Right, was Squid Game’s Dae-ho actually a marine or was Player 388 just a big fat liar?

In season two of Netflix’s Squid Game, we were introduced to Player 388, Dae-ho, who claimed (and screamed) to be a former marine.

He instantly clicked with fellow marine Park Jung-bae as they recalled past experiences in the armed forces and how it would help them win the games. But as is the case with many of the Squid Game characters, everything was not as it seemed.

In the final episode, when Seong Gi-hun’s rebellion kicked off and the players fought back against the masked soldiers, Dae-ho’s earlier statement about his military past came into question when he literally fled the battle to hide in the dormitory.

There are two leading theories currently, so let’s unpack them.

Theory one: Squid Game’s Dae-ho was lying about being a marine

As a former marine you’d think that like Jung-bae, Dae-ho would have been on the front lines of the rebellion knocking down soldiers with pinpoint accuracy. Iconic trans character Cho Hyun-ju was a former soldier, and she was expertly dispatching her enemies and looking fabulous while doing it.

Instead, when asked to retrieve spare ammunition from the dormitory, Dae-ho ditched his weapon and hid at the back behind the players who had chosen not to fight. It’s hardly the battle-hardened exterior you’d associate with a combat veteran.

But he has the marine tattoo, I hear you say. Well, conspiracy theorists on Reddit believe that because Dae-ho’s father pressured him into being more of a man – something he opened up about after smashing the “girls’ game” Gonggi – he pretended to go off to the war and got a fake tattoo to back up his story.

I’m seeing all these people saying player 388 in squid game s2 has ptsd on tiktok, but I swear they were making it obvious as fuck that he isn’t an actual marine. Bro didn’t even know how to reload and was blind spamming his gun. I’m writing this purely to look back on after s3.

— Brian (@Brian88022472) January 8, 2025

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“I felt the show was also hinting at some sort of tension with Dae-ho and sexuality. He says he was the only boy and had four(?) sisters, Jung-bae has an extremely judgemental reaction (Why does a Marine know how to play a girl’s game?), and that is again reinforced when Dae-ho flawlessly completes his game, and he hints at tension with his father,” one person said on Reddit.

Another suggested: “I forgot to mention about your point that he looked like he never handled a firearm. Maybe he never used MP5 because he is a marine. On the other hand, number 120 is experienced at handling MP5 because it is the main weapon that special forces use in Korea.”

Theory two: He did actually see combat, hence his fear

Kang Ha-neul and Lee Seo-hwan react to the funniest Marine moments between Dae-ho and Jung-bae in Season 2. pic.twitter.com/C8WmlF5dkI

— Squid Game (@squidgame) January 7, 2025

The second leading theory is that Dae-ho was a marine but is experiencing bouts of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the obviously deadly Squid Game. This seems to be backed up by the evidence that he originally intended to fight with the rest of them. It was only once Dae-ho returned to the dormitory that he was overcome with emotion.

“If he really was marine, he probably got PTSD from that,” someone wrote, as another replied, “Okay you’ve got a good point here. If he really was a marine, he probably is also scared of weapons.”

Only one thing is for certain – Gi-hun is not going to be happy when he finds out in this year’s season three.

Squid Game 2 is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Featured image credit: Netflix