# "The Mole" tunnels back into our lives **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 2, 2008, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521 "2008-06-02T19:22:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521/21 "2008-06-03T12:42:47Z")
I only half watched the show, but I’m willing to bet that none of the stand-outs in this first episode are the Mole. The Mole usually has to use subtle movements for a while because if their cover is blown early, that makes for a pretty boring show. The people who are standing out now are trying to make people _think_ they’re the Mole because if everyone thinks that, they’ll get the questions wrong, they’ll get eliminated and it narrows the pool to choose from to identify the REAL Mole. The actual Mole is sitting back and watching right now. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521/22 "2008-06-03T17:00:30Z")
[QUOTE=randwill] So the Mole would have known the order that the bags were being hung up in (cash, cash, paper, paper, paper, cash, ect.) and would have matched the players to the bags, matching un-athletic players to the money bags, if I understand it right. [/QUOTE] As I understood it, Marcie simply got to say “I want player X to be jumping for real money” and “I want player Y to be jumping for fake money.” > [@](#): > > Anyway, the OBGYN is the Mole. She complained about sleeping outside the first night but seemed happy to camp on the beach the next night. You read it there first! Unless I’m wrong, then forget about it. I don’t think the Mole would do anything as obvious as complaining during the first night. She ought to be undermining the challenges while still maintaining the _appearance_ of a good team player. ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521/23 "2008-06-03T17:15:51Z")
The first season taught us that the best way to be the last player (i.e. Winner) is to convince everyone else that you’re the Mole. So anyone being overt at this point could be the Mole or not. It’s ironic that during the second season, a young, extremely attractive, black woman quite clearly did everything she could to convince folks that she was the Mole (and bitchy to boot), and then was quite hurt when she was excluded from something that everyone got a chance to vote on and then subsequently went home. Hey, honey, ya pays yer money, ya takes yer chances! Nicole didn’t get upset about sleeping out overnight because, unlike we the audience, she knew it was execution time. Which doesn’t change the fact that she comes across as a bit of a prima donna. I’d love to see it be either the older woman or the heavy-set guy. But oh how I miss Anderson Cooper! This fellow, whoever he is (is he anyone people know?), talks like an announcer or narrator instead of a human being. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521/24 "2008-06-03T18:13:53Z")
The host is [Jon Kelley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Kelley). Former football player and sports announcer. It could be worse. ABC could’ve hired Laird “Motorola message” Macintosh. ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521/25 "2008-06-03T19:03:22Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] The host is [Jon Kelley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Kelley). Former football player and sports announcer. It could be worse. ABC could’ve hired Laird “Motorola message” Macintosh. [/QUOTE] Ouch. My head just exploded. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521/26 "2008-06-03T20:17:58Z")
I forgot to watch! Is it available online? ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521/27 "2008-06-03T20:43:29Z")
Yes, on [ABC.com](http://ABC.com). ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521/28 "2008-06-03T22:00:55Z")
[QUOTE=rockle] Ouch. My head just exploded. [/QUOTE] Sorry. After I posted I spent a leisurely stretch re-reading all of the Treasure Hunters threads. My, but weren’t we all clever! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521/29 "2008-06-04T04:09:34Z")
My top mole candidates are Victoria, Paul and Marcie. Victoria is extremely low-key and the mole is usually invisible in the early game. Paul was over-the-top with his relief reaction-shot at the end, and I think he was in a coalition with Marcie, who got the early boot. A mole would encourage misinformation with an early ally. If Marcie comes back into the game later, then I think she is the mole… especially if this happens within the next two episodes. Because that would be the perfect way to throw off suspicion. Nobody would suspect the first person kicked off. (except me!) If Marcie does not return, then she guessed too specifically. If Paul shared information with her, then he can deduce the real Mole, since it would be pretty much the opposite of who Marcie suspected. Thus, I predict Paul will do well. If so, he could also be the mole. The correct early strategy, by the way, is to go purely with the odds. There’s no way to guess the Mole early on, so if a quiz question asks if the mole slept inside or out, you should choose “indoors” because more people slept inside. ---
