The Mole Episode 01

I have to say for the record that I love "The Mole." I've been a fan of the show since long, long ago so I'll be pretty much posting every week about the show. For those who have not seen "The Mole," it's basically a psychological game about 12 players who are taken to various locations around the world and they participate in these missions in order to win money. Among them is a traitor a.k.a. "the mole," and their job is to sabotage missions and outwit the other players throughout the entire game. All of the players have no idea who is the mole and each suspects each other, recording their observations and suspicions in a journal provided by the game host. At the end of the week, a quiz is held for all players to test their knowledge on the mole. If they score high, they get to stay in the game. If they score the lowest amount of points, they are then sent home. Besides trying to find the mole, each player also tries to deceive other players into thinking they are the mole so others will test incorrectly and be sent home.

For the first episode, they players are taken to Chile. After all the players get to know each other, they are sent on their first mission: waterfall-jumping. Each player, while wearing protection gear strung on safety wire, will ride a raft up the river in order to jump for a money bag hanging on a pole sticking right over the edge of the waterfall. The player that everyone suspects is the mole, gets to be the commander of the mission and thus does not have to jump. This leaves 11 players jumping for money, and out of 11 bags of money only 6 carry real cash -- the rest have fake money inside. Each bag can hold $10,000 so the players have a chance of winning $60,000.

The first person suspected to be the mole is Marcie, a 31 year-old housewife, so she gets to take control of the mission. She gets to pick who jumps for money and who jumps for fake cash. The order of jumpers is as follows:

1. Alex (age 31, musician)
   
2. Ali (age 24, model)
3. Clay (age 32, attorney)
4. Kristin (age 35, neuroscientist)
5. Bobby (age 25, restaurant manager)
6. Liz (age 60, retired)
7. Paul (age 29, utility worker)
8. Victoria (age 26, retail manager)
9. Craig (age 30, graphic artist)
10. Nicole (age 33, obgyn)
11. Mark (age 42, h.s. history teacher/soccer coach)
    

Out of the 11, only Clay, Kristin, Bobby, Liz, Nicole and Mark get the bags, but only Clay's and Mark's have real money, which leaves the group with only $20,000.

Some observations made during the mission:
- Alex: pretty athletic, alleges to fear drowning and good on feet
- Ali: seems to be Christian (prays before she jumps)
- Clay: very belligerent-like attitude (he's a criminal trial lawyer)
- Kristin: alleges to be very athletic, pretty tall as well
- Bobby: gay, tall, very cute ^_^
- Liz: looks pretty heavy-set, used to teach dance for 20 years
- Paul: likes to talk a lot as though he is in charge, has a bit of an attitude
- Victoria: used to be a cheerleader, sat on raft entire time
- Craig: is very heavy-set, when he fails getting bag, everyone cheers
- Nicole: alleges to fear heights
- Mark: very competitive nature, also seems pretty smart (Well, he is a teacher)

Post-Mission: Since Marcie is still in charge, she gets to pick who gets to stay in a 8-person cabin and who gets to sleep outside. The four chosen to sleep outside are Nicole, Craig, Liz, and Bobby. Nicole refuses to sleep outside, so she circumvents inside the entire night. Since she is an obgyn, staying up all night is very easy for her. Everyone is annoyed with Nicole for her attitude. Meanwhile, it is evident that Alex and Paul have a coalition together.

Next Morning: Paul starts a coalition with Marcie in secret, and claims to audience that he is using Alex. Both Paul and Alex drive the two vans out to the beach for the second mission. The name of the second mission is "Crusoe," based off of Robinson Crusoe. The host gives a rundown of Crusoe being based off of real-life sailor, Alex Seltkirk, and the players are to scavenger hunt for five items that Seltkirk was left with when he was stranded on a deserted island in 1704. For this mission, the number one whiner of the group is picked to be the leader of the group. As Nicole was the one who whined the most, she was then made as the leader. She then picks six people to be scavengers, three people to be appraisers, and two to be timekeepers. The scavengers go and find items, bring them back to the appraisers to assemble together before the host to see what they got right, and the timekeepers run back and forth to grab sand and put it into a giant hourglass in order to give the team enough time. The team only has three tries to guess the correct items, and for each correct item they have, they win $5,000 per object. For the purposes of the mission. groups are divided as follows:

Scavengers: Craig, Marcie, Clay, Alex, Bobby, and Victoria
Appraisers: Kristin, Liz, and Mark
Timekeepers: Paul and Ali

Observations: throughout the mission, the girls do the most running around while the men kind of saunter about -- as said by Liz. Bobby alleges to be very out of shape and constantly puts his hand to his heart. Craig is pretty huge in size, so moving around quickly is pretty difficult for him. Though the girls are running around a lot, not all of them are too bright. Considering that the year is 1704, the products they scavenge should match it except some bring back fans, vacuum cleaners, and jeans. Mark gets pretty irritated with the scavengers for wasting time in bringing back useless objects, while Paul stops filling the sandglass after alleging to be exhausted. Ali continues to try and keep the glass from losing all the sand. In the end, only three items are correct, which gives the team a total of $15,000 for the mission and overall pot amount is now at $35,000.

Once the mission is over, the whiner is stranded on the island while everyone else goes back to the hotel. Because of this, Nicole spends the night by herself on the beach; however there are enough items lying around for her to make a fire and sleep with blankets, sleeping bags, etc.

Back at the hotel, everyone goes over their observations and try to see who the mole is. When dinner hits, the eleven players join the host for a meal and chat about the game so far. They get to drink... pisco sours!!!! *dies in envy* (Now I want to go to the Moxie for pisco sours) After dinner, the eleven players take the execution test about the mole and quiz questions are as follows:

1. Is the mole male or female?
2. When did the mole jump in "Over the Falls" mission?
3. In the "Crusoe" mission, which role was the mole assigned to?
4. On the first night, where was the mole assigned to sleep?
5. As written on their bag, does the mole have an even or odd number of letters in their name?
6. What is the mole's age?
7. In "Over the Falls," what was the outcome of the mole's jump?
8. Did the Mole drive one of the vans to the beach?
9. At the start of the "Crusoe" mission. was the mole wearing a hat?
10. Who is the mole?

When answers are being tallied, the host brings a screen of Nicole up so all players can see each other. The host tells Nicole that since she is currently stranded, there is no need for her to take the quiz so she is exempt from being executed that evening -- which basically makes her night. Meanwhile, the other players are nervously looking on, hoping that they get to stay in the game. After Victoria's, Ali's, Bobby's, Mark's, and Paul's results are shown, we discover that Marcie is the one who gets eliminated for having the lowest score.

Suspicions Revealed During Quiz:
- Craig: Marcie
- Bobby: Kristin
- Marcie: Nicole
- Mark: Craig
- Victoria: Bobby

For me personally, I never suspected Marcie to be the mole. Some of the reasons she gave throughout the first episode really remind me of a person who thinks they're capable of a lot, but has quite a few limitations. Marcie married young after getting pregnant by her high school sweetheart so her education basically stopped right after high school. She does not seem to know very much, and though she may be a pretty good judge of character, she is not very good at feeling out for the right answers. Starting a coalition with Pauly, is not exactly smartest decision.

So far some suspicions I have is that Nicole holds the potential to be the mole for various reasons; however, Liz and Craig should not be left out. Craig is very big, which makes missions of serious physical stamina pretty difficult for him and Liz is 60 years old, she is pretty quick on her feet for being a retired lady, but she holds the possibility for being the mole too. These two are people you would never really suspect. Seriously though, I have no idea right now as it is still too early in the game to tell. Perhaps with the next episode, we'd be able to close in on more answers.