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The finale of the first season of Squid Game: The Challenge may have just aired this week, but filming of the final episode actually took place around 10 months ago.
Which means it has been 10 months since a winner was crowned earning them the grand prize of $4.56 million – the second largest cash prize in reality TV history.
So why, almost a year later, has the Squid Game: The Challenge winner still not been paid?
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
While there has been no shortage of conspiracy theories surrounding the show and the challenges the contestants had to face, there isn’t much mystery to this question.
As those who have watched the finale know, it all came down to 55-year-old Mai Whelan (number 287) and 27-year-old Phill Cain (number 451).
After numerous rounds of rock, paper, scissors, it was Mai, an immigration adjudicator from Virginia, who was the last contestant out of 456 standing.
According to the Times, despite the montage at the end of the finale showing Mai using her magic debit card at an ATM machine, revealing she had $4.56 million in the bank, she, so far, hasn’t seen a penny of the winnings.
She says when she does finally get paid, she plans to donate some of it to charities for the underprivileged, wildlife and climate change.
Mai also says she has been “thinking about a retirement home somewhere” although where she lives now with her husband, who works in mergers and acquisitions, doesn’t sound too bad.
“We live on the water. It’s very peaceful,” she said.
Sadly, even if she wanted to do so, the contract she signed with Squid Game: The Challenge states that she can’t share her winnings with any of the other contestants.
As for why she hasn’t been paid yet, it’s pretty obvious that if the winner of the show had been paid millions of dollars before the finale aired it would have been pretty difficult to hide the fact that they won from people in their community.
So, for now, she’s just waiting to get paid.
“I feel like Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire. Show me the money!” she said.