Wie is De Mol? ’13

To make it easier to follow our favourite Dutch reality show over the next few months I’ve set up a page! This will move into the Specials Board at the end of the series.

The series begins in January. It is set in South Africa.

It’s finally here! Thanks to ThatDarkSpark we should be able to follow the show in English. Click on these links to watch in YouTube and then turn on English captions (CC), although you may find them turned on automatically in the embedded videos in the comments:

You can also play along with Dan Peake’s Suspect List Game! I’ll let him explain:

BOTHERS BAR WIE IS DE MOL SUSPECT LIST!

Basically, order the remaining contestants in order from MOST likely to LEAST likely of being The Mole. If you put The Mole last, you’ll score 0 points. If you put them next to last, you’ll score 1 point. If you put them one above that, you’ll score 2 points… and so on.

There’s also a bonus 2 points available each week if you can correctly guess who you think will be eliminated next week.

The link to the latest week of the game can be found towards the bottom of the comments.

You don’t have to play every week, but it’ll help your score if you do. I’m not sure when I’ll close entries, probably when the next episode airs in The Netherlands (but I might give you a bit longer for this week)

Amazing.

217 thoughts on “Wie is De Mol? ’13

  1. ThatDarkSpark

    Ok guyszz! 😀
    Time for a new Mole season! 🙂

    Here’s the first Mole Mail, with exclusive bits of the first episode and interviews with the new contestants! 🙂

    The contestants were answering this question: What was it like to keep your mouth shut (for a long time)?

    I’d love to hear your thoughts/suspicions/deductions. 🙂
    By the way Tania and Joep weren’t interviewed because they were absent on the day of the press reveal. That doesn’t necessarily mean much as this has happened before, without any bearing on the Mole’s identity so far 🙂

    Enjoy!! (And btw… Really where Art is standing is absolutely and totally gorgeoussss!!!) I think I am going to love this season!! 😀

    Reply
  2. Brig Bother Post author

    I’ve finally watched this. Gut feeling suggests it’ll be male this year. I think Daniel looks the sort of person who’d be quite good at getting away with things with a sort of charm, and Kees is a bit shifty I reckon. Can’t wait!

    Reply
  3. ThatDarkSpark

    Agreed first glance I think the Mole is male too, but early days yet. Need more impressions. 😉

    Here are interiews with the new contestants during the press release, including the first footage of episode 1.

    Looks like we’ll be getting some exciting challenges! 😀 😀

    Personally I can’t wait for it to be 3rd of January… 😀

    Reply
  4. Ronald

    My initial impression (from the perspresentatie) is that Daniel is a good mole candidate

    Do we know anthing about the Bekende Nederlanders from their other activities on Bother’s Bar?

    Reply
    1. VierkanteO

      Would be impressed if you did, but I don’t think so.

      Janine – journalist/reporter
      Paulien – comedian, she did particpated in the recent edition of ‘De Slimste’ in Belgium
      Kees – musicproducer and manager.
      Zarayda – host for a couple of programs of ‘young adults’ channel BNN.
      Joep – comedian
      Tim – actor in New Kids/comedian/host
      Daniel – actor in very good Dutch series
      Carolien – comedian
      Ewout – producer/host
      Tania – opera singer.

      Reply
      1. VierkanteO

        Additionally, for the general Dutch public that follows the series, like my mom for instance, she would actually recognize Joep, Daniel, Kees and maybe Paulien. The younger generation will know Tim and Zarayda most likely.

        Janine, Tainia, Carolien and Ewout are relatively quite unknown.

        Reply
  5. Ronald

    first episode is totes emosh.

    Avoiding spoilers for those waiting translation, except to say: wow, Ewout.

    Reply
  6. Daniel Peake

    Right, I’ve watched the first episode. I’ve got my suspicions about who The Mole is, as you all will have. BUT – are we thinking along the same wavelength.

    BOTHERS BAR WIE IS DE MOL SUSPECT LIST!

    Basically, order the remaining contestants in order from MOST likely to LEAST likely of being The Mole. If you put The Mole last, you’ll score 0 points. If you put them next to last, you’ll score 1 point. If you put them one above that, you’ll score 2 points… and so on.

