Squid Game The Challenge Season 2! Episodes 5-8 Recap with Eric Eldredge (Player 415)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
What's going on? We are back with more Squid Game
the Challenge season two covered. We're talking episodes five through
eight today hitting the recap. We're joined by player four
one five Eric and of course season one player two
oh four Dan. How is everybody?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
What's up everybody?

Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm doing great, Lauren, Thank you. I am just I'm
still tickled that I'm on podcast talking about myself. So
let's get to it.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Oh boy, let's dive right in, because.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Talking about myself very briefly.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yes, we have episode number five with Eric and then
after that, I mean Eric's you know, a little disappeared. Yes,
let's dive right into it. It's marbles and we talked
about this briefly at the end of the last recap,
where you're at Mingle, you end up with your duo
and then they take they take you right into the marbles.
You guys, do not go back to the dorm.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Correct on the show, that is what happens. Yes, if
you can read between the lines, you might pick up
when I'm putting down. But yes, there's there's no game action,
there's no there's there's nothing in between as far as
like hanging out talking anything like that. No, so you know, essentially, yes,
we're going pretty much straight into Marbles, and it's like, wow, okay,

(01:17):
well my brain is cooked to use a word Melissa
likes to use, and I can't really think straight, and
now I have to figure out how to approach the
marble situation with someone who is my rider Die in
this game, who I like and respect a lot, and
who I've happened to have played a fan made version
of Survivor with along with this guy two four two

(01:38):
years ago. So it was very complicated, Lauren.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
It comes full circle, Dan, can you remind us what
type of game you chose to play when you did Marbles?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Sure? Well, I played my rider Die as well, Marcus,
and we just made.

Speaker 4 (01:51):
A I mean, we're both similar in age, we're similar
in athletic ability, so I wanted it to be fair enough,
with me having in my mind at least a slight
advantage obviously, So we just made a court.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
I don't know how long. It was, maybe twelve thirteen
feet long.

Speaker 4 (02:08):
We put one of the pots that was on the
set at the end, we had a line and we
just went one for one and.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Whoever had more in the pot at the end would
be the winner Marvel Pong.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yes, it must be nice, Dan, must be nice.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, because that was not your game. Eric. We'll dive
into years in a minute because there's a ton of
dialogue that we have to go into it with that.
But we see these pairings of people. They really highlight
the ones where people are super close and have those
deep relationships with one another. We have Zoe and Kurt
and they decide to play Tic tac toe. What did
y'all think of that game?

Speaker 3 (02:45):
I thought that was clever. That was a fun game.
It's like a little bit of skill, a little bit
of a little bit different than just regular pong, no
offense Dan, regular throwing games. And I think it made
for a good watch, a good watch back and forth.
You know, one wins, the other wins. Final best out
of three good good TV, decent TV. That's how I

(03:06):
rate it anyway, decent TV.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yes, yeah, yeah, I'm not so sure, and I haven't
had a chance to talk to them.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Maybe you have one of you.

Speaker 4 (03:19):
I'm thinking he let her win, which whatever, if he
thought she had a better chance moving forward, it's not
a bad move. I guess if I was there with
my daughter, any of my daughters, that's not happening. I'm
not letting them win. They may have beat they may
have beat me, but I'm not gonna let them win.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
I think parents seem to take different approaches for this.
We saw on Season one Leanne and Trey definitely, at
least as far as I know, played it out far
and square. Popular theory that's Kurt let Zoe win.

Speaker 5 (03:47):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
I believe it, but I haven't talked to him myself.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
It's hard to tell it really is, because I think
if it went to and O then I would go,
all right, well, yeah, but the fact there was one
in one and then you got the second one to
put you through it was relatively close.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah, yeah, it was good. And you know what's good
about tiktak toe version. I think that straight throwing is
harder to follow. It's not as engaging from a viewer's perspective,
But tik tac toe you can visually follow along a
lot more easily, and like someone looks like they're winning
and then someone else makes a good throw. I think
it's you know, the more I think about it, the
more I think that's one of the better TV games
of marbles that they could have come.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Up with right, because even we have player ninety eight
Matthew and then we have twenty four Peter, they're doing
closest to the steps. So if you're very athletic, that's
going to be hitting the spot for you. That's going
to be one where you're confident going into.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
That for sure. Yeah, we see a lot of that,
you know, going into the game. One of my main
thoughts was like, I just don't want to play a
boring Marbles game. I see the same games over and
over again, and there's some weird obsessive quality in me
that just really hates doing the same thing that other
people do. And unfortunately I did the same thing every

(05:00):
other person does in Marbles and ended up in chance.
So that killed me inside. Let's stop.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
How so I need to hear from you.

Speaker 4 (05:12):
How did you convince her to just do a completely
guessing game one shot only. I mean, if you get
it wrong, maybe you do the best the ten, best
out of seven, best out of five. How did you
guys come up with that game? And how did you
get her or how did she get you to agree
to it?

Speaker 3 (05:31):
Yeah, I have a question for you in return, what
makes you think that I'm the one who wanted to
do that. Why do you think that was a win
for me to play a chance game?

Speaker 2 (05:39):
I think, well I didn't.

Speaker 4 (05:41):
I didn't, but I figured, knowing you and your how
strategic you are, you must have thought that that there
was some way you could have tricked her or have
have had an advantage in order for that to happen.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
There's no way you would have played a.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
Game at least how I see your mind working thinking
that you had any sort of disadvantage at all.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
You would only play a game where you had an advantage.
That's why I figured it was you.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Look who it is, Johnny Fairplay is joining the pod,
Johnny will he gets set up? Yeah? Dan, you know
that would be my approach for every single other person
in the dorm. But here's my here's my thought process.
She's the one who wanted to do chance. She was
dead set on it before we even before I revealed
my lie. So I think her thought process was she

(06:26):
viewsed herself as an underdog in a throwing game. I
don't know if she had thought about other games. I did,
but she wanted something fair and square where she didn't
have to worry about being an underdog for me is
that is the last thing I wanted to do. But
it was a chance game. And the reason we ended
up in that is because I felt like, Okay, I
really have two paths going in, and I might I

(06:49):
might wish I could go back and think better, But
at the time, my thought process was I can either
try to get her into one of these other games
that I've studied and that I have an advantage in.
There's no way, Like, Melissa knows me way too well,
and again, we know each other for years. She knows
exactly how big of a dirty, dirty liar I am.
So if I'm pushing for some like strategic game that

(07:10):
she's never heard of before, I was like, no chance,
no chance of that. So my other route is to
just make our story come full circle. And from the
perspective someone who loves these shows, who wants to leave
it all out there on the show, I'm like, I
could tell her after the show ends, or I could
tell her and confess right here in Marbles, And that

(07:31):
option seemed like the better life equity option, even if
I sacrificed like one percent chance at best of getting
her into a better game.

Speaker 4 (07:41):
Did you feel that telling her before you played, was
possibly going to get that type of reaction and maybe
have her performance be inhibited by her emotional response to
your lie. I think if you were thinking that far ahead. Again,
good strategy.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
I wish there's more too. No, I mean I was
accepting of doing a chance game. She had made it
very clear that she was locked in on doing chance
and I feel like she had all the negotiating power, like,
how can I argue against a fair game? I just
didn't see that working out at all, and I thought
it'd be better if I just went straight for the

(08:19):
dynamite and blew everything up. So that was how that
came about. And I think a smarter player than me
could have figured something out I could not in the
moments before marvels.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Well, your hands are kind of tied in that scenario
because if that person is stuck on I am not
doing a physical game and athletic game, then you have
to almost go that route because otherwise you're both eliminated
from the competition, and we saw that in season one
they couldn't agree on a game, so they were both out.
So you almost have to make sure that you do

(08:51):
something in order to stay and it just happened to
be a chance here he is, Johnny fair Play, join
in the stream. What's up, Johnny, A rookie mover were here?

Speaker 6 (09:00):
I didn't do the restart before I came in. It
was all choppy like literally, my son Eric's here giving
his grandiose answer of what happened in the game of chance,
and I just fuck it all up.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
You look so much better now, Johnny crystal Clear, thank you.

Speaker 6 (09:17):
This is uh, this is my Ricky wild Thing Jersey.
My good friends at Retro Something sent me this.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
I will cool.

Speaker 5 (09:27):
I will thank them shortly.

Speaker 6 (09:29):
As soon as I figure out who they are.

Speaker 5 (09:33):
I I like that.

Speaker 6 (09:35):
And and Dan I I uh, it's it's a joy
to see you here. You're the good version of that
asshole cop from the season.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
I appreciate that you soon.

Speaker 5 (09:46):
I don't know what's that.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
You just spoke to him about an hour ago, Johnny, So.

Speaker 5 (09:53):
Good thing I didn't jump on an hour ago.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Uh. I'm excited, Johnny, because I wasn't sure if you'd
be joining us until recently. And I just want to
tell you now it's your face I've been saying in public,
but thanks for really inspiring me to lie my ass
off on television. You really were the first to do
it in a lot of ways, and I don't know
where reality TV would be without you.

Speaker 6 (10:20):
Wow, thank you. So I have to ask. I mean, yes,
everyone knows the did Grandma lie? You know that that's
the whole thing, But do you think it was extra
initiated the fact that you were producing on the North
Myrtle Beach Survivor deal and tend to see it in

(10:40):
act like.

Speaker 7 (10:41):
In actuality, like how it really works to be a skumbag,
to lie and to be that over the top personality
in real life.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Absolutely? Absolutely, And wow, I can't believe how relevant live
reality games are in this wig game experience. But for
those who don't know, which is literally everyone, I filmed
a live reality game Survivor in two days in North
Myrtle Beach and it was a charity events that Johnny
fair Play, Sandra Crystal Cox all played in. And so

(11:15):
I got the film Johnny's Confessionals, And I think what
it really was for me was seeing you get left
out of a vote, have the next challenge the next
round be a paintball, and seeing you absolutely light up
your entire tribe and then declare yourself a free agent
and beg for an idol from someone on another tribe.
I was like, you know what, I gotta go hard.

(11:35):
That's the bar. I gotta go in swing big and
swid game to be like that.

Speaker 6 (11:40):
Well, I mean the Myrtle Beach thing, I mean it
was a charity deal. There was no like real prime.
I mean I think there was prizes, but I didn't,
you know, care, But you know, my feeling was, you know,
if if three people are going to see this, make
this the coolest thing they can see and literally leave
scorched earth and eat either it works or it doesn't.

(12:02):
But at the end of the you know, of the episodes,
you're just like, dude, remember when Johnny Fairplay literally mute
need his team like they're They're literally all standing in
front of me with paintball guns ready to attack and challenge,
and I just light them all and and like not

(12:22):
just once to get them like repeatedly.

Speaker 5 (12:25):
So it hurts.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
I believe it. I believe it. So check that out.
It's on YouTube if you want to watch this. It's
Survivor North Myrtle Beach season two and one of the
first few episodes you'll find it.

Speaker 5 (12:39):
And one of the best things.

Speaker 6 (12:40):
Eric, you know, you had pulled me for a confessional
and I'm just like, you want to do something that's
never been done before. And you're like yeah, and I'm like, yeah,
you want to show me a good time.

Speaker 5 (12:53):
Yeah, let's go.

Speaker 6 (12:54):
So Eric pulls me for a confessional and so we're walking.
I was like, and we literally make at like five steps.
I'm like, we're good and you can literally see my
try behind me. Oh, I mean like they're right there
behind me, very much an earshot.

Speaker 5 (13:12):
And I was like, let's go.

Speaker 6 (13:14):
And I was like, these losers, that's right, they're all losers.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
This is the charity events.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Remember, Yeah, it means so much more. It means so
much more then.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
I mean, we played an energy together. I gotta say it,
like what filming you, Johnny, You're You're very professional. I
really admire you for doing everything for the show, for
the camera. You were great to work with and you
elevated the show to another level. And for me playing
these games, I've watched myself back from the first two
games I played and then wow, I thought I was
doing fun things out there. I'm boring. I'm basic. You

(13:49):
really got to raise the bar when you're watching yourself
back on video. You know, you're not as exciting and
fun as you think. I think at first most players anyway,
So it really helped me, honestly, to play, to watch
you play.

Speaker 6 (14:00):
You don't need thirty million viewers, you don't need something
as grandiose as a dead grandma. But you can create
these little things because you know, we see on the
new era of Survivor the meta gameplay. I mean it's
I mean we're literally watching just meta is all we're
watching at this point. You know, they all know the game,

(14:20):
they all know the moves. You know, this is what
you do here, this is what you do here, that's
what you do here. And and I think in their
mind they're just like, I'm gonna I'm gonna find a
bewair advantage and people are gonna remember me. And it's
just like a, I don't give a fuck about the
bigware advantage. I don't care if you use it correctly
or in like that's nothing. Just figure out something that's

(14:42):
just bigger than the scope of what you're doing, and
that's your that's your impact, that's your that's your memorality
of you know, like if that's even a word who's
to say, but you know there's just certain things you
can do that's just not over the Like, you know,
you don't need to be an ass. I mean you
could be an as, but you know you don't need
to be a bigot.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
You don't.

Speaker 5 (15:04):
You know, you don't have to burn someone's ship.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
You don't. You don't.

Speaker 6 (15:07):
You don't have to be a scumbag. But you can
be whether it be good guy or bad, just something
greater than than than what you think is great to
just just look back in your head and just be like, Okay,
this is good, what's great? And if you're always looking
for that great you know, like there's there's swings and missus.

(15:31):
I mean, you know they're they're not all home runs.
But if you're not swinging, you're not hitting the ball.
And uh and and you know and I uh, you know,
I can tell from where I met you to where
you are now. Eric, Like you you've done self evaluation,
You've seen what you did there, and you're just like, Okay,
that's good, what's great?

