We zoom in on Los Angeles, Chile from outer space, and see Jon Kelley walking by a majestic waterfall as he describes the game and introduces the players:
Two vans meet up with Jon and everyone meets themselves for the first time beside the Salto del Laja Waterfalls.
Bobby: "I've been obsessed with The Mole since it started. The game is just one big huge mind game. It's all about how well you know people and how well you can lie. You have to have 'Game on' from the first minute you meet everyone."
Jon says that by now they've had a chance to meet one another and form their very first suspicions. He hands a ballot to each player and tells them to circle the player they think is the Mole, based on their exceedingly brief contact with one another.
The most suspected player is Marcie. She stands with Jon.
Marcie: "When Jon said the players think I'm the Mole, I was happy, because you want to try to make people think that you are the Mole."
For the next 24 hours, Marcie will have an advantage over the others, getting to make key decisions that will matter in the game.
Alex: "I definitely think Marcie could be the Mole. That's very scary, at this point in time. Because she was in that prime position to sabotage."
Jon describes the history of tourism involving waterfall beside which they stand. The first challenge involves each player taking a raft and navigating to the edge of a waterfall where a burlap money bag is connected to a zipline. They have to jump from the raft and grab the moneybag as their raft falls over the edge (the players are on harnesses that suspend them in midair at that point). The catch is that only six of them will be jumping for cash, the others will be jumping for nothing. Marcie gets to make the choice of whose bags will actually contain $10,000, and whose bags will contain worthless paper, and of course they won't know who's who.
Ali: "I couldn't believe it. I was - we're jumping off a waterfall. I could die."
Paul and Mark speculate that the group may have to stay outside tonight, by the waterfall. Craig thinks they're nuts for thinking of that when a rather harrowing challenge involving the waterfall faces them.
Alex is first to jump.
Alex: "My greatest fear is definitely falling from a great height and, you know, finding myself drowning. "As a performer, I'm good on my feet in certain situations. I knew it was do or die."
He isn't lined up with the money bag and can't grab it or even try.
Ali: "Alex looked suspicious because the bag just looked so far from him. And it almost just looked like he could have just given it a little bit more. I think everyone was counting on him, because he's one of the more athletic guys. "I was scared. And I could feel myself starting to shake. I said a couple prayers. I said 'Dear Lord Jesus, I don't know what the heck I'm doing here now. Please just give me your strength.'"
Next is Ali. Her fingers graze the money bag, but she can't quite reel it in as she blows past.
Clay: "I was disappointed. Ali, she looks physically fit. I thought that she should be able to get the bag. I really did. It's game time. Get the bag - bottom line. "Being an attorney, I don't jump waterfalls. I try to stay in shape, but at most, I'm jumping over my kids' toys."
Clay is next. His raft lines up perfectly with the money bag and he doesn't even seem to have to jump to secure the bag. The players cheer.
Marcie: "Being isolated from the group, I didn't like it, because I wanted to be able to get to know these players. So it kind of bothered me just a little bit that I didn't get to go do that."
Kristen is next on the raft. She too is able to take down the bag.
Kristen: "I'm a neuroscientist, and a natural athlete, so I knew I was doing it. I had no fear."
Bobby: "When it was my turn, I was definitely nervous, because they told us there was a slim chance that you could hang yourself."
Bobby is also able to grab the bag as he goes past. Craig tells Liz not to get the bag because it'll make him look really bad.
Liz: "I think that everyone thought, uh oh, poor little old lady, she's not going to be able to do it."
But Liz does in fact grab the bag.
Liz: "So it was wonderful to be able to get out there and show them my stuff."
Paul: "As soon as I got on the raft, I thought, I have to get this bag. My daughter, when she grows up, will say 'You couldn't get the bag? A 60 year old lady got the bag.'"
He isn't lined up with the bag and has to jump for it from well on the other side. He misses.
Paul: "60 year old lady gets the bag and I do not get the bag, so my worst fear has come true."
Victoria: "When Jon told us that we were going over the falls, I was thinking, heck no I'm not going over the falls! And I was really, really scared, but I was a cheerleader in college, I'm pretty athletic. I wasn't going to let myself or the team down."
Victoria stumbles and falls to a a sitting position. She tries to grab the bag from there but isn't anywhere close to it.
