S01.E02: Take No Prisoners

[jenrising]

Quote

A puzzling jailbreak challenge ends in a nail-biting finish. The next day, the players face a new mind game that pits them against each other.

Available on 10/7
 

[Irlandesa]

I thought this episode was more exciting with two great challenges.  Although I feel like the prison challenge was in a previous season of The Mole.

Not so great?  The fact that there was no elimination and it's a cliffhanger.  And while I don't mind it in a binge model, it makes me afraid of how the fifth episode will end.  I do not want to end on a cliffhanger. 

I do appreciate that they seem to be moving around Australia. 

[Guest]

16 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

I thought this episode was more exciting with two great challenges.  Although I feel like the prison challenge was in a previous season of The Mole.

Not so great?  The fact that there was no elimination and it's a cliffhanger.  And while I don't mind it in a binge model, it makes me afraid of how the fifth episode will end.  I do not want to end on a cliffhanger. 

I do appreciate that they seem to be moving around Australia. 

Same. I love the challenges and hate the cliffhangers. 

[argrow]

I cannot believe the other group was not looking for the exemption. Do they know what game they are playing?

[LakeGal]

Dom & Casey were in charge of the prison break out.  They did take 10 minutes off the clock and then took money to give a clue.  

How did Joi not see the key in front of the cell.  She is very suspicious to me.  Samara did not see it either.  But I think she was too vain to wear her glasses on TV.  She was squinting at it.

Avori was the first to run off and look for the password.  Greg seemed really obvious when he was on the phone. Almost like he wanted the other team to know they were looking.

Also why was Joi doing pushups in her cell instead of looking for clues and helping?  I was also surprised that only William seemed to realize at first that the chess pieces were magnetic.  

[Lady Calypso]

I'm glad Osei left. He was too focused on Joi being the Mole that he was never going to consider other options.

I liked the two missions, but I don't love these cliffhangers thus far. It's fine that we got five episodes so we don't have to wait long, but once the episodes start coming less frequently, it's gonna be a wait.

Again, I think Joi's deceptions have been TOO obvious for her to be the Mole. I just think she's that bad at this. Joi hasn't done a single mission right and I feel like the Mole would not want to stand out as failing every mission, or close to failing every mission.

Samara not seeing the key was suspicious enough where it could have easily been an act of sabotage as the Mole and Will simply caught her during the Jailbreak, so she's on the table to be the Mole. 

Dom/Casey being the Masterminds of the Jailbreak was interesting. I think Dom is not the Mole, but Casey still could be. Dom was clearly too gung-ho about the money; I don't think he was intentionally trying to sabotage.

As for the Password mission, Greg definitely seemed suspicious, but not enough to scream Mole-like behaviour. His plan to distract the team was decent, but he should have filled in the group after the first phone call and given Casey the phone for the second phone call. Pranav wasn't wrong in how he fumbled into a bad lie in the second phone call, but it's enough where it could easily be Mole-like behaviour. "Oops, I made a mistake on the phone to give it away to the other team but it's not exactly my fault; it's just the circumstances from what Greg did with the other group!"

All in all, my eyes are still set on Avori, Pranav, Jacob or Kesi as the Mole. I think I have more of an idea of who I don't think it is (Will, Dom, Joi), rather than who I think it is (which is still everyone else).

ETA: I was also thinking about what the producers might do with the Mole on missions LIKE Jailbreak. Would they want the Mole to be active and, thus, in the downstairs cells? Or would they want the Mole to take it a bit easier, sit back and let the others sabotage so putting them on the second floor? I will say, the first group who escaped even found a loophole by having the first floor cellmates get each other out and not having to use the stool. Interesting tactic!

Edited October 9, 2022 by Lady Calypso

[david gideon]

Don't care for the cliffhangers either. Alex Wagner is no Anderson Cooper. She's too happy and smiley. She needs to be more serious and wry like Coop. One of the players looked familiar to me; I'm sure she's not really DIchen Lachman ('Dollhouse', 'Agents of SHIELD') but that's who I see every time Avori is on the screen.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

As for the Password mission, Greg definitely seemed suspicious, but not enough to scream Mole-like behaviour. His plan to distract the team was decent, but he should have filled in the group after the first phone call and given Casey the phone for the second phone call. Pranav wasn't wrong in how he fumbled into a bad lie in the second phone call, but it's enough where it could easily be Mole-like behaviour. "Oops, I made a mistake on the phone to give it away to the other team but it's not exactly my fault; it's just the circumstances from what Greg did with the other group!"

Casey’s behavior was also suspect in that whole thing. She hears Greg say, “You wanna hear “hey” from everyone”, Pranav and Greg motion to her to run and get the others and she runs out and doesn’t come back. What was she thinking?

[SnarkShark]

Joi is deliberately doing badly.  She's trying to look like The Mole.

Or... she's very obtuse/dumb.  

4 hours ago, david gideon said:

Don't care for the cliffhangers either. Alex Wagner is no Anderson Cooper. She's too happy and smiley. She needs to be more serious and wry like Coop. One of the players looked familiar to me; I'm sure she's not really DIchen Lachman ('Dollhouse', 'Agents of SHIELD') but that's who I see every time Avori is on the screen.

I like Alex Wagner.  I'm not counting smiles.  I think she's better than the two dummies who FOLLOWED Anderson, at the very least.

[Irlandesa]

I like Alex too.  Anderson would smile too.  In fact, he'd get chummy with the group.  And mess with them.

