Immediately the players are hit with a surprise.  There's a change in the rules that will effect the way that all the contestants and how the two moles play.  As usual, at the end of each episode, the contestant who scores the lowest in the mole quiz is eliminated, but the catch for this series is that the person who the lowest scorer suspected to be the mole is also eliminated.  Therefore, players can't spend all their time convincing everyone that they are the mole when they should be doing challenges, and the moles themselves will have to work a lot harder to sabotage as much of the team's efforts.

After being hit with the new role, the contestants are pushed straight away into their first challenge:

CHALLENGE ONE: DUDE, WHERE'S MY TEAM?

The sixteen players are divided up into eight pairs.  The pairs are:

PAIR A:  Bill (39, New York)     &  Nikki (19, Australia)
PAIR B:  Billy (16, Maryland)    &  Lisa (25, Australian Capital Territory)
PAIR C:  Brian (16, Missouri)    &  Jon (15, Queensland)
PAIR D:  Cedric (33, California) & Tom (14, Western Australia)
PAIR E:  Damon (20, Belgium)     &  Nick (16, New South Wales)
PAIR F:  Dave (19, Victoria)     &  Katanna (16, Texas)
PAIR G:  Gil (20, Australia)     &  John (28, Tennessee)
PAIR H:  Sharna (20, Victoria)   & Troy (16, Ottawa)

Billy asks around not knowing how to even contact his partner Lisa while the rest of the group frantically send out email addresses on the message board.  Brian has trouble contacting Jon.

Lisa is the first to make a guess.  She thinks that her team consists of Pairs A, B, C and E.  Dave makes a guess, thinking differently to Lisa.  He thinks his team consists of pairs B, F, G and H.  Katanna's response is slightly different to Dave's, thinking his team consists of pair B instead of pair D.  But his response is invalid because Dave had already sent in his pair's response.

Time passes and Gil is still waiting for a response from John.  Tom is the next to respond.  His answers are exactly the same as Dave's.  Nick thinks he has worked it out, trying to get people to agree on A, B, E and G.  Katanna and John disagrees with him.  Gil tries to stop the group from talking on the message board as each partnership is suppose to work on the challenge individually.  Bill submits a different response to every other, thinking his team consists of pairs A, C, E and G.  Cedric lists the names of players instead of submitting the pairs, but because of this accidentally submits invalid pairs.  Two aren't mixed up and he thinks pairs C and D are in his team.

Time runs out and only 4 out of the 8 pairs managed to submit responses.  The official teams are announced.  Each team having: a total age of 166 years; two females and six males; 4 Aussies, 3 Americans and one other; and one person with one series experience, one with two and another with three.  The teams are officially as follows:
 

Lisa was totally correct in guessing her team, while Bill managed to get 2 out of 3 correct - earning Team Mason $30,000.  Dave also managed to get two out of three correct earning Team Laffy $15,000.

Gil apologises to the team on behalf of himself and John for getting the deadlines mixed up.

Now with the teams sorted and the first challenge completed, it's time the teams learnt to work together better.  But there's already a bump in the road, as Dave announces he will be gone for the rest of the week, and won't be back until a few hours before the questionnaires and challenges are due.  He does however create the mailing list for Team Laffy to make up for his absence.  But still, his absence will definitely cause a problem in the next challenge.  Damon starts the Mason mailing list.

CHALLENGE TWO: CHAIN LETTER

Now that the contestants know who is on their team, they now need to be able to identify them.  The challenge is for the team to send a chain letter which passes through everyone's email account.  As the email passes through each team members email, they must attach a photograph of them that will be used in the profile page.  After the chain letter has passed through everyone on the team, it must be finally forwarded, with eight profile pictures attached, to the host before the deadline.  If it does, $70,000 will be awarded to the team.

But a few catches:  Each picture that is smaller than 100 x 100 pixels will reduce the prize by $10,000, but if the final chain letter exceeds one megabyte, $20,000 will be taken away from the team.

