‘Squid Game: The Challenge’s Mother-Son Duo Reveals Their Regrets About the Marbles Challenge (Exclusive)

When fans got their first look at Squid Game: The Challenge‘s mother-son duo, Trey Plutnicki (301) and his mom, LeAnn Wilcox Plutnicki (302), it was unclear if both of them would make it past the first challenge, the infamous “Red Light, Green Light” game.

ET’s exclusive sneak peek prior to the reality competition’s premiere on Netflix showed Trey explaining how he felt lucky to have his mom as an ally in the game, but was worried for both of them when it came to some of the physical challenges.

“I will get through this challenge — I swear I will! I’ve been practicing.” LeAnn promised when they faced down “Red Light, Green Light.”

“Bend your knees. Bend the useful knee that you have!” Trey teased.

While they avoided elimination in the first five episodes, unfortunately the duo saw their luck run out when four new episodes dropped on Nov. 29. They decided to pair up for an offered picnic, not realizing that in their basket were the game’s dreaded marbles — which meant only one of them would be making it through.

As it turns out, the pair was not in agreement when it came to pairing up on the picnic.

“I walked over to Trey and I said, ‘I don’t think we should do this’… It’s gonna be marbles,” LeAnn recalled when the pair spoke with ET’s Ash Crossan this week. “And Trey just sort of stopped and he said, ‘We have done everything together. We’ve come in together, we’re working together, let’s do this. And we’ll know one of us is going through if it is marbles.”

“They had also thrown a ton of twists at us in the previous games,” Trey insisted, defending his decision, though his mom said she had a bad feeling from the start.

“That second we’re looking at all these pretty little blue clouds around us, I just felt an instant aura of grey clouds over me, because I knew this was not going to end well,” LeAnn admitted.

Trey was later eliminated on the Glass Bridge challenge, and told ET he has no regrets from the game. Not so for his mother, who says she still thinks they should have split up — and also admits, “I wanted him to move on, I really did — I also knew the urge to compete was going to be hard to subdue.”

“I’m confident we both could have moved on,” LeAnn added. “It would have been a random, lucky thing, but I think it would have been really cool to have both of us move on.”

Trey admitted that his fellow competitors were “shocked” when LeAnn didn’t return from the marble challenge, and also opened up about his own elimination — which came with a bit of controversy.

After Trey jumped once on the Glass Bridge, Ashley (278) refused to jump and overtake him, so Trey jumped again — this time hitting an unlucky square and falling to his own elimination.

“I think it’s one step too far removed to say like somebody else should come and overtake you,” Trey noted, explaining why he doesn’t blame Ashley for not taking the risk. “I think what Ashley saw was somebody that was willing to take more than one jump, so she was like, ‘If I don’t need to take another jump I’m perfectly fine.'”

“I don’t really blame her for not taking action in that moment,” he added. “Obviously, game-wise, it was in her best interest to have me keep jumping… In the game, [I’m] mad at her, outside of the game, we hung out yesterday all day. We’re chill.”

“She’s great,” LeAnn agreed.

As for their newfound celeb status thanks to their time on the show — and their unique alliance — LeAnn said it “blows my mind.”

“I think like we sort of feel like, imposter syndrome,” she said, laughing, “We’re not that nice!”

Squid Game: The Challenge is streaming now on Netflix. The season finale debuts Dec. 6.

RELATED CONTENT: