The Squid Game Season 2 Clue They Hid In Plain Sight

Contains spoilers for "Squid Game" Season 2

Season 2 has once again proven the unmatched popularity of "Squid Game," racking up a huge 68 million views in just its first four days of release and showing no signs of slowing down. But there's one small detail many people didn't notice about "Squid Game" Season 2, and it has everything to do with the show's B-plot revolving around the Front Man's brother, the cop named Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon).

In the first season, Jun-ho was shot by the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) after learning that the Front Man was, in fact, his brother In-ho. In the second season, we learn that Jun-ho survives his brother's assault because a boat driven by Captain Park (Oh Dal-su) fishes him out of the water. After that, Captain Park takes Jun-ho and his team — assembled by Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) — on excursions to every island he can think of that might contain the games, with no success.

But in the final episode of Season 2, it turns out that the seemingly unassuming Captain Park is a stone-cold killer. He reveals his true colors when he murders one of Gi-hun's henchmen, who catches Captain Park in the act of sabotaging their search drones. Yes, Captain Park works for the games that Jun-ho and Gi-hun's men are trying to find, and you can bet Captain Park won't let that happen. But there was a clue about Captain Park's true nature before this, even if both the characters and viewers failed to see it.

Captain Park has been keeping an eye on Jun-ho ever since he fell off a cliff with a bullet wound in his shoulder, and he's been doing a good job of it too. He never reveals his true agenda to Jun-ho. But he makes a mistake while waiting to take off on his boat with Choi Woo-seok (Jeon Seok-ho), the leader of Gi-hun's mercenaries.

When Captain Park asks Woo-seok why they're looking for the island with renewed intensity, Woo-seok tells him he can't reveal the truth of what they're doing because it's a secret. But Captain Park asks him if it's "the man who was in the games" that they're looking for, meaning Gi-hun. It's a line that means more than you realized, but instead of being suspicious of how Captain Park knows that, Woo-seok is quickly placated by Captain Park's explanation that Jun-ho has filled him in on everything. 

Woo-seuk is soon singing like a bird about what they're doing and why, none the wiser that he should be suspicious of Captain Park. In fact, this clue is so subtle that you might have fallen for Captain Park's even-handed explanation as well.

The most likely explanation for Captain Park's presence at this stage of the story is that the Front Man had him save Jun-ho because he didn't want his brother to die. Granted, Jun-ho ended up in a coma for a year, but if it had been anyone else, you can bet the Front Man would have been perfectly happy to let them drown. Still, the Front Man would want Jun-ho watched, especially once he came out of his coma, because Jun-ho had infiltrated the games. Captain Park had the perfect excuse to look in on Jun-ho because Jun-ho commissioned him to look for the island where the games are.

And Captain Park may not be alone. The Front Man may also be responsible for the other captain that takes half of Gi-hun's men to another section of the islands. Between the two of them and the many, many soldiers that help run the games, Jun-ho and his colleagues have a formidable enemy waiting to strike and continuing to thwart them at every turn.

In Season 1, Jun-ho snuck into the games and even found out some key pieces of information about his brother's time there before he was shot. In Season 2, while the games still haunt him and he wants to get back to the island where they're held, he's even further away from them than he was in the first season. That makes his storyline less interesting as a result: he just goes from island to island searching for the games, he doesn't have an antagonist that he knows of and he doesn't appear to make any progress in his search.

But with the revelation that Captain Park is indeed an opponent to him and Gi-hun's hired hands, Season 3 may be more interesting for Jun-ho. Just the fact that Jun-ho hasn't found out about Captain Park yet will make things more interesting. And when he does find out,there could be a major showdown between Jun-ho and Captain Park that answers one of the biggest unanswered questions of Squid Game Season 2: Is Captain Park really working for the games?  

Of course, Jun-ho's main goal is to find the Front Man and put a stop to what he's doing. But in the meantime, Captain Park will be a dangerous nemesis for Jun-ho and a good substitute for the Front Man, at least until Jun-ho manages to have his moment of truth with his brother.