    There’s also a bonus 2 points available each week if you can correctly guess who you think will be eliminated next week.

    For WEEK 1 (AND DO NOT LOOK AT THE FORM UNTIL YOU HAVE WATCHED THE EPISODE AS IT WILL REVEAL WHO (IF ANY) HAS BEEN ELIMINATED ): Fill in the form here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDhMcEpmVjRDV0RPRUVTOGJkU3FNS3c6MQ#gid=0

    You don’t have to play every week, but it’ll help your score if you do. I’m not sure when I’ll close entries, probably when the next episode airs in The Netherlands (but I might give you a bit longer for this week)
    Best of luck!

    Reply
  7. ThatDarkSpark

    Sorry about the delay guys.
    It was on account of technical difficulties.
    Hope you’ll all enjoy the first episode 🙂

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Amazing, thanks! I was a day away from caving in and watching it in Dutch 🙂

      I will watch this later, much appreciated.

      Reply
    2. Chris M. Dickson

      Thank you for putting so much time and effort in to caption this and share it with us!

      Reply
  8. Brig Bother Post author

    Interesting first episode. I love how the contestasnts overthought the second game, Kees seemingly the only one attempting some sort of revenge.

    Reply
  9. Lewis

    De Mol is another Schlag den Raab for me – a European show I don’t understand why everyone sees the appeal of, but if I watch it I’ll probably understand. It doesn’t help in this that I never saw the Channel 5 version, I think.

    HOWEVER!

    I want to run an experiment – I’m going to enter Dan’s little form as a control, with completely randomized answers each week. So I pretty much don’t want to watch it until I’m done with this. I figure it will always be archived for me to watch afterward. I am curious who is better or worse at predicting than a completely random set of inputs.

    Reply
    1. David Bodycombe

      To me, it does drag a bit unless there’s 3 challenges in the hour. Even if one of them is a quickie.

      And when it’s had several series, I find it a bit too ‘knowing’ and everyone gets a bit self-destructive.

      Reply
      1. Brig Bother Post author

        I don’t mind the Dutch pacing, it’s befitting the more low key artistic documentary/travelogue style they went down, and has its own charm.

        The found soundtrack is also tremendous. There’s a page somewhere which tells you exactly where every piece is from and can be found.

        Reply
        1. Gizensha

          The Dutch cinematography is gorgeous, yeah. Not quite as movie-like an opening for this season as last, which is a shame.

          Reply
    2. Brig Bother Post author

      De Mol is another Schlag den Raab for me – a European show I don’t understand why everyone sees the appeal of, but if I watch it I’ll probably understand

      Ya think?

      Reply
  10. Daniel Peake

    We’ve got five entries so far in The Suspect List, including mine and also Lewis’s random list (who’ll probably win!).

    I’ll keep entries open for week 1 until Sunday evening. I’ll then put the average points for each suspect so we have see who we think is the Mole.

    I might put up people’s individual responses too.

    Reply
    1. Gizensha

      You can get a true neutral score mathematically, though the Dutch version of the show can get a bit… Odd… With eliminations, etc.

      How will you be handling the bonus 2 elimination points in weeks that do no elimination twists?

      Reply
      1. Daniel Peake

        The wording is “next person to be eliminated”, so if there’s no-one eliminated in an episde (likely), it will be the very next person to go that it’ll count for.

        Reply
  11. ThatDarkSpark

    Here’s the one minute preview of episode 2 of the Mole in SA. 😀

    Reply
  12. Greg

    My early money is on Carolien so based on last year expect her to be next out

    Reply
  13. art begotti

    I didn’t watch last year’s series, so I don’t know if this is a recurring thing, but did anyone else notice the Sherlock music during the first challenge?

    Reply
    1. Gizensha

      You aren’t the only person who noticed that; I think they had a little of it last year but I can’t be certain of that.

      Reply
    2. ThatDarkSpark

      No I think this is the first time they used the Sherlock music (I love that series btw! :)) They used a lot of Dex music and famous movie tracks like Brig Bother says though. Always have done so I doubt it means much 🙂

      Reply
  14. ThatDarkSpark

    Thanx to very expeditious help this week, we’re happy to offer you episode 2 of the Mole S13 in SA… 😀 😀

    Hope that makes up somewhat for the delay last week. 😉

    I’d love to read your thoughts and suspicions!!
    Happy Mole Hunt everyone!! 😀

    Reply
    1. Gizensha

      While that was a very successful episode financially, I think there’s a lot of information within it. It’s just a question of unpacking it. Which… Err… Could be tricky.

