“Squid Game: The Challenge” Player 016/Sam on why he 'needed to step up' in the finale

Sydney Bucksbaum
·9 min read
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"I definitely don't feel like I floated through the game," Sam Lantz tells EW.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the season finale of Squid Game: The Challenge.

Player 016/Sam Lantz didn't walk away with the $4.56 million prize at the end of Squid Game: The Challenge, but he's not mad at his third place finish on Netflix's Squid Game reality spinoff.

"I'm the Sae-byeok of this series," Sam tells EW, referring to the scripted drama's Player 067, who ultimately came in third place when she died before the final game. "I'm so proud — my favorite character! Maybe I'll get to meet her one day."

The finale ultimately came down to an intense game of Rock, Paper, Scissors between Player 287/Mai Whelan and Player 451/Phill Cain, with Mai taking home the win, after Sam was eliminated in a game of chance earlier in the episode. Below, Sam breaks down why he decided to press the button during that steak dinner rather than let Phill take on the risk of elimination, why he was so hard on Mai but not on Player 278/Ashley Tolbert after the Glass Bridge, and so much more.

<p>Netflix</p> Sam Lantz

Netflix

Sam Lantz

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Walk me through why you agreed to let Mai press a button first during the finale dinner.

SAM LANTZ: Looking at it now, I see it was a one-in-three chance of being eliminated. It was a way better chance [to go] first, but my whole thought process the whole time was never go first, never be first in line, you don't need to be first across the finish line. Don't push until the end. I don't want to say that was the end for me, but it was the point where I needed to step up. I felt Phill had taken a jump on the Glass Bridge, and there was a ration of guilt after about the people that didn't jump, so I felt like it was my time to be the person to step up.

I definitely don't feel like I floated through the game — I did my work under the radar. I became friends with everyone. In Circle of Trust, I was very lucky that my number was not drawn, but I also worked very hard to develop relationships where no one put the box on my desk. Also, I sat all the way forward in my desk, so my legs were hanging out and my face was right there where they would be [if they placed it on my desk]. It was all strategy. So yeah, when Mai was like, "I'll go," we were just like, "All right, have at it."

What was your reaction when her button was gray, and it came down to you and Phill?

I had a sneaking suspicion that if she had picked green, she would've taken Phill, and that's fine. They had developed a closer relationship. We both started to get to know Mai a little bit later in the game, so when the gray came up, I was like, "Oh no. Now it's me." It never even crossed my mind for any real period of time that Phill should go. I just trusted my gut in that, as well as the rest of the game — [laughs] and I'm a square.

I was so curious while watching because, at that point, the smarter decision was to not push a button and let the other player take that 50/50 chance of elimination since you and Phill would have taken each other to the final.

It definitely did [cross my mind]. Just like in Circle of Trust when we were the final three, I was elated, and it was one of the bees in my head flying around, but it's not the one that stung me.

How did it feel when your button turned red?

Well, to quote [Player 229] Phalisia, my stomach was in my ass. It was an awful feeling. It was an awful feeling again to watch it, having it all yanked away from me. The thing I didn't want to do was go home first or go home in a game of chance, and I went home in a game of chance. It's devastating, but I had full faith in the other two that it was going to be a positive thing in the world if either of them won.

<p>Netflix</p> Sam, Phill, Mai

Netflix

Sam, Phill, Mai

What was your reaction when you found out Mai won?

Obviously, Phill's my buddy, so I would've loved it if they had won. But getting to hear more of her story, even in the days leading up to the finale and even more in the finale when we got to watch it and see her vulnerability, the parallels between our lives and what we wanted to do with the money, it feels very good. I mean, I would've loved to have won it, but ...

[Laughs] Of course. What did you think of how Mai had eliminated Roland and not Amanda in Circle of Trust, and that she lied to you and Phill about it?

I knew she had not put it on Amanda's desk. Coming out of Circle of Trust and walking into the dorm, you don't lose your memory that quickly. When she fumbled over coming up with a falsity, I don't want to call it a lie, but a misdirection, I knew that she wasn't telling the truth. But it really didn't matter. I had no vendetta against her. Yeah, I was close with Roland, but they all have to leave for one person to win.

A moment that has really stirred up a lot of strong feelings with fans is how you confronted Mai for targeting Ashley in the dice game, but Ashley wasn't held to the same standard for what she did during Glass Bridge. Why did it seem like Mai got more heat than Ashley from the rest of the players?

There is a lot of emotion, a lot of pressure, a lot of stress. There's also a lot of safety precautions that have to be taken, so there was a lot of diversion away from that specific point of Ashley not moving, because we had safety checks for everybody. You can't all just helter-skelter on the bridge — people will get hurt. So there had to be an excessive amount of communication whenever a player moved. None of us really saw what Mai was seeing. And also, we all knew that if we gave each other time, we would come around, and Ashley did come around. She did take a jump. It's very, very much a gray area between what we saw vs. what happened vs. what Mai saw, and it's all very convoluted.

My one thing is, if we are not mad, why are [fans] mad for us? We are projecting this feeling of love. And Mai, everyone is kind of saying she's a snake or that she's the only one that truly played the game, and that's not fair. That's not fair to the other people that played the game. That's not fair to Ashley — she played the game. Mai didn't have to jump, she had [No.] 20 [in the Glass Bridge order]. She and I were both in a very lucky situation. People need to just take everything with a grain of salt because we were there, and we are not mad.

Nothing's going to come of this negativity, these death threats, this hate. We've learned lessons, we've all grown so much. We had our emotion in the game and people are having their emotion watching the game, but I just want to help everybody accelerate their process of healing over things that they feel were wrongdoings, and that we're all fine, we're happy. None of us are bitter, none of us are angry. [Pauses] I mean, there are some few bitter, angry people, but not the people that people are angry for. The same goes for Phalisia, Stephen, and Rick [during the Jack-in-the-Box elimination] — it's a game move and it was a smart move. They were serious threats, and that's a compliment more than anything.

What are you most proud of, looking back on your entire season?

My idol was Willow Pill, the drag queen — she had so many strengths but kept them to herself, and it helped her get as far as she did. The same thing helped me get as far as I did. Nobody expected a lot of the stuff from me, and I got to surprise them, and it was cool. Every moment I was proving something new to myself, and I felt like I was proving something to another little gay boy out there, that they're stronger than everyone says they are. Every day was a surprise to me, because I have a newfound strength that I've gotten from my husband, but every challenge proved to me that I was stronger emotionally, mentally, physically than I've given myself credit for, or that anyone other than my husband and my best friends have given me credit for.

I'm so proud I even took this chance — my friend sent me the application for this ages ago, and I took the chance to not be afraid to put myself out there. Because you can be something for someone that that person didn't have growing up. I mean, I didn't have a lot of representation growing up. I had characters on sitcoms that were jokes and they were made at our expense, so it's nice to be someone that can show strength and show possibilities for others like me.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Squid Game: The Challenge season 1 is now streaming on Netflix, and will return for season 2.

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