The Mole: Like Family Guy, But Funny

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Hey kids! Apologies for the lateness of this recap, I am on vacation and internets are sparse. Or a seagull stole my computer. Something like that. I don't remember, I'm too drunk. Anyway, on to The Mole!

We begin this week still in Mendooooza, where the players are asked to break up into two teams, a Smart team, and a Dumb team. They are then to run around the village and solve a series of mathtastic riddles. They must remember the answers that they get without writing anything down, and once they get all the numbers they must get back to the starting point and enter them all into a computer. If all of them are right, they get $30,000 added to the pot. The Dumb team, which contains Nicole and Craig, unsurprisingly gets the harder challenge, because they were dumb enough to not realize that this is how the game is played. "YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS BY NOW!" Jon screams in unbridled frustration. Oh calm down, Jon. Don't get your evil cape in a twist.

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"WHO SHOT THAT SPITBALL?!"

(Side note: Someone claiming to be Jon Kelley wrote a couple comments on the post last week. I am highly dubious, but just in case it really is SmugJon "The Smuganator" Kelley (and I won't believe it until I see a government-issued photo ID) and he actually does read these silly little recaps, then I just wanted to give him a brief shoutout. Welcome Jon! And thanks for reading! I hated you at first, but as I have mentioned as of late, your smarmy face now constantly warms the cockles of my shriveled heart. If it is in fact you. Forgive the heavy skepticism, but the internet is full of lies and deceit, much like The Mole. I'm sure you understand. And in the more likely case that it was not Jon, then congratulations, anonymous poster. Your faux smugitude got my attention, and on the bright side has led to an open welcome to the real Smugatron, should he ever decide to visit and tell allll of his famous friends to come on over to our little corner of the internet and hand out some real jobs to a handful of starving yet unfathomably talented and devastatingly attractive bloggers. We'll make it worth his while.)

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"ARE YOU BRIBING ME?!"

Anyway. The teams take off to their respective destinations, and immediately Mark and Clay get into a pretty intense Mathematics Throwdown. Mark insists it's one number (the correct answer), while Clay throws out a lot of odd math and insists that he is a Math Beast. Man, I wish that was the name of our math team in high school. That sure as hell beat ours, which was, pitifully, the Purple Team. The Math Beasts would be so much cooler. I can picture the t-shirts now. A rabid wolverine shooting division signs and sigmas and cosines out of its mouth. Dude, too cool!

After Mark convinces Clay that he's right, they continue on to their second number. Meanwhile, Craig and Nicole have already moved on to their third, which requires them to stand near a playground and stare at all of the children playing there, all while carefully evading the Mendoza Pedophile Police Force. While adding up the numbers, Craig either makes a mistake or slips in a deliberately wrong number, which definitely ups his Suspicious Factor, and certainly does nothing to decrease his Child Molester Factor.

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"Help me count the swings on the swingset, little Renaldo."

While the Dumb team continues to live up to its name by asking a local how many months are in a year, the Smart team proceeds to demolish its good name by getting lost and going eight blocks the wrong way. Though this little detour does provide an invaluable Spanish lesson, as Mark, looking for a big green box, yells at some random woman, "GRANDE, VERDE....SQUARE!" Wow, Mark. You're practically Dora the Explorer.

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"Muy bad! MUY BAD!"

Craig and Nicole finish their puzzles and return to the loving arms of Jon and his Computer. They can't enter the numbers until the other team arrives, however, and at the present moment the other team is way across town due to Paul's inability to read a map. By sprinting, however, they make it back with seven minutes to spare. They all enter the numbers, and it turns out that the second and third digits of Craig and Nicole's last answer are wrong (as labeled by a rather frightening red INVALID ENTRY). One team member has twenty minutes to run out and recalculate, or else no money goes into the pot.

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Comments (5)

bentley1101:

Great recap. I picked Craig from the very first episode, solely on the first impression rule. First season, as offensive as it is, pick a meek girl, no one suspects it. Second season, pick the older man, who would suspect it. Furthermore, double model seasons. (Although, I'm not quite sure I count those seasons yet.) My friends now tell me that I'm wrong because everyone is suspecting Craig so it can't be right. Honestly, if I'm wrong I'd be thrilled, it'd be exactly what I love about this show. But I wouldn't be surprised if I was right.

As for you, classic shoutout to the original show I would have to give it to viewing party post Laser Tag.

36474695:

Here is a recap of my major clues that point to Craig

In episode 1 The #11 journal is spotlighted. The 11th person in the introductions was Craig.

There was a mobile clue of NIC @ IT translated to NICATIT. "TITANIC"? maybe??? On the boat to the scavenger game Craig is standing in front with his arms out like in the movie

Then in episode 3 it was Craig who suggested Bobby ride in the wheelbarrow. What better way for a mole to slow down his team and yet it all falls on Bobby's shoulders for being a whimp.

In the episode with the Nic@It clue, they referred to the dinner as the Last dinner. Connect Leonardo DaVinci to Leonardo Di Caprio from Titanic and it still points to Titanic and Craig.

JAIME on the side of a building:

Jaime is a variant of James and means "supplanter". Supplant means: to supersede (another) especially by force or treachery. Treachery, much like a mole would do. In Spanish, Jaime and James are both variants of the name Diego. As in San Diego where Craig is from.


On the waterfall challenge: Is when Craig says "dude, one thing at a time who cares if we're staying here or not we're jumping over a frickin waterfall, god! ********WHO CARES WHERE YOU'RE SLEEPING****************" Why would he mention where they were sleeping BEFORE Jon Kelley told them that Marcie had to choose where they slept?

