Phill Cain was working as a scuba diving instructor at Waikiki Dive Center when he got the call to compete for a chance to win $4.56 million in the Netflix reality show “Squid Game: The Challenge.” Little did he know that he would be one of the top finalists out of 456 contestants.

Spoiler alert if you haven’t watched the finale: Cain ended up in the top two and lost to player 287 Mai Whelan in the final game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.”

In this episode of Island Beat, we talk to Phill about what was going through his mind at that time ... and how Hawaii carried him through the show.