The Mole: Season 5, Episode 2 Official Summary: This Little Piggy has yet another exemption If you need help figuring out whom these people are, please see Jims02’s excellent summary. I will note in the previously scenes, while the green thumb print flashes are used to segue between different events; Mark is the one shown leaping over the waterfall.
As we open on this week’s show, Paul is bummed Marcie left, and Liz says Nicole shouldn’t have been rewarded with an exemption and she has no manners. Craig acts like Craig….he’s so funny!
Daylight brings Santiago, the capital, and Metropolitan Park. Oh, and a giant statue of the Virgin Mary. I think this means…something. Nicole has rejoined the group and resolves to be quieter. Jon asks Paul if he’s okay with that (who cares?) and Paul says he’ll see. Nicole says in a talking head she is sure she could take him because she’s taller. Jon wants them to divide themselves into two groups, one group of nine who are goal oriented (I immediately thought of soccer, because it’s a continental obsession) and one group of two who view life as an uphill battle. Liz and Craig volunteer to be the uphill group but the rest of the Molerons assume they will have to run and veto the idea. Mark and Kristen are suggested and Paul has everyone put it to a vote. The group votes for Kristen and Mark to be the group of two. Jon snarks he hopes everything doesn’t take as long as it took them to decide that, but it could have been much worse. Jon tells the contestants the two groups will race to the summit. The uphill group is given a bicycle for two. Jon doesn’t say they have to use it the entire way up to the top though. The others can ride a tram to the top, but they must earn a ticket to ride by playing against “one of Chile’s toughest teams” in soccer. They are given snazzy green uniforms by Jon, who gives Victoria the first uniform. It is revealed that Alex and Bobby have soccer experience in America which means very little.
Mark wants to be in front on the bike and they start off. Immediately the chain comes off on the bike. Kristen seems very passive about this. We go back to the group playing soccer, and their opponents are 7-8 year old kids. The kids start kicking tush. The bikers are making steady progress, with Mark pushing the bike and Kristen running. When Mark complains about pushing the bike and Kristen offers to push it, he declines. The final score of the soccer game is 14-0. Technically, Craig did score, although it was an own goal. I’m surprised no one tried to argue this. Apparently the Mole players are too busy being exhausted. Bobby pulls up lame and gasps that he needs water. Paul hunches over on his knees and spits up a bunch of spooge. Clay looks like he has never played soccer with his kids. You can tell the kids are good because one kid scores by transferring the ball in mid air from his right foot to his left and kicking it in the goal. However the Mole team is pretty pathetic. Although I understood that games go into penalty kicks if neither team scores, the producers had to do something here so each member of the Mole team gets a chance at a penalty kick. While Bobby calls Alex’s kick that was caught by the goalie pathetic, but he probably kicked it where he thought the little goalie couldn’t get it. The kid can jump quite impressively. Ali finally scores, and says she was pleased to be the hero. The team of soccer challenged players gets tram tickets and a map. I thought that would be an advantage, but apparently not.
The group immediately starts arguing about where to go. Alex and Victoria start jogging up a path but Liz sits down and is afraid she will black out. I think she has her sock tied around her head. Paul tries to motivate her to move with the idea of the $35,000. The uphill team is shown again running up the hill where Jon sits at a table. He offers them a drink, and says they can take a taxi to the top but it will cost $5,000 out of the team pot. Mark and Kristen look like they’ve made good progress and refuse. Kristen doesn’t really look like she’s broken much of a sweat. The soccer playing group finally makes it to the top of the park in stages, with the last group being the slow folks including Liz, Craig, and Bobby. Jon calls out to the uphill folks to appear if they made it to the top first, and they do! Mark and Kristen win exemptions, and the other group is left wondering what went wrong.
The reunited players sit down for lunch and Paul rips into Bobby for being so useless in the soccer game. The players return to the hotel and are still talking about the mission where Victoria is straightening her hair. Paul comes into the room and they exchange words about Bobby. Kristen has an interesting choice of words when asking if Victoria will “ever forgive him (Paul)” Victoria quips she has dealt with much worse working in retail. If I was a contestant on the Mole, it might be a good strategy to annoy people so much they don’t want to be around me. You can’t observe someone closely you refuse to be around.