During the scavenger hunt game, the host mentioned that Robinson Crusoe was based on Alexander Selkirk. If you google that name you will find that his name at birth was Alexander Selcraig. Pretty big coincidence there.

Episode one internet clue: E_E_E_
After going over the waterfall Craig said: "the rope just goes taut and chokes me like a hanged man. E_E_E_ = hangman

Craig has been constantly wearing his glasses, but he did not have them when they arrived for the pig challenge and did not have them the entire time. He did have them back on later though. Maybe they are just clear lenses and doesn't really need them? This could be lying with his eyes (another internet clue).

The text clue of "heart" is mentioned in Craig's bio on the website. It says, "He is a lovable prankster with a big heart, and his magnetic personality has gotten him through life."

There might be another clue that points to Craig. In the first episode intro Craig is the only one without any type of graphics(the circly things) next to his name or hometown. The text doesn't change either. Plus he's a graphic artist. That might be something that's not so obvious so maybe that's a clue. In all subsequnet episodes, it is back to normal.

On the Laundry challenge I also picked up on something that I thought might have been a clue. Craig was wearing a skeleton key around his neck at the spa. The lockers had combinations and I'm sure the hotel doesn't use skeleton keys. When he "discovered" the Dry Cleaners it was right next door to a Locksmith

HEre is a photo from Episode Two. The picture clearly says MOLE and the number above the calculator is the year Craig is born.


Someone said the Mole's color is red. Is this true? I don't know being that this is the first time I've watched the show. Craig is always wearing red, from his tennies, to his tie, to the upcoming episode and the ski beanie. Wouldn't that be a little too obvious if the other players know this tidbit?

Episode 2 Text Clue: cf(11)8 = See if 11 ate.
Craig didn't eat due to being sick... and he is linked to "11"

Another Text Clue
just thinking that if you still use the numerical value then:

2 3 4
7 1 5

23-15 = 8
7 - 4 = 3

8 + 3 = 11 11+ Craig

Handwriting - In the Moles Journal, all of the handwriting uses a goofy little apostrophe mark that looks suspiciously like the number 11. Craig is journal 11 and one of the original journals that still exist.just thinking that if you still use the numerical value then:

In the first journal entry the passport in the upper left has many entries of travel... the only person that would need to travel that much is someone like Craig...... in his bio on ABC.com reads "Craig has traveled extensively and worked as a humanitarian disaster relief aide worker in Turkey and Thailand."

in the mole journal on the page with the grape stains, above his note, there is 3 $10 bills...10 + 10 + 10=30
craig is 30 years old

Have you noticed that they never show a result for Craig's quiz.

From Episode 5 This N20 couls stnad for November 20, which is Craigs Birthday


And of course, my most recent discovery. Last nights Widget clue was simply the number 495. If you take the first five numbers that Clay and Nicole entered into the computer on the counting mission, they come to 495. However, iit was Craing who came up with these numbers, Nicole had originally entered some other number and Craign had to correct her. This directly points to Craig.

You can see from this that Mark was meticulously keeping track of possible sabotage chances regarding each player. Up to that point in the show there had been 10 missions, and he recorded his thoughts of each player using a "1" if he thought they did something that could be considered sabotage, "0" if he thought they didn't, and a "?" if he wasn't sure.

You can see the players names at the left side of each line, and they are listed alphabetically. The totals from the 10 missions is listed in parenthases at the right side of each line.

Al = Alex (3-3-4)
Cl = Clay (6-3-1)
Cr = Craig (4-2-4)
Kr = Kristen gone
Ni = Nicole (2-4-4)
Paul = Paul (2-4-4)

One more thing...regarding the mole's journal for this week, notice that the journal says Favorite Band-?. Craig didn't know who his friend's favorite band was during that mission. Also, just to post a few things that make me think Craig is a good candidate for the mole because someone said no one has done anything mole-like. 1) As Mark frequently points out, Craig can fail and people will cheer, like in the waterfall mission. 2) In the Alexander Selkirk mission, he was a scavenger and could've easily ignored or kicked away one of the necessary items. 3) Craig talked to Victoria at the end of the fruit of the luge mission, discounting the money they earned. 4)Craig deliberately asked Nichole a question during the most recent mission in which Nichole had the camera and was not allowed to talk. Anyone who knows Nichole knows that she would answer without thinking. 5) Craig suggested that Bobby get in the wheelbarrow in the pigs mission. (His team earned no money). 6) Craig didn't even make it across the bridge to the chalkboard in the last mission, although I think he genuinely was scared. 7) The most suspicious thing to me is when Craig was the first one to say "Exemption" at the dinner table. It seemed odd to me that he would ask for an exemption for being sick. Sounds like the producers told him he had to say that so that he could control the Travelers mission, which he sabotaged, even leading Mark to give up. 8)I know there are others, but I haven't gone back to watch the episodes, so any other "Craig is the mole" fans feel free to chime in.

asmaj:

"The fun continues with Clay and Nicole, who memorizes Clay's answers like a machine and reads them back just as machine-like."

That's called going through medical school and being use to rote memorization.

IMO, Nicole for the win!

Fayellis1:

I think Nicole for the win, and unpopular opinion, Mark is the Mole. Mark is a lunatic who is hell bent and determined to win money. I honestly think he would go for a guarteed payday and the only payday guranteed is that of the Mole. Otherwise, he left his pregnant wife in hopes of winning money on a reality show which just makes him look like a dillweed. Although fat funny guy who know one expects much from is the Mole is a pretty clever twist

trink621:

I think Paul is the mole. He never looks worried at the execution ceremonies. His assinine behavior is his cover. When he was with his family, he was an entirely different person.

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