Craig: "When I looked at that waterfall and I saw the rope going over the waterfall, the first thing that popped into my mind was 'That thing can't hold me.' I thought for sure I was going to plummet to my death, the rope was gonna snap. So I was gonna be able to do it, but I was probably gonna die. "All of a sudden, I'm going over the falls, and there's the bag right there, so I jump for it and the line just pulls taut and chokes me like a hanged man. No thought of grabbing anything, it's just survival."
As he tumbles over the edge, the players run to the edge and look greatly concerned. Craig seems a little shaken up, but emerges okay, although without his money bag.
Nicole: "I have a fear of heights. And when I decided to go for it, I wanted to conquer that fear.
Nicole also loses her footing and tries to grab the bag sitting down like Victoria, but she actually gets it.
Mark: "I'm very competitive. Whether I'm playing something or whether I'm coaching, I really don't like losing. I say losing is failure."
Mark easily grabs the bag. He says there better be money in there or someone's getting killed.
Jon reviews that six bags were successfully grabbed. Nicole opens hers. Just fake Mole money. Same for Kristen.
Ali: "I was surprised she didn't pick Kristen. She's very athletic, she's tall, too. You know that's an advantage. So that was suspicious."
Bobby opens his and it also has no cash.
Bobby: "I was livid. It was obviously a little bit suspicious. I mean, you have to think it suspicious."
Mark opens his bag and the group has its first money, $10,000 in the group pot.
Liz asks if Marcie believes in little old ladies. Apparently not. No money there.
Clay's bag contains money, so $20,000 is won in this game.
OVER THE FALLS - +$20,000
TOTAL - $20,000 Clay Kristen: "That could be $60,000 in the pot, easily. I absolutely thought I was jumping for money. 100%" Jon reveals the Mole journals for the players, holding up number 11. They've got a slightly different look this year, just as everything does, with black the primary color on the covers. Victoria: "I was excited, because I knew I'd be able to take down notes. I gotta start writing: What's suspect? What's not? What do I think? What do I think about the mission? What do I think about the players?" Marcie has more important decisions to make. She also gets to decide who sleeps where. Jon has access to a cabin, but only 8 people can sleep there. Marcie has to decide who sleeps outside and she picks Nicole, Liz, Craig, and Bobby. Nicole seems furious with the assignment and steadfast to refuse it, despite clear instructions that they had to sleep where they were assigned. Nicole: "I'm very annoyed that Marcie would pick me to sleep outside. Since they said all you have to do is sleep outside, well I said if I'm staying in the rules, I'm just not gonna sleep." That's pretty clever, I have to say, if finicky. Has she never camped in her life? Paul: "Nicole comes in, 'I gotta way to circumvent the rules!!~!' The girl expected to be put up in 5-star hotels. So she just kept getting more and more on my nerves. If you cant do it, Nicole, you shouldn't be here." Many in the cabin write their observations from the first game in their journals. Marcie: "This game is hard. I forget a lot of things, and I'm writing it down so I can go back into it for the quiz." Craig, Bobby, and Liz settle in around a campfire outside. Craig suggests they tell ghost stories. The next day breaks, and everyone seems a little cranky. Nicole: "I'd been up all night, and I just kept myself company until dawn." She says she'd do anything for a blow dryer and a curling iron. Paul and Marcie discuss forming a coalition. She says she'll hunt him down and kill him if he's the Mole. Paul: "For some reason, I had a gut feeling that Marcie was the person I needed to have my coalition with. Coalitions are important for sharing information and misleading people." Marcie: "I feel that I'm a good judge of character. "Being a mom and having kids has been helpful in this game, because I can look into players' faces, like I look into my kids' faces, and when they're not completely telling the truth, I can tell." Paul finds a video message from Jon: Good morning, mi amigos. Time to get ready for your next mission. You'll meet me at Puda Beach, so dress accordingly. Paul seems to think "dress accordingly" is important, so he shouts out "Beach wear! Beach wear!" to everyone in the cabin. He also designates himself and Alex to drive the players to the beach. Paul: "I basically took control of driving. I kinda had a feeling that I was going to use Alex in the future of this, so I said to him, 'Hey Alex, you're gonna drive that second car.'" Bobby: "Alex and Paulie obviously have a coalition. And it's the dumbest coalition ever, I think. Everyone knows about it. They make it so obvious. It's just ridiculous." After a little while, the players travel by boat to the next location. Jon greets the players at the beach. He asks for the group's biggest whiner, which is quite obviously, and unanimously, Nicole. Nicole: "I don't whine. I voice my opinions. What's wrong with being smart and gorgeous at the same time?" Paul: "Nicole is the type of person you love to hate, basically." Jon describes the book Robinson Crusoe. He says it's based on the true story of Alexander Selkirk, who was marooned in Chile in 1704. He calls him "a big time whiner who bitched and moaned