Perla Figuereo:

Am I going to share the money with Jeffrey? Player 283? 

Perla Figuereo:

Yo, what's up ? It's Perla Figuereo, aka Player 72 from Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2. Oh, and by the way, Jeffrey's here.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

Yer, what's going on?

Perla Figuereo:

Yer.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

[inaudible 00:00:24].

Perla Figuereo:

We got on Squid Game just all because of little old me.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

Yeah. I am not loyal to anybody.

Perla Figuereo:

Anybody.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

You show-

Perla Figuereo:

I'm loyal to you and myself.

Last year before even going on the show and knowing that I was going on this show, I made this vision board with my friends. The most exciting part is that I made a little check and I wrote my name and I wrote that I wanted an infinite amount of money. Because I wanted to attract security and I wanted to attract stability and the rich lifestyle. When I won the game, the little credit card was like infinite.

Please tell me it's not a lot.

So you might think you know a lot about us because the whole Mormon thing, we grew up in the Mormon church. Jeffrey doesn't like to talk about it. We're no longer Mormon.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

We're no longer Mormon. But we then moved to the Bronx. We spoke no English. We were thrown into public school system in the Bronx and we just had to figure it out.

Perla Figuereo:

But what you don't know about us is that we're also film majors and we love film.

Grew up on movies. My mom would send all these pirated movies that she would buy at the hair salon because my mom would just send anything so that you could start learning English. She wanted us to have a childhood where we watch every movie and it developed this slick love for film, that it's just like, we love entertainment.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

I think we had a really good, playful childhood.

Perla Figuereo:

Toy Story. We lived a Toy Story. We were Andy. We were really blessed that we always had a roof, food, and toys. Obviously, we were not the wealthiest, but we were wealthy in love, love something that in Dominican Republic we say it's “rico de cuna,” which is rich from nursery.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

Nursery. Yeah.

Perla Figuereo:

Nursery. Yeah. So we definitely were that. OK, you guys have to meet our mom. Let's call her. [speaking Spanish 00:02:03].

Jeffrey Figuereo:

[foreign language 00:02:03].

Perla Figuereo:

“Wow! Que linda!” [in English: ”Wow! So pretty!”][English translation:  How did you guys feel the moment I told y’all I had won?]

Speaker 3: [English translation: I was driving, and working and I saw that call that said “United Kingdom” and I thought,

“Scammers are calling me.”

Then, once I spoke to you, and I stayed there for half an hour giving thanks to God

For giving that blessing.

God forbid, if I leave this world or if anything happens, I know that you are a fighter and that you can survive in any situation.

Perla Figuereo:

Gracias mami, papi, we love you.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

Love you so much.

Speaker 3:

Thank you. Love you too. Bye.

Perla Figuereo:

So we have the pink ball from catch. It's a little triggering, but it's also really cute because the way we got this ball was that Player 369, Zoe, got married and we got to go to her wedding and Lizzie showed up with tennis balls and marbles and I was like, "Girl, this is not the time." But it was the perfect time. So she gave us this ball and all throughout the wedding week and we kept just being like, "Catch." I think that my room is literally an explosion of my personality. I think I'm very rawr and I'm also very [inaudible 00:03:24]. I got this cheetah couch on Facebook Marketplace.

Listen, I can be rich, but I love a deal. Another special part of my room is this painting I have over there. It's me and Frida Kahlo. I had the idea to have me and Frida and I was the naive Frida and she was the more knowledgeable one, and she's passing me that warrior mentality. My altar is a mix of things. I have some jewelry. I have a pearl. I have my modeling photos for YITTY, which is Lizzo's shapewear brand.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

Okay, that sounds...

Perla Figuereo:

At the end of bingo, when we found out that we had to play each other, I broke down.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

Yeah, don't cry. This is a stupid game.

I think at that moment, I was so excited for you.

You're not giving me your marbles. I think you should stay.

Perla Figuereo:

Jeffrey was like, "I've served my time."

Jeffrey Figuereo:

Oh, yeah.

Perla Figuereo:

And you saying that really clicked, because I was like, I felt like I hadn't served my time.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

Any other game, we could have never seen each other again until we got back home. But just the fact that we had a moment and talked about what we wish to accomplish and stuff like that. I was happy enough with that.

