Spoiler alert, in case it isn't obvious enough. I'm not sure if I've been this conflicted about the ending of a TV series I've enjoyed this much. Having said that, I recently rewatched the series through a different lens and I couldn't help but admit the plot twist is actually well-deserved.
Just to recap, a total of four hundred and fifty-six people, who are all deep in debt, are invited to play a series of six deadly survival games on a mysterious island. The series mainly follows a compulsive gambler, a once successful banker, a North Korean defector, an evil mobster, a Pakistani foreign worker, a foulmouthed woman who claims to be a single mother, and last but not least, an elderly man on the brink of dementia who is also dying of brain tumour. At the end of the series, the gambling addict - Seong Gi-hun - is the only survivor and he leaves the island with the 5.6 billion Won prize money. Later, he discovers the elderly man - Oh Il-nam - is not only still alive, but was one of the men responsible for the entire game as a form of entertainment for him and other insanely wealthy men. After a second watch, I noticed how the series actually left various clues in different episodes that hint towards Il-nam's true identity.
1. His age
While most of his fellow participants are between the ages of twenty to fifty, Il-nam appears to be several decades older. Initially, his inclusion seemed to be rather emotionally manipulative on the part of the writers. However, it makes sense when we later discover that Il-nam was never meant to win the game at any point and he had always meant to leave at some point as the games became increasingly more challenging physically.
2. His excitement during the first game
While playing the first game - Red Light, Green Light - Il-nam appears to be visibly excited. At first, we are meant to brush it off as a sign of his dementia. However, he clearly seems competent at the game despite his old age. Also, eagle-eyed viewers would have noticed how his body does not light up in the infrared cameras that is used by the automated gun that kills off the participants who move whenever they are supposed to remain still.
3. The deciding vote
Despite organizing a competition that essentially manipulates other people's desperation for his own amusement, Il-nam appears to have somewhat of a conscience compared to the other wealthy men who come to watch the games. First, he makes sure all the participants sign an agreement so they willingly give up their lives to the games. However, when he becomes the deciding vote on whether the competition should end or not after the first game, he curiously makes the most rational decision despite his onset dementia. That way, when the participants are invited to continue to games later, his conscience will be clearer since they have come to the island fully aware of what they are signing up for.
4. His hesitance in choosing the umbrella sign
Before the second game - Honeycomb - the participants are asked to choose a sign. At this point, Gi-hun and Il-nam have formed a pact with Cho Sang-woo, the banker who is also Gi-hun's childhood friend, and Ali, the Pakistani foreign worker. Unsure of what the task is, they decide that it is safe if they each choose a different sign. At first, Gi-hun shows interest in choosing the easier star sign. When he asks Il-nam if the latter wouldn't mind taking the complicated umbrella sign, Il-nam seems visibly nervous. However, it is made to appear as if he is rambling.
5. The events during the riot
When Jang Deok-su kills another player, there is no penalty imposed on him. Instead, the prize money increases, which happens after any number of player is killed off. This leads to a deadly riot where Deok-su and other greedy players seek to kill off other participants who pose a threat. The staff members surprisingly do not intervene until Il-nam begs everyone to stop. Only then does the Front Man, who until this point seemed to be the one who is most in control, instruct his soldiers to end the riot. Some viewers might have noticed how when viewed through the island's infrared cameras, a shape of a triangle appears on Il-nam while the other participants do not have any shape at all when screened similarly, signaling he is different from everyone else.
6. His experience in playing tug-of-war
The most obvious sign that Il-nam not your average player is his team wins the the third game - tug-of-war - despite going up against a much stronger team. It is no secret that his team won because of the tips that he shared. He claims to have played the game multiple times and has never lost even when the opposing team has a wrester. This is a hint that is perhaps too obvious that it seems too real to be true. He is probably referring to the many times he had played this game on the island. Instead, both his fellow team members and the audience are left to assume he is referring to his youth.
7. He was meant to be eliminated before the game of marbles
Before the fourth game is revealed, each participant had to choose a partner. Since they are now down to an odd number, one participant would be left out. Il-nam, who had a high fever and wet his pants the previous night, was clearly not expecting anyone to choose him as their partner so that he could be eliminated at this point. However, Gi-hun chooses him over the annoying Han Mi-nyeo. You would think she would be killed off since she failed to find a partner. Instead, she is spared and makes it to the next round because the island workers were clearly instructed to not kill whomever who does not have a partner.
8. His body is not shown
For a show that never shies away from showing someone's brain being blown off, we never see Il-nam being killed. Instead, audiences are left to assume he is killed off camera as a traumatized Gi-hun walks away. The game of marbles is probably the most difficult to watch because we know most of the characters we have grown to love will be killed off. Perhaps we are led of believe it would be too extreme to show the killing of such a vulnerable old character in an explicit manner. While in reality, he survives, allowing him to exit the competition as originally planned.
9. There is no paperwork for participant 001
When Hwang Jun-ho, the police detective, manages to sneak into the island, he finds the filing room with information on participants from every competition that has ever been held there. He finds the file on the latest competition, but curiously, the first page is of participant 002. This should have been a major hint since Il-nam - participant 001 - should have paperwork on him if he was just like any of the other participants.
10. He is Gi-hun's father?
This one is a bit of a stretch but bear with me. From the very first episode, Il-nam is numbered 001, the first participant, while Gi-hun is numbered 456, the last participant. They are almost intentionally placed in immediate contrast to one another. Then, in the second episode, when the surviving participants are temporarily released from the island, Il-nam suddenly shows up at the grocery store where Gi-hun is hanging out. What are the odds two participants with no connection to one another suddenly cross paths outside the island? Even Sang-woo, who is Gi-hun's childhood friend, never returns to their neighbourhood during this short period. It is logistically impossible for Il-nam to go around South Korea visiting all the participants. Even if he or any of his staff did, nobody ever visits Sang-woo, Ali, Sae-byeok, Deok-su or Mi-nyeo except to leave them the calling card. Clearly, Il-nam views Gi-hun differently. Despite all this, it is rather peculiar why a father would push his own son into a deadly survival competition like this. Could it be he is grooming his own son to take over his place? The Front Man himself is a previous champion as confirmed by his brother, Jun-ho's findings. So this could very much be the case. In the end of the series, Gi-hun is shown abandoning his plan to visit his daughter in Los Angeles as he turns around and presumably goes in search of the competition organizers. Perhaps Il-nam took a similar path too when he abandoned his family.
Did I miss any other hint? Please let me know.
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