Speaker 5 (15:47):
That's good?

Speaker 3 (15:47):
What what's great?

Speaker 6 (15:48):
Exact and that and you know you didn't win squid game,
but I guarantee you when this is all said and done.
More people are gonna remember you, not not even just
your number, they know your fucking name. How many people
do they not even you know that they don't know
their names. We know your name and we remember you.
And you know it's not four point five six million dollars,

(16:11):
but it's pretty good.

Speaker 3 (16:12):
I wasn't winning that anyway. Come on, I mean especially,
and thanks Johnny. I appreciate that so much. And in
the Squid Game especially, it's like this four and fifty
six players. You assume you're already dead and have fun.
Like you're not winning whoever wins just won the lottery.
You go out there and have fun. And Dan, I
know you know this better than anyone because I feel
like you did a lot behind the scenes too. That

(16:33):
made for a better television and both of your people
I like and respect a lot because it's a combination
of gameplay, strategy, being true to yourself, I think, will
also trying to make the greatest, fun, entertaining show to watch.
It's like it's a tough line to walk. I didn't
nail it. I know that, but I wanted to do
all these things and make a great show well being myself.

(16:54):
And that's playing a strategic outside the box game. So
I'm curious, Dan, if you have any any stories about
things you did, because I know you have them, but
tell me your favorite.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
I do, but I want to. I want to talk
about what you did.

Speaker 4 (17:07):
And I'm seeing a lot of a lot of comments
online about that was over the line that Listen. I'm
a father of five. I have no qualms, and I'm
friends with people who who are disagreeing here. But I
know qualms with you making up a lie that you
had a baby. I don't care if you made up
a lie that you cured cancer, that you you're the
one that invented penicillin.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Who gives a shit You're trying to play a game.

Speaker 6 (17:26):
I think people that would really like the fact that
he created penicillin.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
You included I bet right, Okay, okay.

Speaker 5 (17:36):
I've always had a clean bill.

Speaker 4 (17:39):
Very I don't think that any of that is a
bridge too far.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
As you said.

Speaker 4 (17:45):
I think you thought about how can I get more
people to quote unquote like me, and if there are
a lot of people in here with kids, I got
a kid, so now I'm in with them, and I
have something that I can have commonality with. And I
think that was a smart move. I don't think you
cross the line. Again, I don't know from a games

(18:05):
play standpoint, I think it was. It was a good move,
and I I have no problem at all.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
And again, I have five kids.

Speaker 4 (18:11):
You didn't insult me by saying you have a kid?

Speaker 6 (18:14):
Real quick to two things, Eric to followup piggyback on
dan Ry here a when we're down to these especially
what was the last episode we got this week?

Speaker 5 (18:25):
Episode eight?

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Episode yea, episode eight.

Speaker 6 (18:30):
Literally every other person was like, she's a mom, Yeah,
he's a dad, motherfucker. I don't I can't use four
point five six million dollars too because I don't have
a kid, Like, go screw yourself, like like like I
can have I can actually have more fun with four

(18:50):
point five six million dollars than you can.

Speaker 5 (18:52):
I promise you whatever, think whatever you think.

Speaker 6 (18:55):
Like, I don't know if I can be the Star
Wars wedding, but I can do a lot of damage
with four point five six million dollars.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
Maybe maybe a pinball wedding. Yeah yeah, well.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
Yeah, there you go, all the pinball machines.

Speaker 6 (19:08):
I'm actually leaving here to go play pin in a minute.
But it's it's uh like that. And the conversations with
God and Jesus on episode it was literally every other
conversation was you can't do that, she's a mom or Jesus.
I know it's just me and you. You didn't care
about the other four hundred and fifty people here.

Speaker 5 (19:28):
You've cared. You've cared about five of them.

Speaker 6 (19:30):
But just know that I prayed a little harder and
my prayers were a little more special and uh and
and better. To be honest, I feel you know, I
took a knee, I did the hand gimmick, you know,
so like I like the episode eight was literally the
their apparent and I can pray better than you episode
and I'm just like I get it because four point

(19:53):
five six million dollars literally chant like you're those people
left there, they're not like you know, I like to
you know, I like to play video games on Thursdays.

Speaker 5 (20:05):
Here is none of those conversations. It is literally, I'm
a parent and I love God. It's like, all right, relax,
I don't.

Speaker 6 (20:14):
Feel I mean, like, you know, I don't know if
your lia is still in play, if you're still out there,
but I don't think you're you're You're you're doing the
I can pray better than you gain.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
No, I can never. I can never do that. I
you know, I picked this lie very deliberately. I have
a friend, Tyler Kakuna, who said he had a one
year old in a live reality game, and that was
another inspiration for me, and I was like, I don't
think I can get away with that, and I certainly
couldn't get away with religion. I don't know enough about that,
did you? But did you see I could do?

Speaker 5 (20:45):
Did you see Dirty Harry on Australian Survivor?

Speaker 3 (20:48):
No, I haven't. I love Australian Survivor, but I haven't
seen all the seasons yet. I just finished Australia Versus
the World and I'm going back and watching them so
you can tell me what he did though.

Speaker 6 (20:57):
So Dirty Harry's first season, like he's he's on his tribe.

Speaker 5 (21:01):
Everyone has a kid and he's like, fuck me, I'm
the only one that doesn't have a kid.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 6 (21:08):
So he's ostracized for like the first two days and
self ostracized because he's like, what am I going to
talk about with these people? So finally like on day two,
like you know, he's kind of distraught because like he's he's.

Speaker 5 (21:20):
Not fitting in and they're like, here, you know what's
going on.

Speaker 6 (21:22):
He was just like oh, he goes, uh, I just
missed my kid. And they're like, oh you and he
was like yeah, he goes and they're like, how does
your kid he's like two, and and they're like, what
does he like to do? He goes, he loves watching
me play video games. His favorite thing, just watching me

(21:44):
play video games.

Speaker 5 (21:46):
And he's sitting there.

Speaker 6 (21:47):
He's just like and they're like, what's your kid's name?
He's like, Oscar Davidson.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (21:51):
He just make it so anyway, so he does his capecual.
He's just like, there's no kid. I do even know
when a kid talks. I have no idea, like when
does a kid start start talking?

Speaker 2 (22:02):
What age?

Speaker 3 (22:03):
Exactly?

Speaker 5 (22:04):
Age six is when a kid starts talking?

Speaker 6 (22:07):
Dirty, Harry and then they walk first, Yes.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
Yes, a lot of questions. A lot of parents love
to ask questions about and about kids, So you got
to be prepared.

Speaker 6 (22:21):
So so he uh so, finally they're a tribal and
they're just like, uh, there's this guy that thinks dirty, hairy, shady,
and he comes here He's just like, you know, this
guy is shady. He was like he lied about this.
He was like, he's probably lying by his kid. He's like,
yeah I was. And they're like what, Yeah, yeah, I'm
I made because there's no kid, and they're.

Speaker 5 (22:40):
Like, are you kidding us?

Speaker 2 (22:42):
Nope?

Speaker 6 (22:42):
Like literally just it's just like I don't feel like,
he goes, I don't feel like trying to figure.

Speaker 5 (22:48):
Out what the answer is for you people, And he like,
because I've made it this far, I'm good. I've done.
You know, I've I've integrated. I don't care. I'm done
attempting to make you know, because you know, I was like,
what you're killing to do?

Speaker 2 (22:59):
What me?

Speaker 3 (23:00):
Play?

Speaker 5 (23:00):
Video games? Is all I got is an answer. I
literally have nothing else because I don't know, I goes.
I don't know kids, I don't want I don't like kids.
Kids suck.

Speaker 3 (23:09):
First of all, I gotta watch that. I can't believe
this is the first time hearing of it. That's my
friends should be shaming themselves for not telling me this sooner.
Second of all, they'll ask you everything, Like people are
asking me, what have you seen a heartbeat yet? What
are the baby names? How? How far along is she
what are her sympoly like? Is she nauseous in the
morning and she eat eggs? You know? Oh the big

(23:30):
one is daycare. You got apparently book day daycare like
three years out. You have to book daycare like years
before you get a girl pregnant. Apparently it's that competitive.
So I don't know all these details or people are
gonna expose you.

Speaker 6 (23:42):
So also fast forward to uh, I can't remember what
it might have been All Stars or it might have
been Rupert's third season. It was either second or I
think it was All Stars. But he caught wind of
the dead grandma lie before he went out there, and
he asked his wife to kept so he was going

(24:06):
to tell everybody his wife was pregnant. And then when
his wife came out for lud One's visit, he wanted
her to say that she miscarried. And I was like,
this dude, did not understand the assignment, because who hasn't, like,
you know, like college job whatever, who hasn't said their grandma.

(24:28):
I mean, like, I've had eighteen grandmas die before survivor
this is not the first time I've had a grandma
die or anyone I know that have had grandmas die
so and she she lived another twenty three years after lie.
I did not cause her death by saying it, and
no one ever has or will. And it's so funny
because the hardcore Christians come after me for saying that,

(24:50):
and I'm like, but what you're saying is kind of
voodoo and not Christian like whatsoever. So maybe reevaluate, evaluate yourself.
But anyway, so dying about a miscarriage, holy smaies, that
is a line a much further than the line I
drew with the dead grandma.

Speaker 5 (25:09):
I actually agree she would not agree to do it.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
Oh my god, if people my lie, oh yeah, whoa,
And you know what, that that's the line I would
I actually thought a lot about it, and I asked
a few people very close to me. I was like,
is this crossing the line? I don't want to. I
don't want to make people feel terrible, and I certainly
wouldn't wish any harm on anyone. And when you when
you start lying about things like that, I mean that

(25:34):
could bring back really horrible feelings and memories for a
lot of people. So yeah, I agree.

Speaker 6 (25:39):
Rupert won the million dollar fan vote on All Stars.
If he does that, he does not win the fan vote.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
He's actually shot.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
I don't know how they edit that. That's that's like remarkable.
They're like, remember everything you thought about Rupert, throw it
in the trash.

Speaker 6 (25:54):
Yeah yeah, remember the fake edit that we gave Rupert
for Q seasons because he no one.

Speaker 5 (26:01):
Really liked him out there. Well, here's the reality.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
Of it all, no one really likes crazy.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
I shared that story before. I don't think I've never
heard you talk about that one.

Speaker 6 (26:11):
I don't know it's you know, I don't I mean,
you know, like me and Rupert are friends, so you know,
I don't want to bury the guy. But you know,
at the same time, like he it was contemplated, it
wasn't done. I think I'm a well to share the story,
but I don't overly share it.

Speaker 3 (26:25):
At the end of the day, it wasn't done. It
was done, so it all worked out.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, and on the line though, that's crazy. I can't
even think he thought that it was going to go.

Speaker 6 (26:35):
Over Well yeah, well, Rupert's gameplay is the t move
version of me or anyone Like, it's not good.

Speaker 3 (26:41):
I mean one season later too, Like that's that's a copycat.
That's very much a direction I didn't know.

Speaker 6 (26:47):
They didn't know about the Grandma, so they left right
before that episode aired. But somehow he called me.

Speaker 3 (26:53):
But he found out about it, right, Yeah, yeah, so yeah.

Speaker 5 (26:56):
I think Christa found out.

Speaker 6 (27:01):
She heard from production after the finale, and I think
christ had told Rupert so, but it was a small
circle people that knew. Most of the cast did not.
But but I think Chris had told Rupert so. So
so yeah, so we would have potentially would have worked.
But it's just like, holy, so I could ask you,

(27:21):
but but but that, but that's rupert thinking, is just like, well,
I mean if Johnny fair Play did and I can
do it. I'm just like Johnny fair Play didn't do that,
And the fact that you think they're the same thing
proves that you're moron.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
Yeah, it's it is great. It is. It is a
spectrum And I could ask you a million follow up questions.
But Lauren, I'm wondering, should we talk about squid Game
at some point this podcast.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Here's the thing. When Johnny pops in, we go everywhere
with this podcast.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
We are.

Speaker 6 (27:46):
If I'm leaving you guys, I'm gonna let you guys
talk squid Game.

Speaker 5 (27:51):
Just just know that mingles my favorite thing ever.

Speaker 3 (27:54):
Same and uh, oh my god.

Speaker 6 (27:58):
You know, to go out on Marble is not the
worst thing ever. So I'm very proud of you.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
So thanks Johnny, appreciate it. Man, cheers see you. And
look I got I was one of the three people
that got my face, you know, bopped out of existence individually.
So when you when you don't win the game, you
start making up wins for yourself. And that's a moral
victory for me, for an im moral player.

Speaker 6 (28:20):
How many people they're bringing back for season three from
from season just one?

Speaker 3 (28:25):
Yeah, yeah, you're no Mark. Sorry, I'm out. There's no
don't waste your votes on me.

Speaker 5 (28:33):
You got my vote.

Speaker 6 (28:34):
But yeah, if it's just what, yeah, they should do
like five, I wan't like you and Susie and Mark
and Venom and then I don't care.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
I'll take that out.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
That's what did you say?

Speaker 3 (28:47):
Venom, Viper, Viper?

Speaker 5 (28:49):
Yeah, not quite as memorable as Eric.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
But way better name. Wait, and you know what, I
think a lot of people would disagree with you on that.
I think they would say Vipe was incredibly memorable.

Speaker 5 (29:02):
No, Fenilm and Viper are close enough. People misspell my name,
so it's Okay, I.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Get it all right, Well, thanks Johnny, you guys, get
to it.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
Dan.

