S02.E10: Who Is The Mole?

[QQQQ]

The last mission becomes the final chance to gather the decisive clues. The eliminated players return to crown the winner and unmask the Mole.

[Meedis]

The final episode continues to be the suckiest (even though it had competition this season).   So it was Sean after all that was the Mole and I did expect Michael to pull the win since he was on the trail from the beginning and used himself as Mole material to eliminate most of the other players.    It was cool to see Muna was on the Sean train for a while as well.

So I take the show putting Muna, Michael, and Sean's names in the Truck challenge as a clue to everyone saying the top two players who were on to the Mole Sean.   Judging by how the contestants played at the time, Sean was hardly on anyone's radars.

Sadly the show failed to get into the heads of the remaining contestants or even to have each give an official call for who they think the Mole is and who was the winner.   Part of me wonders if there's a 'politically correct' motive in why they're not doing this anymore.  Maybe as not to potentially offend the last victim by calling them a loser.    But then they make "the loser" feel worse by not having them sit with the winner and Mole.    Though technically all the players including the Mole should've been sitting together and they should've had a proper interview showing everyone's motivations at the time.

I'm assuming if Season 3 of the Mole is in the cards, they have no intentions of changing this new format.   I actually wouldn't mind though if they changed the host once more.

So ends another season.   I will say they did a good job of hiding the Mole in plain sight this season.   Sean seemed so bumbling and made it seem early that he was 'pretending to be the Mole' that I didn't really think of him as the Mole until Ryan  went home.    I had to laugh when Muna said she suspected him since the way he was acting he should've went home the first night...LOL.

Will there be a Season 3?   That is the question.

[Lovecat]

Well, that happened.  I miss old school Mole.  The S1 finale of the original US run remains one of my favorite hours of teevee ever.  That 3-way escape room was diabolical...the little game of kaboom this season, not so much.  I remember being underwhelmed by last season's finale mission, too.

I was with several of you on the Ryan!Mole train and was shocked when she was eliminated.  Then I switched my suspicions to Michael and was surprised again when it turned out to be Sean. I 'd never win this game, LOL!!

[Meedis]

I agree Lovecat.   The final challenge was very underwhelming.   I was thinking, that's it?   And of course Michael used it to try and sway Muna away from Sean but that didn't work.   Though obviously it didn't matter since he got the most questions right.

I thought last season's final challenge in the caves was more interesting though a nice twist as some suggested would've been to have the three players start in separate sections to allow the Mole to do some sneaky sabotage.

[Irlandesa]

6 hours ago, Meedis said:

Sadly the show failed to get into the heads of the remaining contestants or even to have each give an official call for who they think the Mole is and who was the winner. 

Some of the contestants are on Reddit and there have been interviews after the fact.  I wish they'd skip the final challenge and just do a 4-person test with a longer reunion.  They showed The Mole's POV but they didn't show what the finalists saw or believed. 

Michael's game gets a lot better in retrospect after reading the interviews.  The top 6 had all clued in on Sean as The Mole.  But Michael's consistent attempts to play as being the mole threw enough people off that they'd throw one or two answers his way which I think was enough to throw off Deanna and Ryan at the end.  I think Deanna said that she gave one answer to Michael on her final quiz and the rest for Sean. He and Muna were working together to throw suspicion on one another which may be why they made it to the end together.

Finally, because he knew people suspected him, he decided to try and never be on the same team or in the same car as Sean.  That way, if one of the quiz questions was "what position did The Mole play in X challenge?" it forced people to have to pick between him and Sean.

Ultimately, he won because he decided to go all in on Sean early on and tried to learn as much about him as possible.

I'd love to hear more from the contestants about why they did what they did.  But I guess they're afraid that if they showed that the top 6 pegged Sean as the mole, they'd reveal how much they tried to fool the audience via editing.

[QQQQ]

If the top 6 clocked Sean as the mole, that must have sucked for the editors 😅 And it also explains why this season just felt so anticlimatic. 

I'd be up for a Celebrity Mole. Those seem to have humor and, because we are usually familiar with the personalities of the players, it's easier to become invested in the gameplay.

[LakeGal]

Sean is the mole.  

I felt like the finale was missing something.  We watched the entire series and then it just kind of landed with a Thud.  We have to follow them on instagram or whatever to find out what they were thinking.  Why?  The show should be having the finale that shows us what they were thinking.  

I love old school Mole.  I enjoyed The Mole in the past.  I have watched the show from several other countries. This version seems to be trying to tell their own story.  They hide stuff from the viewers.  I want to know what the players know.  How are we suppose to play along if they insist on hiding things?  We are already at a disadvantage from the players because we do not get to see the stuff they see.  The players know they are not the Mole so they already have that advantage over us. I remember hearing in the past that players would guess who the Mole was by where their room was and when they would be around each other.  As viewers we do not get to know anything.  We don't even know who they are suspecting half the time when they take the test.  The least they could do is show us each episode who the players suspect as the mole on their test.  The editors hide too much from us viewers.

