ELIMINATED FROM ALPHA TONI

ELIMINATED FROM BETA CONNOR

Now with Toni and Connor gone, the group take on the challenges a lot harder.  Their fist task is for each team to select two people who are musical experts.  Dave nominates Justin and Veronica for Alpha.  However, the group become unhappy about the decision, Veronica especially.  Dan nominates Sharna and Tim from Beta.

CHALLENGE ONE: THE NEXT LINE

Each of the six other team members are given a line from current top 40 songs in both the United States and Australia.  Their job is to send the host the next line of the song.  If they send in the correct next line word for word, they collect two musical notes for their musical experts.  There are 12 musical notes in all to collect, and together they play a line from a stage musical song.  If both musical experts can submit the next line of the song correctly, the team win $40,000 for the kitty.  The six lines are as follows:

Line #1: The night is young and so are we
Line #2: All the mommas who profit dollas
Line #3: If I wanna floss I got my own
Line #4: If you're gone, baby you need to come home
Line #5: It's just something that we do
Line #6: I will be late, don’t stay up and wait for me

Nick is the first from Beta to submit his next line for a Madonna song.  He is correct.  Dan soon follows with his Destiny's Child line.  Four musical notes have been earnt for the Beta experts.

The rest of the Alpha team follow the first three very quickly.  Blake answers his next line for Debelah Morgan correctly.  Steve angrily receiving a Backstreet Boys song, still answers his next line correctly after downloading the song from Napster.  Robbie is the last to answer for Alpha and guesses his Madonna next line correctly.  All twelve notes have been earnt for Alpha and the musical experts receive the entire stage musical song.  All they have to do is work out what song it is and what the next line is to win $40,000.

Meanwhile a few more Beta's send in lines, but aren't as successful as Alpha.  Daniel misses an obvious word in his Jennifer Lopez next line.  Yves checks out the Backstreet Boys site and answers his next line correctly.  Natalie submits a line from the Matchbox 20 song, but it is not the next line from the one she was given.  It costs the team 2 musical notes and their total stands at 6 musical notes out of a possible 10.

Billy is yet to send in his next line.  It's nearing the deadline and the two musical experts are given the chance to hear the song with the 6 musical notes or risk it and wait for Billy who may earn them an extra and valuable 2 notes.

Justin from Alpha is the first musical expert to send in a line.  He thinks it's "When chains are torn by courage born", but for the line to be valid, both musical experts must send in the exact same line.  Veronica does send in the line shortly after, but unfortunately the line is wrong.  After the perfect performance by the team, the so-called 'experts' lose the challenge.

Tim, the Beta musical expert wants to hear the song now without Billy's input.  But he sends the email to the host too late and the challenge deadline arrives.  $40,000 goes begging for both teams.

Unusual activity occurs in the Alpha mailing list.  Several of the group members claimed they stopped receiving emails from the list.  They checked the settings and 'someone' had changed the settings so noone would receive any updates.  Who was responsible?  Veronica and Dave were in charge of the room.  While Robbie and Steve just happened to be online when it happened...

CHALLENGE TWO: BOARD GAME

The second challenge of the week is presented to the team.  They need to select two people who are on the net a lot and like to play board games.  Tim nominates Dan and Billy from Beta.  Isaiah selects Mike and Dave from Alpha.  The four of them have the challenge of playing board games against the host online.  Their first job is to catch him when he is on the net.  Once they have done that, they must give him three choices of a board game.  The host will select one of the games to play.  If any of the players can beat the host in his one game, he will win $25,000 for their team's kitty.

Mike from Alpha is the first to play.  He gives the host the choices of chess, checkers and reversi.  The host chooses reversi.  He's very confident when he confronts the host, thinking he's definitely going to win.  But unfortunately the host beats Mike 39 to 25.  Billy from Beta is next to play.  He chooses chess, checkers and chinese checkers to play.  The host decides chinese checkers and Billy announces that he actually doesn't know how to play the game even though he had selected it.  Obviously, the host beats him easily.  Dave is Alpha's last chance at winning an easy $25,000.  He gives the host the choices of chess, checkers and go.  The host chooses go and leads the game 69 to 0.  Dave decides to resign from the game so that his loss is not too embarrasing.  Alpha have lost the challenge.  Dan is unable to catch the host when he is online so therefore Beta also lose the board game challenge.