Speaker 5 (29:11):
Always a pleasure. Always get to see my son there.

Speaker 3 (29:20):
Johnny fair Play. That's me all right, Uh Johnny Mingle.
I wish I could se Johnny fair Play Play Mingle
and a lot of other Survivor.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Players would be chaotic, it would be so it would
be so good. Well, folks, that's what you get when
Johnny fair Play pops on a podcast. You never know
what story is going to be told. I didn't think
you're going to talk dirty Harry and Oscar today, but
here we are. So let's dive back in to the
episodes here a little bit. But yeah, with Marbles, everyone
had their own game that they decided to play. You

(29:52):
saw some of our favorites left us, and then some
of the people that we didn't get seen or shown,
which does suck in this type of game because they
didn't show all the Marble eliminations, so we don't know
Foley who goes out until they do return to the dorms.
Is there anything else, Eric, you want to add about
Marbles as a whole.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
Yeah, I just I think I've talked about how it
went down, what my thought process was. I've heard a
lot of people online talk about, oh, you should have
put two blue marbles, like one in each hand. We
have pretty ironclad phrasings. When we agree on rules, you
can't break the rules you come up with for context.
Maybe there's a smarter way, Maybe there's a world where

(30:33):
you could phrase it in a very specific way. But
again I did not think of that, So I just
want to throw that out there. I'll just say I
think the way they did Marbles was brilliant. I think
it's unfortunate that it kind of looked fake a little
bit to some people I'm reading, because it was not,
and I think it was a great game design decision.
The only problem with Marbles is it ends relationships, It

(30:56):
ends these storylines, and then you're left after Marbles having
the kind of Olmo restart the game. So I do
think there's a drawback to it. And I'm curious what
you all thinks, as viewers who weren't there, not that
I was either like, going into the back half of
the episodes after Marbles, who are you invested in at
this point? What are the relationships?

Speaker 1 (31:17):
Let me know of Dan, I'll let you go first.

Speaker 4 (31:19):
Yeah, that's that's what makes it so tough this game.
But I do think if you go into Marbles and
you guys didn't know, we did know, most of us
knew it was Marbles. I think if you go into
Marbles and you completely separate from anyone that you have
any connection with, it's gonna be easier to play the game.
But I don't think you're gonna I don't think that

(31:40):
production is going to care about it. So you again,
you guys didn't know, But had you been paired up
with someone that you had no relationship with, they wouldn't
have showed you on Marbles at all. So that was
again a good thing that happened. But once you're gone, yeah,
I mean, how do you how do you decide? How
do you decide who to who to now be pulling
for or you know, rooting against.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
It makes it difficult.

Speaker 3 (32:04):
We got to introduce the new characters, and that's exactly
what they start doing. The Lauren helped me out who
the introduce I got you?

Speaker 1 (32:11):
Well, I want to just add quickly, what was y'all's
take on Jeffrey letting Pearla habit without even actually playing
a game? I want to die? Oh of course I
want your take.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
They both could have been eliminated for not playing a game.
That's my take. It's a squid game. You can't just
not play. He could have played a game and let
her just I disagree, let her win. I think they
both should have been out.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
I think that is a squid game. Though, that is
a quid game. Now, now we got the interpersonal, the family,
the duo of it all along with the games and
part of Marvel's dand is you decide whatever game you
want to play. And the game Jeffrey wanted to play
was a game called I Lose, You Win. You haven't
heard of that game. It's a good one.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
I have. I have heard of it.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
I just want to happen.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
That's that was my thing. I wanted to see a
game happen because me personally, whether I'm there with my
mom my dad, is sibling. I'm not giving up the game.
There's no shot if I've come that far in that
game that I'm just letting it go because it's an
opportunity you want to keep playing. Look how cool the
games end up being down the line. I mean, Slides
and Ladders is iconic. Can you imagine being there and

(33:18):
actually getting to stand on that set and play that.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
How dramatic would it have been for them for them
to draw a target ten feet away and her throw
one and him just drop his at his foot, and
then her and him just drop one at his foot.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
That would have been insanely good.

Speaker 3 (33:35):
TV, especially if he didn't tell her. I have people
not telling people things and then letting them find out
for themselves. So I think that you might be onto something.

Speaker 4 (33:44):
Dan slow motion, You're watch the marble fall out of
his hand down and hit next to his foot, the
sand splashes up.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
I mean, this is this is great TV?

Speaker 3 (33:54):
Yeah, I agree. Well, I'm hoping season three people really
innovate because I've failed to do this. I want to
see you well step forward and uh, I'm serious in marbles,
at least come up with something more interesting to watch,
because we didn't really do a good job of that
in season two. I gotta say, but Melissa had an
idea that I really liked. She would suggest some dodgeball.

(34:14):
Maybe we can see that just chucking marbles at each
other's heads in season three. I don't know if they
allow that one.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
Yeah, maybe not, but hey, why not more.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
Fun than Quinn flipp or throwing marbles for the hundredth time,
but whatever.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
The intensity would ramp up with that. Well, even going back,
they even said the three guys that ended up sitting
out for catch, as soon as they see the set
open up with y'all walking out, they did mention, are
they playing dodgeball? I would love to see a dodgeball
game team versus team, Let's hit it. That would be
really good to watch.

Speaker 3 (34:47):
Oh yeah, if you if you really enjoyed seeing all
the older players get eliminated and mingle instantly, you would
love dodgeball. Yeah, that'd be a good one.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
There's a strategy there. Dodgeball has many strategies that you
can do. Get in the back. You're not having the
older person run out to get the ball. That's just
going into the firing of it all. There's a strategy
you can keep them safe.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
They'll be okay. You know what you've seen the movie Dodgeball.
You'll know at the end there's like a runoff, there's
a tiebreaker, and that's kind of how it works. It's
actually similar to catch, where you stand on like the
certain spot and you have to either dodge or catch
a ball thrown at you from a certain ran. So
maybe they could do that and you put all the
people who don't want to deal with that at the
back of the line. If you're at the front line,

(35:27):
you're screwed, probably, but you can get some really horrible throat.
I don't know, maybe there's something there. I'm listening.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
Yeah, maybe it's there. I don't know. The one game
they have to bring in. If they do not play
tag on season three, I will be so disappointed. And
I thought of this the way I think they could
do it. To make it fair, you have one person
that you have to find that's your specific person, so
you're matched up as a duo. One's the tager, one's

(35:53):
hiding because in the show the drama, you could go
after anybody. So I think to make it fair, you
have to find that one specific person in order to
get that person out for you to become safe.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
I that's interesting. I haven't sat down, and this is
shame on me because I literally just got a master's
degree in game design and I'm fascinated with this. But
I want to sit down and think about how we
could adapt some things. I have other thoughts, which we'll
probably say for later when we're not recapping episodes, but Lauren,
I like where your heads out. We should talk sometime,
should plan out the season and then watch them do

(36:27):
the exact opposite on season three.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
We should all talk. Everyone has their ideas, but this
is what we like to Yes, let's die back in.
Marbles is done. We're clear of marbles, so we get
back into the dorm. There's only twenty two people left,
which is crazy. Yeah, it moved very quickly. We were
not down to this little number. Dan, you can attest
when it came down to your season. It was many
episodes after that.

Speaker 4 (36:50):
Yeah, and yeah, that's what I was thinking, how are
they going to slow this down a little bit? But
and what I would have liked to because I made
it in that range. When they came back and they
only had the twenty two beds, that was cool. We
had the entire setup in there until it was down
to the final three or whatever, five, six, whatever it was.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
So that must have been pretty cool to.

Speaker 4 (37:11):
Come in and see that only a few beds in there.
Must have changed the atmosphere significantly.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
For sure. I'm jealous. I'm not gonna lie because that's
a big jump. When when I left the dorms. We
had seventy six or whatever, seventy something players and to
go from that number down to like twenty almost twenty.
It's crazy not to mention the visual aspect of the beds.
I think the game got very real for people very
quickly when they walked back in, and you kind of

(37:39):
see that in how the tests and the game played out.
It started getting heated finally too.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
The more heat the better.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
Yeah, And this is where we start to learn more
about other people that we haven't seen as much in
the show. Yes, they're clipped here and there, we see
them in the shots playing some of the games, but
you have Dasia and Faith sitting down there having a
conversation with what they would potentially do with the money,
and so that's really we've seen them mingled in. But
this is really where we're trying to get to know

(38:08):
them for the first time.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
Yeah, I feel like we've seen a lot of Pearl.
This is really where Desia enters front stage and we
learn I don't know if when we learn exactly that
she is a cop, that she has a lot of
experience in the field, but we learn that that's going
to be relevant going into the Gift Game. They're clearly
a duo, and duos are dangerous in this game, aren't they.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
Dan You certainly are.

Speaker 4 (38:34):
There's nothing worse than having specifically a blood relationship. But
anyone that is that tight yet you know it's two
votes against.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
You right out of the gate, for sure.

Speaker 3 (38:43):
And you know in Squid Game there's so much that
goes on behind the scenes. It's like any other show.
There's alliances, there's duos, there's all sorts of strategizing connections.
It just we don't have time to show it and
show all these awesome games, I guess. So I feel like,
now top twenty two, this is where we start finally
seeing Okay, these are some a Lotiene says, these are
some factions that are forming. And it starts to play

(39:04):
a role when we start doing the test, when I
think this might not have made the show clearly, but
no one wants ninety eight in there because no one
trusts him. What you want is your allies to volunteer
for these door monitor roles. Right. I don't want it
to be me, but I want my allies up there.
I want my friends up there. Come on, get to
the front of the line. Buddy, you can do it.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
That's right, no risk, all reward. That's a good way
to play exactly.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
Yeah, definitely, And I really enjoyed this twist. This season
has done so well with integrating all these various aspects
into the game, and this one in particular, because you're
so close when you're down to twenty two people, so
do I volunteer? Do I not volunteer? And ninety eight
does have the right mentality there, Matthew does. Because you
want fate to be somewhat in your hands. You want

(39:50):
an opportunity to have a decision made where you know,
I left the game because of me, not because of
somebody else.

Speaker 3 (39:56):
If you're ninety eight, If you're ninety eight and you
know you're getting whacked the first chance everyone has anyway,
absolutely take the risks, try to grab power, and go
for it. So I think he was absolutely right to
fight for it. It was just an uphill battle. But
talk about awkward man that imagine like he's fighting so
hard to get in there, and like Melissa has my

(40:17):
favorite line of the episode where she's like, uh, no
one wants you in there. I'm just gonna go ahead
and say it, like stop trying you. No, it's not happening.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
She jumped right into it. She said absolutely not, like,
no way, no shot. But then we end up with
Kate player three two seven, we get Isaiah player four ten,
and then we get Max player two thirty. And we
hadn't seen Max that much right before that.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
No, he had one funny line where he was like, oh,
he's a cop dude or something like that.

Speaker 4 (40:48):
Like a California just like a yeo bro surfer Sean
Penn from Fast Times type of guy.

Speaker 3 (40:55):
To me, that's exactly what he came off like. And
he's also I wish we had to see more. Max
one of the funniest guys in there, and he makes
it also one of the guys with the worst timing
as he picks the wrong time to step into power.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Oh oh boy. Yeah, let's let's dive into that. I mean, see,
they get the luxury of it all, but you know
there's always going to be a twist. I will say
one of my favorite lines was from Trinity though Orange
Juice for a year.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
Why so fun?

Speaker 2 (41:25):
That told me he's in the Final Dinner.

Speaker 4 (41:28):
By the way, just so just so we're all being clear,
that told me he makes it to whatever this final
meal is, and he's gonna get some orange juice. There's
no reason to highlight a guy talking about orange juice
unless it's gonna come into the episodes somehow.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
So to me, that was a dad.

Speaker 4 (41:44):
I told my wife right away, this guy's in the
final meal whenever it is, and he's gonna get some
orange juice.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
Can I just say too? This is one of my
favorite moments. And I love the editors for this because
all the processing room interviews they're so serious, they're so
cold and like formal, and when you hear him talk
about orange juice and then it cuts to a processing
room interview, I'm like, Okay, that's an interesting segue. And
then the first words out of his mouth in the
processing room. God, I love orange juice so much. It

(42:10):
was like dying laughing. Yeah, the first guy to ever
get an orange juice based processing room interview. Good job, Trinity,
it was good.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
I'm happy they put it in there because you need
a little bit of laughter. You need to have a
little bit of fun here because it is so serious
when you're down to this little bit of the numbers.
So they bring in the monitors. They tell them that
they have to select three players to be up for elimination.
And what was shocking to me because I'm thinking ninety
eight is going to be the first pick here, right,
but it wasn't. Was it was interesting to see how

(42:42):
they went about talking through who they wanted to select.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
Well, this is conjecture, but I have a feeling that
he was the first pick and that that's just how
they showed. It's in a funny fashion or dramatic fashion.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
Agreed.

Speaker 4 (42:56):
I guarantee he was the first one pick and they
just rearrange the edit, which was better anyway.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
But yeah, I think they're right.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
And to hear Isaiah say this is a good thing
at least we know won't be us now that was
another dead giveaway.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
I'm like, well, he's out show that specific sentence out
of his mouth.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
So yeah, here's the tip for future players. I actually
have two tips. Tip number one it's never if you
ever see a good thing happen to you, you should
be very, very scared because of the hammer is about
to drop. And my second tip is to ignore everything
I just said because they're probably going to be two
steps ahead in season three, just like they were in
season two. So they'll probably be like, h, here's a gift,

(43:37):
no consequence. They're so good at staying ahead of the game. Like,
trust me when I say they will be analyzing how
people reacted in season two and then doing the opposite
of what you expect in season three.