Dave assures the Laffy team that this will be an easy $70,000.  But because of his absence, he announces that he must be the last one to attach his profile picture and therefore will be responsible for sending the chain letter to the host.  Sharna attaches her picture onto the groups discussion email thinking that is the start of the chain letter, her attachment brings the chain letter to 157kb.  Gil tries to organise the group by giving the chain letter a sending order.  He attaches his picture and then sends the chain letter to Cedric.  Tom tries to get things organised himself creating another order for sending the chain letter.  He sends his picture on a seperate email starting the chain all over again.  Troy finally decides to read what the challenge is and accuses his team of 'ignoring the Canadian.'  John asks to receive the letter from Cedric.  Katanna is the one who finally decides to post a complete sending order.  He decides to make it go: Sharna, Gil, Cedric, John, Katanna, Tom, Troy, Dave.

Team Mason have a bit of trouble with their chain letter.  Although the team have basically sent the chain letter through the entire team, Billy and Jon apparantly can't attach theirs to the chain letter.  At the end of the week, the Chain Letter sits as follows:

Nick
Lisa
Damon
Bill
Nikki
Brian

CHALLENGE THREE: PIECES OF EIGHT

For the final challenge, the team must seperate themselves into two groups: the Lateral thinkers and the Logical thinkers.  Within their groups they must rank themselves in order from the most intelligent to the least intelligent.

Troy from Laffy responds to his group announcing he wants to be one of the stupid people.  Tom announces he was a dux, and should be one of the logical thinkers.

Brian from Mason announces that he wants to be a lateral thinker.

Gil decides he is a logical thinker, and doing so, divides his group up into the logical and lateral thinkers.  To avoid argument he ranks the intelligence of each team member according to their age, with the eldest being the most intelligent and the youngest being the least intelligent.  He announces that Laffy's logical thinkers are: Cedric, Gil, Dave and Tom (in order of intelligence) and the lateral thinkers are John, Sharna, Katanna and Troy.  Three people need to post the teams list on the club board to make them official.

Katanna agrees with Gil's list and posts first.  Tom thinks that because he was put as the dumbest, it may give him the opportunity for a free pass, so he posts the list as well.  Gil the creator of the list, completes their three posts, making their team official.

Nikki posts the Mason logical team: Bill, Damon, Nick and Jon, and the lateral team is Lisa, Nikki, Billy and Brian.  She notices that the Laffy team ranked them in terms of age, so does the same for the Mason team.  Brian agrees with her and posts the names up.  Lisa agrees and makes the team's list official.

Now with all the team sorting out of the way, the team can receive their actual challenge.  Each team member will be given a puzzle which they must solve.  There are eight different puzzles, ranging in degrees of difficulty and type (lateral or logical).  Each team member will have one attempt to solve their own puzzle.  If they solve it, they receive part of an eight-piece treasure map.  The eight pieces of map will form a riddle, which will lead to the location of a treasure.  If the treasure can be found, the team wins $60,000 plus something which will help the team in a future challenge.

But as always their is a catch.  If the person who finds the treasure is in the more intelligent half of the team, their intelligence will increase the reward of the challenge.  For every piece of map that the team had not collected prior to the finding of the treasure, the team will earn an extra $10,000 on top of the challenge money (up to a maximum of $60,000).  But if the person who finds the treasure is in the least intelligent half of the team, they will earn a free pass to the next episode, but doing this prevents the team from earning any bonus money.

The puzzles are released:

WORD SCRAMBLE
STYLE: LOGICAL  DIFFICULTY: 4
GIVEN TO: BILL (MASON) & CEDRIC (LAFFY)

The four words defined in each group are composed of the same letters used the same number of times but in different arrangements. For example: a. serf-SLAVE; b. valleys-VALES; c. washes or bathes-LAVES; d. healing ointment-SALVE. The first one has been completed for you. You must correctly identify 5 other "Word Twisters" to succeed in this puzzle.

