The Mole season 2 episode 3 ended in the midst of a game of fortune cookies and bluff. Tony has the $20,000, but Ryan (main image), who wants to hold onto her exemption, says she has it too. Fortunately, six players vote that Ryan is lying, versus four for Tony, meaning the players win the $20,000 and also ensure that one exemption is off the table.
Next up, Hannah, Muna, Sean, and Neesh go head to head as they all claim they have $10,000, despite there only being two on the table. So, two of them are lying. Four votes takes Muna off the table, who reveals she was lying and had an exemption. The players think that Sean is a bad liar, so vote him out next. Their instincts were correct as they’re right again. He had an exemption, meaning the players have now cleared three exemptions with two remaining to be found.
Finally, Deanna, Melissa, Q, and Mike all claim they have $5,000 in their fortune cookies. Only two of them are telling the truth. Tony calls out Melissa and the majority of the players follow suit, voting her out. For a fourth time in a row, they’re right in their suspicions leaving just one exemption on the table. It’s Mike who has it and he says, “I think I have one of the best poker faces in this game right now.” And he’s proven right, for now, as the team votes for Deanna and loses the $5,000 and grants Mike exemption from the elimination quiz. The prize pot, despite their mistake, now stands at $60,000.
Another day, another elimination quiz
It’s time for the contestants to sit down for the elimination quiz answering 20 questions about the Mole and the player with the least amount of correct answers gets eliminated. The players consider their rising suspicions following the lies of the fortune cookie bluff game and the previous heist mission. Melissa is being called out for moving purposefully slowly down the building, Muna for lying so well in the bluff game, and Mike for deceiving them all. Ultimately, it’s Melissa who gets eliminated in the quiz.
On leaving she says, “I followed my gut, so I wouldn’t take that back. But I cannot wait to see how this plays out.” While the players talk about the most recent elimination, Tony expresses how his relationship with Hannah gives the couple a better chance at winning.
Grab the popcorn for movie night
Onto Kuala Lumpur where the players are ecstatic to be staying in a luxurious high-rise hotel, until they see Ari on their TV screens to tell them they’re being treated to a special movie night. But, it’s not just any movie. Players can choose to watch one other players’ interview tape where they reveal, before the game started, how they’d play as the Mole if they were given the role. The price of a ticket? $5,000. If everyone declines a ticket, $25,000 gets added to the prize pot. If all nine remaining contestants buy a ticket though, they could lose $45,000 from the pot.
Aside from Q, every single contestant buys a ticket. Tony chooses to watch Hannah’s video, explaining that it’s not because he’s suspicious of her, he thinks it’s Mike, but he wants to check how real she is. Sean and Neesh also choose to watch Hannah’s video. After watching, Tony steps away relieved, while Sean and Neesh think she’s playing the game they thought she was playing.
Hannah chooses to watch Mike’s video and during it, she witnesses him saying, “I am ready to manipulate these people. I find it very easy to lie.” Deanna chooses Muna who says people wouldn’t expect her to be the Mole and that they’d assume because she’s Muslim that she’s more reserved, but that’s not the case.
Mike chooses to watch Sean as he doesn’t believe he’s just a stay-at-home dad like he says he is. Muna and Ryan choose him too. Sean says in his movie, “I can play that I can’t do good on this competition because I’m old, and I’m tired, I’ve got dad bod, I can’t run. That’s real, so I can play that out all day.” When asked how he feels about lying he says, “It’s what I did for my career, being an undercover cop.” This revelation shocks the contestants given that he’s never shared that piece of information with them.
Round the pool at the hotel the next morning, every single player is trying to find out who chose to watch a movie without directly asking. But, no-one admits that they did. Until, Ari gathers the players and reveals that out of nine players, eight chose to purchase a ticket. Although Q doesn’t admit he’s the only one that didn’t. The pot now stands at $20,000.
Powers of observation
Ari tells the contestants that they are about to get another opportunity to add money back into the pot at a gala at the Petronas Towers. They’re each given an outfit to wear — the uniform of staff. For the next mission, there will be 60 guests at the gala with gifts, but only three have bought $10,000 to donate to the prize pot. The players must use their powers of observation to determine who these three are or lose the money.
Four players, voted as the biggest problem solvers, need to go back of house. The other five will cater to the guests at the front of house. Sean, Mike, Muna, and Deanna nominate themselves to go back of house. Front of house is Tony, Hannah, Ryan, Q, and Neesh. They have an hour to complete the mission.
Back of house has photos of each guest, their table number, and access to their belongings in the cloakroom. It’s revealed that the cash donors are a pilot, a doctor, and an artist. But, there’s numerous people with the same job title, as well as figuring out what their job titles even are. Using their RSVPs, Muna finds the guests who circled a cash donation as their gift and identifies that they’re all drinking red wine.
The five front of house each take two tables to observe. On each table, they eliminate the guests drinking white wine. Sean notices Mike watching him and suspects he watched his video during movie night. Because of this, Sean does a bit of fake sabotage to make Mike even more suspicious so he does poorly on the elimination quiz. Mike sees it, but thinks he obviously wanted Mike to see him.
Next, the food is served. One option is chicken satay and the other is vegetable dumpling. Fortunately, due to the RSVPs, they know there’s two guests that are vegetarian and one guest with a peanut allergy, meaning the cash donors will all eat the dumplings. The players eliminate all the remaining guests eating chicken satay. One mistake though on comms and it could throw the whole mission. For the Mole, this would be on purpose. When they’re looking between two pilots, Ryan says her pilot on table nine is eating a dumpling when he is, in fact, eating a chicken satay. Hannah notices this mistake, but doesn’t mention it despite knowing it will sacrifice prize money. Instead, she opts to keep the information as an advantage to herself.
They still have five guests to choose from with seven minutes on the clock. They go to the cloakroom to see if they can identify who they are based on their belongings. Mike finds the artist and Neesh confirms it. Q finds the doctor, but the card on the board is missing. It’s in Sean’s pocket. His fake sabotage turned out to be real, but he can’t go back on it now.
Again, they make the mistake going with the pilot Ryan lied about, but Hannah says nothing, and they get it wrong. While they get the artist right, Q is then angry when he sees the doctor he described isn’t the right one. Tony says, “If there was sabotage, Hannah and I never, ever caught it.” But Hannah did, she just didn’t tell Tony. $10,000 gets added to the prize pot.
Following the mission, the players try to figure out how they got two wrong. Mike takes Sean aside to admit he watched his video. But Sean wants Mike to believe he’s the Mole, so he purposefully continues to fuel his suspicions. The players then take the next elimination quiz. But, the episode ends before the next player to leave the competition is revealed.