Speaker 4 (43:50):
I didn't, I have to say, though. I didn't understand
or get the significance. I guess it just meant that
they were going to be dead of the custom betting.
And then what was his name again?

Speaker 2 (43:59):
To Max?

Speaker 4 (44:01):
Max he laid down on it and said, oh, this
is luxurious. Stay in bed.

Speaker 2 (44:06):
It just has a different sheet on it. What are
you talking about?

Speaker 3 (44:09):
What you know? Maybe after that many days in there, anything,
any little thing starts to just feel different special. I
don't know that's.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
True, any little thing that's different, But so they make
their selections. I also laughed at this. One of them
called Greg Craig and said, you don't know, there's twenty two.
If you laughed, you don't know everyone's name right now.
That's wild to me.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
But anyway, people were bad at names. People were really
bad at names.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
Not bad. There's twenty two you.

Speaker 3 (44:37):
I don't understand, and there's two of them.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
Standing right there next to you, so then you're only
having to pick from a field of nineteen people.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
You work hard to learn people's names. This is straight
out of the know how to win friends and influence people.
You say someone's name, they'll like you more within reason.
So don't don't. Don't skimp on names. I think I
brought this up in the last interview or something. But
if learn numbers and names. If you can't, but if
you can only hold one in your head and you
don't care about confessionals and screen time, learn their names.

(45:06):
Learn their names.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
You have to. But the monitors they choose Krim, Greg
and Matthew, and so they bring them into the room
and no one has any idea what's going on. They're
walking around in there seeing, all right, lift this box.
Nothing's in the box.

Speaker 3 (45:23):
What do we do?

Speaker 1 (45:24):
Because all you're doing is waiting for them to give
you instructions on how to go about the task.

Speaker 3 (45:30):
You gotta be scared shit list if you're them. M hm,
this is and they knew it.

Speaker 4 (45:35):
I thought that was an amazing twist. I was jumping
out of my seat when that happened. I thought it
was great. I can't believe nobody said what's in the box?
That that was a gimme if you're a seven fan.
Nobody said it, or at least they didn't show it,
but I thought that was an absolute great twister and
they did that.

Speaker 3 (45:54):
Okay, I go on to quick little tangents because I
really like analyzing the game design and these shows. If
you haven't heard, Beast Games did something where every group
of three had to sacrifice someone and I hate that
so much. This is the way to do it, the
way Squid Game did it. You know why. It feels
at least somewhat earned. The monitors knew they were taking

(46:15):
a risk. The three people got picked because they didn't
have the connections with the hall monitors that they that
they needed to survive. It's fair. You know, everyone had
a chance throughout the game leading up to this to
play themselves out of the spot. So if you're in
the spot, you can only blame yourself in a way
for being in that spot. Bravo.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
Yes, I was happy too. I really enjoyed it. And
you see the dilemma that happens because you have just
a quick second to make a decision because you want
to at least give yourself a shot for your room
to survive, and we see that with Isaiah Max. They're like, fine,
we can't do rock paper. So there's three ways, Kate,
You're good, you're staying and going back to talking about

(46:57):
because she has a son. And so this is where
the parallel comes in with you, Eric, because if you're
in that area there, maybe because you have a baby
on the way, you get spared and don't even have
to play.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
Melissa, are you listening to this? Okay, there's reasons. There's
reasons why I told it did. It's crazy. It's really
fun to see. Uh yeah, like be a parent and
if you're not a parent, you pretend to be one.
That's it will really help in the end game of
squid game. I don't fault Isaiah Max though for this.
I mean, it's kind of insane to me in one
way to sacrifice a lot of equity like that. But

(47:33):
at the same time they have to go so fast.
You are in the biggest race against time in your life.
And if you don't know it intuitively that you can
play rock faper scissors with three people just keep going
until there's an odd one out, it split second decision.
I don't blame them for trying to just do it.
What I do blame everyone for is doing like two
out of three? What the hell? Guys? Oh my god?

Speaker 4 (47:56):
Yeah, you know you're in a race against time. It's
one and done. Let's go guys. Eybody has the same chance.

Speaker 3 (48:01):
Doesn't change your odds. It doesn't change your odds. And
I mean Greg, sorry, Greg, Man, I get being concerned
about mirrors like it's actually it's clever in a way,
but also, what are we doing? Man? Are you trying
to get this positioning right? You're doing two out of three?

Speaker 1 (48:16):
You?

Speaker 3 (48:16):
I mean, he signed his death warrants.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
He pushed for it. He would have survived, though, because
Karim got it incorrect the first time, so Matthew and
Greg would have lasted. And I believe that they would
have gotten theirs in first. For Karim to put the
number in. I think they would have gone through crazy.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
It's it's just an irrationality, right, the desire for the
comfort of two out of three, the comfort of not
being eliminated right away, when in reality it changes your
odds zero percent and only makes it more likely that
you're going home.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
So they made it look good.

Speaker 4 (48:50):
He fumbled the patch trying to put it in. They
made it look like that made a difference. So I'm
sure it was not nearly as close as they made
it look.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
Probably not, probably not, But at the same time, probably
wasn't that far off, just because like, you know, they're
going fast. It's like, okay, go well, let's start shooting right,
So it probably wasn't more than like, you know, seconds,
a dozen, seconds, fifteen, I don't know who knows right.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
And we see it the Rock Paper Scissors as well.
They both have rock a couple times, and there was
the same situation they were running into with the numbers.
All three of them have the same numbers. But I
agree we just go one there and has to be quick. However,
I will say karm was taken so long to put
the patch in the box. I at that point, Ken,
you rip the patch out of their hand and stick

(49:35):
it in the box. And I would have been pissed
standing there waiting for this because we're fumbling this patch,
we're taking too long to put this in.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
Yeah, I would have drove me nuts too, But you
know what, this is very this is the most high stakes,
high pressure situation. I feel like we should be a
little easy on them because They're like, their minds must
be absolutely racing. They have about a minute to figure
out everything, and Krim is probably thinking like, is there
an anyway out of this? Can I get out of this?
Is there any realistic approach for me? And it looks

(50:05):
like he does decide to fall on the sword, but
he's probably got a million thoughts going through his mind.
That guy was a gamer through and through. Well.

Speaker 4 (50:13):
I have to say that I'm very happy that no
one just flat out sacrificed themselves there. That would have
been to me. I would have been just disappointed to
see that. So at least they all had a chance.

Speaker 3 (50:24):
You know, for sure, I wonder if there's another way
to do it, But I think you just go as
fast as possible game a chance. I mean, unless he
can really pull a Hail Mary and trick someone or
convince someone somehow, maybe you really like put on the
water works, But then you're kind of wasting time probably,
So and there we go, we say goodbye to four

(50:45):
players ninety eight end of a run. Wow, what an impact,
great run.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
I mean, what a character on the show too. I
mean he was just so passionate for playing the game,
and I mean I love that. I love watching that
type of energy, and you just get some people that
are just I'm there. He was guns ablazing the entire game,
for sure.

Speaker 3 (51:07):
He's such an interesting person. He played so hard, and
he was so willing to just throw himself into the
mix at any points. And I think, I'm sure at
a certain point for him is like, after catch, you're
playing from the front. Yeah, you're in, You're You're in,
like to the waist, you're into the chin in this.
So you might as well keep playing hard, keep playing fast.

(51:28):
And he made it a hell of a long way.
So good for him for bringing a lot to the show.

Speaker 4 (51:35):
Yeah, once once, you once you come out that strong,
you're not fading into the background now. So he he
just took that and ran with it and said, all right,
I'm playing from the front from now on.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
So got to give him some potos for that.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
And we've seen a lot of duos fall obviously, me
and Melissa and the Blood relatives, and this is another one,
Matt in his bed, finally broken up. Only one is left.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
Oh so good, Yes, sad to see them go. However,
the game keeps unrolling and we have to get another
monitor here, and that monitor is going to receive a
ten coin, so they have the ability to eliminate somebody
and the confidence that Isaiah had Player four ten. You know,

(52:19):
I hate to say this, but we know it's not
going to be us. Ooh, what a.

Speaker 3 (52:25):
Line famous last words. Yikes, what did you author? What
do you think Dan of this?

Speaker 2 (52:33):
I don't know, and again I didn't.

Speaker 4 (52:36):
I know how messed up we are in our heads,
in the food deprivation, the sleep deprivation. But I can't
imagine why he would have had that conversation where he
sat down and said, isten't I'm not saving anybody anymore.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
It's I'm in this for me that.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
I think you're frozen for both of us.

Speaker 4 (52:55):
She wasn't going to she was gonna pick him. There
had to be a reason he thought that was appropriate.
But I can't even fath him any reason why you
would say that, even if it was on the first thing,
you're thinking, why would you say that?

Speaker 3 (53:08):
You know? I asked him that. I just checked. No
response yet, but I'm really curious. I feel like I
try to err on the side of like benefit of
the doubt, So I'm guessing there's more to it. We
see just a snippet of the conversation. But yeah, it
really looks like at the very Leason not the right
thing to say to Claire. Some people might appreciate that honesty,

(53:28):
not Claire apparently. And Claire says, thanks for the coin.
Nice knowing you see later.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
Put yourself in that position, Eric, you're a gamer.

Speaker 4 (53:40):
That's a guy who you're squasi in an alliance with,
you're friendly with. And then at that far into the game,
twenty two people left or whatever.

Speaker 2 (53:48):
It is night. He says that to you, what do
you I have? I'm pretty confid I know what you
would have done.

Speaker 3 (53:55):
I'm curious. Here's what I would have done. I would
have said, you know what, there's an old adage actions
speak louder than words. I don't really care what you
just said. You gave me a ten coin. Isaiah trust
me enough to give me a coin and to take
it someone's life in this game. That's a player I
want in the game. I am not taking Isaiah out.
He just gave me a ten coin, Are you kidding me?

Speaker 2 (54:17):
I will.

Speaker 3 (54:18):
There's got to be something more to it, because I
don't understand this decision in any way, shape or form.
Who's a threat in squid game, you're about to play
shuffle board, You're like people go out because they wore
the wrong colored shirt. You know, like it's what are
the threats? Anyway?

Speaker 2 (54:32):
That's good point point.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
Yeah, don't think there is such a thing as a
threat to win squid game.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
Everybody, any anyone has a shot to win it because
you see how these games are. I mean the next game,
we'll get into it in a second. You're rolling a dice.
You're rolling a dice there, and what you land on
is what you get. I mean there's a strategy element
to it as well, but still, what skill is rolling
a dice? It's luck.

Speaker 3 (54:58):
It's like some social connect we'll get to that. Here's
the thing. I do have some actual practical advice, though.
The only thing I can think of I have to
say this, if you want screen time, it's a thing
in squid game you kind of have to play around
people who want screen time. Taking out the person who
gave you the coin is an attention grabbing move. I'm

(55:18):
not saying that's why she did it. I have no idea,
have not spoken to clear about this. That is the
only thing that I can think of that makes some
amount of sense to me. So maybe give the coin
to someone who you know doesn't care about that kind
of aspect of the show. I don't know. I don't
want to get too meta, but it's a factor in there.
It is definitely a factor.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
I think personally. If that conversation never occurs between those two,
I don't think she picks him to eliminate.

Speaker 3 (55:44):
I think seems like it.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
I think it's based on that conversation alone. And what
I also found interesting too is she brings Mackenzie in
as well to the boiler room to assist with the
decision making. And we've seen that a couple of times
where someone picks a singular person. Hey, don't tell anybody,
but then you out yourself anyway by saying I was
the one that did the elimination. What do y'all think

(56:06):
of that?

Speaker 3 (56:08):
Yeah, Dann, what do you think of that?

Speaker 4 (56:09):
I think that I thought that was a good move
by her, And she could have said anything she wanted
at that point. She can have said I picked Isaiah
because Desia and faith. He told me this morning he
was coming for you guys, and I didn't want to
see that happen. She could have made up any reason
she wanted, and I think it would have come out

(56:30):
there wasn't too much deduction involved to figure out that
that she was the one that made that decision.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
So I don't know.

Speaker 4 (56:36):
I kind of liked that move, and I might have
even me said a couple extra things that he didn't say.

Speaker 3 (56:42):
You are kind of showing trust by doing that, for sure.
You're you're taking an opportunity to really demonstrate and prove trust,
almost like giving someone a ten coin. You know, I
would say it's a similar trust building exercise. And you
know what would be uh, you don't have been in
a real stone cold move. She brings yes into the
room and punches in his number.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
Can you imagine what a TV moment and you're standing
there seeing the number be punched. That would be so good.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
Do it right through his face? You cowards?

Speaker 2 (57:14):
Wow?

Speaker 1 (57:17):
I guess then he can't cover a coward. It's right,
you're right there in the room with her, and she
just punches it. Could you imagine I.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
Think I should take out the biggest threat. Boo boop.
Just the look on his face.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
Yeah, do it, biggest threat, get him out of Wait.

Speaker 3 (57:33):
Wait wait no, not like that, No, No, what are
you doing?

Speaker 2 (57:38):
Okay, oh ship.

Speaker 1 (57:42):
I mean, if someone ever does this down the line,
kudos because that's that's just a TV moment and the
shock value of it alone would be perfect.

Speaker 3 (57:51):
I think outside the box players, come on.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
There you go, all right, let's dive into slides and ladders,
which the set is impeccable. Oh my goodness, do they
outdo themselves with it. Just imagine being there with all
the lights, the slides, the cards. I mean, it was
so fitting to where you see the one guard before
they take you away from the set and show you

(58:15):
the players just sticking the card in place, making sure
it's ready to go. It's great.