1. a. A small rock STONE b. Brief messages NOTES c. First stage of disease ONSET d. Pitches in music TONES 2. a. Sends payment b. Bishop's head-dress (plural) c. Earns; deserves d. A title of respect 3. a. A tiff; a quarrel b. Gone by c. Faucets; spigots d. Small pieces of butter 4. a. A glen or valley b.To load, as a ship c. A common metal d. A round in a card game 5 a. Rules, as a king b. To quit formally c. An endorser d. A songster

6. a. Felines b. Begone! Get out' c. Persons in a play d. Divisions of a Drama 7. a. Chronological measure b. Tiny object or person c. Short newspaper article d. To issue; send forth 8. a. Makes a clear profit b. A number (plural) c. Dispatched d. Bird's home 9. a. Supplications b. Sounds of thunder c. Turns wan d. Fall or slip into cow 10. a. A pointed peg b. Accepts; selects c. Large cut of meat d. A shoe on wheelss

AGENTS AND ALIENS
STYLE: LOGICAL  DIFFICULTY: 3
GIVEN TO: DAMON (MASON) & GIL (LAFFY)

Attached is a puzzle.  Try and solve it, then send in the steps you needed to compete the puzzle to the host.

Click for the AGENTS AND ALIENS puzzle

THE LAST DOLLAR
STYLE: LOGICAL  DIFFICULTY: 2
GIVEN TO: NICK (MASON) & DAVE (LAFFY)

Three men stay at a hotel for the night. The innkeeper charges thirty dollars per room per night. The men rent one room; each pays ten dollars. The bellhop leads the men to their room. Later, the innkeeper discovers he has overcharged the men and asks the bellhop to return five dollars to them. On the way upstairs, the bellhop realizes that five dollars can't be evenly split among three men, so he decides to keep two dollars for himself and return one dollar to each man.  At this point, the men have paid nine dollars each, totalling 27. The bellhop has two, which adds up to 29. Where did the thirtieth dollar go?

BAR PUZZLE
STYLE: LOGICAL  DIFFICULTY: 1
GIVEN TO: JON (MASON) & TOM (LAFFY)

Five people visit a bar for a drink of Scotch Whisky. They all have their drink served differently and by different bar staff. From the clues given below, can you work out which bar person served whom, how they had their Scotch and in what order they were served at the bar.

1. Someone is served a Scotch & Cola by Carmen.
2. Mrs Johnson was not served her Scotch & Ginger Ale by Marcella.
3. Mr Weiss was served by Paul.
4. The person who drinks Scotch & Cola wasn't served second.
5. The cocktail drinker was served last.
6. Marcella served the fourth person in line but they didn't order a Scotch & Soda.
7. Neither Carmen nor Hans served Mr Petit who was third in line at the bar.
8. First in line was not Miss La Rue.

Bar Visitors: Muller, Johnson, Petit, La Rue and Weiss
Bar Staff: Carmen, Hans, Andy, Marcella and Paul
Drinks: Cola, Gingerale, Soda, Ice and Cocktail

THE SECRET CHAMBER
STYLE: LATERAL  DIFFICULTY: 4
GIVEN TO: LISA (MASON) & JOHN (LAFFY)

While excavating an ancient Puzzlanian crypt, you discover an unusual column. The column has four narrow holes bored into it, all at the same height, evenly spaced around the column, just large enough for a human hand.

Reading the inscriptions above and below the holes, you realize that this column is part of a complex mechanism that will open a secret chamber. Out of sight within each hole is a switch that can either be up or down; when all the switches are in the same position, the secret chamber will open before you. The column is small enough that you can reach all the way around, so using both hands you could flip any two switches at the same time. Here's the tricky part:

As soon as your hand leaves a hole, the column will rapidly spin for a random number of quarter rotations. If you're not careful, you might lose a hand. But you can flip two switches at once, then quickly pull both hands out at the same time.

What strategy can you use to open the chamber in a finite, and preferably small, number of attempts?

Assume you cannot discriminate between holes after a spin without reaching into the column.

You may ask the host clarifications on this puzzle to help you further understand the limitations.  However, you may not ask questions that will help you solve the puzzle.