[hjmugillecuty]

I enjoyed the prison break task. It was interesting watching the 3 teams solve it differently. I think the 2nd team out was the only one to figure out the correct solution on their own. 1st team beasted through it and 3rd needed the clue.  I think Samara couldn't see the key on the ring, but Will should have realized there was no reason for a "large hair tie" to be right in his eyesight, so I blame them both. I noticed that Joy never opened the rectangular window on her door, just did everything through the little round peephole.

[PurpleTentacle]

These dumbasses taking 10 minutes off the clock. That was a really dumb move. I guess they came out ahead, but barely

Samara to vein to wear glasses, I assume. I don't think she is the mole for not seeing the key. Joi supposedly not seeing anything at all, really suspicious again. Can the mole really be this obvious?

And again, the group with Joi in it doesn't even try to get the password, even though that would be the logical thing to do, even if you don't intend to push the button, just in case you have to...

Also fun episode title. First they were literal prisoners, then we had the prisoners dilemma.

Edited October 15, 2022 by PurpleTentacle

[PurpleTentacle]

On 10/9/2022 at 11:30 PM, Lady Calypso said:

Samara not seeing the key was suspicious enough where it could have easily been an act of sabotage as the Mole and Will simply caught her during the Jailbreak, so she's on the table to be the Mole. 

I'd add Kesi to that list. Once her team finally started gathering clues for the password, she squandered their attempts in rapid succession. Although would that even be something the mole cares about? They don't care if their team gets immunity and money gets squandered, if one of the teams guesses the right password and hits the button... So maybe the mole would be more about not squandering the attempts.

[SourK]

On 10/9/2022 at 6:22 PM, Dani said:

Casey’s behavior was also suspect in that whole thing. She hears Greg say, “You wanna hear “hey” from everyone”, Pranav and Greg motion to her to run and get the others and she runs out and doesn’t come back. What was she thinking?

I had forgotten about this, but it's one of my favourite moments. Where Obvious Greg is like "Oh, you want to talk to EVERYONE, each of us INDIVIDUALLY, of course you can do that. Let's start with Pranav..." and what they all took from that was, "Cool, let's tell the other team our plan and wander down the hall."

At the same time, I thought his self-serving thing of "I'm not going to LIE; I'm just going to mislead them" made him sound way less convincing than if he'd just lied.

[colorsblend]

On 10/9/2022 at 6:09 PM, david gideon said:

Don't care for the cliffhangers either. Alex Wagner is no Anderson Cooper. She's too happy and smiley. She needs to be more serious and wry like Coop. One of the players looked familiar to me; I'm sure she's not really DIchen Lachman ('Dollhouse', 'Agents of SHIELD') but that's who I see every time Avori is on the screen.

I can see that, though she also reminds me of the actress who played Alex on Lost. 

[Kelda Feegle]

Late to this party but these are the vibes I get

[Kelda Feegle]

Why is Dom always draped over one or more of the women?

[katalizt]

On 10/9/2022 at 5:30 PM, Lady Calypso said:

Again, I think Joi's deceptions have been TOO obvious for her to be the Mole. I just think she's that bad at this. Joi hasn't done a single mission right and I feel like the Mole would not want to stand out as failing every mission, or close to failing every mission.

Same. I don't enjoy seeing people who are just bad at the game in any competition show so I hope she leaves soon.

Or she's the mole and doing a double bluff by being so obvious no one would think it was her. 

[aradia22]

Everyone is more suspicious than ever. If Joi or Greg is the Mole, production is doing a terrible job of hiding it. But if I've learned anything from mysteries, sometimes it is the most obvious person. The alternative is that Joi is really bad at challenges. 

I did like the two challenges. The prison break was a good concept. I do kind of wish the rooms weren't sequential (i.e. the person in the upstairs room definitely had to wait for someone in one of the other rooms because there was no way of them getting to the key in the bible on their own). The editing was decent to make it interesting enough to watch 3 tasks that were somewhat repetitive. I also liked that production was doing a kind of Deal or No Deal thing to make them gamble away 10 minutes but also letting them win by paying for 5 minutes back.

Weirdly, after this challenge, my attention turned to the competent people like Jacob. Was he uniquely good or did everyone else suck? 

It was a little funny they made all the pretty people get dolled up for a night out and then gave them a challenge. Though they were nice in not making it too physically taxing. I thought the red button challenge was a little dumb. They really should have just waited it out. But I guess they were too scared about the quiz. 

[aradia22]

Quote

How did Joi not see the key in front of the cell.  She is very suspicious to me.  Samara did not see it either.  But I think she was too vain to wear her glasses on TV.  She was squinting at it.

I am willing to believe it was at a weird angle. I think Samara and Joi were among the shorter contestants. But I think Sandy is also short and she saw the key? Or maybe Jacob saw it for himself. Now I forget.

Quote

As for the Password mission, Greg definitely seemed suspicious, but not enough to scream Mole-like behaviour. His plan to distract the team was decent, but he should have filled in the group after the first phone call and given Casey the phone for the second phone call. Pranav wasn't wrong in how he fumbled into a bad lie in the second phone call, but it's enough where it could easily be Mole-like behaviour. "Oops, I made a mistake on the phone to give it away to the other team but it's not exactly my fault; it's just the circumstances from what Greg did with the other group!"

I do think "person who creates drama by inspiring the other team to start searching" feels like something production would want the Mole to do.

Quote

One of the players looked familiar to me; I'm sure she's not really DIchen Lachman ('Dollhouse', 'Agents of SHIELD') but that's who I see every time Avori is on the screen.

I see Erin Gibson.