all day long." He tells the group's whiner, Nicole to select six scavengers, three appraisers, and two timekeepers. Craig, Marcie, Alex, Bobby, Victoria, and Clay are the scavengers, Kristen, Liz, and Mark are the appraisers, and that leaves Paul and Ali to be the timekeepers. There are 45 items scattered all over the beach. They have to find the 5 items Selkirk had with him in 1704. The scavengers have to find as many items as possible and hand them off to the appraisers, who must use their knowledge and logic to determine what Selkirk had with him. They have to put five items on the table behind which Jon and Nicole sit and ring a bell to signify a completed guess. They get three chances, but the catch is that the timekeepers have to continuously take buckets of sand up some stairs and dump them into an oversized, but fast-emptying hourglass. If the sand runs out, the game ends. Jon informs them that the current level of sand means there's about ten minutes on the clock. Each correct item at the end of the game is worth $5,000 for the pot. The game begins and Paul and Ali set to scooping sand. The appraisers see some of the items before the scavengers even set out to look for them. Liz: "I noticed that most of the girls were doing most of the running. And some of the guys were just kind of sauntering a little bit." Craig: "I was selected as a scavenger. Which, to me, seemed ridiculous, because I knew that I would be running all over the beach. Obviously, that's not one of my best qualities." Clay: "I had no idea what I was looking for. And at a certain point, I was just like hey, get what you can find it, let the appraisers parse it out." Marcie: "I was pulling the goat, and he kept pulling me back." Mark wonders how they'll get the goat on the table. Nicole: "I picked Mark on purpose because of his history teacher background. And he did seem a little bit lost with the items. Maybe he's the Mole." Mark: "I thought the scavengers wasted a ton of time and energy bringing stuff back that they knew full well wasn't gonna be around in the 17th - - they were bringing a vacuum, and an electric fan, and I'm going, 'No! Will you stop it?' "Craig brought over the Mole sign. That's not funny." The message from the Mole is ENJOY YOUR DAY AT THE BEACH. ONE OF YOU WILL SOON BE GOING HOME! - THE MOLE Bobby is in physical distress. Clay: "I look over and Bobby's like grasping his chest like he's an 80 year old war veteran. Seemed a little suspicious." The appraisers ring the bell, with an antique battery, a bowler hat, a Bunsen burner, a Victrola, and a goat. There is one item correct. Liz: "I was sure he had a Victrola somewhere. But you know what, that must have been Swiss Family Robinson." Paul says he no longer needs dinner - he's had a sand sandwich and now really doesn't like Nicole. Time is running short. Mark: "Craig is falling over from stroke. And Bobby couldn't make those skinny legs of his go through the sand, and Paulie was just busting it. This is just a train wreck." Next in from the scavengers are a Bible and a mason jar. The appraisers' second guess is a camera, a Bible, a Mason jar, a musket, and the goat. They have three correct items. The scavengers have only found 28 of the 45 items. They find a pair of blue jeans and figure that Selkirk must have had pants. Paul lies down on the beach and says he doesn't care. The final ring of the bell sounds just in time as the last of the sand falls from the hourglass. On the final try, they have a revolver. Wrong. The revolver was invented in 1835. Then a musket, correct. Bible, also correct. 1873 for the blue jeans. The jeans are incorrect. Paul is incredulous that he "coughed up a lung" for blue jeans. The goat is correct. CRUSOE TEST - +$15,000
TOTAL - $35,000 "We had a chance to have $85,000 by now. We're either not doing well as a group, or the Mole is just that good." The other correct items were tobacco in a small box, which apparently no one found, as well as a copper tea kettle, which is shown among some rocks. Just as was Robinson Crusoe, someone from the group has to be stranded on the beach. And guess who? Doctor Whiner, Nicole, gets left behind. The players seem pretty happy to hear that, cheering and applauding. Nicole: "When the group started laughing, I was a little bit hurt." Nicole digs a fire pit on the beach and tries however possible to become comfortable. Victoria, Marcie, and Liz discuss their suspicions in their hotel room, specifically how quickly Bobby got tired in the Crusoe mission. Marcie: "Bobby could be the Mole." Alex and Paul do the same in their room. Alex: "I definitely think Marcie could be the Mole. She can flip a switch and suddenly get her game on." Paul: "Right now, Marcie is my major coalition partner. I don't believe she's the Mole. At this point, I'm using Alex, and I'm actually drawing him towards Marcie, which is a beautiful thing. Right now everyone sees me and Alex buddy-buddy, and that's exactly what I want them to think." The team meets Jon at the dinner before the first execution. He tells them to eat, drink, and be merry, and treat it like it's their last supper. He also reminds them that Nicole is still absent, which apparently means she won't have to take the quiz or face execution. Craig wishes Nicole was around so he could get more information from her. Everyone seems to agree with this. Marcie says the game is hard, being unable to trust or confide in anyone.
