WARNING: Spoilers for Squid Game: The Challenge below.
Squid Game: The Challenge dropped its final episode this week, which saw the 55-year-old Mai Whelan emerge the winner of the Netflix reality series. However, there’s one pricy problem: Whelan has yet to receive her $4.56 million dollar prize, the second highest amount in game show history.
Just like the Squid Game show, which became massive international hit during the pandemic, contestants are tasked with competing in children’s game with deadly consequences for losing. On The Challenge, obviously, people weren’t being killed. Although, set reports of injuries and freezing conditions would suggest it wasn’t for lack of trying.
Whelan, an immigration adjudicator from Virginia who left Vietnam during the Fall of Saigon when she was only eight years old, defeated 27-year-old scuba instructor Phil Cain in a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors that The Times called “protracted and anticlimactic.” For her efforts, Whelan still hasn’t been paid:
Despite winning the show in February, Whelan hasn’t received a cent yet, she says over a video call from New York. “I feel like Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire. Show me the money!” When Netflix does pay up she plans on giving some of the money to charities for the underprivileged, wildlife and climate change. All she has bought herself so far is a swanky short haircut — her buddies from the show didn’t recognise her — plus a black velvet Ralph Lauren dress and Jimmy Choo shoes for the Squid Game gala she has just attended.
While Whelan conceded she may considering a new retirement home, the Virginia resident seemed content with her current living situation.
“We live on the water. It’s very peaceful,” she said.
Squid Game: The Challenge is available for streaming on Netflix.
(Via The Times)