There's nobody more capable in this game to win than you.

Perla Figuereo:

It was awesome. We chilled and it felt peaceful. It felt really sad, but very peaceful. I think often Jeffrey and I are so close that we hang out all the time so we don't have the time to... Praise you and then you praise me, and it was a time of reflection for us. So as much as I was sad that Jeffrey was obviously leaving, I also was like... It was a realization that I had more to give in the competition and I was not done. The thing that I probably replayed the most in my brain was probably slides and ladders. It looks like there's slides.

Zoe:

Slides and ladders.

Perla Figuereo:

Zoe and I were close from day one, so we always stuck together. When she decided to go first in slides and ladders and went down the wrong slide, I felt a level of guilt and also relief, but guilt mostly. What was hard about that is that she had a very similar storyline to me where her dad sacrificed himself for to be win the competition. So we were fighting in this together and I wanted to really make it to the end with her, but to see her get eliminated, that pissed me off.

That's what I really also had to lock in. So when I locked into that game and I just remembered, I said, "Okay, I need a three." I wrote a three. Whatever combination it was is something I replayed so much because if I hadn't locked in after getting thrown down slides and beefing with people and it was really a point there where I was like, "Yo, I cannot go home because my brother literally just sacrificed himself to let me stay." So for me to leave right now cannot happen. The food in Squid Game: The Challenge…

Perla Figuereo:

No shade to the chefs, but it was not good. They really set immersive in there. We were really in real life Squid Game. There's never actual good things in the Squid Game, so if you're getting treated too well, it's never a good thing. Even with the final dinner, I was eating that steak knowing that some BS was about to come up. They were trying to play with our minds. But you know what? I was a step ahead of the front man.

So I have one more surprise for you guys and it's that I decided since I knew you guys were coming to see my apartment, to frame my little envelope that gave my credit card for the win. I wanted to put it up because it's just a reminder of a day that my life and my family's life changed. Am I going to share the money with Jeffrey? Player 283? Yes, of course. Why would I not? We wanted this together. He sacrificed himself for me. This wouldn't make sense. If I'm rich, he got to be rich too. We're twins. I'm dead. [inaudible 00:07:17] really good. Yes.

Speaker 6:

Have you ever had caviar before?

Perla Figuereo:

No. This is wealth. It's been hard, honestly, because I think us not growing up with wealth, it's like, how do I conceptualize now being-

Jeffrey Figuereo:

Yeah. You can't even think of it.

Perla Figuereo:

Wealthy?

Smells like something very familiar.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

Oh, my God.

Perla Figuereo:

Not the baby back ribs. Guys, when we moved to America, we went to a diner, one of the first restaurants we ever went to, and we tried baby back ribs for the first time.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

You going to put it on the... Oh, you're crazy.

Perla Figuereo:

Guys. We're entering a new level right now.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

Coming from the Dominican Republic, going to a place like the Bronx where not a lot of people like us have any opportunity to get out of anything. So we were lucky enough to do it and-

Perla Figuereo:

Yeah. And the coolest way to become-

Jeffrey Figuereo:

And the coolest. If somebody asked us, "How will you make your money?" "Oh, yeah. You know that show Squid Game: The Challenge?"

Perla Figuereo:

Yeah. You know about that. We are getting our mom a house. I just think about those days when we moved to the US and we would go with mommy to Madison Square Garden and hide in the utility closets while she did her shift.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

Because she didn't have enough money for... I mean [inaudible 00:08:26].

Perla Figuereo:

She didn't believe in babysitters.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

She didn't believe in babysitters, but because she didn't have the money to get a babysitter.

Perla Figuereo:

[inaudible 00:08:29].

Jeffrey Figuereo:

So we would hide while she was working. What she's been dreaming all her life is literally a home that she can call her own. She loves to do her garden. That's our dream come true for her and I'm glad we're able to do it. Yeah.

Perla Figuereo:

Yeah. Bow. Bow. Cheers.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

Cheers.

Perla Figuereo:

To Squid.

Jeffrey Figuereo:

To Squid.