CHALLENGE THREE: RISKY QUIZ

The other six team members are given the third challenge for the week.  Each team has to split up into two groups of three and each group is given three logical puzzles to solve.  If the team can solve 4 out of the 6 puzzles between the two groups, the team win $60,000 for the kitty.  However there are a few catches.  Each group may only submit one answer for each puzzle.  If the answer is correct, it will knock out a person from their opposing team.  This means the knocked out person may not help out with the challenge from that point forward.  However if the answer is incorrect, it will knock out a person from their other team's group and the same knocking out rules apply.  If anyone tells the host if one of the knocked out players are helping with the challenge, they will lose the challenge for the team, but win for themselves a free pass into the next episode.

Isaiah, Veronica and Steve make up Alpha I while Justin, Blake and Robbie make up Alpha II.  Beta I consists of Tim, Natalie and Nick and Beta II has Yves, Sharna and Daniel.  All four groups get to work immediately on the six puzzles:

GROUP I

PUZZLE #1: BURNING ROPE
There are two lengths of rope.  Each one can burn in exactly one hour.  They are not necessarily of the same length or width as each other.  They also are not of uniform width (may be wider in middle than on the end), thus burning half of the rope is not necessarily 1/2 hour.  By burning the ropes, how do you measure exactly 45 minutes worth of time?

PUZZLE #2: ACROSS THE BRIDGE
The mole contestants need to reach Grant in 17 minutes and they all must cross a bridge to get there. All four begin on the same side of the bridge. You must help them across to the other side. It is night. There is one flashlight. A maximum of two people can cross at one time. Any party who crosses, either 1 or 2 people, must have the flashlight with them. The flashlight must be walked back and forth, it cannot be thrown, etc. Each band member walks at a different speed. A pair must walk together at the rate of the slower person's pace:
Jan:- 1 minute to cross
Abby:- 2 minutes to cross
Linda:- 5 minutes to cross
Alan:- 10 minutes to cross
For example: if Jan and Alan walk across first, 10 minutes have elapsed when they get to the other side of the bridge. If Alan then returns with the flashlight, a total of 20 minutes have passed and you have failed the mission.  Can you get them across in 17 minutes?

PUZZLE #3: SEND MORE MONEY
You receive a note from a sibling saying "SEND + MORE = MONEY".  It is written in a code so that your parents don't find out how much money you are meant to send to your sibling.  Each of the letters in the equation is representing a number from 0 to 9.  If you can decode it correctly the equation should be true (ie. the four digit number represented by SEND plus the four digit number represented by MORE should equal the five digit number represented by MONEY).

GROUP II

PUZZLE #1: THE MAN WITH THE HAT
There are four man standing in front of a firing-squad. Two of them (1 & 3) wear a black hat and two of them (2 & 4) wear a white hat. They are all facing to the right and between 3 and 4 stands a brick wall (see picture). So 1 can see 2 & 3, 2 sees 3, 3 sees only the wall and 4 doesn't see a thing. The men know that there are two white and two black hats.  The commander of the firing-squad is willing to let the men go if one of them can say what color hat he is wearing. The men are not allowed to talk. The only thing they may say is "I'm wearing a white/black hat". If one of the men knows which hat he is wearing he must tell it and all men will be free.  Which man knows 100% sure what color hat he's wearing?

LOOKING THIS WAY=>
1 2 3 | 4

PUZZLE #2: RED AND WHITE BALLS
Grant distributed out 4 bags to Alan, Jan, Abby and Linda. He said: Each of you have a bag of red and/or white balls. Every bag has 3 balls. The numbers of red balls in all bags are different. Even each bag has a label (eg. "3 red balls" or "1 red ball and 2 white balls") to indicate what each bag contains, but all labels are on the wrong bag. Grant says "Now, you can take out 2 balls out from the bag and then tell me what is the color of the third ball."

