REVIEW: ‘Squid Game: The Challenge’ Season 2 Episodes 5-8 Get Better As They Go

Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2 Episodes 5-8 takes the remaining players into the final stretch. Along the way, a variety of new challenges await them, as the number of players continues to dwindle, but the size of the pot continues to rise. 

The first set of episodes left off with the players paired up to play marbles. Due to the circumstances surrounding the game’s start, most players were paired with friends, as they were unaware of what was about to happen. The pairings are leaned into hard in this opening test, as the series tries to squeeze every ounce out of the melodrama of the situation. It attempts this for far too long, causing the cheesy goodbyes and tearful moments to lose their impact by the end. 

Making the opening of Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2 Episodes 5-8 even harder to wade through is the game itself. Rather than setting up a specific rules set for players to play by, each pairing has to come up with its own way to win all the marbles.  This leads to often boring games where players are throwing marbles in vases or simply trying to get their marbles to land closer to a certain object. 

Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2 Episodes 5-8 focuses on smaller group dynamics.

Mixing it up from there, the series has three contestants nominated to be Dorm Monitors. These selections ultimately contribute to a series of twists and turns as players are selected for games or eliminated outright. Some surprising people get knocked out at this point, making for an engaging midpoint in these episodes. 

This dorm-centric period sees smaller groupings taking center stage. How the group dynamics play out is interesting, especially given the tense situations they face. Being tasked with a possible sacrifice when the whole point of the game is to survive is challenging. It also helps explain why they opened this release the way they did: to make it less likely that no one would still have a player they’d be okay with sacrificing. 

As the final major pair of games for Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2 Episodes 5-8 play out, the cutthroat natures begin to surface in earnest from several players. As both games force players to impact and manipulate each other’s positions, they accelerate several antagonistic dynamics that had already begun to form. If you love the feuds and backstabbing of the reality competition genre, these challenges have you eating well. 

The series changes perspective for a tense new game. 

One challenge stands out from the rest, though. During a game based on social deduction, the production side of the presentation effectively ratchets up the tension wonderfully. It does this by eliminating the god’s-eye view that the audience has grown accustomed to. 

During each round of the game, the camera reveals different amounts of information to the viewer. Sometimes, you know everything; other times, you are as clueless as everyone in the game. This makes the challenge stand out not just because of how tense it is, but also how unstable it feels from the viewer’s perspective. Not knowing what’s going on is a first for the series. And layering on the fact that it’s unclear until a new round begins if you won’t know, just makes it a little extra engaging. 

As the final task plays out, the group is down to six. Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2 Episodes 5-8, picks a fantastic style of game to fit the few remaining players. It’s quiet, slow, and puts each in the spotlight in turn. The silence is deafening as each player takes their turn, knowing how close they have come to victory.

As Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2 Episodes 5-8 wraps up, the final five have donned their tuxes and are prepared to face whatever next week’s final episode brings their way. While the opening of this bundle of episodes struggled, the ending builds up plenty of steam when it needed to, leaving nothing but tension behind as the credits roll. 

Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2 Episodes 5-8 is streaming now on Netflix with new episodes dropping on Tuesdays.

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