HUGH'S HORSES
STYLE: LATERAL  DIFFICULTY: 3
GIVEN TO: NIKKI (MASON) & SHARNA (LAFFY)

A horse breeder goes to a horse show with a certain number of horses. The first buyer comes by and purchases half of the horses the breeder brought plus half a horse. The second buyer comes by and purchases half of what remains plus half a horse. The third buyer comes by and purchases half of what remains plus half a horse. The breeder leaves, satisfied that he has sold all the horses he brought.  All three buyers have purchased whole horses, and there is no shared ownership among them.

How many horses did the breeder bring to the show?

THE CAREFUL DRIVER
STYLE: LATERAL  DIFFICULTY: 2
GIVEN TO: BILLY (MASON) & KATANNA (LAFFY)

I'm driving down a road at the legal speed limit. I'm sober; my license plates, license, and insurance are in order, and I'm wearing my seat belt. I passed three cars without going over the speed limit, yet a police officer pulled me over and gave me a ticket. Why?

You are allowed to ask the host up to three questions which will help you with this.  But the host may only answer either YES, NO or IRRELEVANT.

A FIVE-LETTER WORD
STYLE: LATERAL  DIFFICULTY: 1
GIVEN TO: BRIAN (MASON) & TROY (LAFFY)

A certain five letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it. What is the word?

Brian figures out that the five-letter word is 'short' so gains another part of the map for the team.

Gil has trouble solving his Agents and Aliens puzzle so asks his team for advice.  Damon doesn't, solving yet another puzzle for Team Mason.  He picks up that the steps for the puzzle are as follows: 

1: Bring 1 Alien & 1 Agent to the right
2: Agent comes back to the left
3: 2 Aliens to the right
4: 1 Alien comes back
5: 2 Agents to the right
6: 1 Agent & 1 Alien come back
7: 2 Agents to the right
8: The Alien comes back
9: 2 Aliens to the right
10 1 Alien back
11: Last 2 Aliens to the right

Billy asks two questions to help him with his puzzle: "Did you use a signal?" & "Did you cross over a double yellow line?", with the answers being Irrelevant and No respectively.

John of Laffy speaks up and says he has had troubles with his network and can't access the homepage.

Bill receiving the most difficult logical puzzle for Mason answers more than the five required Word Scrambles and gains a valuable part of the treasure map:

2. a. REMITS  b. MITRES  c. MERITS  d. MISTER
3. a. SPAT  b. PAST  c. TAPS  d. PATS
4. a. DALE  b. LADE  c. LEAD  d. DEAL
5. a. REIGNS  b. RESIGN  c. SIGNER  d. SINGER
6. a. CATS  b. SCAT  c. CAST  d. ACTS
8. a. NETS  b. TENS  c. SENT  d. NEST
9. a. PLEAS  b. PEALS  c. PALES  d. LAPSE
10. a. STAKE  b. TAKES  c. STEAK  d. SKATE

John tries to answer his very difficult lateral puzzle.  He asks a clarification question; "Can I carve markings under each hole in order to distinct between each hole?".  The answer being no.  He gets back to work.

Bill and Damon post their puzzle pieces up in their mailing list.  Nikki can't access the mailing list, so can neither post up her piece, or view Bill and Damon's.

Like Damon, Gil solves the Agents and Aliens puzzle, gaining a treasure map piece for the Laffy team.  Cedric submits his answer to the Word Scramble.  He manages to complete 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 (Answers to 7. a. TIME  b. MITE  c. ITEM  d. EMIT).  Now both teams have earnt four parts of the treasure map.

Billy thinks he can answer his careful driver puzzle.  He submits "You were driving on the highway and passed 3 cars by going on the shoulder.  That is illegal."  He is incorrect and is the first person to fail solving their puzzle.

With only four of the eight pieces earnt, Bill is able to decipher what the map says.  With all eight pieces it reads:

He finds the site and it reads:

Bill submits NOSAM to the host and earns the team $60,000 for the kitty plus something helpful in a future challenge.  As he was one of the more intelligent team members, he wins a bonus $40,000 for finding the treasure without 4 parts of the treasure map.  Damon claims he knew what to do, but just forgot to do it.  As he was the one who discovered the treasure, Bill is asked in which episode he would like the future help.  Damon starts a new club as everyone has had troubles with the previous mailing list.