Speaker 3 (58:21):
Yeah, top notch. These sets are incredible. I remember going
out to Pintathlon and thinking, oh my god, like there's
no visual effects needed. This already looks insanely cool and
like straight out of the show. So yeah, I think
the great job of design, rainbow colors, very memorable, a
lot of fun, you know, and I don't like a
lot of luck too, a lot of luck. This would

(58:41):
kill me as a player.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
But then it's just even playing field, as we said,
because who's a threat really in squid game? But I
want to dive into the teams so pretty much we
know who almost everyone is. However, there are some people
I still didn't know really who they were, and that's
that's just tough. When you're down to that limited number

(59:08):
and the audience still has no idea who you are.
It just stinks, you know what I mean, because then
we don't know what any storyline is.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
Yeah, the Orange Team, right, we hadn't seen them at all.

Speaker 3 (59:18):
And Drake find out why very quickly.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
Ye's Drake, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:23):
Drake and Drake as well. Like, those were the three
where I said I we didn't get much from them.
I think Emily was one that was selected for the
Catch game as one of the players that someone was backing.
But other than that, I still they didn't even mention
the name of the other guy three seventy eight on
the Orange Team. Dude, they mentioned the name on the

(59:43):
show or no, Justin is his name.

Speaker 3 (59:46):
I don't remember if they said it or not. You know,
think about it this way, and I didn't even realize
the magnet tude going in a show like Survivor, like
eighteen players, fourteen episodes something like that. We have Fourgner
fifty six players and nine episodes. Yep it's insane. It's
just way too many storylines, and I do really wish
that somehow we found a way to show more relationships

(01:00:08):
and more just a little bit of some of these
players who make it so far, like aj in the
Gift game, Oh my god, like we've been see any
and she did so well that round. She was such
a killer. We didn't really see her before that at all.
It's unfortunate. But you have to pick and choose. I
guess you just have to. So it's tough. It's tough

(01:00:30):
for them. Maybe live about having a kid next time.
I don't know what else to say.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
So the way the cookie crumbles when it comes to
screen time, some people get it, some people don't. But
here we are at this game. What were y'all thinking
when you found out it was slides and ladders?

Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
Oh? I mean, just classic game. You gotta think it's
got to be like a worldwide, easily understood game. Everyone
noticed slides and ladder. You don't have to explain it.
It's simple. It's got the drama, people sliding to their death.
It's just a really cool adaptation of a classic childhood game.
I was curious to see how it played out The
cards definitely make things interesting. The cards are what really

(01:01:08):
drives all the conflict in the game.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
Yeah, I thought it was great. It was It's probably
my favorite game. I mean, I'll Mingle might be my favorite, but.

Speaker 4 (01:01:16):
To watch the at least, there's a lot of chance,
but there is some strategy, and that's what kind of
evens out the playing field.

Speaker 3 (01:01:22):
I think, kind of like Mario Party, can we work
in some mini games next time? Perhaps maybe that's a
way to introduce a little bit more control. You know,
you win a minigame, you can send a player a
certain number of spaces.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
I think it was much better TV than Glass Bridge.
It was a better version of glass Bridge to me.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
Yeah, glass Bridge, you know season one that they get
a pass because they're trying to make it like as
close to the real show as possible. Those aren't great
games for television, honestly, they're just not. This is definitely better,
and you want to make it so it's not too complex.
You want to make it so it's easily understood, but
also drives these character building moments, memorable moments, conflict and
all that. This did a pretty good job of them.

(01:02:01):
You got a little bit boring towards the end when
they figured out all the slides, it was like, okay,
now we're just rolling dice. Not not the best, not
super exciting. Now that's the only criticism I have.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
Yeah, because you're playing for who gets to the top. Now,
that's what you're playing for.

Speaker 4 (01:02:17):
I thought that what would have made it harder and
more interesting was if you got to those two slides
whatever they were. All right, Now we know that that
one was was death, this one wasn't, doesn't necessarily mean
it's going to be that way next time.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
That would have made it even even more difficult to navigate.

Speaker 3 (01:02:36):
Yeah, for sure, it's with the players know all the information.
It's just there's no more drama, you know. I mean,
the only drama is rolling a dice. That's not It's
almost like uh, doing rock paper scissors. It's just not
the greatest drama for television. So I don't know what
they could have done to make the end game a
little more interesting. Maybe that, But then you have to
control for how many players get eliminated. You can't have

(01:02:57):
too many players get eliminated, so right, so it's a
tricky balancing act.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
We still got the drama at all because let's dive
into that. The Red team versus the Yellow team by
golly oh so good.

Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
It was great, Lauren. What were your thoughts? What does
your take on that? Do you have sides? Are you
picking a side in this? Are you agnostic? What are
your feelings about this whole conflict? Where again, just to reset,
they yellow team has to pick a team to go
down a slide, and they have to go down a slide.
Each takes out to Kevin and then Stephen retaliates. He

(01:03:32):
gets a choice though he could help a team or
hurt a team, and he chooses to hurt the Yellow team.

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
I can't be mad at the move. I really can't
if I'm putting myself in that position. If a player
that I was working with got eliminate, you marked my
team and I choose to go after you, you can't
be mad that I came after you came after me first.
That's the way the game works. I have the opportunity
to pick somebody. Yes, I could help somebody, but in
this instance, why am I going to help a team here?
Because then they might beat me to the top and

(01:03:59):
I might not get I get the mindset behind it.
You have to be selfish When it comes down to this,
you already lost your partner in the game. You're solo.
They still have two people. If you mark another team,
then now you might have two teams potentially coming after you.
So be a terrible move to go with another team
aside from yellow there, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:04:17):
I agree. I think this is an interesting situation. This
may shock people if I hadn't. Let's say Melissa and
I were on opposite teams and she didn't hate my
guts just kidding, I would help her. I would. I
would help a strong ally in this game, and that
might sound crazy, but I do think that loyalty doesn't matter.
And if you know you watch Australia versus the World

(01:04:38):
you watch other shows, being a good ally is a
valuable trait to have in these games, and I do
want to be a good ally to the court, like
the Real Ride or Diet group. However, in Steven's position,
someone just told them this team just told them you're
the team we like the least. Okay, we like you
the least out of all the teams out here. And
what's more, helping another team is hurting him in multiple ways.

(01:05:01):
You're pushing someone else forward. That's a sacrifice you have
to make, and by putting another team on a slide,
that's one less slide for you to worry about. You know,
you're you're clearing the path for you. So I I
really I don't think the yellow team had any kind
of moral high ground here whatsoever.

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
When they certainly acted like they did.

Speaker 3 (01:05:23):
They did, they did a little bit.

Speaker 4 (01:05:25):
Yeah, it was just it gave off whiny whiny complaining
to me, we wouldn't have we wouldn't have done that tea.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
Yeah you did.

Speaker 4 (01:05:33):
You did give him a hard time after he after
he picked you. You did, And then later on they're saying,
we would never said anything to you if you did
that to us. So it just seemed a little contradictory
and for him to pay if there wasn't a limited
number of teams to slightly contradict what you said about
helping someone else, Eric, if there was unlimited teams that
could make it through, Yes, I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:05:54):
Helping someone else. But if they're going to six and
you help someone, now, what if you were there's seventh?
What if you were the seventh? You know, so it's
a tough decision.

Speaker 3 (01:06:04):
They might help you in return, though, here's the thing.
If they get a nice thing, if they get an
opportunity land on chance time, it could actually pay dividends
for you as well. It's not a purely selfless move.
So that's another reason I would be in favor of
helping out an ally. Also, making an enemy not good
for your game. The thing is Stephen already had an enemy,
you know, It's like, what's the point, Like, I'm not

(01:06:24):
losing anything by making more of an enemy out of you.
You already don't like me anyway, so what the hell?
Go down the slides, see you later. And I was
I was not someone who's if I'm a viewer, I'm
not particularly dying for Steven to win either, if anything
like maybe they all can go down slides. But in
this instance, I think he was in the rights, even
if he phrased things in a way that I don't

(01:06:48):
think was particularly rootable.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
Sometimes, well, it's gonna get cage when you get down
to that limited number of people. I mean, the game
is so intense alone, and then when you feel as
though I'm being selected and you can't pick any other team,
it's difficult. What was more mind boggling to me was
why in the world did Zoey not fight harder, to
not be the one to go down the slide first.

(01:07:11):
That's crazy to me.

Speaker 3 (01:07:14):
There's a lot of that going on this game. Yeah,
it's almost as bad as telling some of the truth
during Marbles. I I don't have a leg to stand on,
I guess, but it is kind of crazy though. The
absolute worst I could ever accept is going, uh sorry
I thought I turned off all my larms. Is going
at the same not the same time, but like doing
rock paper scissors to decide who goes first or something

(01:07:36):
like that, Like Dan, It's why why are people doing this?

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
I care? I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:07:41):
I'm I'm not volunteering to take one for the team
at this point, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:07:48):
Motions run high out there. Here's the thing people don't understand.
It is insanely emotional. You just survived Mingo, which was insane.
You just survived Marbles, the monitor thing at ten quiet
like you. You feel like much closer to people in
the span of eight nine, ten days than you would
ever imagine from the outside world. But yeah, why not

(01:08:09):
just do a fair rock paper scissors? I don't know.
I'll love to ask them.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
Just when you're down to the nitty gritty to the
numbers there. I'm not just going to say, oh, don't worry,
I got this. Let me go down and you just
pick the opposite slide and I'm going to be eliminated.
Absolutely not. There's so much money on the line, there's
no chance. But the fact of the matter is they
were not the only team that did it. Drake did
the same thing. The Orange team did the same thing.

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
Yeah, I haven't happened three times is shocking to me.
It's a little bit strange. Dan. In your season two,
I feel like it was very much kind of a
love fast towards the end. Everyone like they're picking themselves
when they're rolling the dice. There's a huge social pressure.

Speaker 4 (01:08:51):
The glass bridge too. I have to give props to
roll and no, if I'm in the lower numbers there, yeah,
of course I want to only have one jump. But
if I'm in the middle numbers towards the you know,
the middle third, I'm never the late third. I'm never
agreeing to that. And somehow they all wanted to do
the kumbaya stuff on it made for not as great

(01:09:12):
TV if you ask.

Speaker 3 (01:09:13):
Me, Yeah, that's uh. I would agree with that too.
I would agree. I just don't think we're watching for that.
I don't think we're watching to see a bunch of
people hold hands and skip across the finish.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
Line together exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:09:24):
No, no one gets actually killed. The emotions are real,
the stakes are very real and very very high, but
the consequences are not real. You don't die, So play
the game. As Viper once said, yep, I play it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:42):
Yeah exactly. But they did edit the slides the eliminations
really well. Just seeing the drop the scream, they did
a fantastic job. Obviously we know that's not how it
goes down. There's a video if people want to watch it,
they show you exactly what happens behind the scenes when
it comes to the slides.

Speaker 3 (01:09:59):
Yeah, the a Wilhelm scream. I want to go back
and check that out. That's a famous sound effect. If
you don't know that, they're using a million movies. I
think that it was fun to watch, and we say
goodbye to Zoe. There goes one of the biggest characters
of the season. Yep, bye Zoe. She was super nice.

(01:10:19):
She celebrated my birthday, got everyone to give me a nice,
big birthday congratulations. I'll always be appreciative of that, even
if I did not want to do that in that
exact moment, our preference would have been for Melissa to
celebrate my birthday a few minutes later. But Zoe was awesome,
great character her and Kurt. What a run. What a
run through the game. And now we got to find

(01:10:41):
new characters once again. Hello Stephen, enter Stephen.

Speaker 1 (01:10:48):
Well, the thing is with Stephen, we had seen Stephen
sprinkled in here and there, but we really dive into
Stephen with these episodes. Same thing with Pearla. Pearla was
also a character that we have seen through out as well.
The problem I have though, is if you look at
the confessional accounts with some of these people, you have
people up in the twenties and then you have someone

(01:11:09):
that has now we're.

Speaker 3 (01:11:10):
Doing we educking would get I am.

Speaker 1 (01:11:13):
Of course, I'm gonna have to educate a little bit
because I'm going ahead here and it's fine, We're going
to circle back to this. If the person that has
four confessionals going into this final episode wins this game,
as a viewer, I'm going to be upset. I think
Vanessa is a great character, but we know absolutely nothing
about Vanessa except the small snippet that we did see

(01:11:35):
in this episode round Base, if you want to go.
The biggest thing I remember about Vanessa though, is being
the last person to enter into a room for mingle.
That is Vanessa's moment that I clearly remember about her
throughout this game.

Speaker 3 (01:11:48):
Yeah, she won the lottery that round. I know, it's
kind of a shame. It's it's hard when you're a
big fan of the shows. I think that the viewpoint
I guess I can only imagine might be screen time
is so limited. Most people aren't analyzing the show this way.
As much as I like to think that we're all
huge nerds watching these shows, I think a lot of

(01:12:09):
people just aren't going that deep, I guess, and the
general fandom, the general audience. But I agree Lawrence, a
shame because like you're watching it like if she wins,
that's insane, and I feel like there's no chance she wins, So,
you know, I don't know that's what I would be
thinking anyway watching this so and it's just unfortunate for

(01:12:29):
Vanessa and a lot of other people like her to
get so far and to not really be in the
show all that much.

Speaker 1 (01:12:35):
Damn, what's your take.

Speaker 2 (01:12:37):
Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 4 (01:12:38):
I mean I remember that she's a lobster fisherman that
I remember about her, and that her dad.

Speaker 2 (01:12:43):
Said no, no, no, you're a girl, you can't do this,
and now she's doing it. So I did enjoy her
her processing room. But the same thing happened in season one.

