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RSSFinaleWatch: 'The Mole'
I like to think of The Mole as kind of like the Olympics, but without all the bad events. There was no synchronized swimming on The Mole, only synchronized sabotage and there was no boxing, only light verbal sparring. Plus, if you'll recall, they even did my favorite Olympic event, the luge, as one of the tasks on the show. But, enough of that, on with the big reveal.
Things picked up tonight 12 weeks after the final quiz. We were treated to highlights of how Nicole, Craig, and Mark all sabotaged various missions. Nicole's sabotages, as we've discussed, were all obvious. In the clips we saw, Craig and Mark cost the group money, but they (more often than not) seemed less deceptive in the way they went about things. They were both very happy to cost the group cash in obvious ways (things like Craig choosing hard methods for people to accomplish a task and Mark going for exemptions over adding money to the pot).
Watching the brief recap, it again made me hope that Nicole was not the mole. Obviously I wanted it to be Mark, what with my guessing him every week, but Craig being the culprit wasn't going to upset me (too much).
After the requisite commercial break, rather than finding out instantly who the mole was, we got some clips of Bobby being wholly unable to do more than walk at a terribly slow pace. The funny thing is, he apparently bragged in his application video about his physical prowess. Jon asked him about this, and Bobby gave some lame excuse about going all out early on and hurting himself. I didn't buy that any more than I bought that he might have been the mole.
Enough of Bobby's foolishness though, rather than going to another commercial as I suspected they would, the show announced the winner, and I was heartbroken. The three remaining contestants were all behind separate locked doors and Jon unlocked the door belonging to Mark. Mark won all the cash. Mark was not the mole. I was wrong. I guessed him every week and I was wrong. He was still a better guess than Bobby, but he was not the mole.
Mark was however given the honor of opening the door to the mole. He popped the key into the door, opened it, and... the show went to a commercial.
Back from commercial, the door popped open (again) and out walked Craig. Thank goodness. Phew. They did, unfortunately, let Nicole out of her locked room and then forced us to watch some of her "greatest" hits. Watching yet again how she acted throughout the season, I became truly elated that she didn't win. Apparently Nicole did have a strategy during her quiz-taking, and eventually figured out Craig was the mole, but she simply didn't answer as many questions right as Mark on the final quiz.
Next, we got Mark's story. It seems as though Mark didn't know that Craig was the mole for a while, he actually almost got eliminated more than once. He got the same number of questions wrong as Victoria (whom he was betting was the mole at that time), but finished the quiz a little more quickly than her and remained in the hunt. He actually tied for the most wrong answers twice more, but always answered slightly more quickly than the executed individual.
Unbelievable. Mark didn't actually start guessing Craig on quizzes until the final one. By that time though, he had the dossier (which apparently only had one quiz answer in it which Nicole and Mark both answered correctly), a ridiculously detailed notebook (as far back as it went anyway), and his wits. Mark said that he still wasn't sure after the final quiz that he had won, but I think that was just false modesty.
How did Craig do it? Well, as so many people have suggested, it wasn't that hard -- Craig is out of shape and his simply trying to do physical stuff and failing was lauded. He did also do some sneaky stuff, like lying about discovering items in the Crusoe mission and suggesting that Bobby jump in the wheelbarrow in the pig mission. Craig definitely did a good job, because until week 7, no one except Paul even suspected Craig of being the mole.
We also learned that during the mountain climbing mission, the one where Craig apparently got altitude sickness and hypothermia, he did in fact get altitude sickness and hypothermia. It was because of that mission that I never suspected him of being the mole, it seemed so obvious from the beginning that Craig could have serious health issues with the mission, and I didn't think the producers would do that. They got me. I can admit that.
The final segment tonight showed us all the hidden clues that existed in every episode. Many were exceedingly well-hidden. From baby cries to school bells to one frame clues in maps to the letters "CRG" on a wall, we were supposed to know which clues were telling us who was the mole, who wasn't the mole, and who would be in the final three. I didn't catch any of them, not a single one. Maybe I should have caught some, but definitely not the one that required playing part of the show opening backwards so that some gobbledygook audio revealed Craig as the culprit.