Cedric decides to submit the answer to Tom's puzzle as he is away.  But it was stated in the rules that team members may only answer their own puzzle.  An illegal move making that Tom's puzzle invalid.  A small penalty, but it could make it difficult for the Laffy team to read the map.  Tom now back, answers his puzzle correctly, but it's two late.  Cedric's submission already counted.

Damon comes up with an unusual plan.  He knows that Troy from Laffy is wanting to go for the free pass.  Damon discusses with his team whether or not they should give him the answer so that the Laffy team won't win the bonus money and therefore will win less money than Mason.  The team thinks the plan is ingenius.  But Damon changes his mind as he rereads that the team will also win the bonus help in a future challenge.  He hopes that Laffy simply can't solve the treasure map puzzle.

But with one piece out of reach and Damon trying to sabotage Laffy, Gil still manages to read the puzzle and solve it.  Being a more intelligent team member, he too earns the bonus $40,000 on top of the $60,000 and the future help.

With a little discussion from their teams, both Bill and Gil decide that they will use the help in Episode 3.

Jon apologies to the group for having a faulty internet connection during the episode and not being overly helpful.  Dave comes back to find that his team has lost the second challenge but scored one hundred grand to make up for it.  The current kitty totals are as follows:
 

It's time for each of the contestants to do the mole questionnaire.  They are asked ten questions about the identity of the mole:

1. Is the mole: Male or Female?
2. How old is the mole?
3. Where does the mole live?
4. What pair was the mole in for "Dude, Where's my Team"?
5. What was the mole's involvement in "Dude, Where's my Team"?
6. In "Chain Letter", when did the mole attach his/her picture?
7. What is the mole's picture of?
8. In which group was the mole in for "Pieces of Eight"?
9. Did the mole submitted a puzzle solution?
10. Who is the Mole?

Brian: "I don't really have a strategy for this game. It's my first one. So, I'm just trying hard on every challenge and hoping for PEOPLE TO NOT VOTE ME AS THE MOLE. I do have suspicions for this game. It is Jon, he was my partner for the very first challenge we had. He sent me an email with what he thought were the right answers ( so he says ). They were totally screwed up though. They didn't even have both people in the pairs. I know he knew what the challenge was cuz, he had previous experience with mole challenges. I'm not sure if he thought I would over look it or what. Or maybe it was a simple mistake. I did not vote for him though. I am just going around asking people who they think is the mole and, and pick the one with the most votes cuz if I get it wrong they get it wrong. I don't want to get booted first though. I would feel like a reject. Plus, I'm very competitive. I all ready scammed my way into this game ( long story :*)). So, I don't want to get booted now. Well, that's about it. Hopefully I make it. Adios mis amigos..."

Tom: "I haven't had enough time to suspect anyone yet, so I'm sticking to the majorities in hope that even if I suspect the wrong person, I may still get some questions right. Gil, I don't know about him, he's my prime suspect definitely right now. Dave I'm not suspecting because of the fact that he was a Mole last series, maybe that's a bad move. Sharna I suspect but if I just answer all of my qustions as if she's The Mole and she's not, I'll definetely get executed. Because I don't have a main suspect, it's all about survival right now."

Billy: "This game is gonna be pretty damn hard.  I have no idea on how I'm gonna play it.  Maybe I'll just stay low...?  And it's really too early to tell who the Mole is"

Katanna: "Umm, i have no idea who it is, but Cedric is the only one that is on alot.  I filled out the form on the average person, not on any one person.  I love the game, keep up the good work.  My stratigy is to help as much as I can in all challanges, so no onw suspect me as the mole."

Damon: "Well it's not a good strategy to be suspicious anymore. So I'll have to find another strategy. I'm just trying to help as good as I can, so people won't suspect me. Cause if they suspect me I might get eliminated too. And if you do your best at the challenges, you win money, so you might end up being the ultimate winner in the end 'cause your team has won the most money. Now let's just hope everyone thinks like that, so it will be more obvious who the mole is. I suspect Billy the most now. Actually he's the only one I suspect right now. In the chain letter he replied instead of forwarding, so the pictures that were already in it; disappeared. Plus he didn't solve his puzzle although he was in the less intelligent team. Bill is absolutely NOT the Mole. He won us lotsa money this episode."