Alan took out 2 red balls from his bag. After he compared the label he told Grant what the color of the third ball was immediately.  Linda took out 1 red ball and 1 white ball from her bag. After she compared the label she told Grant what the color of the third ball was immediately also.  Abby took out 2 white balls from her bag. After she compared the label, she could not tell what color of the third ball was.  However, Jan said to Grant: I can tell what color all my 3 balls are without taking any out. She did it correctly. But how?  Also, can you tell what each person's label said and what kind of balls each person had?

PUZZLE #3: SLIPPERY MOUNTAIN GOAT
A mountain goat attempts to scale a cliff sixty feet high. Every minute, the goat bounds upward three feet but takes a short rest and slips back two. How long does it take for the goat to reach the top?

Tim of Beta I is the first to solve a puzzle.  He solves puzzle 2.  Send Jan & Abby across, Abby returns.  Send Linda and Alan across and Jan returns.  Finally send Jan & Abby back again for a total of 17 minutes.  Because he solved puzzle 2 for Beta I correctly, he knocks out person 2 in the opposing team (Alpha I) which is Veronica.  She can no longer help in the challenge.  Or she could losing the challenge for the group, but gaining a free pass to whoever dobs on her.

Blake appears to be the next person to send in answers.  He sends in three obviously incorrect answers, saying noone knows what hat they are wearing, there is no way to tell who had which balls and the mountain goat will never reach the top.  Blake claims that he hadn't sent in anything after eliminating Isaiah and Steve from Alpha I and Robbie from Alpha II.  But he and his group are the only ones to have received copies of the puzzles.  Blake continues to deny that it wasn't him that sent in the answers, but the Alpha team don't believe him.

Yves from Beta II solves the man with the hat puzzle.  Yves explains: "Man no.2 sees no.3 with a black hat. 2 knows that he doesn't wear black, because if man no.1 had seen two black hats before him, he would have said "I have a white hat". And he didn't say anything.  So no.2 is 100% sure he's wearing a white hat."  A second challenge solved for Beta.  Yves solved the first puzzle for group II, therefore eliminating the first person in the opposing team (Alpha II) which is Justin.  Blake is the only one left from the Alpha team.

Yves solves a second puzzle.  He doesn't solve Red and White balls.  The answer he gave was - What each person's label said: Alan 2 red, 1 white; Linda 1 red, 2 white; Abby 3 red; Jan 3 white.  What is in the bags: Alan 3 red; Linda 2 red, 1 white; Abby 3 white; Jan 1 red, 2 white.  How Jan knows? Abby could have 3 white balls or 2 white and 1 red. Jan's wrong label indicates 3 white, so she doesn't have the three white but she can deduce that Abby does, leaving Jan with the combination of 2 white and 1 red.  He eliminates player two of Beta I which is Natalie.

Tim solves the rope puzzle.  Burn Rope 1 at both ends, and Rope 2 at one end.  As Rope 1 is being burned at two ends, it will completely burn up in half an hour.  When rope 1 burns up, light the remaining end of rope 2.  As it is now being burned at two ends, it will completely burn up the rest of itself in 15 minutes.  There, 45 minutes.  The final team member from Alpha is eliminated, which is Blake and only one more puzzle needs to be correct for them to win the challenge.

Nick takes one last attempt at solving a puzzle.  He thinks the answer is 9256 +  1072 = 10328.  It's incorrect, and eliminates member 3 from Beta II which is Daniel.

Yves takes a stab at the final puzzle.  He thinks the goat will take 58 minutes.  Once again, Yves is correct.  He succesfully solves the fourth puzzle to win $60,000 for the Beta kitty!

Blake is still trying to convince his team he didn't lose the challenge for them.  Isaiah's computer starts messing up and starts to lose communication with the host throughout the final challenge.
 

An unsuccessful episode for the Alpha team, giving the Beta team a slight lead.  The time for the questionnaires and each person is asked who is the most valuable asset in their team:

Sharna: "Daniel is becoming more valuable as that we are both building a great repore with eachother. Yet he could be the mole. Each week my mole candidate changes but i know i am getting closer!"