      I’m pretty sure I know three people who aren’t the Mole now, though, ignoring eliminated contestants. No firm views between the other five, though, but I have my suspicions.

      Reply
        1. Gizensha

          Tim, but it’s quite marginal between him and Zarayda, and between Zarayda and all of Pauline, Kees and Tania who are about as suspicious as each other for me atm.

          Reply
  15. Daniel Peake

    For those of you who are playing along with The Suspect List, here are a couple of statistics! Based on 12 entries…

    Firstly, who do we think is The Mole? Scores range from 0.0 to 8.0, where 8.0 is the most likely to be The Mole, 0.0 is least likely.

    Daniel, 5.2
    Tim, 4.6
    Zarayda, 4.4
    Pauline, 4.2
    Caroline, 4.2
    Janine, 3.8
    Kees, 3.7
    Joep, 3.2
    Tania, 2.9

    How certain are we of who The Mole is? This is the standard deviation in points that they received, so a greater number means less certain (i.e. some people think they’re almost certainly the mole, some people think they’re almost certainly not!)

    Paulien, 1.94
    Tania, 2.31
    Daniel, 2.33
    Tim, 2.42
    Janine, 2.63
    Kees, 2.64
    Zarayda, 2.84
    Carolien, 3.01
    Joep, 3.09

    So, this looks like we’re saying we’re most decided on Paulien and Tania (Tania isn’t looking like the Mole), whilst Joep is providing the most uncertainty and we haven’t a clue what he’s doing.

    Reply
  16. Greg

    My money is still on Carolien a couple of things that i picked up on in this episode are pointing it towards her for me.

    After week one she was the only one i suspected. However Tania is now on my radar, i am going to be watching her closely over the next episodes as she is somebody i have been paying little attention to until now.

    I suspect Joep was convinced that it was one of the males in the group and geared his answers towards them. Simply due to the missing money from the final game.

    At the moment i am not suspecting any of the others apart from Carolien and Tania.

    Reply
    1. Gizensha

      Would have been easy for Carolien to have thrown the safe game with the yellow lasers, without drawing suspicion to her, since most other sets of lasers took a couple of people to figure out how to get past them. At least, I think that was Carolien.

      Reply
      1. ThatDarkSpark

        Yes it was Carolien earning the money, Gizensha.
        In fact not only did she win the group the €1000,- she made sure they didn’t lose €1000,- from the pot, which would have been the consequence of her not making it. In my opinion very un-mole-ish. 🙂

        @Greg:
        There was a radio interview (as there is every week) with the executed person. Joep said he had hedged a little bit but put almost all his answers on Janine.

        Reply
  17. Michael

    For the first time in a while, I’m treating watching this like I would be playing it. We knew from Ep 1 that Joep wasn’t the mole, as Ewout thought he was.

    Episode 1:
    Tania picked Tim
    Zarayda picked Ewout mainly (so must have been lucky!)
    Kees split between Ewout, Janine and Carolien

    Episode 2:
    Paulien picked Tania
    Janine picked Kees
    Tim split between Janine and Paulein
    Carolein didn’t pick Joep, Paulein or Janine
    Zarayda picked Tim
    Daniel picked Janine

    One quote that I picked up on in ep 2 was “forewarned is also forarmed”. As far as I know, the only person who exposed their arms that didn’t in Ep 1 was Tim, which makes me suspect him – it could be like US Mole 5’s “I lie with my eyes”.

    Reply
    1. ThatDarkSpark

      Just want to say that sometimes expressions do NOT translate literally from Dutch to English.
      ‘Forwarned is forarmed’ is one of those.

      In Dutch the expression is ‘Een gewaarschuwd mens telt voor twee’. Art made a play on words with it making it into ‘Een gewaarschuwd kandidaat telt voor twee’. Literally this translates to: A warned contestants counts for two. But the official expression in English is as I translated it.