The Mole players move on to Pomaire, a town that looks more rural, and enter a pen that looks like a bullfighting arena. Jon tells them that the local potter makes clay pigs, but fifty of her pigs have been stolen. He holds up a ransom note that the players aren’t shown clearly. Some of the letters on the ransom note are missing. The note is signed the Mole in Spanish (El Topo). I clarified with a Spaniard working in my lab that animals are given masculine names, so this is not a clue that the Mole is a man. The players must divide into three groups of three and one group of two. The twosome of Liz and Paul has to stay behind while the other players are given wheelbarrows and sent into town to find the missing pigs. They have about an hour to do this while the potter makes a dozen new piggies. Once the groups return with the missing pigs, they have to take the pigs and launch them into the arena where Liz and Paul will catch them in a blanket. Jon shows them an example of the missing pigs, and that pig has a thumbprint on it. He tells them he’ll leave it in the arena on the table. He also tells the players there is an exemption in play. I prefer it when only one person knows about the exemption; it keeps the suspense up a bit.
Team Huge Advantage is made up of Victoria, Alex, and Nicole. They race into town along with Team Moderately Useful made up of Ali, Mark, and Clay. Both teams start asking where the pigs are, but only Alex is fluent in Spanish. Team Our Spanish Sucks of Kristen, Craig, and Bobby slowly bring up the rear. They spend a lot of time looking in places that have been looked at already. Maybe the Mole is in this group? I think it would be more efficient to sabotage the slingshot somehow. Bobby volunteers his group to take back the pigs that Alex, Victoria, and Nicole have collected but they refuse. As Nicole explains in a voiceover that her team didn’t want the Mole to take half their pigs and accidentally drop them “because of a leg cramp.” I have to say I found Nicole enjoyable to watch in this episode. The rest of them are so incredibly “meh.” I hope things change.
Mark and Ali argue as their group is lost. Back at the arena, Paul shakes the pig left on the table, and there is something inside. He breaks the pig and earns the third exemption of the episode. That’s a bit much, don’t you agree? Nicole and Victoria hold the slingshot while Alex launches pigs. Craig steps in and holds the slingshot and they start to land pigs in the blanket. Liz and Paul do a good job of catching a lot of them. Some of the badly aimed ones look hard to get to. In a confessional, Liz shows the audience a large bruise on her arm. The players get twenty-eight pigs in the blanket before the potter makes her dozen pigs. The total in the pot is now $63,000. Jon tells the players Paul earned an exemption and tells them that eight players are at risk that night.
Back at the hotel, Bobby and Craig are joking around with a camera. Bobby finds Alex’s journal, and laughs at how stupid he is. Craig suggests maybe he left it for someone to find on purpose. The journal reveals that Alex thinks that Nicole is the Mole. Alex shares that he did leave the journal on purpose. Bobby and Alex hate each other. The players eat dinner, and then take the quiz. Victoria crosses herself before she takes hers. Bobby is not shown taking the quiz.
Here are the questions:
Question 1: Is the Mole?
Male
Female
Question 2: In "Race to the Summit" how did the Mole arrive at the summit?
Bike
Gondola 1
Gondola 2
Gondola 3
Question 3: Did the Mole earn an exemption in "Race to the Summit" ?
Yes
No
Question 4: In "Race to the Summit," which group did the Mole join?
"Uphill Battle" Team
"Goal Oriented" Team
Question 5: At the start of the "When Pigs Fly" mission, did the Mole grab a wheelbarrow?
Yes
No
Question 6: How many Mole pigs did the Mole's "Ham It Up" team find in Pomaire?
0
18
26
The Mole was not a "Ham It Up" player
Question 7: In "When Pigs Fly," what did the Mole do after returning from Pomaire?
Catch pigs
Hold one end of the slingshot handle
Load pigs and shoot slingshot
Nothing
Question 8: During "When Pigs Fly," did the Mole wear protective headgear?
Yes
No
Question 9: During "When Pigs Fly," was the Mole transported in a wheelbarrow for the majority of the time?
Yes
No
Question 10: Who is the Mole?
Ali
Alex
Bobby
Clay
Craig
Kristen
Liz
Mark
Nicole
Paul
Victoria
The order of the results is as follows: Clay, Alex, Victoria, Bobby, and then Liz, who is executed. She bubbles about what a wonderful experience she had before the Mole got her when Jon walks her to the car. Paul tells the camera he wishes it wasn’t Liz going home, and singles out Nicole. Bobby says you can play the game and still be classy. Paul berates him for having Kristen push him in the wheelbarrow. Nicole says she’ll kill Paul in his sleep. He doesn’t believe her, and she says “okay, wake up dead.” And she grits out “I will beat you in this game.” Clearly, Paul has gotten under her skin.
If I was ever to play this game (which is highly unlikely because I am afraid of heights) and I was the Mole, I would probably act as the Mole in plain sight. I would do stupid things to sabotage missions and make it painfully obvious. That way folks would think I couldn’t possibly be the Mole. I stink at guessing the identity of the Mole though, so I could never play.
Next week, more bickering…and glamazon naked ladies?