I could have done without all the sob stories too.  It was getting annoying. 

I still love The Mole.  But I think they could do so much better.  Other countries do a better job.     

[wenhiku]

I was not onto the mole.  I am disappointed to hear that Sean was figured out by the final six.  I was down to Sean and Michael by the end, but I did not get there until the last episode.  I was familiar with Muna's gameplay from a previous show, so I really did not suspect her at all.

I agree with LakeGal's assessment, actually everyone's comments!  The current showrunner or producer needs to go back and watch the original Mole seasons.  I do not care about their personal stories.  I do not care for wannabe influencers that just want screen time.  

I liked having clues for the viewers and using the last episode to share all of them.  I like when the host plays along with them - Anderson Cooper was still the best host in my opinion.

[bunnyface]

I kind of forgot to watch the last two episodes until today, so I guess that's my level of interest.

I had moved off of Hannah being The Mole, but I for sure thought she knew who it was and had it in the bag.  

I thought Michael was either incredibly stupid or The Mole.  Even after winning, I think he is one or the other and since we know one is false...

I honestly had no more interest in Sean more than anyone else as IT until he said he had no interest in making the pot any larger.  And that was only 2 or 3 scenes from the end, so...I guess I am the person that opens the door in the deserted cabin in the woods at night after hearing a funny noise.  Dead every time.

[rwgrab]

I was on to Sean from the KL mission at the gala on, because he hid the photo of one of the people they were looking for.  There's no reason for anybody to hide any of the pictures unless that person has inside information about who they're after.  Otherwise, why do it?  

So for me (and apparently the final six), there was no real mystery in the finale.  But hats off to the editors for making it seem like folks were suspecting other people!

[Irlandesa]

6 hours ago, rwgrab said:

I was on to Sean from the KL mission at the gala on, because he hid the photo of one of the people they were looking for.  There's no reason for anybody to hide any of the pictures unless that person has inside information about who they're after.  Otherwise, why do it?  

He claimed he did it because he saw Michael looking at him and wanted to throw him off.  I think it looked almost too obvious which is why I didn't really think it was him at that point. 

It's interesting because someone compared how much money each player added/lost to the pot and Michael and Ryan were about equal in about how much money they lost the pot.  Michael's strategy was to play like the mole. 

 

[AllisonWonderland]

On 7/17/2024 at 2:27 PM, rwgrab said:

I was on to Sean from the KL mission at the gala on, because he hid the photo of one of the people they were looking for.  There's no reason for anybody to hide any of the pictures unless that person has inside information about who they're after.  Otherwise, why do it?  

So for me (and apparently the final six), there was no real mystery in the finale.  But hats off to the editors for making it seem like folks were suspecting other people!

Yes, this! I was feeling really strongly about Sean for several episodes, but the players and the commenters here were tepid on him as the Mole, so I convinced myself that I was maybe thinking too hastily. But the task where he removed the photos from the wall seemed to me, not even in retrospect but as it was happening, to be an "Ok, Hail Mary move here, OPE I GOT CAUGHT!!!, Crap, I'ma just say it was because I was *trying* to look like the Mole!!!" move.

It was so badly executed that it almost seemed like a botched attempt to attract attention, but also.... I kind of feel like The Mole (the show) has gotten to be a bit like The Circle in that players are trying to meta-game the thing a bit too hard? I love people thinking several steps ahead, but harkening back to the early Mole days, I liked when the Mole just hid behind choreographed flubs and "honest mistakes" rather outright sabotaging a thing to try and deflect/attract/double-bluff Mole attention. 

I still adore this show and can't wait for more! I'm sad Muna didn't win because she had my earnest-player vote from the beginning, but hopefully we'll see more from her in the future! (she is so gosh-dang beautiful and warm and lovely, especially now that we know she was being genuine; I'd love to see her modeling or commentating or something going forward! LFG Queen Muna!!) 

[peachmangosteen]

On 8/1/2024 at 4:38 AM, AllisonWonderland said:

I'm sad Muna didn't win because she had my earnest-player vote from the beginning, but hopefully we'll see more from her in the future! (she is so gosh-dang beautiful and warm and lovely, especially now that we know she was being genuine; I'd love to see her modeling or commentating or something going forward! LFG Queen Muna!!) 

You may already know this but in case you don't, you can watch Muna play another competitive reality game, Sequester, on youtube.

 

[Hanahope]

Half of the Mole’s job is made easy by other contestants sabotaging the missions to make others vote for them as the mole.  Just like the auction, Sean didn’t have to do much except say he was going to bid.  He could have bid $1,000 but he know someone would bid huge.  
 

and he knew others would occasionally do stupid or on purpose stuff to cause money loss to make themselves look suspicious.

Sean was on my radar early being an undercover cop, but Ryan crept up as she was so passive in supporting all wrong choices.  But Sean did more active sabotage.