(Editor's note: Sorry for the delay. My workload got in the way of delivering John-John's recap!)

Twelve contestants, 10 weeks and I'm none the wiser. I'm still scratching my head over last night's season finale of The Mole.

Jon Kelley began the show saying that the winner would receive $420,000. Jon said it has been 12 weeks since Mark, Nicole, and Craig took the final test. He also announced that the entire cast has gathered to learn the identity of the Mole.

Jon then showed a series of clips that made each of the remaining contestants appear Mole-like. After more clips featuring eliminated contestants, Jon is ready to crown the winner -- Mark. He went into a speech about how much the cash will help his family. (Blah, blah, blah.)

Next, Jon revealed the Mole. To the surprise of many contestants, it was Craig!

Clips of Nicole's finest moments were then shown. During the recap the audience learned that Nicole beat her rival Paul by four seconds. (Paul, who was on to Craig from the beginning, said it was a dagger to the heart to know that he only lost to Nicole by four seconds.)

Continue reading "'The Mole': Mark wins, and Craig is the Mole" »

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 6:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
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I'm so sick of two-part season finales!!! I wanted to know the identity of the Mole so badly last week, yet here I am today no closer to an answer than I was in the beginning of the season. Each of the remaining competitors is equally shady and deserving of the Mole label.

Nicole is the most obvious choice. She's been so over-the-top in her antics that she has to be on everyone's radar. Craig has been hampered with physical obstacles all season because of his weight, but he's in the finals (very suspicious). And then there's Mark. He behaved so strangely when host Jon Kelley was burning all of the diaries; it appeared to be an act.

Let's face it: I don't have the slightest clue. Do you? I'm interested to hearing your opinions before tonight's conclusion!

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
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After an episode filled with complicated brain teasers, a challenge that required the contestants to conquer their fear of heights, and an interesting game of paintball, the often combative Paul became the Mole's latest victim.

His exit completely threw me for a loop. I thought Paul was either going to win the competition or be revealed as the saboteur. I was wrong.

The episode started off in Argentina. Host Jon Kelley asked the contestants to identify themselves as "young at heart." Paul and Craig immediately volunteered. Jon then created the teams of Nicole and Craig and Mark and Paul. The "young at heart" contestants were blindfolded. Their teammates were given a video camera, which they had to use to guide their partners through the mission. Those filming were not allowed to speak, and the video feed that was shown to the blindfolded contestants was from the perspective of the filmmaker. The feed was essentially reversed for the Craig and Paul.  

Needless to say, the lack of verbalization combined with the blindfold resulted in trouble.

Continue reading "'The Mole': Final three are revealed" »

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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This episode of The Mole was ripe with opportunities for the Mole to strike.

The first challenge, "Go Figure," involved math and trivia. The contestants had to go out into the town of Mendoza to search for clues that revealed numbers. They then had to remember the numbers revealed during trivia questions. Those numbers were entered into a computer to complete a code. Basically, there were so many instances of sabotage or shear stupidity that it was almost impossible to home in on one competitor.

Folks were displaying Mole behavior from the beginning. It seemed that Nicole was deliberately getting math equations wrong. Paul got his team lost. And Clay's last minute heroics -- I'll get to that in a moment -- were very suspicious.

Craig and Nicole completed the mission first. Clay, Paul and Mark had fewer numbers to enter but managed to lag behind.

Continue reading "'The Mole': Clay eliminated!" »

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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After last week's absence, I was totally ready for a double dose of The Mole. What I got was a near heart attack. At first, I thought that a Bachelorette special was going to replace The Mole again. Then, I was disappointed when I realized that the first hour of the two-hour "Mole special" was actually a recap of the season. (Yawn!)

I was surprised to learn that Nicole admitted to Alex and Clay that she sabotaged the luge mission a couple of episodes ago so that people would think she is the Mole. (Wow! She's taking the whole double agent thing to a new level.)

Nicole began this week's real episode lamenting that she was the only woman left in the game. Would this be her last week? We'll get back to that later. The first mission, "Grapes of Cash," required the contestants to go to a vineyard. The mission was complex. Craig and Nicole had to solve brain teasers. The answers correlated with directions to retrieve wine bottles from the vineyard. Each time the contestants retrieved another bottle, the speed on the treadmill that Mark was on would increase. The game continued as long as Mark was able to stay on the treadmill. (Complicated, right?)