Robbie: "Well, Blake was helping quite good in the music challenge. But now he suddenly sends in 3 wrong answers. He sent an e-mail to everyone telling us he didn't sent anything in. I haven't heard of Veronica for a while. The rest helps from time to time. So I don't think there's one particular person who's becoming a valuable asset to the team. No, I'm not becoming more certain about the Mole. The strangest things have happened this week! On the board of our 'thealphateam' mailing list, someone changed the contestants profile in a way that they didn't receive messages through mail. So they had to visit the board to read them. I sent an e-mail to the alphateam and got it myself. Dave was online too, when I sent it. I almost immediately got an answer from Steve, so he was online too. But then Dave asked me whether I had received his mail. I hadn't... So someone changed it right after I posted the message. Dave or Steve? Anyway, Dave told me he'd change it back so that everyone would get e-mail again. I checked and he 'forgot' Veronica. He told him and he asked me to leave it that way, because he doesn't really like her. But I did change it. Then I said I had to go, but I just closed ICQ and stayed on the Net. A few seconds later Veronica's profile was changed again. That's probably why we didn't hear from her. She's not getting our mails. Dave said everyone could change it, but I checked and he, Veronica and I are the only moderators. So Veronica or Dave changed it. And those two were just the ones I suspected last week!! So I'm still not sure. Dave didn't let anyone know his musical line either, but neither did Isaiah. Oh, there is something else: Steve wanted me to send one of the three puzzles I got to him, so that he could help. Then I could report it to the host and win a free pass. So he actually offered me the free pass. But I didn't really trust him. Maybe I was very stupid. I should have just accepted the free pass :( Hope I won't get eliminated, 'cause I'll regret it for the rest of my life!"

Billy: "Hmmm....No one person has stood out as an asset yet.  And I still am leaning towards Dan.  However; I am still playing the odds"

Mike: "I would say Veronica or Robbie have been trying to get us to win more then anyone, that doesn't mean one of them is not the mole, it just means they are trying harder.  I would also say Isaiah is helping alot, me and him are starting to trust each other as much as you can in this sort of a game.  Maybe later he could betray me or I could betray him, it's just how the game works.  For Now I am sticking with my guess of Justin as the Mole, not alot of reasoning behind it, just little things, like how he finally gave us the notes to the song the day before the challenge is due(just alittle odd).  But I am not too certian about it, I just hope I stay in the game for now."

Daniel: "Sharna seems to me to be a valuable asset. Yves would have been but got a puzzle wrong. I didn't think he was the mole at all before this but now he may just be starting to get into his role? Not certain who is the mole at this stage, haven't heard much from nat and nick. I think i will change who i said the mole was last time.

Blake: "I think everyone on this team has been dedicated and helpful, and I believe that Robbie and Veronica have been real assets to this team.  Robbie's calm attitude and wit have helped to hold the team together, and Veronica has worked very hard for the team's benefit.  I have some suspicions as to the mole's identity, but I'm still nowhere near coming to an educated decision."

Natalie: "I am not really certain at this stage who the mole could be. But I got some help on my musical line thing, and the person assured me it was right, but then the host said it was wrong, so we will just have to wait and see"

Dave: "Well, who is the most valuable asset? That's a tough one because I don't really trust anyone except Robbie. In fact, I would go as far as saying that Robbie is our greatest asset, with him being the mole from the last series :) About the mole, I think I have narrowed it down to two: Steve & Veronica. Veronica has become very quiet all of a sudden, and while Steve hasn't done anything that really makes me suspect him, I just have a hunch. This week I voted our two musical experts for the job without any discussion at all with the team. It's just my way of keeping myself in the game; make others believe your the mole, and the longer you stay in the game. I also recently sabotaged our mail group and then told everyone about what had happened - Robbie was online at the time, and Steve was too - so Robbie suspects Steve now :) Of course I was the one who did it lol. Anyway, I intentionly left Veronica off the email list when I fixed it up, except she has changed it back now :( Cya Next week :)"

Tim: "Dan has been really contributing to the group.  He sends out regular emails making sure the group understands what is going on, and that we can win our challenges.  He is a great asset to the group.  Right now, the jury's still out, but I'm moving in on Nick (baskio) as the mole.  If I'm wrong, then I'll probably be executed this week, but he got one challenge wrong, and wasn't really into the other ones.  He's a passive mole, because we're also screwing up on the other things."

