includes inaccurate dialogue.
The above screenshot, which was also posted to the r/squidgame subreddit, simplifies the dialogue in both scenes. Il-nam never tells Gi-hun, "you are just like my son he couldn't drink milk too," and In-ho never says, "here, I can't drink it anyway."
To be fair, the original dialogue in each respective scene isn't that different — but it is slightly more nuanced.
A twist like this would feel a bit out of character for "Squid Game," particularly given that the show has already pulled a secret-family-member twist with the Front Man already. That doesn't necessarily mean it couldn't happen, but the evidence isn't overwhelming.
First, Il-nam says several times in season one that he has a son, singular. In the season finale, he tells Gi-hun on his deathbed that "long ago, I once lived in a house in an alley just like that one with my wife and son."
However, in season two, we learn that In-ho and Jun-ho are half brothers who share a father because Jun-ho's mother refers to In-ho as her stepson. If Il-nam was In-ho's father, he should be Jun-ho's as well.
No Ju-han/Netflix
That doesn't fully rule out the theory: it's possible that Il-nam abandoned In-ho with Jun-ho's mother, and that he didn't raise Jun-ho or consider him a son. Still, there's not much to go on.
If In-ho were Il-nam's son, the implications would be severe depending on the strength of their relationship as adults and if they knew of the others' existence before In-ho entered the games. At worst, it would mean that Il-nam didn't provide his son the money to save his wife's life, and knowingly let him participate in the games. At best, it would mean that they reunited after In-ho joined, and won, the games in 2015.
Furthermore, Il-nam and In-ho give the same surname, Oh, in the games, but they don't share one in real life. Il-nam tells Gi-hun in the season one finale that he didn't lie about his name in the games, but as far as we know, In-ho is lying about his: In-ho's true last name, which he shares with his brother, is Hwang.
Ultimately, it's not impossible that In-ho is Il-nam's son, but the evidence is far from conclusive. The milk thing is weird, sure — but lactose intolerance does not a paternal relationship make. After that cliffhanger ending, we'll have to wait for season three to see if the show goes any further with this particular thread.
"Squid Game" is streaming on Netflix.
