The Mole season 2 episode 5 recap: the lies continue and the biggest shock so far
The lies ramp up in episode five and an intense auction shocks the players to their cores
The Mole season 2 episode 4 is on a cliffhanger with the reveal of the next eliminated player hanging in the balance. Unfortunately for Tony (main image), while he thought he’d gain an advantage by being in a couple with Hannah because they can share the same amount of information with each other, his light turns red and he is eliminated. He says to Ari, “It’s kind of irritating to me that Hannah kind of has the same suspects.” What viewers do know that Tony doesn’t is that Hannah caught Ryan lying in the last mission, but didn’t tell him.
At the table, Ryan asks Hannah, “Are you stunned that it’s him, or are you stunned because you knew something?” Hannah starts crying because she feels bad, telling Mike “it feels like I sent my friend home.” It appears the guilt is setting in around keeping information to herself.
Who is the top suspect?
For the next mission though, the remaining eight players head to Port Klang. On the way there, Neesh contemplates Hannah’s role in the game and says she is the biggest reason that Tony was eliminated. Meanwhile, Mike continues to cast suspicion on Sean.
They arrive at a shipping yard where Ari tells them that 20 containers within the mass of containers around them are from the US. Those 20 containers have cash boxes hidden inside with a collective total of $50,000. The players must find them, gather them, and load them onto one of three identical trucks. But, which truck is the right one? Ari explains that all three trucks are labeled with a name; Sean, Mike, and Muna. To pick the right truck, the players need to pick the top suspect from the last elimination quiz when players are asked the question, “Who is The Mole?” The best way to figure it out? By being honest with each other.
The players can spread the money however they wish between the three, but only the cash in the right top suspect’s truck will go to the prize pot. Sean says, “This could 110% blow my strategy out of the water.” An hour on the clock, the players start discussing who they each chose as the Mole. But, they don’t have to be honest and viewers see that Sean isn’t and neither is Mike as they picked each other, but lied and said they didn’t. Based on the conversation, the players decide that Muna is the top suspect and Mike is the second most-voted suspect.
For any of this to count though, the players need to find the money. The shipping yard is split into four zones each with five containers they need to find. While they search, the players discuss who they think the actual top suspect is and the players raise concern over lies being told. Finding all the money goes seamlessly, but they also find a box labeled ‘doubler’, that says if you place it in a truck, it doubles the truck’s value. They place the doubler in Muna’s truck alongside the majority of the money, with the second highest amount in Mikes.
At the last minute, they decide to also put $5,000 in Sean’s truck, just in case, and it’s Mike who instigates it which makes Neesh suspicious that he’s trying to throw away money. Mike says, “In this game, if you’re going to lie, you need to live and die by that lie.” But, he still chooses to add money to Sean’s truck knowing he voted him as his top suspect. Unfortunately, while they placed $25,000 and the doubler in Muna’s truck, it was Mike who was the top suspect meaning the players only added $19,500 for the prize pot instead of $50,000.
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An intense auction
Before the players can continue to cast suspicions about why they got it wrong, Ari says there’s another game to play. A game that will secure one of the players an edge. The players are taken to a makeshift classroom to sit behind desks facing a TV and a gavel. Ari announces there’s about to be an auction. If the players can be selfless and resist the three temptations that Ari is about to offer them, more money will be added to the pot.
For the items at the front, each player can make a single bid using money from the prize pot to win it for themselves. If nobody bids, $5,000 gets added each round. The first box is full of information. Fifteen minutes to study the dossier of one player. The players decide that it’s not worth it and no bids are made. $5,000 gets added to the prize pot.
The next box has a correction in it that means the player in possession of this correction can have one of their wrong answers in the next quiz turned into a correct answer. While Sean shows an interest for this one, Muna gets angered by the selfishness. If a player bids now, they don’t get a chance at the third box. So, for the second box, no bids are made in hopes of an exemption hiding in box three. Another $5,000 gets added. Neesh says, “But that third box, I feel like that’s going to break us apart.”
As the players predicted, the third box has an exemption in it meaning the player who wins it can pass through the next elimination quiz. With none of the players placing bids up to this point, they can all place a bid now. If they want to. Hannah says, “This is definitely a challenge that was made for me. I’m going to have to do something big.” Q hopes the highest bid will be $15,000, but he feels that something is about to happen.
The prize pot currently stands at $59,500. The highest bid for the exemption, Ari announces, is $59,500, meaning one player just spent all the money in the prize pot. Ari ends the auction and the episode also ends without revealing who did it.
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.