The season ended in a heart-warming fashion, with Mark announcing to his wife that he had won and that she didn't have to work any more. Sure, they were happy, but it meant that I was wrong. I guess I'm okay with that. And, congratulations Mark, if I had to be wrong about you being the mole, I'm happy you won the cash.
Loose odds and ends:
- It seems as though on his last quiz, Paul answered the same number of questions right as Nicole, but did so four seconds more slowly than she did. He almost made it to the final three.
- Mark got 17 questions out of 20 right on the final quiz to Nicole's 13. I always knew she was an unlucky woman.
- Did you catch any of the hidden clues? Are you happy with the outcome? Come on now, don't be shy.
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I kind of like this show.
Did not catch one of the hidden clues. But c'mon ABC, some of these clues required an electron microscope to catch.
I'm with you and had picked Mark from the start. Glad Nicole did not win and was not the Mole. I understand her strategy to a point, but that strategy did (or potentially) cost money going into the pot which seemed counter-productive. Glad she walked away with nada.
Looking at Paul (since he had picked Craig early on) when they were talking about how close Mark went from being bounced out, you could see him fuming.
I enjoyed this Mole series. Is it coming back next season?
Just no more Celebrity mole, please!
I had Craig pegged from the opening challenge of the first episode based on a clue they didn't mention last night. Jon held up the journal #11, which was Craig's journal and he was #11 in the credits. I found stuff he sabotaged in almost every event (like the journal, not all were mentioned last night). One telltale hint was when Jon asked who had said the word "exemption" first. Of course, Craig had...but he stuck his hand up right away without playing the "I don't know. Did I? Did you Nicole? Oh...it was me" ruse. He was too certain it had been him. His mole antics were subtle - making the girls talk in those two challenges, finding the clothes (so no one else would), finding no pigs etc. From the contestants point of view, he was the ideal Mole.
Hopefully, ABC will give us another edition next summer...just put it on at a better hour!!!!
And thus my epic failure at choosing reality show winners (or in this case, the mole) continues...haha
Only once have I chosen the correct reality show winner, and that was for Joe Millonaire 2. How lame is that?
I pegged Nicole as the mole since the first episode, but was obviously wrong.
I only caught one clue and that was the backward recording (the final clue revealed). However, 1) I don't have a DVR and 2) I didn't actively pursue that clue since it was the penultimate episode. I wanted to be surprised as to who the mole really was, rather than spoil it with the clue. But I knew that little "glitch" had to be a backward recording clue.
Other than that, congrats to all the people who actually pegged Craig as the mole since the beginning.
The only thing I noticed where Nicole and Marks area codes but there was a 535 in there and that was China. I thought that meant Nicole and Mark would be the next two executed when I noticed them
I was still unsure about who the mole was going into this, but I had Mark pegged as the winner from early on. That's something to hold on to anyway.
I don't even try to catch the "hidden" clues, as they are so ridiculous.
I have to disagree with JT though, I loved the celebrity mole editions!
I was right! Well, after my first 3-4 Mole picks were executed. Craig was always skulking around in the background in challenges, messing up without anyone noticing.
I like how they have clues on the show, but they were really hard to identify. The only 2 that I liked, and thought were good ones for us viewers, were the 4 "i"s behind Clay during his interview and the dubbing in of Craig's laughter during the dinner that he didn't attend. However, including clues as to the "final 3" players is kind of lame. Nobody cares about the final 3, we wanted to know the identity of the MOLE!
how much money does the mole get?
those clues were ridiculous. does ABC actually think that someone would look at the opening segment frame by frame?
Tuesday....people do look for those clues. The "Craig buried Paul" clue was unraveled within a day. Anyone who has seen previous Moles knows to look for these clues. All it takes is a little patience. It doesn't detract from the game at all...but adds something to those of us who are looking.