      So please don’t take this too literal in this case, meaning to refer to arms and the challenge 🙂 Sorry about the confusion but sometimes these things are hard to avoid unless the translations sound extremely crooked or strange.

      Reply
  18. Tom Scott

    As Joep said in this episode: “you get into a tunnel vision, looking for confirmation everywhere”. I’m probably wrong, but I’ve thought from the first episode that it’s Paulien. Shot in the leg, adding mistakes during translation, out very early in the laser challenge, and a few dialogue/intro picture hints that probably mean nothing.

    I fully expect to be proved wrong. I’ve always been wrong before.

    Also, were they really playing paintball, with actual paintballs, without masks?! The rules weren’t really clear on what happened to eliminated players there.

    Reply
    1. Alex S

      They certainly seemed to be playing for real without masks, which is concerning!

      Reply
  19. Pingback: Fifty 50 Episode 17 | Fifty 50

  20. ThatDarkSpark

    Time for episode 3 of the Mole S13 in SA, this time coming from the very lovely Blyde River Canyon!!! 😀

    Many thanx to the three people who helped me out with the subs. 😀

    I hope you’ll all enjoy the episode, feel free to share your thoughts and suspicions, as ever!! 🙂 😀

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Highly dramatic, thanks TDS and friends!

      Didn’t think they were going to send anybody home, I guess it’s one of those freak things.

      Intrigued about the tubes also.

      Reply
      1. Dale

        I was shocked by that as well, I was waiting for art to type in the last name and it go green. Just wow best episode so far although my top suspect once again has been eleminated.

        Reply
  21. Greg

    Has Tim been eliminated? Something is up, i don’t think i have ever seen an elimination done like that, which to me says something else is afoot.

    Even if Tim has gone, i had already eliminated him. This episode has also eliminated any suspicions i had about Tania. She is getting too emotionally involved and it just looked natural, rather like staged acting.

    Carolein still very much my number 1 suspect. With a lot of the tasks we have seen so far The Mole has not needed to do anything, as others have made genuine mistakes and had the finger pointed at them. Arguments between group members is also causing the finger to be pointed. By keeping her head down and going for the jokers it is a good plot to avoid people suspecting you.

    I think the panic that was caused by Zarayda getting the Joker in Carolein sent my mole-o-meter going. This was something she did not suspect or know about and caused some genuine panic.

    Reply
      1. Dale

        Im thinking that maybe he will be brought back, because even in the USA version when all the players have gone green they type in the last name to get the red screen to make it ‘official’ so i would not be surprised to see him back.

        Reply
        1. ThatDarkSpark

          Lots of speculation on the Mole forums on whether Tim is actually executed or not. There have been situations that contestants were brought back, or all of them were given an green screen after all in the past..

          Besides we see one shot of Tim’s backside in the preview for next week..

          The exit interview was definitely different than usual (a lot more brief and Art asking if he liked it so far was pretty vague too). Tim talked about it in a radio interview but he was pretty vague on the one hand saying he never got a red screen on the other saying he did. In his contestant diary online he did mention a red screen..

          I guess we’ll have to wait and see next episode. He might come back with a twist somehow, wouldn’t surprise me. But him being just executed and this whole stuff being a mindf*ck (excuse the word) wouldn’t surprise me either tbh. Though they are running out of contestants pretty quickly in that case..So a twist of sorts is definitely possible. 😉

          Reply
  22. Greg

    I suspect the tubes contained minus amounts and combined with my thoughts on Caralien she could not suddenly become all vocal about opening them without blowing her cover, hence why they remained closed (choice of the group not The Mole).

    Reply
    1. Dale

      I’m thinking that the tubes gives some sort of advantage/disadvantage to the player that opens it. If they had answered all the questions then there would of been enough tubes for each player to have one.

      Reply
      1. ThatDarkSpark

        As for speculation in what’s in the tubes.
        It’s obviously probably something that is light sensitive. We’ve had a similar thing in S4, where it contained (rather vague) clues about the Mole that the contestants were allowed to look at for just a minute or so.