Speaker 4 (01:12:51):
There are people that were made it all the way
to Circle of Trust and.

Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
They were not seen one time before, basically, and it's
a shame.

Speaker 3 (01:13:03):
Yeah, I like, I don't want to be too critical.
I just I wish it was a little more balanced out.
And I'm not even I'm not even against purpling people.
I think Australian Survivor Wan the greatest show on television
right now, and they have people who are pretty invisible.
But there's a line. I don't know where that is,
and it's unfortunate. That's all I can.

Speaker 1 (01:13:22):
Say it is. But see, as Dan even spoke regarding Vanessa,
I think she's interesting. When we got to the processing
room and it clipped there, I said, oh my goodness,
this is so cool. I love hearing about this. But
we didn't get any of that until then, and so
that's just what makes it hard going into a finale
where we're analyzing it, as you said, Eric, other people

(01:13:43):
are not thinking about it as much as we are.
They could go, oh, anyone of the five can win this,
and we're saying maybe not possible for certain individuals.

Speaker 3 (01:13:52):
Or if they do win, it's surprising and a little
bit feels a little bit incomplete. Right, And Vanessa's she's
a big player. She got on Big Brother Cannon, like
you know, there's a lot there too bad. But should
we talk about the conclusion of slides and ladders and
some of the other characters.

Speaker 1 (01:14:12):
Oh, yeah, so we see as well. Here we have
Dasia and Faith are matched up with each other and
they pull the card where they can make the decision
to send somebody up to the finish line. And I
really did think they made the correct move. That team,
the blue team that Vanessa is actually on, that's the
right choice, Yeah, because they're already almost there. So then

(01:14:33):
you still give yourself a chance. It's an even playing
field down below, because then if you send another team
up and you have two teams that are close to
the finish line, the odds are not great for you
for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:14:43):
Yeah, I mean, on paper, simple decision, right, I agree?
No notes, good, good, choice. Good. If you really hated
a team and you really loved another team, then you
could start talking about it. But no, that's the only
that's the only law, pure game choice for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:15:03):
Now, the next one I want y'all's take on is,
oh boyd pearlas back. Pearla has to make a decision.
What team am I standing back to the start? And
she picks pink and that's a J and Kate's team
and oh my goodness, words are exchanged.

Speaker 3 (01:15:18):
Yeah and Dan more parents would talk. What do you think?

Speaker 2 (01:15:21):
Yeah? I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:15:22):
I don't understand the moves. Wasn't there somebody further than
her than them? Or two teams further than them?

Speaker 3 (01:15:31):
I thought they were the furthest. No, and that's or
was it? Maybe they were the they were the first
furthest that she wasn't like, closely aligned with or clostly
friendly with. Maybe that was it.

Speaker 4 (01:15:43):
At that point when there's only six spots and maybe
five left at this point. If you did that to
me at that point and we were close already, I
think I might think I might understand.

Speaker 2 (01:15:53):
Doesn't mean where I'm going to lose the game if
you send.

Speaker 4 (01:15:55):
Me back, But it gives me a chance to at
least get to the end.

Speaker 3 (01:16:01):
Yeah. I don't know where you draw the line though,
because like imagine your close allies with someone you are
you going to burn them because there are a few
spaces ahead of someone else. I don't I don't know
if that's the best move for me. I think I'm
comfortable taking a risk because like then, I don't know,
you both survived the game. You burn someone, and now
you have one fewer too fewer people working with you
at the end of the game, and at the end

(01:16:22):
of the squid game, it's very important to have friends,
very very important.

Speaker 2 (01:16:26):
I think there were teams outsides I remember correctly. I
think there were two teams further than the team that
she picked.

Speaker 1 (01:16:34):
I wish I could talk about them on the same
spot they Pink and Purple were on the same position.

Speaker 3 (01:16:40):
Okay, maybe, Yeah, it's you know what, it's hard to say.
I feel like I can't talk without knowing their personal relationships.
And that's a big factor to the players. So I
get I kind of get it for sure. And they
didn't make you know, you might think Pearla would go
for Steven, but no, Pearla made a game choice. She
kind of split the middle between rivalry and allies and

(01:17:04):
strategic optimal whatever who's furthest ahead. So I certainly have
no problem with that decision.

Speaker 1 (01:17:11):
It's tough though, because, as we talked about earlier, now
you're pissing off two teams, you still have two teams
that are mad at you have the Pink team now
angry at you Red still once revenged, So now you
have two targets on your back. But Pearla has allies,
and Pearla's allies had the opportunity to bring Pearla up
to the top where they were. So as you said,
it's who you know and who you don't know. When

(01:17:32):
you pissed somebody off, you could have someone that's going
to be in your favor. Though.

Speaker 3 (01:17:36):
You know, humanity, humankind, we really got where we were
on the back of cooperation and empathy, two very important
traits for our survival as a species, and I think
they're important traits in this game as well. I think
they might actually be undervalued because there are a lot
of cards that let you help another team. So I
think you probably should be thinking in terms of keeping

(01:17:57):
people happy and having them feel like they owe you
something and they will feel a sense of reciprocity towards
you that is valuable in this game, and it works
out for Pearla.

Speaker 1 (01:18:09):
It does work out for Pearla. But we have the
close finish, so all the teams are advanced. Were down
to the three teams, so we have the Orange team left,
we have Mackenzie left, and then we have Pearla left. Shockingly,
because as we saw this game progress, you saw people
at the top. Oh they're at the bottom. I'm just
curious how long this game even went on because some

(01:18:32):
of those roles were very unlucky.

Speaker 3 (01:18:35):
I finally anything about Squid game. It took four days
to film. It probably took a long long time. And
you got to feel for Justin and Emily who were
right there knocking on the door.

Speaker 1 (01:18:47):
They're right there. I thought they were going through just
based on they were at the top so quickly and
no one was even close, and I said, oh, Orange
has it in the bag. And then just seeing the
devastation when you're standing there and you know all those
teams advanced through, so Justin, Emily and McKenzie and just
it's it's tough. It's sad to watch because you know

(01:19:08):
your dream's done and you and you can feel it
in their position because they weren't even close. Pearla's right there,
so you just know it's unless that Pearla gets the slide,
you don't really have a good chance.

Speaker 3 (01:19:21):
Yeah, yeah, it's tough. I mean it just came down
the dice rolls. He got un lucky. They must have
rolled and hit so many slides, Justin and Emily did,
and then Mackenzie as well, And it's a bit unfortunate
that it comes down to it. But at the same time,
as squid game, everyone knows what they signed up for
and you're gonna have to get lucky. It's like a
poker tournament, so you have to dodge a lot of

(01:19:43):
bullets and they could not do that this round. You
know what I would have done if I were them,
I would have gone down one of the bad slides.
I don't want to be squibbed. Send me down a slide.
You can't stop me. Try try and squim me fast enough.
I'm diving down that slide head first.

Speaker 1 (01:19:58):
Oh that's so good. But yeah, you're not wrong. I mean,
what do they how can they stop you? They're not
right there.

Speaker 3 (01:20:05):
You'll never squim me alive, so you'll probably squibed halfway
down the slide.

Speaker 1 (01:20:13):
Honestly, that would be a good shot if they could
make that happen.

Speaker 3 (01:20:17):
You know, I'm gonna ask them. I'm going to say, like,
did anyone think about this? Did you try or did
they tell you to? I'll have to ask them off offline,
off the air, you.

Speaker 1 (01:20:26):
Definitely have to. So we get back to the dorms
and Trinity is still nowhere to be found. So no
one has any idea what.

Speaker 8 (01:20:34):
Happened to Trinity, which I thought they did this really
well because no one has any idea Trinity's gone is
I'm assuming what people are thinking at this point because
they go to sleep and Trinity is still not there.

Speaker 3 (01:20:50):
What do you think, Dan, what were your thoughts on this?

Speaker 4 (01:20:53):
I mean, to have to walk into a circle of
trust and him just be sitting there, I think that
was That was a cool I don't know if production,
this production just forgot about him in the other in
the white room. I have no idea, but uh, you
know that it was definitely a surprise. If you're if
you're a player, you think you're down to a certain
number and now it's plus one.

Speaker 2 (01:21:13):
You're like, damn, my, I just went down one more player.

Speaker 3 (01:21:17):
Yes, tell me about it. And for them, like I,
if I were them, I think that I would assume
he's doing something else, that he's not out of the game.
But then when you get back from slides and ladders
and he's still not there, and he's still not there
going to the next game, it's like, well, I guess
he's eliminated. But like, did they never announced it either,
I'd be so confused. So all all we know on

(01:21:38):
the show is that he went into the ether. Yeah,
maybe he went into the matrics. If you're a Big
Brother twenty six viewer and I don't know, you got
sent into another universe and came back, and that's all
we know as viewers, And it's a little confusing but
kind of funny.

Speaker 2 (01:21:52):
Yes, agreed.

Speaker 1 (01:21:54):
Do we know if Drake had to switch positions with somebody?
Was that required or could Drake have said, no, I
don't want to switch, I'm just going to play the
chance out.

Speaker 2 (01:22:04):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:22:05):
I don't know. I didn't catch the phrasing.

Speaker 2 (01:22:08):
I was wondering that too, So I don't think we
know the answer to that.

Speaker 3 (01:22:13):
Would you have sat out Dan if you could choose,
would you rather?

Speaker 2 (01:22:16):
I think I would have sat out right there. I
think in that situation I might have.

Speaker 3 (01:22:22):
Yeah, I might too.

Speaker 2 (01:22:24):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:22:24):
It's just it's so dissatisfying to go out that way.
But like, they're probably not going to eliminate you that way,
probably right, they actually Squidgy him has a track record
of not eliminating the stragglers. Like, I think the worst
we've seen is when August Heath and John c had
to pick someone to tie their fate too. But in

(01:22:45):
season once there's a player who didn't go into marbles
and he just got to right, Yeah, he just got
to pass, So Eternity gets a pass too. I don't know.
Maybe that's not the worst spot to be in.

Speaker 4 (01:22:56):
I would have hated to have missed that game because
it was so great, but yeah, from it from a
survival standpoint, yeah, I think I might have might have
picked it past that.

Speaker 3 (01:23:06):
I not to ask Rake. Yes, guess he didn't have
a choice, but we'll have to ask.

Speaker 1 (01:23:11):
I am curious about that. But we also see too,
we finally get introduced to Chris pretty much player three
one eight. We haven't seen Chris really and so talked
about not.

Speaker 3 (01:23:21):
Seeing Fanos walk up to the button when he bought.

Speaker 1 (01:23:25):
Yes aside aside from that, but Chris speaks about not
seeing his dad for twenty years.

Speaker 3 (01:23:34):
The speech you're talking about, you're talking about is this uh,
processing room or is this in process? When he was okay,
okay processing. Yeah, Chris has got a great story. That
guy is a storyteller. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:23:45):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:23:46):
He He's lived a fascinating life. He's got three kids.
He seems like an amazing dad. And I don't know
what to say. I love these human moments.

Speaker 1 (01:23:57):
And then we also get the storyline about Kate Son
as well. So I'm happy that they are incorporating this
to them because then it helps you bond with the
player as a viewer. We know something about your home life,
we know where you come from, and so then you
can have that personal connection.

Speaker 3 (01:24:14):
Yeah, it's a cool thing to do. It's an interesting format.
The processing room interviews, Dan, I know you've done one.
They showed a lot of yours. You'll have to remind
me what they talked about with you, but we we
both got the treatment. They talked about my sperm, downer
dad and the one hundred plus half siblings. What was
it for you again.

Speaker 4 (01:24:33):
Yeah, well, I talked about my kids for I don't
know six hours and then they didn't show any of that,
and they just showed me talking about, you know, being
a leader and paying attention and you know, if you
have anything that you can you can predict about someone
that that's obviously a big advantage in this type of game.
But I listen, it's a very limited number of people
that are lucky enough to have one.

Speaker 2 (01:24:54):
So I was I was very happy with it.

Speaker 3 (01:24:56):
I was going to say, oh, poor poor Dan didn't
get to talk about what you wanted to talk about
on his special Processing room interview. A lot of people,
a lot of the o's on season two are so
sad for you, That's right, I'm sure they are.

Speaker 1 (01:25:09):
Can I ask a question about those? Do they keep
you around a couple of days after filming and have
you do those? Because I know that's not happening as
the show's going on. The ones that are happening as
the show's going is when you're still in your tracksuit.

Speaker 2 (01:25:24):
Correct.

Speaker 3 (01:25:25):
Yeah, yeah, you emailed it, got it point on.

Speaker 1 (01:25:30):
So let's hit into the circle of trust. Who wants to.

Speaker 3 (01:25:33):
Start go ahead?

Speaker 4 (01:25:36):
I would love a chance to play that, but I have,
and Eric is a is a much better gamer than me.
But I just don't know how at any point this
is not just a complete guess. If you're unlucky enough
to end up with that damn box on your desk,
even it could it could be your closest ally like,
it could be the person that hate you. It could

(01:25:58):
be none of the above. So I have no idea.
Steven right is the poker player. Yes, I don't care
how many times you played poker. I think it's just
a complete guess. The fact that Phil was able to
get this right twice still amazes me.

Speaker 3 (01:26:15):
On my season, really impressive. We didn't see any good
guesses this time around. Unfortunately, that's the risk of this
game is you kind of miss out on really cool moments.
Season one definitely had the more impressive game by Phil. Here.
It's a really tricky game. I think, yeah, there's a
lot of luck to it. I also think though, that
some people have these powers of observation, the ability to

(01:26:38):
read people when they're uncomfortable. It's tough when you just
watch the edited version, but from what we saw, Steven
looked a lot happier when he was not getting the gifts, right.
We didn't have to make that decision, so I'm sure
I wasn't exactly like that. But I do think that
people will give off these subconscious signals. I don't know
if I could read it. I do think someone with

(01:27:00):
a background in law enforcement like Desa and Perla seemingly
they seem to have really good reads, I gotta say,
And I just don't think I could do it personally
as well. But I don't know. I'm a believer. I
think they were able to pick up on little things,
and I think they did a really good job.

