Spoiler warning: This story contains spoilers for Squid Game: The Challenge season 2, episodes 2 and 3 (“Catch” and "The Doll").
The Catch challenge on Squid Game: The Challenge season 2 delivered one of the most emotional moments of the season so far — and the two players at the center of it are now sharing their sides of the story.
In exclusive interviews with Parade, the two eliminated contestants reflect on their strategies, their emotions, and what it was like to experience one of the most tense challenges in the game so far.
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'Squid Game: The Challenge' season 2 Mark & Viper interview (5:35)
For Mark Levy (player 100), joining Squid Game: The Challenge was a dream come true.
“Well, I really, really am a big fan of the scripted TV show,” he said. “I think the show is amazing. And I loved watching the first season of the show, of Squid Game: The Challenge. One of my friends, Dash Katz, was in the first season, so it was really easy to cheer for him. And I really, really loved watching it. I love immersive stuff. I really love immersive stuff.”
Mark said his love for both immersive experiences and reality television pushed him to apply right after season 1 ended. “As a fan of reality TV, I'm like, OK, there's a chance I'm going to get cast in this,” he explained. “I applied as soon as I finished the finale in December of 2023. And it was literally like… everything I ever could imagine. As a fan of immersive things, as a fan of reality TV, as a fan of making friends, it was everything I could ever want.”
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Facing the Pressure — and the Past
During the Catch game, Mark was visibly shaken after another contestant, Ryan (player 272), suggested he might not be strong enough for the challenge.
“It was really, really hard,” Mark recalled. “I mean, I went through a lot of therapy as a kid to become the adult we see here today because I was bullied a lot in elementary and middle school. And that room looked so much like the gym from my elementary school that I was like really, truly honored that [my team] brought me back in [after] what Ryan said.”
Looking back, he said he’s made peace with the moment. “My brain's like, OK, that's probably not bullying. It was just an idea to try and make it go well, but he didn't know that it was immediately bullying. And I've talked to him since. We're good. I accept his apologies. I know he means well.”
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Still, the experience hit hard. “As the person who received that, it was really, really hard,” Mark said. “I stand by a very strong anti-bullying stance. And I will always defend people that need to be defended.”
When the moment turned, though, something powerful happened. “I can't explain how insane it was,” Mark continued. “Someone being like, 'Hey, you look weak.' And then everyone would be like, 'No, you're a bad person' [to Ryan]. That was really intense to watch the whole line come to my side while I'm spiraling in a way I never thought I would spiral.”
While Mark’s story tugged at viewers’ hearts, Viper Glanton (player 152) became the face of bold but ill-fated strategy. When it came time to line up for Catch, he chose the very back — a move he thought would save him.
When Parade suggested we thought for sure he'd want to be at the front of the line, Viper laughed and said, "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, right?”
“Honestly and truly, when we were all strategizing in my mind — I was like, I just cracked Da Vinci's code. I got this. I just secured my spot in this game because I'm like, there's no way that they're gonna get to the back of the line. Like, no one's gonna catch the ball. Lo and behold, people caught the ball.”
Once the early rounds went differently than expected, he realized the danger of his position. “I instantly started to feel that sort of insecurity in my game plan,” he said. “But, you know, I was still confident in my abilities because I grew up an athlete. I know how to catch. I know how to throw.”
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He also pointed out that Catch required something that strategy alone couldn’t guarantee: trust. “You know, there's a second element — you have to put your trust in somebody else,” Viper said. “So that sort of made me a little nervous, a little apprehensive, because I was also scanning everyone who was towards the end of the line. And I could see that my sort of approach to the game in terms of positioning myself towards the end for safety, a lot of people had done the same thing too.”
By the time it was his turn to throw, he said, “I felt like once it got time for me to throw, that I was kind of just at a dead end and that my options were very slim and that it was potentially going to be my time to get the chop. So, yeah, it was tricky.”
On the Final Miss and What It Meant
Viper’s game ended when his throw to Dalton (player 390) fell short — but he said there was more to that moment than the edit suggested.
“So I think that he talked himself out of it before he could even like try,” Viper explained. “And me being a fitness instructor and a motivator, like my day-to-day is to tell people that they can do the impossible. And most of the time they don't do the impossible, but they are able to do more than they thought they could.”
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Viper continued, “With that willingness of mind, you can unlock so many things. But if that willingness is not there and it's closed, then you're already setting yourself up for failure. And I think that a lot of it was that. I think that he was already checked out and didn't even… like he couldn't even visualize himself advancing or catching.”
Still, he said, there was no malice. “I don't know if he did that on purpose. Also, my focus wasn't on that in the moment. I was just like lending all of my energy and focus to just like sending him my powers to like catch the ball, catch the ball, catch the ball. But I don't know. Shout out to him.”
Mark’s vulnerability and Viper’s overconfidence made "Catch" one of the standout episodes of the season so far — and both contestants left with stories that reveal just how emotionally charged the game can be behind the scenes.
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