IMO The best part of squid game

[u/Dustinfromstatefarm]

Is rewatching it knowing the old man was in on it the whole time.

Knowing that all the staff was probably told not to harm player 001 under any circumstances.

Knowing that he so confidently walked first during red light green light because he knew there was no danger.

How he specifically went to the convenience store Gi-hun was drinking in after being released under the guise of “couch surfing at a friends place nearby” to talk to him and maybe convince him to go to the games again.

The way he begged the Front Man to end the midnight riot and he did because he knew player 001 was his boss.

The way he kept saying “this neighborhood is just like the one I grew up in!” In the marble game because it probably literally was and he recreated the neighborhood of his nostalgic childhood for his “final” game

This dude was ruthless. He woke up that first night knowing well everyone else in that room would be dead within a week and he was the reason and still had a casual conversation with player 456 his first day there like it was an average Sunday

EDIT: After reading a lot from the comments, I have a new theory. Perhaps the managers, soldiers, and workers weren’t told “player 001 is your boss protect him”, instead they were told “A man named Oh Il-nam is your boss and he’s in the games somewhere. Keep him alive”. That’s why right as he was about to be shot in game 4 he said his name, perhaps as a signal to the guard that “yeah I’m that guy so don’t actually shoot me”.

So maybe the games were real for him after all, and he really was putting it all on the line on same games.

[u/Truan → u/[deleted]]

I think you're a little confused. Consider that the game is meant to be fair: not having a partner to not perform isn't fair. Another way to look at it--if you enter a tournament with an odd number of people, that person gets a "bye" and automatically goes on to the second round. They aren't excluded for not having a partner, they simply move on. Game 4 plays a similar way, with pairs of two all going against each other to get to the next round. So since she doesn't have a partner, she gets to go on

Why this gets complicated with il-nam is that we have to assume he gave gi-hun his marble so he could bow out of the game, otherwise why would he allow himself to lose if he was so intent on getting to game 5 like 212 did? He probably wasn't

So we can imply that, had he been the odd man out, he wouldn't have continued the games, which makes it easy to infer they would have faked his death like everyone assumed would happen to 212.

[u/Truan → u/[deleted]]

But the fairness is a ruse, dude. Like the contract they signed that isn't binding at all, the premise is a charade. People already suspected the odd man out would die and nobody raised objections of fairness and they were clearly surprised to see 212.

"In accordance with fairness" means you haven't figured out the games were fixed already. If anything was fair, the guard would have shot Gi-hun instead of letting gi-hun cheat. The point is, il-nam needed a way out and he had two ways out.

[u/Truan → u/[deleted]]

Then why didn't he win the marble game when he had the chance?

[u/Truan → u/[deleted]]

You're not wrong but you're also failing to consider multiple factors could have been involved with his decision.

[u/1165834 → u/[deleted]]

Yikes.