        Judging by the shot in the leader (and the fact that Art literally mentions that he’ll be curious how things will develop) most people on the Mole fora think it’s money that will be developped in a dark room later on – so wanting to open the tubes will cause them to lose that money. 🙂 Therefore suggesting to do is, is probably suspicious. 😉

        http://i.imgur.com/gk94NzU.png

        Reply
        1. Brig Bother Post author

          Mmm, we had a Tube game in our series two, but contestants were told not to open them rather than “suggested” not to open them. I note in that last shot someone was trying to put one of the tubes in someone else’s bag!

          Reply
          1. Dale

            Yes I noticed that as well and I believe that the photosensitive paper speculation is on the right track.

  23. Michael

    I am now completely at a loss as to who the mole is – my entire suspicion sheet this week revolved around the two people who supposedly went home (I don’t doubt Janine did, but Tim?)!

    Reply
    1. Dale

      If Tim is actually eliminated then I a positive that the mole is Tania. If she truly based her test answers on Tim and she is not the mole then she would have been gone and Tim would have stayed. Its still up in the air until next episode if we see Tim back or not.

      Reply
      1. Michael

        I have a pretty concrete new theory which all points to one person – I’ll wait till next week to see if I’m 100% right before announcing!

        Reply
      2. ThatDarkSpark

        Just to say..
        Even if Tim is executed next week (which we don’t know right now), that’s no guarantee that Tania’s the Mole.
        In fact the very fact that it is being suggested in their respective suspicions in the test and the way things were set up at the execution makes it clear to me that the edit wants us to think it. Not a big leap since a lot of people come to the same ‘conclusion’.

        However, there’s no guarantee that Tania actually scored lowest on the quiz, even if she put all her answers on Tim. Especially at this stage a lot of answers still apply to a number of people because they were in the same group.
        Say for example Tim may have suspected Tania in the episode (though it was suggested he didn’t I think he did because he remarked how surprised he was to see a ‘real’ reaction from her. Carolien said a similar thing about not being able to read her. These two shared their suspects as Tim said).
        In that case Tim may have answered ‘in which jeep was the mole on safari’ potentially wrong (provided the Mole is not Zarayda, Tania or Daniel) and Tania may have accidentally gotten that question right (i.e. if Tim’s not the Mole, Paulien, Kees or Carolien may be).

        Also there have been quite a few people who saw their Mole suspect leave when they put all their answers on their Mole. Leaving them in shock.. 😉 It tends to happen when a lot of people aren’t on the right mole yet (looking back on several series). Who knows Tania may have just been saved by one or so question she accidentally got right (if Tim isn’t the Mole).

        Reply
        1. Michael

          Just looking at the alleged suspicions for the first three weeks makes me think that, if I’m right, one person stands out so far.

          Reply
        2. Ronald

          I don’t know how much can be gained by how the contestants said they would answer the questions – whether they follow through, or whether they answer the questions correctly, is hard to judge.

          Putting that concern aside (and the concern that Tim is not really eliminated), we can take this hypothetical further:

          If Tania answered all the questions correctly but based on Tim being the mole, and she survived (against jokers), she must have got several questions right nonetheless – because of traits the mole shares with Tim in that set of questions.

          As such, who does this place likely suspicion on?

          Reply
          1. Michael

            Of course, in a game revolving around lying and deception, any potential clue has to be taken with a pinch of salt until Art reveals the hidden clues. However, history dictates that there is always at least one running clue which continues during each episode, whether it be the first word clue in the first UK Mole or the fact Craig’s name was never called in the last US mole, to use two examples. My suspicion is that the alleged suspects before each test is this series’ running clue, and in that case, there is only one person who has not told us WHO they suspect once so far.

            If we’re going off who was with Tim in each task this episode, it’s as follows:

            Tania on the boat
            Carolien/Daniel/Kees on the cliff
            Kees/Carolien/Paulien on the jeep

          2. ThatDarkSpark

            Q6: Where was the Mole during the Boat-challenge?
            1. At the high lookout
            2. At the low lookout
            3. On the boat.

            Q9: What’s the marital status of the Mole?
            1. Single
            2. Not married
            3. Married.

            Q14: How many jokers did the Mole earn at the waterjump challenge?
            1. 0 Jokers
            2. 2 Jokers
            3. 4 Jokers

            Q3. What was the Mole’s roomnumber at the bungalow park?
            1. 26
            2. 28
            3. 29
            4. 30

            Q11: With how many contestants was the Mole in a jeep during the Safari
            challenge?

