The Mole season 2 episode 3 recap: a money heist and game of bluff
Season 2 continues with an adrenaline-fueled heist and a serious game of bluff
The Mole season 2 episode 2 ended with Hannah and Tony at a stalemate over whether they’d let all the prize pot money run down to zero, or give up the exemption card to the other player. As Hannah (main image) suspected, Tony gives it to her before the money runs out. But, from the $45,000 they had in the prize pot when the game began, only $9,870 was left. The worry now, which Andy expresses, is that a couple is forming within the game.
Ari returns, hands Hannah the exemption card, rounds up the prize pot to an even $10,000, and informs the remaining players that it’s time for the elimination quiz. Following the same premise as episode 1, every player must answer 20 questions about the Mole (or who they suspect the Mole to be) and the player with the most wrong answers gets eliminated.
Once again, after they’ve completed the quiz, the players sit around waiting to find out who is the next on the chopping block. Their phones light up green for safe and red for elimination. This time round, it’s Andy who is taken out of the game. Hannah and Tony share a winning kiss as Andy’s taken away in a car. Though now in a couple, Hannah says, “There can only be one winner, so I don’t how that’s going to work out. Maybe it’ll be our first fight.”
Time for a heist
For the third mission, the remaining 10 players head to Forest City in south Malaysia. They’re split into two cars and a text from Ari confirms that their team for the next mission is who is in their car. Now, they must pick one volunteer who is the person most capable of performing under pressure. Team one is Mike, Tony, Hannah, Sean, and Q. Team two is Deanna, Ryan, Neesh, Melissa, and Muna. Team one picks Sean and team two picks Melissa.
Ari meets the teams at one of the high rises in Forest City to reveal the mission. He explains, two apartments have $10,000 jewelry hidden in a safe and each team must pull off a heist. To do this, the team leaders have to rappel down the building from the roof to find the right apartment, break in, let their team in, crack the safe, and escape.
After a nervous start, Sean and Melissa both descend the building and find their apartments. After letting in the team, Ari tells them to find numbers around the apartment that will help form the code to unlock the safe and to use the bag they’ve each been given to help. While Q focuses on the flashlight with no batteries, Tony tells him it’s worthless. Fortunately, he sticks with it and figures out that, once he finds batteries that work, it’s a blacklight. This means it’ll light up things in the dark that the naked eye won’t see. They turn off all the lights and shine it on the numbers on the safe for fingerprints.
Trying one go with the fingerprints, they fail to get in and the possibilities of the code are vast. Each team only gets three attempts before they get locked out, so they need to be sure. Melissa finds an envelope that says for $5,000 they can get a clue. But they pocket it for later. They try a number based on what they find with the blacklight and then another. Both fail.
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Hannah and Tony decide they’re confident between two codes and, since they have two tries left, walk up to the safe to try them and the first one fails. They try again after coming up blank and lose. Melissa’s team, who have the envelope, decide to open it and the clue provides them with something they already knew. Fortunately, between the two choices they’ve determined with the blacklight, they try one last time and it works.
Both teams meet Ari after the mission and Melissa’s team are surprised to hear that Sean’s team didn’t find any shining numbers with their flashlight, even though they got it working. The mission is over with $5,000, out of the potential $20,000, added to the prize pot.
An intense game of bluff
While the players talk about the fallout from the partially-failed mission, they meet Ari at a restaurant. They think it’s for food and drinks, but Ari tells them it’s time for another elimination quiz. But, not before another mission.
In the middle of the table are ten fortune cookies; five with money for the pot, five with exemptions. Each player gets to see what they have and must bluff their way to try and convince their fellow players they don’t have an exemption, if they have one, so that they can keep it for a free pass from the next elimination quiz.
Each round, a vote takes place to remove players who they think have exemptions off the table until there’s only five players left. Make it to the end with cash, it gets added to the pot. Make it with an exemption, the player holding it survives elimination. If they vote correctly on all five, $50,000 gets added to the prize pot. Once they’ve selected their cookies, the conversation begins to twist and turn about who has money or an exemption.
Four people claim $5,000 though there’s only two in the game, four people claim $10,000 though there’s only two in the game. Tony claims $20,000 and so does Ryan, but only one of them is telling the truth. Viewers see that Tony is the one being honest, but given his track record so far he’s worried people won’t believe him. Ryan goes against him knowing this and pins her hopes on it being her best shot. The episode ends while viewers eagerly wait to find out how the game of bluff goes down.
Grace has been writing about TV and film for most of her journalism career. After graduating, she's been a YouTube presenter, tech showrunner, and head of short-form content, including podcasts for Audible, comedy shorts for the BBC, and entertainment shorts on ITV2 and Ch5. When she's not writing about entertainment, she's most certainly watching it. Her favorites shows include Succession, Bridgerton, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine and movies include Forrest Gump, Love in the Time of Cholera, and the OG Total Recall. In her spare time (of which she has little with two small kids), you'll also find her reading books or playing video games.