Love it or hate it, Squid Game: The Challenge is a show that is airing. But if you’re the kind of person who likes the behind-the-scenes, “how the sausage gets made” of reality television, here’s a Squid Game controversy from the sixth episode between Player 065 (Dylan) and Player 399 (Aurora). The pair got eliminated after failing to reach a compromise on a minigame, but since the episode hit Netflix, both have taken to social media to reveal that there was more to their scene than was aired.
Here’s what audiences saw: contestants were paired up (mostly with their allies, though that doesn’t seem to be the case for Aurora and Dylan) for a marble game, in which the players had to decide rules of engagement amongst themselves. While most settled on a plan fairly quickly, 065 and 399 spent nearly all of their allotted time arguing. 065 wanted to make it a throwing challenge, while 399 wanted a game of strategy or chance to make it more fair. Eventually they settled on throwing out of necessity; after missing a few times, 399 landed a throw first, then 065 got one too just before time ran out. 399 argued that she should be the winner since she got it first, but 065 refused, leading them both to be eliminated.
On her social media, Aurora made it clear that she wasn’t okay with how things played out. “I have only seen small bits and pieces because the experience was super traumatizing for me. I want to say thank you for all the messages and voice notes—I will respond when I can. I hope that my scene shows people to stand up themselves against manipulation and bullying tactics,” she wrote on TikTok. “There is so much that did not make the cut and that makes me feel super angry, but I hope that what happened was clear from what was left. I have a lot of negative feelings about the way that I left, but I am doing my best to stay positive and still waiting for clarity about why I was a part of this experience. Everything in this life truly does happen for a reason even if that reason is not clear from the beginning. So keep your head up to those who can resonate with that feeling.”
On Instagram, Dylan also suggested that audiences weren’t getting the full picture, though his version is obviously a bit different than Aurora’s. “It’s important to note, what you see is only the edited version of what really happened. Per productions request every marbles game had to have the rules and how to win established BEFORE playing the game, nothing could be changed once the game had started,” he wrote. “You couldn’t determine the winner at the end of match because that breaks the agreed upon rules stated earlier, which is what we see at the end of the game. Me following instructions, isn’t a judgment of my character or who I am as a person. Linking the confessionals directly after the game from both player 399 & myself (065) in my bio. More to come but I’m not a manipulator & I’m not a bully—I won’t be made out to be that way, I was just adhering to the rules of the game.”
So what did audiences miss? Aurora posted a lengthy explanation of her agreement with Dylan, saying that the pair eventually decided that they’d do the throwing challenge with their non-dominant hand to make it more fair. However, based on screenshots she saw after the event, she claimed he actually used his dominant hand in the event. Then, despite the fact that she landed the marble throw first, she said they’d agreed ahead of time on a game of rock, paper, scissors to break the tie, but the guards prevented them from doing so. (Apparently, they had to incorporate a marble in the game, even the tiebreaker, or it didn’t count.) That’s how the episode ended up with the pair arguing over which of them should win, resulting in both of them losing.
But it was Dylan’s behavior that bothered Aurora the most. She said viewers only saw “a fraction” of what was going on, and that his microaggressions and flat out “aggressions” were so bad “to the point that I literally called him out for being manipulative.” She shared, “It was much worse than what they put on camera. They only left in microaggressions, I think, for dramatic effect, but it was so much worse. I literally called him out on it, and it was really just awful.”
@aurora._victoria Okay thats the full story! #squidgame #squidgamethechallenge #player399 #marbles #justucefor399 #thankyou ♬ original sound - Rora 🌸
Aurora cautioned followers not to bully Dylan or send him hate, adding that she too had been receiving hate since the show aired. She admitted that she’d “cried so much” over the situation, saying, “I still struggle with… why I went on the show. Like, what was the point of this? What was the point? I never applied.” (A producer apparently reached out to her directly to audition.) “So it’s just like, why, if I wasn’t going to win? But you know, we just have to stay positive,” she concluded. “I’m doing my best to stay positive and see that there is something good that will come of this, even if I don’t know what that is right now.”