            1. 3 Contestants
            2. 4 Contestants.

            (Carolien answers : 4??)

            Q20. Who is the Mole?
            (remaining 7 contestants).

            Supposing Tim indeed is executed (hence not the Mole, or does come back but isn’t the Mole), and Tania ísn’t the Mole either..
            We only get to see some of the questions of course, but provided Tania answered all her questions with Tim in mind and knew all the correct answers, which ones may have saved her?
            i.e. which ones may she have accidentally answered right for the actual Mole?

            Q6 would have been wrong regardless (unless she herself is the Mole)
            Q9: In the extra material we got on the boat challenge Tim tells us he has a girlfriend who likes birdwatching.
            So presumably Tania would have answered with nr 2: unmarried. Unfortunately we don’t know the marital status of all the contestants, perhaps it’s possible to figure out some by their own webpages etc, but well.. Might be interesting to keep in mind if this is brought up somewhere. 😉
            Q14: Tim earned zero jokers at the challenge himself (though he was given one by Carolien). Tania, Paulien and Zarayda also had zero jokers, everyone else earned some jokers.
            Janine gave hers to Paulien and Zarayda got one from Daniel. But none of them earned any themselves.
            Q3 Roomnumber, as far as we can tell this isn’t shown anywhere so we don’t know that, nor who it pertained to. Tim was bunking with Daniel before so perhaps they did so again??
            Q11: Tim was in the Jeep with Paulien, Carolien and Kees.

            Though we didn’t see it, it seems logical there would have been a question about the cliff-diving groups as well perhaps.
            In that case, Tim was in the first group to jump with Daniel, Kees and Carolien.

            Not sure if any of this is telling because I think they often trick all the so called clicked answers anyway, but at least we know these were the questions they got for sure.
            Obviously for all we know Tania might have just made it with one question more right than Tim for example.. But eg the jeep question may have been the one that helped her through, or perhaps even the gender of the Mole if Tim was eg voting for a woman (he mentioned Paulien and Tania before).

            Pure speculation of course but perhaps it might be useful if we get more tests in future to compare. 😉

          3. Ronald

            “Unfortunately we don’t know the marital status of all the contestants, perhaps it’s possible to figure out some by their own webpages etc, but well.. ”

            Janine got back with her ex after he visited her bedside, so I read, e.g. http://www.tvgids.nl/artikel/53303/Janine_Abbring_openhartig_over_ongeluk/

            The questions on the avro site “Doe de test” partially match the questions shown on the programme but don’t offer more help.

            e.g.
            “Did the mole want to open the tubes?”
            “Will the next contestant to be eliminated be a man or a woman?” Man/Woman/Nobody eliminated in episode 4.

  24. Daniel Peake

    Right, here are the results of Week 2’s Suspect List:

    On a scale of 0 to 7, where 7 is the most Moley, here are people think who The Mole is:

    Tim, 5.09
    Paulien, 4.82
    Daniel, 4.09
    Zarayda, 3.46
    Kees, 3.18
    Carolien, 2.82
    Tania, 2.36
    Janine, 2.18

    Tim and Paulien are firmly ahead of the rest of the pack. But, how sure are we? Here are the standard deviations in the votes each contestant received. The higher the number, the less sure whether we think they are The Mole or not.

    Daniel, 2.51
    Zarayda, 2.38
    Paulien, 2.27
    Janine, 2.14
    Tim, 2.02
    Tania, 2.01
    Carolien, 1.94
    Kees, 1.89

    So, we are most confused about Daniel at the moment (I’ve heard that before!), and we are most certain about Kees… being in the middle of the pack.

    Reply
  25. GIzensha

    Despite him being ‘eliminated’ I’m now more certain than ever that Tim’s the mole.

    Tania and Kees are my second choices now.

    Reply
      1. GIzensha

        Yes. Though I’ll comment more on that when we see how fast he gets Unfake eliminated if this is indeed a fake elimination.

        Reply
  26. Greg

    They fake eliminated The Mole? Interesting. Upon thinking about it, it would make more sense from a producer side, to fake eliminate The Mole, rather than a real player. But at the same time it also puts a lot of suspicion on the fake eliminee Mole or not.

