The Mole is Back!

Now there’s something I thought I would never get to say. After two seasons with regular contestants and two with celebrities, ABC canceled this reality show due to low ratings. But, thanks to the writer’s strike, they brought it back and gave it another life during the summer.

The premise is simple. 12 strangers are given a series of tasks to do. If they complete the tasks, they earn money for the group pot. However, one of the strangers is The Mole, working against the others to keep the pot as small as possible. The other 11 need to learn all they can about him or her to not only defeat their efforts at sabotage, but also to pass quizzes given every few days. If you get the lowest score on the quiz, you are “executed” (sent out of the game).

Given my love of mysteries, this show is right up my ally. But I have yet to figure out who The Mole is in any season. So I will welcome your theories as the summer progresses.

Tonight’s premier found the cast of new contestants jumping off a waterfall. Shall we get to it?

We meet the players at the top of a waterfall in Chile. Host John Kelly immediately asked who they think is The Mole. Mind you, they have hardly had a chance to get to know each other. Marcie “won” the vote, which gave her the right to control their missions for the first 24 hours.

They start off by jumping off the waterfall. They had to navigate a raft and jump off it at the right time to grab a bag of either money or worthless paper. Marcie would decide who jumped for the money and who jumped for the paper. Of course, they are harnessed in, so it’s relatively safe.

Here are the results:
Alex: Missed it. In fact, didn’t really jump.
Ali: Grabbed but dropped the bag
Clay: Got it! $10K
Kristen: Got it! Fake money.
Bobby: Got it! Fake money.
Liz: Got it! Fake Money.
Paul: Jumped for it but missed it. (Although most of those who got it really didn’t have to jump. It seems to be about there the raft wound up more than anything else.)
Victoria: Missed it. Was sitting on the raft. Reach for it, but hardly tried.
Craig: Missed it, but the line pulled him very tight and choked him. They left us with that at the first commercial, but I knew he’d be okay or they wouldn’t be showing it to us. Anyway, he gave it a good try and knocked the bag off, which is more than some people can say.
Nicole: Got it! Even though she was sitting down. Fake money.
Mark: Got it and dove off head first! $10K

So, out of a possible $60K, they actually bagged $20K.

After this first mission, the players were given their journals, the only place they can take notes, then Marcie got to decide who slept in the cabin and who slept outside. Sleeping outside were Nicole, Liz, Craig, and Bobby. Naturally, that made those four very unhappy. Nicole especially refused to sleep outside. She decided that if she didn’t sleep, she didn’t have to stay outside.

The next morning, Paul and Marcie decided to form a pack to share information and mislead other players.

Then the group finds their next clue. It’s a video that sends them to a beach.

At this point, they were asked to name the biggest whiner. Nicole won by a landslide. She didn’t seem to think it applies to her. But let’s see, you refuse to sleep outside. Then you start complaining about not having a blow dryer and curling iron? You may be smart and beautiful, but you are also a whiner.

Anyway, Nicole got to pick the people for the next mission. The point was to pick out the five items out of the 45 scattered on the island that Selkirk (the real life inspiration for Robinson Crusoe) had with him when he was stranded in the area in 1704. The Scavengers had to bring as many items as they could back. The Appraisers had to decide which items were authentic. And the Timekeepers had to add sand to the hourglass so the challenge could keep going. Each correct item was worth $5K.

Naturally, everyone was acting suspicious. The scavengers were bringing back items that there was no way they had back then. Mark, the history teacher, didn’t seem to know about some of the items, and he was an appraiser. And the timekeepers got tired quickly. Although, they did have a lot of stairs to climb.

When time ran out, they had three correct, so the total for that event was $15K.

And as the mission ended, it was announced that Nicole got to be stranded there overnight. I love the irony of her having to sleep outside after refusing to do so the night before. And she has to be very tired by now.

The rest of the crew, on the other hand, had a fancy dinner followed by the first quiz. I guess whining has some advantages since Nicole got a get out of quiz free card.

As the crew takes the quiz, the suspicions are flying every which way. Once everyone is done and reassembled, John selects players in random order. After several safe names, the first executed player was Marcie. So the group certainly wasn’t correct in that early pole result. And Paul was stupid to make an alliance with her.

So my thoughts? The “selecting of the players’ profiles” is stupid. It was much better when they typed in their names like they did originally.

But it is great to see the game going again.

Who is The Mole? I have no idea at this point. I’m leaning toward Alex or Victoria, although their awful performances in the waterfall game would be too obvious. So maybe it’s someone who grabbed the bag. I have no clue, but am open to suggestions.