It's going to be the biggest question after "Who will end up on the Iron Throne in House of the Dragon?" Who is the Mole?
Netflix's reboot of the beloved reality competition series has landed, with the first five episodes now streaming. Like the various versions before it, the show is a game of Poirot-style character observations, Clue-level bluffs, and The Crucible-worthy accusations amidst challenges worthy of any Squid Game, though thankfully less bloody.
This time helmed by journalist Alex Wagner (incredible host, 11/10), the set-up for The Mole is the same as it always has been: A group of strangers work together to complete missions in order to earn money only one of them will win. Of course, there's a twist. One member of the group is a double agent who sabotages these challenges to either make the group fail or earn less cash. Just knowing this person exists means no one in the group trusts each other, ever. Knowledge about the other players is power, and this plays out in diabolical psychological experiments. During each episode, the group must answer 20 questions about who they think the imposter is, and the furthest from the truth is sent home.
This time around, The Mole is set in Australia, and the first five episodes have taken place in some of the most stunning locations in Queensland, including the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.
So, who is the Mole? Well, as The Mole releases a batch of its 60-minute episodes over the next three weeks — episodes 1 to 5 dropped Oct. 7, then the next two will drop Oct. 14, and then the next two, including the finale, arrive on Oct. 21 — we don't know yet. But we can take a red-hot guess based on the slick editing of the production team (basically, those whose job it is to make sure you can't guess until the finale), and the actions of the players themselves.
The players are all intelligent professionals with experience solving puzzles, working under pressure, and reading other people: software developer Kesi Neblett, real estate broker Osei White, commercial pilot Joi Schweitzer, COVID ICU nurse Casey Lary, professional gamer Avori Henderson, lawyer Pranav Patel, warehouse worker Dom Gabriel, marketing consultant Greg Shapiro, mental health counselor Samara Joy, therapist Sandy Ronquillo, firefighter Jacob Hacker, and brand manager William Richardson. Essentially, they could all be the Mole.
The key to the show is to make other players think you're the Mole if you're not, and to shift suspicion away if you are. The show makes people and the viewer constantly paranoid, pointing fingers for ineptitude, wasting time, or not showing skills they should. The missions are often physically dangerous and challenging, which sets up ample opportunity for sabotage or simply being inept. People's professions come into play. Clues cost money and opening them casts high suspicion. Each challenge ends with flying accusations going over every detail of when people fucked up, like a game of Mafia or Werewolf.
So, we'll do that too! Who is the Mole?
Extreme spoilers ensue for The Mole episodes 1 to 5.
The way players decide someone is or isn't the Mole is fun to watch and play along with, as the production team has allowed ample opportunities for sabotage. Really, anything can be used as evidence for or against someone being the Mole. You're rewarded or accused for taking the lead or following the leader, being too keen, being too quiet, sucking at physical activity, adding too much money to the pot, or taking it all away in one fell swoop. The producers have also dropped some solid twists and turns in the challenges.
If you've watched the first five episodes of The Mole, you'll know by now that multiple players have been eliminated from the game after failing to identify the betrayer. Osei, Samara, Dom, and Sandy all got the red mobile screen of doom during elimination, so we're assuming they can't be the Mole unless the production team have something dramatic up their sleeve.
So, we're analysing the players currently still in the game after episode 5.
Is Joi the Mole?
Probably one of the most j'accused and powerful of the players so far, Joi has made enemies by making some extremely smart moves in the game. A pilot, Joi has roused suspicion by seemingly failing to read maps twice: once in the Daintree in episode 1 (everyone in her team is now eliminated) and again trying to beat the train on the mail run in episode 5. In the jailbreak mission in episode 2, Joi failed to see the key outside Kesi's door through her tiny peephole — but then again, so did Kesi. But her biggest play so far came from the dossier incident in episode 3, when Joi decided to take a $25,000 gamble on which players looked at a stack of player dossiers. She correctly guessed Greg and drained the pot of all but $3,500 by winning an exemption from elimination.
I can't tell you how much this move rules. Joi now either makes the team think she's the Mole or makes them really, really mad at her, but either way it's a perfect play. The team has no choice but to suspect her and get it wrong in the elimination quiz if she's not the Mole, but they still have to work with her as a teammate to earn back the money. Plus, if she's not the Mole, she's done them quite the service with this move, so they may let their guard down. MOLE?
Mole-ish behaviour ranking: 7/10
Is Greg the Mole?
Greg leans into the chaos by being one of the more unpredictable players in the game, with some of the best commentary about the other players. Greg inexplicably breaks out a triangle at the first meeting, saying he wants to "draw people in and make them trust me." Greg is a marketing consultant and focus group moderator, so he knows how to read people and ask the right questions. He appears to slow down the search in the Daintree challenge and asks if the team wants to use the clue to avoid coming back with nothing, then on finding the loot, he tells the camera, "I needed this. I needed to be the one to find the crate." But then he dropped the oxygen tank given to him by Casey in the Great Barrier Reef treasure hunt. Greg, like Avori, looked at the dossiers, robbing the team of a potential $10,000, but then Greg nailed two bags of mail in the train challenge in episode 5. MOLE?
Mole-ish behaviour ranking: 7/10
Is Casey the Mole?