Cedric: "I have no idea yet about who is the mole. Except Katanna, who is really helpful in this game, Troy and sharna, i haven't really talked to the other players. If i have to suspect one person, it is John but i aswered my test with the odds ; it is way too early to point at someone."

Nikki: "I really want to win these challenges. That is my number one goal. Even before the new rule was in place, I was always going to try my hardest at the challenges. I try and help out others when I can, like when Brian couldn't get his picture onto the chain mail, Lisa also helped out there.  Mole could be anyone at this stage. We haven't heard much from a few people, Billy, Nick and Jon, the others are pretty much getting into the game. I don't know how they are trying to play the game, but it is creating suspicion about them. At this point in time I thought, well if three are doing basically the same thing then it could be good bluff for a mole. However it is fairly early on in the game. I covered my questionnaire over a few people so hopefully that will help me. A few things have been suspicious like Brian unable to get his picture up, then when i asked Billy for help, he sent directions to me and not Brian. It is also weird that the group started up, wouldn't allow all of us to participate. If i were the mole i would set something like that up and not alow certain people in. The moderator seems to be Damon."

Troy: "My strategy for the game is to try to be everyones friend and hope that I can notice who the mole is. Also I still tell everyone that i am the mole. That usually makes them think im not and if that makes me lose the game so be it...  My partner for the first challenge never talked to me.  Has never showed any interested in talking to me(ive added my team to yahoo pager but only a few have talked to me) If im wrong im wrong."

Nick: "My strategy for the game is to be aware and to use my experience to my advantage. Billy has had some experience as well but hasn't played very wisely. He is playing well at the moment keeping a low profile yet Nikki is the one to keep my eye on because she is very low key but playing enough to be suspicious. Hopefully my hunch can keep me here until week two."

Gil: "My stategy is to show i am playing the game with enthusiasm, getting involved in the challenges, because ultimately we have to try and win challenges to win the entire thing. I don't really care if people don't think I am the mole, I am trying to lead people to think that other people are suspicious and maybe the mole, when I am pretty sure they aren't the mole. That is basically my stategy lead them to think it is someone else, but saying certain things and also not letting everybody in on what I know. The mole, I believe, is one of 4 people, according to me. So i tried to cover my questionnaire over them."

Lisa: "My only suspicion is tha the mole would have made contact with most players this episode.  So that immediately cuts the field down to David, Nikki, Brian, Bill and Billy.  Strategy?  Try not to appear mole-like, and try to win the challenges?"

John: "Well, once again, I have no idea.  Like last series, time has gotten tight on me, so I haven't been able to pay attention like I want to.  So the results?  Probably the same as they were in series III.  I'm out first. But should I luck out, I haven't really built a strategy yet.  I'll worry about it if I survive."

Bill: "I really don't have any strategy yet.  I guess if I do it's to make sure everyone knows I'm not the Mole lowering the risk of being eliminated by being accused.  My pick is a guess, pure and simple.  Every person can go either way.  I guess I chose Billy because I noticed that in the last game he played is seemed more participative and not so much this time.  I was also thinking Brian because he's always asking me questions about the other players.  Maybe trying to throw me off.  Jon just seems to obvious since he really hasn't participated.  Everyone seems to have participated on some level, so makes it much more difficult.  Someone mentioned that there has never been a female Mole and I have taken that under consideration.  But since I'm not 100% sure, going with a guy betters the odds.  Hopefully, I'll make it through to the next round and be able to gather more information."

Dave: "I've just returned from a few days in NSW and have only managed to just puck these answers from thin air. I'm hoping that I've got a few right, enough to allow me to stay in the game :) I'll go back and read all the emails properly tonight to get a better understanding of our group, but at the moment, If I don't send this soon, I'll be out because I never got it in on time."

Jon: "Unfortunatly I have had problems with my net connection but I have tried very hard to play but hopefully this week I can get online and enter in some chellanges. I don't really know who the mole is but my guess is billywaz at the moment but the should change soon."