Speaker 1 (01:27:18):
They definitely did. And so with this game as well.
You're at a huge disadvantage if you're the first person
that gets the box, because you have to pick from
a larger pool than anybody else. So Melissa in that
instance is just in a rough position because you know,
you're having to choose eight nine people that it could
be at that point, Whereas when the numbers dwindle and

(01:27:40):
there's you know, maybe five people you have to choose from,
that's a bit easier.

Speaker 3 (01:27:46):
It was a tough spot, I mean, unlucky. I think
that this is a game where alliances should play a
huge role, but there's always that thing in the back
of your mind, like will they take the safe route? I, personally,
I think it's a game move to put it on
the desk of your closest ally, I at the very
least in the beginning of the game, because you want

(01:28:07):
as many people in the game as possible. Who are
your friends who will, in theory put it on other
people's desks, right, I just think that to take a
slightly better chance of surviving that one round when it's
still very hard to get guessed very hard. I don't
think that's worth it. I don't think that's worth betraying
your ally. And I made that very clear to Melissa

(01:28:28):
in the game. I was like, just so you know,
and this is totally transparently threatening her, I'm going to
interrogate the shit out of everybody for so long, including you,
so I will. I will never put it on your desk,
but I absolutely will look for every little signal I
can to tell me if you put it on mine.
So just the heads up. And I'm sure that wasn't

(01:28:49):
very well received, but I was like, I don't want
my allies to assume I'm not picking them, because I'm not.
I might I very well might beyond that.

Speaker 5 (01:28:57):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:28:57):
How would you all play this game?

Speaker 2 (01:29:00):
I would just pray that it never ended on my desk. Yes,
Sam made it.

Speaker 4 (01:29:04):
Sam made in our season, made it through, never never
even had to play, So he got lucky.

Speaker 2 (01:29:08):
So that's that's what I'm hoping for. Luck luck in
that one.

Speaker 3 (01:29:12):
I wonder if there's another way to design this because
it does kind of give me an unsatisfying feeling when
a lot of players just sit there and twiddle their
thumbs for so and you know what, that's not giving
them enough credit. Like the alliance building, the relationship building,
I'm sure it plays a role, but from a viewing standpoint, uh,
what if like if you successfully give the gift to

(01:29:33):
someone and get away with it, then you you're both out,
like someone's eliminated and the other person gets sent through.

Speaker 2 (01:29:40):
So the next round you get to plas.

Speaker 4 (01:29:43):
Yeah, I think if you can beat that one time
you did a pretty good thing, you should be able
to move on.

Speaker 3 (01:29:49):
And then the stakes get higher and higher really quickly.
The field's going down by two every time, and you
have to earn your spot in some way, shape or form,
maybe until you get down to the final four, Final
whatever players, So like maybe one person gets a free
pass at most.

Speaker 1 (01:30:05):
There definitely is a way that they could tweak this
for sure, and it just makes it difficult as well
because some people have to go twice. They have to
put a box on a desk more than once, so
they're a complete disadvantage having to do that because now
more eyes could potentially be on you. And as we spoke,
some people didn't even have to play this game. They
just chilled the entire time they watched it unfold. And

(01:30:27):
that's not their fault per se though, because as Eric
you said, you made the right relationships. People chose not
to put it on your desk or people thought you
could guess them correctly, so then they didn't put it
there either. So I mean, it's kind of kudos to
you for not even having to participate as well in
a way.

Speaker 3 (01:30:43):
In a way, yeah, it's some combination of luck and
relationship building, right, but yeah, Aj has to give two boxes.
I think she looked so calm, cool and collected out there.
I was so impressed, and then she gets a box
put on her desk and takes her out and it's like,
oh man, In a way, she deserved it, She deserved

(01:31:04):
to go through. I felt like, so it's them's the
breaks Steven had to give to as well.

Speaker 1 (01:31:09):
Yep, what did y'all think about Steve owning it about
the one and then not mentioning the other.

Speaker 3 (01:31:19):
Yeah, I get where his heads at. I almost feel
like you, you think I have to admit to something, right,
you just have to. But here's the thing, the last round,
that's the hardest one to lie about because if he's
lying about that, then it has to be someone else.
And I think their relationships are clear enough that a
lot of them are very confident. They trust each other,
Like Pearla and Deja, they trust each other. They like, Okay,

(01:31:42):
we know it's not either of us. We don't know
if someone else put it, But like, there's only so
many people, so a hard light to get away with
for Steven, even though I understand where his head's at.

Speaker 1 (01:31:55):
Definitely agree. Tough game overall, but we lose it. Yeah,
but again, some other good players that you finally get
a little bit invested in and nope, Squad Games says
they're gone.

Speaker 3 (01:32:09):
Before we eulogize them. Can we talk for a second
about Dasa's decision to ultimately not. Yes, be very clear
about her instincts, which was right, that Stephen was the
one right who put it on It was Faith desk
that round. I believe, yes, yeah, what do you think
of that? What should she have told her?

Speaker 1 (01:32:32):
So I get where she was coming from, And I
think she even spoke about it in a confessional saying
if I was wrong, how bad you would feel because
you said, if you go to this player and say
to Faith, I am one hundred percent so confident, I
feel really good about this, and then you're wrong, You're
always gonna have that feeling in the back of your

(01:32:54):
mind going ah shit, I back to this so hard,
and I didn't let them go with the gut and
so then say face gut was correct, you would feel
horrible for.

Speaker 3 (01:33:05):
Sure, not to mention making an enemy out of Stephen unnecessarily.
This is a game that's a lot easier to play
in hindsight than it is in real time. So I
definitely get it. I get it. I get feeling very
conflicted about that. But her instincts were good. She was
She totally had Stephen dead the rights, and the flip

(01:33:25):
side is she could have had one more ally in
the game. And one of fewer people who was not
working with her. So it's a trade off.

Speaker 4 (01:33:34):
When she said that in the confessional, if I was
if I would have got him out. I had another
If she was right and she would have shared that information,
Steven would have been out of the game.

Speaker 2 (01:33:43):
She wouldn't have had a target on her back from Stephen,
would have been reward.

Speaker 3 (01:33:47):
Righte she's wrong, then she has an enemy, and if
she doesn't say it directly, then it's like neutral, right,
So she took them more neutral, safer option.

Speaker 2 (01:33:56):
And of course they showed her feeling that it was him.

Speaker 4 (01:34:00):
She may have felt that it was somebody every single
time and been wrong already, but they never showed.

Speaker 2 (01:34:05):
That, you know what I'm saying. That is also that
was like she was like shit every time I thought
I knew who it was and I was wrong.

Speaker 4 (01:34:12):
But of course they're not going to show that because
they want to say she's a coffin. She's way, you know,
better at this.

Speaker 2 (01:34:17):
So maybe that's why she wasn't one hundred percent confident either.

Speaker 3 (01:34:21):
Yeah, I don't care how good you are reading people.
It's you're not going to get every round, I don't think. Yeah,
maybe maybe for a professional interrogator. I don't know, but yeah,
it's complicated decision. This is one there's no right or
wrong answer, right, but definitely a fascinating spot to find
yourself in in the game.

Speaker 1 (01:34:37):
Absolutely, Oh yeah, And so that's what makes it so
good because you're playing that dilemma within yourself.

Speaker 3 (01:34:44):
Yeah, Dan, you've you're you're very close friends, and you
played multiple game I think you played online and live games.
Now with Melissa, would you like to eulogize her incredible
run here?

Speaker 2 (01:34:57):
I think Melissa did a great job.

Speaker 4 (01:35:01):
I'm sure there was so much that she did that
did not make the cut, you know, on the cutting
room floor. But I hope she feels proud of the
game she played as a friend of hers and somebody
who's played with her and against her, I'm certainly proud
of showing that she put on. And we had our
huge party, as you were aware because you were there

(01:35:22):
last week, and she had.

Speaker 2 (01:35:24):
Twenty people there with Melissa sides, so you've got a
big following.

Speaker 3 (01:35:28):
So I'm happy for Yeah, she's one of the best
to play these games. If you're not familiar in the
live reality game world, multi winner, multi time winner, she
goes top eleven on squid Game top ten until Trinity
just operated back into the game. And what you don't see,
I think, is how she has a very very strong alliance,

(01:35:51):
like minutes into the game, it goes all the way
through Mingle. I mean, Mingle was super easy because of
her alliance. For her, I mean, she was like probably
one of the least endangered people in Mingle, if not
the least endanger person throughout all on Mingle. And she
has that ability to get people to work with her
in these games, and it was really fun playing with her.

(01:36:12):
A little bit of a bumpy road at the end,
but she's she's a great ally to have if she's
with you.

Speaker 1 (01:36:18):
She's a gamer, oh yeah, definitely a bummer. But yeah,
she so competitive, you can see it crystal clear. And
just when I found out that Melissa was on the show,
I said, oh, I think she's going to do quite
well at this because in the LRG community, fantastic player, I.

Speaker 3 (01:36:39):
Mean one and online game. I don't know all ther roadsults.
But then she goes to Survival Challenge, gets fifth spoilers
by the way, wins can you Survive? You know, makes
it through the merge, and she always is far if
not winning in these games, it's crazy. So I would
do the same for other players, but I don't know
them as well. So we move on. We move on
from gift game.

Speaker 1 (01:37:00):
We move on from gift game, and so now we're
hitting the shuffle board, which but I'm at the final
six and I'm finding out it's shuffle board.

Speaker 3 (01:37:11):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:37:11):
I gotta say I could go out because of shuffle board.
That's insane.

Speaker 3 (01:37:20):
Welcome to squid game. Yeah, if you ever start feeling
like you're in control, get ready to lose that feeling
very fat. I mean, you're in control of the puck,
but one shot could take you out. If you're over
the line, I would be pissing myself. I'm not glad
I wasn't there, but like, oh my god, the nerves

(01:37:40):
they must have been feeling, Like good for them for
throwing it as well as they did. There's some absolutely
insane throats there, and no one really was bad at it.
No one had like a horrible throw. I don't think
Trinity is maybe a little bit rough the first one,
but wow, don't envy them in that moment.

Speaker 4 (01:38:01):
Yeah, I wonder and if they had they had given
them an opportunity to at least see how these things
are gonna slide on the floor. I'm hoping they gave
them some sort of it and then just say get
out there and do it, because, like you said, you
throw it.

Speaker 2 (01:38:14):
Too hard, you're out.

Speaker 3 (01:38:16):
I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:38:16):
And then I'd rather super short it than be long
and be out almost.

Speaker 3 (01:38:21):
You know, yeah, because you never know someone might throw
it out. Also, speaking of it, Yeah, I was wondering
the same thing. Do you get to practice, because like,
if you go in there cold, if they don't let
you practice, you might be a great at regular shuffle board.
This is not that this is like a weird oversized
puck on concrete. Like when do you ever practice that?
That's a different friction, coefficient of friction or something. I
don't know. I didn't do good in physics.

Speaker 8 (01:38:42):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:38:42):
Then you if you're if you're over the line, you're
out instantly. And then on top of that, if you
go first, that's a massive disadvantage. Yep, it's really unlucky
to go first in this game. Yeah, terrible, crazy way
to get to five from here.

Speaker 1 (01:38:59):
Yes. What I also found interesting too is I believe
they thought they were going to be playing three B three,
and so then when they talk about you're actually playing
amongst your three and so if you're the bottom one,
you are gonna have to face off for elimination. So good.
I love that they are doing these little twists here
and there because you go in with one mindset and

(01:39:20):
then it's something completely different.

Speaker 3 (01:39:24):
It's it's never straightforward. You almost like expect okay, teams
of three? Okay, who who do I not mind eliminating
because we're probably gonna do something weird? I think also,
I mean we should uh. I feel like I should
at least bring it up. It's something that is maybe
not the easiest to talk about, but I think we
saw in Gift Game there's alliances are kind of starting

(01:39:46):
to form racial lines, and then we do see ultimately
they are directly racial lines in how they form teams
of three. And I don't know. It's it's like I've
i'll watched these shows long enough, I thought about them
long enough, and I think it makes it perfect sense,
so intuitive to like, without even trying to find yourself,
have more commonalities with people you share things with, you

(01:40:07):
share traits with, and the backgrounds and experiences. What do
you all think of this? Though it's almost like this
is so avert averts of the like lines being drawn.
It was a little bit weird to watch for me.

Speaker 1 (01:40:22):
Yeah, it's tough. But also speaking, we did see the
relationships amongst other people, but those people had been elimining.
You saw the Zoe Pearlo relationship of e all, so
I think if Zoe's still there, Perla and Zoe are
matching up in this group of three. I just think
it happened the way it did just because of the
players that were left.

Speaker 3 (01:40:42):
Totally. It's like no one, no one's, no one's to blame,
there's no blaming. It's just like an interesting phenomenon is
a way I think I'm looking at it, and I
think Vanessa found herself in a really really hard spot
when it's clearly two on one side two on the other.
These are like ride or Die type allies in Stephen
eight and Deja and Perla, and she's like, well, this

(01:41:05):
is weird, but e Trinity, I'm gonna let you go
where you want to go. And I don't know how
else you do it.

Speaker 1 (01:41:12):
Dan, what do you think?

