456 people are fighting for $4.56 million. Only one person can win. The rest die and with each death the jackpot increases. With its brutality and sharp criticism of capitalism, the South Korean series Squid Game achieved mega success. To date, Dong-hyuk Hwang’s creation is the most-watched Netflix content. Two years after the series, the streaming service is exploiting its hit – with the reality variant Squid Game: The Challenge.
What is Squid Game: The Challenge? In the show, 456 real candidates also fight for prize money of 4.56 million US dollars. The streaming service recreated the sets from the series in great detail. The participants have to complete the same children’s games as the characters in Squid Game – and a few more, such as sinking ships. But of course no one dies in the show.
Contestant almost collapses on Squid Game: The Challenge – and struggles with his stomach
Nevertheless, the competition puts a lot of stress on the candidates, as was particularly evident in the game “Dalgona” in episode 2. In one in many ways repulsive sequence Candidate Spencer Hawkins (player 299) almost collapsed under the pressure of the group and the game dynamics.
Netflix
Spencer Hawkins in Squid Game: The Challenge
In Dalgona, participants have to cut a sugar cookie out of a mold using a needle. If the biscuit breaks within the specified limits, the test is considered failed. The more complex the shape, the harder the task. In the show there is like in the series Circles, triangles, stars and umbrellas. Of course no one wants the umbrella. Before the game, four participants have to agree who will be assigned which form – representing the groups assigned to them. The candidates therefore carry the fate of their fellow contestants on their shoulders.
If they don’t come to an agreement within 2 minutes, all four people are thrown out and the next four representatives have to find a fair solution where there is no fair solution.
Which person is “weak” enough to submit to the umbrella fate and thereby drag his entire group into the most difficult challenge? Candidate Spencer couldn’t cope with this decision at all, audible and visible to everyone present and watching. He vomits several times under the pressure. It’s Spencer who finally gives in and chooses the umbrella.
The scene and Spencer’s reaction clearly demonstrated the psychological impact of the show on its human material, which is enormous even without life-threatening danger. The sequence was also hardly bearable for the audience.
This is how fans react to the choking scene in Squid Game: The Challenge
There’s a lot of pity for Spencer in the comments at X, like this:
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I really felt sorry for Spencer on Squid Game: The Challenge. The guy was under so much pressure and he was clearly seen as an easy target, so they forced him to choose the umbrella shape. I understand there’s money at stake, but leave the guy alone.
But it will too direct criticism of the show expressed and her obvious desire to expand on Spencer’s outburst:
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Does anyone have Spencer? psychologically examinedbecause what the hell.
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[… ]This panic and anxiety attack was scary to look at.
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Spencer swallows his vomit in the Squid Game and I want to die.
The other candidates also come off badly with fans:
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The participants, the Spencer [..] those who blame are real assholes.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Spencer Hawkins opened up about exactly how peer pressure developed and affected him on the show.
Extreme psychological pressure to the point of gagging: That’s what candidate Spencer says about the umbrella game
Spencer was clearly determined to resolve the dilemma unfolding before him. “I knew I wouldn’t be the reason we didn’t make a decision. […] I didn’t want to fight and ask someone else to take the harder path.”
But he didn’t make this decision for himself: “In line with me were most of my friends from the game, and so the weight of what was about to happen really hit me there.”
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With his empathy he became the perfect sacrifice for candidates like Bryton (player 432), who pushed Spencer into the umbrella corner and in return promised to help others with the umbrella test (which the rules didn’t allow).
The visible physical reactions Spencer explains the psychological pressure with the responsibility for the group that the game placed on him:
Difficulty for myself is something I can handle. But when it comes to difficulties for others, that is my responsibility. That’s a burden that doesn’t really go away. I have … myself physically ill felt.
Despite everything, Spencer doesn’t regret the decision to use the umbrella. There are four new episodes of Squid Game: The Challenge on Netflix on November 29th (Wednesday).