Squid Game: The Challenge episode 3 recap — War

Squid Game: The Challenge episode 2 left us with a dramatic new addition to the competition, where a rotary phone was placed inside the dormitory. Players naturally became suspicious of the new item, assuming it to be one of the mysterious tests.

The episode ended with another cliffhanger, where a player was left feeling incredibly stressed after being told they had to convince someone else to answer the phone, or risk being eliminated from the competition.

With a life-changing sum of money on the line, everyone's on high alert, and there's a brand new game to play too.

Here's everything you need to know about Squid Game: The Challenge episode 3...

The unanswered phone call

In episode 2, we saw player 198 tasked with making someone else take a phone call, otherwise he was at risk of being eliminated himself. But despite his best efforts, he was not able to convince any of the other players, who all rightly suspected he was up to something.

He became the next player to leave the competition, leaving the others with some mixed feelings about what just happened. Now, the player count stands at just 118, and is dropping rapidly.

The oldest player Rick, a physician from Pennsylvania is number 232 and is interviewed following all the chaos. He reveals he's "not a leader" and "likes to help". 

Number 033 Figgy is the next to be interviewed, she is a teacher from Nashville and expresses her desire to be a "warm presence" around other players so she can hopefully form some strong and trustworthy alliances.

They are then brought in to take part in the third game. Players are instructed to line up behind signs that are labeled one through eight, and the PA system explains they will be playing head-to-head in the next challenge.

Numbers are drawn to decide which of the teams will go first, and teams three and one are the first to compete against one another. But they get a surprise when they realise the third game is not tug of war at all, and is in fact warships.

The teams are instructed to pick a captain and are told that players are only eliminated when their entire ship is sunk, just like the classic boardgame, which is sometimes called battleships. 

The first captain to sink two of the other team's ships wins, and they get to work setting the giant board, trying to place the ships in a way that wouldn't be immediately obvious.

Following the battles, more people were eliminated, including Figgy and people were particularly sad about her exit from the competition. The mother and son team are both still going, who we have followed from the first episode.

The player count has dropped to 73 following the warship game, so we're now in double figures and it's getting very intense for the participants who are still playing, hoping they'll be the last one standing.

The episode ends with the masked game masters carrying in a new item, which looks like some sort of ATM featuring a keypad. The PA explains that before the fourth game, there will be two elimination tests, putting everyone on high alert.

They are told that the first test requires them to each choose a player to eliminate, and that the three players with the highest votes will be sent home. 

So now the players are left with an almost impossible decision of choosing someone to eliminate, knowing they could condemn them to missing out on the jackpot.

But who will stay and who will go? We'll find out in episode 4...