Paul: "Craig is right now my leading suspect to be the Mole. Because he is just the person that you love to love. He's the last person that anyone would think is the Mole." Marcie: "Going into the quiz, everybody is nervous. And I'm very nervous. I hope I'm playing this game good. I hope that I'm playing it smart. I don't want to go home." Jon asks who has a decent bead on who the Mole is. No one volunteers to say this. Paul says it's too early to know. Mark says everyone but the Mole would agree that the quiz is scarier than any challenge. Mark: "I feel like the way I've played the game right now, I went out a little too fast, and so I'm hoping I get a second chance tonight to kind of start over. The main reason I am doing this is because my wife and I have both worked 2 jobs or more as long as we've known each other. And my wife has had to do that while raising 3 children. If I can make enough money that my wife wouldn't have to work anymore, that would be awesome. (voice cracks)'Cuz our kids aren't gonna be kids much longer. (sniffles and his eyes water) And I think she needs to be with them as much as she can." Jon raises a toast to everyone at the table, complimenting the Chilean national drink, the pisco sour, and bidding the Mole to be merciful. And now the quiz. 1. Is the Mole male or female? A. Male 2. When did the Mole jump in the Over the Falls mission? A. First Craig: "Marcie's selections didn't make sense to me. She chose all the shortest people to go for the cash, and I don't know why." 3. During the Crusoe mission, which group was the Mole assigned to? A. Scavenger Liz: "The two items that were not found would be very easy for the Mole to make sure it didn't get found." 4. On the first night, where was the Mole assigned to sleep? A. Inside Bobby: "Kristen is on my radar. She's very smart. Super-athletic. So she could do anything, and screw up what she wanted to, and excel at everything else. So I think she would be a great, great Mole." 5. As it's written on the Mole's bag, does the Mole have an even or odd number of letters in their name? A. Even 6. What is the Mole's age? A. 24 Marcie: "Nicole could be the Mole. She's questionable with certain things that she's done." 7. In Over the Falls, what was the outcome of the Mole's jump? A. Successfully grabbed a bag with money Mark: "Craig is somebody that everybody is rooting for. And nobody expected Craig to succeed in that mission. When he didn't make it, everybody cheered for him. I mean, what a perfect cover, that you can blow things and people will actually be happy for you." 8. Did the Mole drive one of the vans to the beach? A. Yes 9. At the start of the Crusoe mission, was the Mole wearing a hat? A. Yes Victoria: "Bobby could very well be the Mole. Marcie and I are running back and forth at least five different trips, and Bobby is out of breath. So, that's a little bit suspect." 10. Who is the Mole? A. Ali It is now time for the execution. Click on the pictures below. If a green screen appears, that player remains in the game. If, however, a red screen appears, that player is the Mole's first victim.
Nicole is still at the beach and thus does not face execution.
Who is definitely NOT the Mole: Nicole, Mark, Kristen
Who may very well be the Mole: Ali, Victoria, Paul (if for no other reason than loyally sticking to my pick) Click here for the recap of episode two.
B. Female
B. Second
C. Third
D. Fourth
E. Fifth
F. Sixth
G. Seventh
H. Eighth
I. Ninth
J. Tenth
K. Eleventh
L. The Mole did not jump
B. Timer
C. Appraiser
D. Whiner
B. Outside
B. Odd
B. 25
C. 26
D. 29
E. 30
F. 31
G. 33
H. 35
I. 42
J. 60
B. Successfully grabbed a bag without money
C. Tried but did not grab a bag
D. Did not go over the falls
B. No
B. No
B. Alex
C. Bobby
D. Clay
E. Craig
F. Kristen
G. Liz
H. Marcie
I. Mark
J. Nicole
K. Paul
L. Victoria