Speaker 4 (01:41:14):
Yeah, I mean I think a lot is a lot,
and you know, in multiple other shows, this has happened,
and like Eric just said, yeah, you're more likely to
be drawn to people that you have more commonality with.
And I don't think there's anything wrong with that at all.

(01:41:34):
And that's just the you know, that's just the way
it's gonna happen. My best, my best, number one, my
rider die in Squid Game was Marcus, a black guy.
We were more drawn to each other because of our age,
because we were both dads. We had kids, so we
had more in common. We had one thing that wasn't
in common. That was it, and that was the color
of our skin. So what I think we we want.

(01:41:56):
And I see people all over online trying to make
make you know, a big deal about this.

Speaker 2 (01:42:02):
I don't think it's a big deal. I really don't.

Speaker 3 (01:42:06):
No, not a big deal at It's just something that
I think. I feel like the conversation is always evolving
with these shows. These shows are social experiments, and I
don't want to avoid this subject, even though I will
be the first to say, as a white guy, I
don't know what I'm talking about. I just you know, seek,
seek understanding, and I think it's an interesting thing to
observe and and ultimately I think it played out as

(01:42:29):
great as it could have. Vanessa Kudoc You I don't
I don't know how you could have done it better,
like I said. And then of course the teams have
to turn on each other in a weird way kind
of kind of there's gonna be a bottom person out
of the three and they're competing against each other in
shuffle board, and it's like, yeah, classics, squitty, and there
you go, you're gonna take out one of your allies.

Speaker 2 (01:42:50):
Just when you understand where it's going. Yes again, love it.

Speaker 3 (01:42:54):
That's where we see Kate go. Kate had a pretty
good on sixth place, but unfortunately the shuffle board took
her out. I wonder, and it was like an inch too.
That's gotta be tough. That's gotta be a tough thing
to think back on.

Speaker 2 (01:43:12):
Yeah, I'm sure she's reliving that to this day. I
can probably guarantee that, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:43:18):
Just a little more, if I would have given it
just a little more, you know, I have it out.
I would have had one more spoonful of porridge, would
have given me the energy.

Speaker 3 (01:43:28):
One one more iota of force applied to that puck. Right,
that's all A toutal brutal way to go out.

Speaker 1 (01:43:35):
Great game, very good game. And I guarantee you're not
playing shuffle board anytime soon.

Speaker 3 (01:43:43):
And also, Kate, thanks for forgiving me for us having
an hour long conversation about being parents. I really appreciate
your stance on that. She's a great sport.

Speaker 1 (01:43:55):
There you have it. Well, we're down to the final five.
We have the tuxes. Let's talk the final five real quick.
Who wants to start?

Speaker 2 (01:44:02):
We're going to say who who we think is gonna win?

Speaker 3 (01:44:06):
Yes, we will do.

Speaker 1 (01:44:07):
Let's let's go who we think is going to win
this and who we think doesn't have a chance. Well, actually,
so I'm curious we have the final five. Is there
there's two games left?

Speaker 2 (01:44:18):
Right? Yeah? There has to be.

Speaker 1 (01:44:21):
There has to be two games, right.

Speaker 3 (01:44:22):
No way from the trailer from the preview.

Speaker 4 (01:44:24):
Yeah, I mean I'm thinking red Light green Light is
going to be played by two or three people for
the That's my what I'm getting from the trailer.

Speaker 2 (01:44:32):
But I could be wrong.

Speaker 4 (01:44:33):
Eric probably has more insight info than me, but I
would love to see it.

Speaker 2 (01:44:36):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:44:36):
You don't have the luxury of just finishing. You need
to move quick, you know, and you need to beat
other people. That would be cool, and without eight million
people covering the screen, that would be really cool to watch.

Speaker 3 (01:44:48):
Yeah, if that is the final game, which is certainly
seems like what they're hinting at, then inspired choice, inspired choice,
I love it. Everything comes full sir, just when you think, oh,
then do red Light green Light psych Guess what, losers, Yes,
we did. And it's a final game. I mean, that's cool,
and anyone could go out at any moment. The winner's

(01:45:10):
gonna feel earned that way. You have to make really
tough decisions. How risky do you play, how fast do
you go? You try to let other people burn out.
I think that could be a really great final game
if that's the case. But as far as Winter predictions,
I'm gonna leave that to YouTube. What do you think, Lauren?

Speaker 1 (01:45:28):
I just want to touch on the red Light Green Lights?

Speaker 3 (01:45:30):
Oh yeah, of course I.

Speaker 1 (01:45:32):
Would be so here for it because this is what
we're expecting. You're walking into season two. You're thinking Red
Light Green Light is a big possibility to be the
first game. No, we're saving it for the last game.
I would love it because, as Dan said, you're seeing
a couple people on your screen having to compete and
then you're able to see where your opponent is. Do
I have to move quick or what do I have

(01:45:53):
to do to catch up? There's so much drama that
could come of this.

Speaker 3 (01:45:57):
Yeah, I can't wait to watch again if that's the
final game. Pure speculation.

Speaker 2 (01:46:05):
Yes, RockA, that's right.

Speaker 3 (01:46:11):
Yeah, I don't get me started then. So anyway, no comments,
no comment, I don't want to burn any more bridges.
Final five we got uh Dajian Pearla, we got Steven,
the poker players making enemies left and right. We got Trinity,
and we got Vanessa, the Big Brother Canada who got

(01:46:31):
a second chance at a reality TV show. So out
of all those players, I don't know. I mean, you
might have a hard time disassociating from the edgic of
it all, But who who do you think on paper
is your winner? Pick again, I'm just gonna let you
two guess about this. I don't know if I was
on a season, so I don't want to really weigh
in too much.

Speaker 2 (01:46:51):
I think Peerla is the winner.

Speaker 4 (01:46:54):
And as far as Stephen having six and a half
million dollars already, as far as Ben being on another show,
I'm from this, this school of thought that I don't
no one that's playing this game, four hundred and fifty
six people, no one is more deserving of winning the
money than anyone else.

Speaker 2 (01:47:12):
No one's story is more deserving.

Speaker 4 (01:47:15):
I don't buy into that whole thing that give this
person sympathy because.

Speaker 2 (01:47:18):
Of this or that.

Speaker 4 (01:47:20):
I think everyone there, I think, is gonna anybody that
wins this earned it. They didn't deserve it, They earned it.
I don't like the word deserve. I think if you
want something, you're gonna have to earn it. And I
think I think Hearna is gonna have Pearla is gonna uh.

Speaker 3 (01:47:34):
Gonna earn Parna was on season one there, I know.

Speaker 2 (01:47:37):
My mind went right back to him Parla. I think
Pearla is gonna earn it.

Speaker 1 (01:47:43):
So I am also saying Pearla, maybe for different reasons
than Dan, but if I am looking at the entire
season as a whole and the edit that Pearla has received,
We've gotten confessionals from the beginning, we've gotten them from
the middle, we've gotten them from the end portion. So
do you have a full circle of Pearla. I think

(01:48:03):
Pearla is the winner. However, I would love for to
not be Pearla in the sense of I like surprises,
Pearla is the predictable winner. I think it could still
potentially be somebody else because the other issue I had
was season one. You knew MI when it came down
to those final three from a mile away was winning
that season.

Speaker 3 (01:48:25):
Yeah, I would have put a lot of money on
my to win. I agree with that statement.

Speaker 1 (01:48:33):
So what I will say, I think Pearla takes it,
but I would be I honestly, I'm happy with whoever wins, because,
as Dan just said, you earned it, you got yourself there,
you found a way to get there. But from an
editing standpoint and who we've seen, I really am enjoying Desa. Honestly,
I would be very happy to see Deja take this
home because just the calculation alone, what we saw and

(01:48:56):
trust the mindset of it all, and I think Deja
knows the game really really well and has good insight
of what's been happening throughout the game. I know we
haven't seen it completely full circle with the entire edit,
but I really like Deja as a person in the
game and would love to see her win this. Not
to take anything away from Parlat either, I think she
has also played a great game, but I would love

(01:49:18):
to see Desha take it home.

Speaker 2 (01:49:20):
I'll tell you both why I think Pearla after we
get off the air.

Speaker 3 (01:49:24):
Oh yes, okay, okay, sounds good. Looking forward to that.
I will abstain from voting just because you know, I
feel a little too close, a little too connected with
the season. I will say I think Stephen is a
really good villain to root against on on a character level,
not a human level. He was fun guy in the dorms,

(01:49:46):
but I mean, Steven, you won six point five million,
come on, like you know you're you know you're the villain.
There's like no way around it at that point, and
I'm sure that's a big part of why they put
him on. It's like, Wow, can you imagine what a
what a world that would be if Steven wins another
multi million dollar pay day? That would be bonkers. And

(01:50:08):
I'm all I can say is I'm excited to see
all their perspectives and listen to them when they do
a podcast and when they talk about this, because so
much goes into this game that doesn't make the show.
And I know they're all playing very hard, all playing
very hard. Trinity to super fun guy to hang out
with in the dorms. He's everything you see about him
is what I remember when I'm talking about him, talking

(01:50:31):
with him. So if he wins, how many OJ's do
you think he's buying OJ's for the life?

Speaker 2 (01:50:37):
Baby?

Speaker 3 (01:50:38):
The first person to say that too.

Speaker 1 (01:50:41):
And he's so nice and funny. So that's just what
I'm saying. I'm okay with whoever wins this season. I
just wish we got sprinkled in a little bit more
of Vanessa. Now, Vanessa could have a great final episode
and take it home. We don't know that yet, but
just going into the finale, this is where my mindset's
taking me.

Speaker 3 (01:51:00):
I agree. Yeah, if you just could have taken a
lot of those confessionals and given like ten more each
to me and Melissa and like a feud to Vanessa,
I think we all agree that would have been a
much better show. But you can't. You can't have it all,
Lauren can't.

Speaker 1 (01:51:13):
Ever have it all. Well, Eric, Dan, I think we
covered it all episodes.

Speaker 3 (01:51:20):
Thanks for listening. Whoever's still in on this and let
us let me know, let us know if you have
any thoughts, chime in. Is there anything we didn't cover
that we missed any burning questions. Let me know. You
can find me on social media, not that I care
at e R. I C E L d R on
Instagram and Twitter and Eric player four one five on TikTok.

(01:51:46):
I think I'm still not sure. I'm my user name
on there, but something like that, and I'm doing lives.
I just did one with Melissa Dan, we got to
get in there.

Speaker 2 (01:51:53):
Let's go on TikTok, right, I think so, yeah, I'm
not sure.

Speaker 1 (01:51:57):
I think so.

Speaker 3 (01:52:00):
Let's fumble our way through that. Like I only joined
TikTok after the show came out, just because like, all right,
god damn it, all the conversations are happening there, Like
I kind of want to tune in so we can
struggle our way through that. You know, I'll learn you
too if you want to. It'll be fun to do
a little live thing, think them a jig.

Speaker 2 (01:52:15):
I'm down with that.

Speaker 1 (01:52:17):
Dan, plug your social media, hit it away and anything
that you want to tell people to support as well.

Speaker 4 (01:52:24):
Dan, Sure, get after Dad's that's my handle on Instagram,
And I think on TikTok, but I am again. I'm
about three weeks away from the over the Edge Celebrity Weekend.
My charity of choice is called Alex's Lemonade Stand. It
deals with Childhood cancer research for childhood cancer and it
helps families get through those tough times while their kids

(01:52:46):
are being treated. So the link is right in my
bio on Instagram. You could donate to my cause. Every
dollar goes directly to the charity. Nothing is going to me,
nothing is going anywhere else. And I said this at
our party. I've said it before. I went on this
show to win a big amount of money to change
the lives of my family. It didn't happen, and now
I'm hoping to change the lives of some people that

(01:53:07):
could use help.

Speaker 3 (01:53:08):
Can You've been doing a lot of work constantly for
this charity and it's awesome to see. So I will
also plug Melissa's charity. She's I believe, also going over
the edge. So I don't want to misquote. I don't
I know. It just changed it's to it benefits autism,
finding help finding solutions for her parents or families who

(01:53:29):
have people who have autism. So that is another great charity,
and she will also be at over the Edge. So
Alex's Lemonade Stands look up her bio Mellie something on
his whatever you'll figure it out. You guys are smart.

Speaker 1 (01:53:44):
Yes, support everyone definitely, and y'all what a banger of
a podcast. We knocked it out of the park. It's
always a pleasure being joined by Eric and Dan. We
will be back for the finale recap episode number nine.
Will be in here, hot and ready to go. And
I'm so excited to put a bow on this season because,

(01:54:05):
by golly, it's been a good one and we'll.

Speaker 3 (01:54:07):
See if we can do it in under two hours.

Speaker 1 (01:54:08):
This time less episodes, I think we can make sure
it is under two hours. We're also hoping at one
point to get Melissa here on this podcast with us
as well. She'd be a great get what would love
to hear about her.

Speaker 3 (01:54:20):
Experience, But unfortunately she said, is Eric gonna be there?
Fuck now I'm out. So now she couldn't make it work.
But maybe for the finale, who knows, who.

Speaker 1 (01:54:30):
Knows, maybe we can get it done. But with that,
everyone check out everything we have going on on the
reality after show. We have Survivor coverage, we have Squid Game.
Oh my goodness, so many interviews are going to be
popping out. We're having a ton of coverage on IT
ninety nine to beat coverage as well. We have a
football podcast, so all the content is here. But once
again Eric and Dan, such a pleasure. Thank you everyone else,

(01:54:51):
take care you.

Speaker 3 (01:54:52):
Guys, thanks for having me. People lost spillars first depict
people do ST spredience best.

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