Justin: "Who's been the most valuable asset to the team? I think that all our acheivements have been a team effort, but if had to pick one person I'd say Steve, he's been really good and organising the group and building moral after a challenge has been lost. In regards to THE MOLE I can't believe that so many challenges have been failed!!! One other thing I find strange is BLAKE has been in the groups where challenges have been failed. He is now my new prime MOLE suspect..If it wasn't for him trying to answer some of the questions (in the KNOCKOUT QUIZ) without asking the rest of the group I'm sure we would have won the money. I even knew two of the answers!!"

Yves: "Every member is an asset to the team. One person can be very helpful in a challenge by being a music fan, another can have access to more computer equipment, another one possess more organizational skills. I don't consider one specific member as the most valuable.  I'm starting to have a list of suspects for the mole. I'm still far from being certain, but at some point I'll have to make a decision. The problem is I don't see this point in the near term.

Steve: "Hmmm.  Well, I'd definately say at this point that Isaiah is good value.  I also think that Robbie isn't the mole (don't know why - combination of factors), but I don't trust anybody yet.  It's really strange how things have changed this week.  Last week I really thought it was Justin, and he's done a couple of things to support that this week (eg I really thought for a minute he hadn't read the posts and was going to post one of the same tasks I did in the committed challenge, and was in Group II which stuffed up their puzzles maybe).  But, I'd have to say the most suspicious operator this week was Blake.  Swear's black and blue he sent no answers to the host in the puzzle challenge - and it appears the post came from another account.  Did he or one of his group do it?  We virtually lost the challenge thanks to that.  Veronica is definately a dark horse.  Then, there's my favourite pair, the mol-ynamic duo - Mike and Dave.  I'm not sure which one yet, but something about both of them set's off warning bells in my head and I hear the little voices whispering: "(take over the world - oops sorry *grin*) The Mole..The Mole".  Dave is certainly being more suspicious (posted a team to the board without consulting - just like he did series one), but Mike is sorta keeping to himself with some things - I don't even know what song he answered.  I suspect them both.  Overall, this week I'm going with Dave.  I still think Justin is there, and Blake too.  I may change my mind - but ask me Friday in case it's red thumb day for me."

Dan: "The team member who has become the most valuable asset to the team is between Tim and Yves. They're both lifesavers to the team. Tim helped us out in the knockout puzzle by solving two of the puzzles, and Yves did the best job he could for task #4 in the committed. Yves has basically earned us all the money in our kitty so far. It is still hard to determine everything because it is still early in the game. Simple honest mistakes made now could determine who will be eliminated next because some people think that a simple slip-up is mole activity. Again, I've split my votes across everyone except for Sharna and Billy. Those are the only two that I have definitely excluded from my list. I bet everyone thinks that I am the mole. I can't blame them. At the moment, I've got a good feeling that the mole is one of two people, but that could all change depending on how the rest of the game may go. Last week I had definite thoughts on who the mole was (tim or daniel) and since then
I've had those theories disproved, rethought and reproved...so I'm stuck nowhere. As long as Sharna or Billy is the mole, I should get through because according to the questionnaire I've answered so that everyone else gets five votes, and five is a big number...so if Billy is the mole, I'm out, but otherwise I'm confident that I'll stay in...and because I'll stay around, I feel confident that I'll get more clues about who the mole really is. I really thought that Tim was the mole, but he's done a lot this week to disprove that...and I mean a whole lot."

Veronica: "i am not sure about the mole so i will say that the most valuable asset at the moment is anyone... but maybe robbie, he doesn't help out that much.  mike helped out a lot in finding the musical expert song, lets hope its right.  i've done a lot in defusing the bomb doing the commited, as well as others (steve especially!).  as for the mole, i think dave and steve, steve because he's not doing much in being "moleish" which is weird for some reason..."

Nick: "Tim has become the best member I think, except he is trying really badly to put people off who they think the mole is!! he could be a possibility!  I am a bit unsure of the mole but I just feel that yves has the characterisitcs of the mole at this stage!"

Isaiah: "Veronica...she is becoming more useful...even though my computer has been broken for a week now...hopefully I will still last after this quiz!"