After a three year wait, Squid Game finally returned to Netflix with its second instalment. The first season, which premiered in 2021, became the streaming giant’s biggest show of all time, and Squid Game season 2 amassed a staggering 126.2 million views in just 11 days.
And ever since the new episodes landed two weeks ago, the fan theories have been coming thick and fast. Viewers have been desperate to work out the links between players old and new – whether it’s musing over the Front Man and Player 456 being ‘long lost brothers’, or speculation that Thanos’ dad might have played the games before.
But there’s one Squid Game fan theory that will really blow your mind; it’s all about one unassuming player, and the fact that they could actually be behind the whole operation.
Player 149, Jang Geum-ja, is the sweet lady who found herself in the games alongside her son, Player 007, Park Yong-sik. During the season, she was pivotal to many players’ success; not only did she smash her round of Gonggi, but she has also been supporting and encouraging the outcast players throughout. Plus, she has backed her son relentlessly – even when he voted to remain in the game and abandoned her during Mingles. Undeniably, she’s one of the few kind-hearted players in a brutal game.
(Image credit: © 2024 Netflix, Inc.)
Or so it seems. According to a new theory, Player 149 could actually be acting as a double agent. Why? Well, somehow she was able to sneak a weapon in via her hairpin, and we all know how thorough those Squid Game entrance guards are – they managed to find and divert Gi-hun’s secret tracker tooth, after all. So surely they would have confiscated it from her on arrival.
But why would Player 149 be given shiv-smuggling privileges? Some viewers believe that she might be the wife of Oh Il-nam, season one’s Player 001 and Squid Game mastermind. And if you want more evidence, there are two occasions when she has indirectly altered the play. During Mingles, when her son left her to find a room with someone else, she was rescued by the Front Man (001) of all people, and therefore saved. Then, when the players organised a revolt against the guards, she stopped her son from volunteering himself to help with their efforts.
So – proof that Player 149 is a secret mastermind, or tenuous links from the Squid Game-obsessed internet? We’ll have to wait until Squid Game season 3…