Casey, she's a nurse! She wouldn't lie or deceive, right? WRONG! Casey's friendly attitude is just the ticket for gaining trust and deflecting suspicion. She notably tends to shift responsibility by asking for consensus on team decisions. Casey is one of the masterminds in the jailbreak mission, and with Dom now eliminated, Casey's decision to cut 10 minutes from the clock for cash, made by simply backing Dom up, looks a bit suspicious. But more importantly, in the code-cracking warehouse mission, when she's supposed to bring back team members to help Greg trick the other team, she doesn't, and it blows Greg's ruse! Mole-ish! Casey does well in the diving part of the Great Barrier Reef treasure hunt, but did she actually pass the oxygen tank to Greg before he dropped it? Casey takes a very chill role in the mail-run challenge in episode 5, which is exactly where a saboteur would hide. MOLE?
Mole-ish behaviour ranking: 8/10
Is Avori the Mole?
A clever strategist as a professional gamer, Avori has sabotaged several tasks right in front of the camera, deliberately drawing suspicion. Is this Mole behaviour? Perhaps. Dom went home after thinking the Mole was Avori during the Great Barrier Reef treasure hunt, during which she faked seaplane sickness and purposely dropped crucial items along the shore. Avori rationalised opening the dossiers through the paper clips indicating someone else had cracked, but she still looked, people.
Avori established a strong alliance with Pranav in episode 1, saying, "Forming a relationship with someone, swapping information, and staying loyal to each other will win you the game." William even separates Avori and Pranav in episode 2's jailbreak task, but they absolutely smash the warehouse code-cracking mission. Then in episode 4, during the bank heist, Avori decided to keep the information she found out about Jacob miscounting the cash to herself. Smart play or MOLE?
Mole-ish behaviour ranking: 6/10
Is Pranav the Mole?
A lawyer who's quick on his feet (literally and metaphorically), Pranav says in episode 1 he thinks people will think he is the Mole because "academically, I'm extremely intelligent, I'm a little hard to read." Pranav appears consistently responsible in the missions, telling the group to keep a track of time in the Daintree Rainforest challenge, and smashing the jailbreak and code-cracking warehouse missions in episode 2. In episode 3, he tells Avori by the pool, "I also like to have suspicion on me," which is the same game Avori is playing. "The Mole would be right to draw suspicion on themselves. Blend in." Though Jacob is the one found to have been miscounting money in the jailbreak mission in episode 4, Pranav was the mastermind in this case, and the team was off by almost $700. An accident, given he had the hardest job changing currencies? Or MOLE?
Mole-ish behaviour ranking: 6/10
Is Kesi the Mole?
Kesi should be quite the code-reader given her day job, so when she failed to recognise the code in her very important logbook in episode 4's bank heist, eyebrows were raised. In episode 2's jailbreak mission, Kesi tells Joi she doesn't see a key outside her own door, but she has the same door and same opportunity to see this key as William, who definitely sees his own key. (Samara can't see it though, so that might clear Joi.) Plus, Kesi spells one of the passwords wrong in the code-cracking warehouse mission, "neone" instead of "neon" — an innocent mistake? Or Mole-ish behaviour? Kesi's major reaction to Samara leaving in episode 3 has swayed me; maybe these were genuine mistakes. In the Great Barrier Reef treasure hunt, Avori deliberately misses the dinghy on the shore from the helicopter, but it should be noted Kesi was on the same side of the chopper, so she could have seen it herself. And Kesi misses the mailbag in the train mission in episode 5. MOLE?
Mole-ish behaviour ranking: 8/10
Is Jacob the Mole?
Jacob is calculating his way through this like the rest of 'em — don't give me that heroic firefighter small town innocent schtick! Jacob pulls Will far from the searching area in the Great Barrier Reef treasure hunt, and he treads water for maybe too long. Underestimated until episode 3, Avori appeared to have caught Jacob throwing the bank heist challenge by miscounting the cash, whether deliberately or not. Though Greg suggested using the clue in the Daintree challenge, Jacob quickly jumped to back him. When given the dossier choice, Jacob chooses not to look but notably says, "It's tough to think what the Mole would do in this instance. Because yes, it would be super easy to yank $10,000 away from everyone. But then it would be blatantly obvious to look at those people as the Mole, that it could potentially harm the Mole for future endeavours." Seems pretty aware, right? In the mail run, Jacob keeps driving past the mail pickups, which could be Joi's error with the map, or could be MOLE?
Mole-ish behaviour ranking: 8/10
Is William the Mole?
One of the more perpetually outspoken players, William constantly takes charge of assigning group members, which could put him in a good position as the Mole. He likes to appear the hero, and as Joi points out in episode 1, being likability is a powerful way to deter suspicion. William's already proven he's got a strong poker face during his personal cargo-stealing mission in the Daintree, in which he had to throw off suspicion as the thief. (He ended up the hero in this circumstance, doubling the pot with this act, but still, a superb way to make people think you're not the Mole!) As William says himself, "I want to make sure at the end of the day some people think I am the Mole." Joi takes William off her list after he injures himself during the Great Barrier Reef treasure hunt, and William is only one of two people to vote for his mate Dom to come back into the game after elimination, along with Kesi, so was this friendship? Or something more sinister... MOLE?
Mole-ish behaviour ranking: 7/10
So, who is it?
OK, so if I were to guess right now, my money's on Jacob, Casey, or Kesi. Meanwhile, William, Greg, and Joi seem like the most obvious suspects, so while I'm not ruling them out, they're farther down on my hit list.
Look, I'm going to be wrong. Don't @ me. Are there two Moles, are they all the Mole? No matter who the Mole is, I bet you've never heard the word "mole" so many times in your life, right?
The Mole is now streaming on Netflix. Episodes 1 to 5 are out now, then the next two will be available on Oct. 14, and then the last two, including the finale, will premiere on Oct. 21.