Continue reading "'The Mole': another surprise elimination" »

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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Just when you think you've got a good idea of what's going to happen on The Mole, a new twist leads you in another direction. I was totally caught off guard with the contestant eliminated in this episode. But I'll get to that a little later.  

The show started where it ended last week. Craig said he was still recovering from hypothermia. He was totally dreading the first mission, and for good reason. The group was taken to an old, abandoned prison for the task, which required them to free themselves after being chained together. The key to their freedom could only be accessed if the group agreed to allow each contestant enough slack in the chain to reach it. The catch? Next to the key was an exemption. If any contestant took the exemption, he would then force the remaining contestants to sleep in the cold prison the rest of the night.
 

Continue reading "'The Mole': Surprise elimination!" »

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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The contestants headed to the breathtaking Andes in Argentina. The scenery was beautiful, but treachery was alive and well. The Mole was at work.

In the challenge "Midas Rush," contestants were split into two teams: the selfish against the selfless. Somehow, Paul, Alex, Mark and Craig were chosen for the selfless team (totally disagree with Alex and Mark). Victoria, Kristen, Clay and Nicole were chosen for the selfish team (totally disagree with everyone except Nicole.)

Both teams were tasked with carrying as many gold bars as possible to the top of a mountain in a certain amount of time. The first team to the top had the opportunity for an exemption. But a team earned more money for the overall prize with the more gold bars it transported. (So, basically, contestants were faced with personal greed versus overall team wealth.) 

Continue reading "'The Mole': Gold bricks, hypothermia, an elimination" »

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
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The producers and editors with The Mole surely know the meaning of building tension and throwing in a few good twists and turns.  

This week's episode was no exception. First, we started where we left off last week -- drama city. The contestants were all abuzz, discussing Nicole's death threat to Paul after the elimination. Nicole essentially said she was caught up in the competition. Paul didn't accept her explanation. (Paul later said in a confessional that he was going to milk it as much as he could so that he could throw the other contestants off their game.) 

Continue reading "'The Mole': fruit, underwear and two exits" »

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Liz, the retiree from Whitefish, Mont., became The Mole’s latest casualty. But Paul and Nicole’s disdain for each other stole the show.

Even before the first mission was announced, the show’s producers gave us a little preview of the conflict during a brief confessional by Nicole.

“I don’t want to fight Paul, but I am taller than he is,” Nicole said to the camera. “I could take him if I wanted to.”

(It was the perfect foreshadowing for the end of the show. But I’ll get to that later.)

The first mission was a race to the top of a mountain.

Continue reading "Liz is second contestant eliminated in 'The Mole'" »

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Guest blogger John-John Williams IV reports:

Ominous music accompanied a series of breathtaking shots of the Chileian landscape. The Mole was in full swing. That means tons of strategy, lying, and adventure.

(I have to admit, The Mole is probably one of my favorite reality game shows. I was so excited to learn that ABC had decided to revive the series. Granted there was no more Anderson Cooper. But, new host Jon Kelley seems to be a decent sub—so far.)

We quickly meet our 12 contestants. They include: Ali, 24, a model from St. Louis; Alex, 31, a musician from Haverford, Pa.; Bobby, 25, a restaurant manager from Manayunk, Pa.; Clay, 32, an attorney from Philadelphia; Craig, 30, a graphic designer from San Diego; Kristen, 25, a neuroscientist from Santa Monica; Liz, 60, a retiree from Whitefish, Mont.; Marcie, 31, a stay-at-home mother from Corona, Calif.; Mark, 42, a high school history teacher and soccer coach from Mukwonago, Wisc.; Nicole Williams, 32, an OB/GYN from Chicago; Paul, 29, a utility worker from Yonkers, N.Y.; and Victoria, 26, a retail manager from Bishop, Texas.

Anywho, the contestants were thrust immediately into danger with their first challenge. Each had to leap from a raft to grab a bag of money while plummeting down a waterfall. (Told you there is some serious adventure.)

Continue reading "'The Mole' debuts" »

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: The Mole