Ten months after the demanding filming of the Netflix game show, the $4.56 million prize winner of Squid Game claims she has not received just one cent of the prize money.
Vietnamese immigrant Mai Whelan, 55, impressed viewers with her escape from the communist regime and strategic gameplay against 455 players.
In the finale, Mai Whelan emerged victorious over scuba instructor Phill Cain, 27, after a series of intense rock, paper, and scissor matches.
The climactic ending of the show featured a memorable scene where Mai approached an ATM and discovered a staggering $4.56 million in her safe.
In a phone call with The Times from New York after the final episode aired, Mai Whelan exclaimed, "I feel like Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire. Show me the money!" She confirmed that she is still awaiting the arrival of her prize.
Whelan also disclosed that the players' contracts prohibit them from sharing their prizes with other competitors.
Whelan said that when she does receive her money, she will look into retirement homes outside of Fairfax, Virginia, and donate to causes close to her heart, like the environment.
"It's good because I would like to express my cause, that's the main reason why I joined the game, to help a cause, so now that I won I have a platform to tell the world to help the underprivileged."
"To educate kids and make sure the elderly are taken care of because when you're in a poor country, you don't have the necessity of medical care and kids don't have education," Whelan said.
"I will keep some for myself, I'm old and I want to retire soon, and so I want to make sure that my husband and I have enough to retire and also to help charity work," She added.
According to the immigration adjudicator, she and her husband, Jay, who used to work at IBM and Accenture, have two kids, ages 36 and 34, and a nine-year-old granddaughter. Jay and his wife currently operate a consulting business.
"I don't think I'm smarter. I'm older than him and I've experienced things. It's just knowledge... We played a fair game. He felt that I deserved to win because I beat him a lot at rock, paper, scissors!" Mai said about her victory over Cain.
During the show, Whelan emotionally shared her experience of fleeing Vietnam in 1975 and the traumatic incident of almost being shot by an American soldier at the age of eight on an airfield.
After immigrating to the United States and settling in Pennsylvania, Whelan joined the US Navy at the age of 19, and she became pregnant during that time.
She described the challenges she faced, including being cut off by her family and feeling unprepared for motherhood as a young and inexperienced woman.
Fans of the show were left disappointed when the winner was determined by chance through a game of rock, paper, scissors.
Sam finished in third place after being eliminated for pressing a button during a game of chance at the final three's dinner.
The winner was decided through multiple rounds of rock, paper, and scissors, with each round granting access to a key that could open a safe containing the prize. Ultimately, Mai successfully chose the correct key, opening the safe and revealing a golden credit card as the prize.
Viewers took to social media to express their disappointment after months of anticipation.
Sincerely speaking... I will be frank here. The ending was dull and giving 'boring,' but I'm delighted Mai prevailed since it's justice acting dumb when she called out Ashley, one user said.
Is it me or am I mistaking something? They decided to use rock, paper, and scissors to wrap up the finals among the amazing comps. They certainly wanted Mai to win, the second replied.