**Author:** ![Neptunian\_Slug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Neptunian\_Slug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptunian_Slug)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521/30 "2008-06-04T04:30:03Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] What happens if the pick out the mole in the second episode or something? Is it game over? [/QUOTE] They never really know if they guess the mole correctly or not. The only person who knows how they did on the quiz is the player who gets executed. So even if you guess right on the quiz, you don’t get any positive feedback. You will (assuming you answer the other questions correctly) get to stay in the game longer. By the way, is it odd that the pot wasn’t deducted for Nicole’s failure to follow the rules? ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521/31 "2008-06-04T04:33:37Z")
[QUOTE=The Controvert] The correct early strategy, by the way, is to go purely with the odds. There’s no way to guess the Mole early on, so if a quiz question asks if the mole slept inside or out, you should choose “indoors” because more people slept inside. [/QUOTE] I was wondering what might be a good strategy when you really have nothing to go on yet. Perhaps picking TWO ‘mole candidates’ that are as different from each other as possible. As in, they were on different task teams, opposite sexes, etc. Then answer half of the questions as if ‘A’ were the mole and the other half as if ‘B’ were. If you were lucky enough to ‘suspect’ the real mole, you could get up to half the answers right (depending on your memory) which ought to be enough to stand you in good stead for the first few rounds. And even if neither of your suspects were the mole, well, by chance there might be enough overlap between the mole and one or both candidates. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521/32 "2008-06-04T06:24:33Z")
[QUOTE=Neptunian Slug] By the way, is it odd that the pot wasn’t deducted for Nicole’s failure to follow the rules? [/QUOTE] What “failure to follow the rules?” She found a loophole and exploited it. But, you do make a good point- it could be a sign of her Moliness…or making people want to think she’s the mole. If she was the mole and knew that the person who was considered the whiniest was not going to the execution, she could have had her fit intentionally. If she didn’t know and is _not_ the mole, it makes the other players believe she is. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521/33 "2008-06-04T16:12:45Z")
Does anyone know how closely the Mole works with the show’s producers as the game progresses? Is he/she given a detailed plan on how to behave and what to do throughout the game, or just general instructions and left to his/her own devices once the game is in progress? Does the Mole have any contact with the producers during the run of the game, to get inside information, change tactics, or for other reasons? Is the Mole fully informed about the other players’ strengths and weaknesses in advance, or does he/she meet and learn about them like any other player? ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521/34 "2008-06-04T16:22:07Z")
Oh, and since it’s been a while since the last season of _The Mole_, would anyone like to remind us of some of the previous series’ twists and turns, things we should be looking for, strategy ideas, etc., with specific references to the earlier shows? For instance, ISTR that in one of the previous series, they took players’ logbooks from them, and let other players read some or all of them (don’t remember the details). That led me to think that if I were playing, I’d use some sort of code for the other players’ names so that if, for any reason, my logbook got into someone else’s hands, it would be somewhat less useful to them. (The problem with this is that you’d have to encode other things too. If you write down that A, B, and C got the cash in the waterfall bag, your “code” is compromised. Making it work would be complicated.) Anything else like that that you want to remind us of? ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521/35 "2008-06-04T16:35:06Z")
I recall we were once shown/told that the Mole gets frequent, maybe even daily, meetings with some production people, who tell him/her in advance about the day’s activities and make suggestions on possible lines of sabotage, plus get feedback on what they’ve done – should they tone it down, lie low for a while, be more active, etc. I think that came out in interviews with the first Mole, who apparently also came to need a lot of hand holding and mental support because she found her role so stressful psychologically – the pretending to be friends with the others, genuinely liking some of them, and yet having to be constantly lying to them and trying to sabotage their attempts to win money. As for things that have happened in the past: –one time they collect all the personal baggage of the players and threatened to burn them if they didn’t accomplish whatever. The team failed, the baggage was burned…but it turned out to be fake baggage, not their own. – both previous times (in my universe, the Celebrity ones didn’t happen) they did a forced swap of the notebooks after some number of episodes. Once at least it was something like 'Pass your notebook three persons to the left. – Something they did in the past, but haven’t mentioned this time, is that they include special clues to the Mole’s identity, many of which are only seen by the audience. Those have included things like having a picture or something that related to a birth sign that only the mole had, and matrix-style hidden letters that spell out clues, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Airblairxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Airblairxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airblairxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521/36 "2008-06-09T05:18:50Z")
Sorry I’m late to this party; I DVR’d episode 1 and just got around to watching it. Anyway, the mole is . . . Victoria. I’d love to say that I reached this conclusion thanks to a finely-tuned understanding of human nature. But if you look at all of the helmets in the money-bag grab over the waterfall, hers is the only one with a green thumbprint (the show’s logo) on it. I’m right, I just know I am. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mole-tunnels-back-into-our-lives/451521.md?page=1)