Does Squid Game: The Challenge Fill the Umbrella-Shaped Hole in Your Squid Game-Loving Heart? Grade the First Episodes
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Squid Game: The Challenge is now underway, with the release of the first five episodes of the Netflix reality competition. Does this bloodless riff on the dystopian Korean drama fill the umbrella-shaped hole in your Squid Game-loving heart?
I reckon y’all are at different stages in your binge of these first five episodes, so I will keep this recap easy-breezy and spoiler-lite. (Four more episodes drop Nov. 29, and the finale arrives Dec. 6.)
More from TVLine
Found Recap: Flashbacks Reveal Sir's Troubled Past - Did He Kill [Spoiler]?
The Voice Recap: Did the Last of the Playoffs Unearth a Legend in the Making?
Squid Game: The Challenge takes 456 actual people and subjects them to challenges culled from the scripted series but also some new ones, as their numbers steadily dwindle and the $4.56 million payday steadily builds.
Just as in the scripted series, a round of Red Light, Green Light quickly thinned the vast herd, with remote-triggered ink packs letting players know they didn’t “freeze” well enough.
The Dalgona candy challenge followed, here adding some drama by forcing representatives for each of four teams to unanimously agree on who would be assigned the circle, triangle, star and umbrella shapes to etch out. Since no one wanted to force their team to grapple with the intricate umbrella, consensus was hard to come by — and thus “rules broken”/several more heads rolled. The actual Dalgona challenge was arguably the first time that familiarity with the Squid Game drama series came into play, as players were 1) wise to steer clear of the umbrella and 2) knew straight away to lick at the candy’s back — though that gave us a lot more saliva than we perhaps ever wanted to see.
That got us down to 119 players, after which a telephone on a pedestal was curiously carried into the dorm. When the phone eventually rang, No. 198 — one of few players we knew by “name” at this point, if only because he and 432 were beefing — was quick to answer it, as as a result he was given a “treat” in the form of a cheeseburger and fries (which the others hungrily pawed at). But when the phone rang a second time… well, the player who picked up may now be wishing they didn’t do so.
Episode 3 revolved around a game of Warship/Don’t You Dare Call It Battleship, forcing the players to divide up into eight teams of 14 or so. Each team chose a captain and lieutenant, who decided where on the grid to aim each “missile,” while the others manned the four “boats” of varying sizes. Warship was more fun in theory than in its grueling, tedious execution — though the editors certainly did their best to speed things up and rearrange events in such a way as to create the illusion of drama. But man, when the first round ended and it hit me that three more rounds had yet to be played? Ugh.
Warship was followed by what I think was also taken from the scripted series — the delivery of a keypad, with which each remaining player had to punch in the number of someone else to be eliminated. The top three vote-getters were in turn jettisoned.
The last of the first five episodes, titled “Trick or Treat,” invited five players to volunteer to stand behind any of six jack-in-the-boxes arranged on a counter. The turn of the crank eventually springs out “jack,” who will bear a message announcing either elimination of that player… their ability to eliminate someone(s) else… or their receipt of an “advantage” in the next challenge. Suffice to say, the way this one played out — with some brutal decisions made by the last jack-in-the-boxer standing — significantly shook up alliances, and all but decimated one “gang” in particular.
Episode 5 closed out with a seemingly cheerful picnic inside the dorm, except that the players would come to realize, in an effectively chilling cliffhanger, that they would next have to play Marbles — opposite their chosen picnic pal! Meaning, among other things, that the mother/son alliance is about to suffer a devastating loss…
Best of TVLine
Get more from TVLine.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
