Squid Game: Why The Front Man Shot [SPOILER]

Here is why the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) shoots Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) in Squid Game. The hugely popular Netflix series follows 456 contestants competing in a series of children’s games with deadly consequences for the chance to win enough money to change their lives forever. Although the show primarily focuses on the players in the game, attention is also given to the mysterious staff who are running the event, the leader of which is a masked figure called the Front Man, whose identity is unknown.

The most notable side plot of the show is police officer Hwang Jun-ho who begins investigating the games in regards to his brother’s disappearance years prior. Jun-ho infiltrates the island and poses as one of the guards long enough to discover that his brother is a previous winner of the competition.  After coercing a confession out of one of the VIPs, the mysterious benefactors of the games, Jun-ho flees the island, but is pursued by the Front Man and his forces. The standoff culminates in the Front Man removing his mask to reveal that he is In-ho, Jun-ho’s missing brother, before shooting his baffled sibling, sending the latter off a cliff.

Squid Game‘s Front Man identity twist was shocking enough, but many viewers were also surprised at the merciless way that In-ho kills his brother. Jun-ho had already identified himself as a police officer and confessed that he was sending the incriminating evidence to his superiors, but In-ho seems confident that they wouldn’t respond — and to murder his own brother after only the briefest hesitation conveys a surprising level of cruelty, even for the imperious Front Man. It’s clear that in choosing between loyalty to his family and dedication to his job, In-ho doesn’t need much time to decide.

In-ho’s actions come from a sense of duty and honor to the games. These ideals are also shown when the Front Man executes the doctor and the other henchmen who were harvesting organs. He didn’t care that they were running an illicit side business, but he felt that helping the doctor gain an advantage over the other players tarnished the sanctity of the game by disrupting its sense of equal opportunity. This is clearly a highly important principle to In-ho who does not hesitate to punish those who violate it.

In-ho’s sense of loyalty to the games likely stems from his own participation and victory in the past. As someone who presumably came from desperate circumstances, as all the contestants seem to, and was able to turn his life around by winning the competition, Squid Game’s Front Man believes in offering the world the same opportunity that he was able to achieve. It’s difficult for the audience to view the games as moral, but for In-ho, they’re a necessary evil to allow someone in dire need to rise above their circumstances just like he did. Shooting his brother wasn’t simply a result of apathy, but actually a deep devotion to the important contest that was placed in his charge.

In-ho shoots Jun-ho because of his sense of duty, but it clearly haunts him as well. The scene is a fascinating glimpse into the real, fallible human behind Squid Game’s most intimidating mask. It helps to ground the nefarious character as more than just a purely evil villain, and it makes viewers want to know more about In-ho’s story. Whatever is in store for the Front Man’s future, audiences will just have to wait until Squid Game season 2 to find out.

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