‘Squid Game: The Challenge’: Hits, Misses and the Bizarre Ending

It all came down to rock, paper, scissors on Wednesday night’s finale of “Squid Game: The Challenge.” After many rounds of trying to deduce her opponent’s next move, Mai Whelan (Player 287), an immigration adjudicator, grandmother and Navy veteran from Virginia who came to the United States as an 8-year-old refugee from Vietnam, triumphed over Phill Cain (Player 451), a scuba instructor from Hawaii — and 454 other players.

Her prize: a staggering $4.56 million. “Anything is possible,” she said after her win. “Even when you feel down and afraid, you have to pick yourself up, be a strong person and focus.”

“The Challenge,” a reality competition show, is based on Netflix’s dystopian, blood-drenched South Korean blockbuster drama “Squid Game,” in which contestants play schoolyard games for the chance to win an exorbitant cash prize. On the original series, however, the hundreds who lose die gruesome deaths. On “The Challenge,” filmed on a set in England, no one died, of course; they only pretended to.

And like on the drama, they made alliances, broke alliances, back stabbed, shot daggers with their eyes, and wept and wept. They also played a few games from the original, including the glass bridge challenge (no, the players didn’t free fall), the marbles face-off and the dalgona candy game (which, in real life, involved copious saliva).

On Wednesday, Netflix announced that the highly popular show was renewed for second season; Season 2 of the drama is also in the works. Also on Wednesday, a Netflix live fan experience, Squid Game: The Trials, opened on the “Price Is Right” soundstage in Los Angeles.

As for the televised competition, it required some mental gymnastics, and was alternately disappointing and delicious. Here’s what the competition got right, and what may have left some viewers underwhelmed or unsettled.