    The more i think about it the more i know Tim is not eliminated, keep an eye on the opening credits, if it has a red thumb print next to his name or not. As he was not red screened.

    Reply
  27. ThatDarkSpark

    Hi guys!

    High time for your weekly Mole fix.. 😀

    Here’s a ‘twisted’ episode 4 from the Mole S13, this time coming from the lovely Hazyview in South Africa.

    Ps: the translations in the second challenge are slightly more liberal than usual to accomodate the English language better. It is however of no consequence to the result or the rest of the episode. 😉

    Enjoy!! 😀

    Reply
    1. GIzensha

      You mean to take into account the way Dutch uses compound words in a way that makes even the most liberal english compounder squirm?

      Bizarre elimination, especially with the amount of green coming out (chances of 6 or more successes for 7 50/50 chances is 6.25%, make of that what you will), I’m still not sure how Zarayda and Paulien were meant to get money in the first game (Take photos of the /actual/ animals?), and the episode title sums everything up really.

      Enjoyed this as usual.

      Reply
      1. ThatDarkSpark

        Yes Dutch has more compound (thus lengthy) words than English but no that is not what I meant 😉

        I meant some of the words said by the contestants were not translated literally. Kees for instance used the word ‘drop’. In English this would translate to ‘liquorice’ (the candy, typically loved by the Dutch by the way). The point being that ‘drop’ in Dutch sounds like a lot of other words (hence the confusion that ensued) – but not so much in English.. So instead we translated it as a common denominator, a word that had affiliation with words that were associated and guessed by Tim instead. Hence the translation not being literal in some respects, to make the challenge and potential sabotages by respective contestants (i.e. all of them) clearer. 🙂

        Hope that clarifies it.

        I agree with you on the first challenge. I am still wondering if part of it is a consequence of improvisation after Janine’s fall/elimination last week, not sure. But I didn’t get the point either. The one thing perhaps Art was referring to about the Big Five is that they are on the SA money (bills) as well as the SA Mole Money (as pointed out by Joep earlier on and the priest in episode 1). So there may well be a hint in it in that sense. Potentially ‘spotting the big five’ meant spotting the money and not the diversion of the contestants.

        Still not sure how they could have picked up on where the money would be though, nor how it’s supposed to mean anything to us as viewers either – hoping this will be explained in the Mole revelation episode because to me this part was very unclear tbh..

        Reply
      2. Ronald

        Did you understand why they needed a ranger in this task? For safety?

        I had assumed he would advise them on how to spot the Big Five, but now wondering if he was part of the task?

        Reply
        1. ThatDarkSpark

          Not sure really tbh..
          Maybe he was there for safety, just to be sure..
          Maybe he was just a ‘prop’ to set the stage so to speak and/or as reassurance.

          Maybe a bit of both really because I can imagine being somewhat anxious too going on foot in territory that potentially has lions in it. 😉

          Not sure but the way it was set up I don’t think they would have ever posed anyone in any real danger anyway (those reserves are too well managed for that in SA I think) so I think he was there more for prop/show/ making sure the whole diversion thing worked (if that indeed was the whole idea behind the first challenge – still not sure about it, nor about what actually they missed but whatever ;):D)

          Reply
      3. Dale

        I response to the astounding twist and all but one choosing green. There are ways to influence people into choosing one card over the other by holding them a certain way or using verbal suggestion. There were not really any close shots of the cards except for twice so I cannot really tell if Art was using non verbal suggestion to help influence what card was chosen.

        Reply
        1. Dale

          After re-examining the elimination, i do believe that art was attempting to use verbal suggestion to lead the players to choose a card over the other. If I am right it only worked about half the time or it is just a coincidence. This of course is all speculation regarding the strange amount of greens pulled. I am also no expert at verbal suggestion just basing this on the things I have read before in the past.

          1. “Right, Zarayda” — Green card is on Right and is chosen
          2. “C’mon Over” — Red card is place over green but green is chosen
          3. N/A
          4. N/A
          5.”Now its your turn” Green card was turned in a way you could clearly read ‘De Mol’ on it and Green was chosen
          6.”Only one left”–Green was on left but red was chosen
          7.”This card is for Daniel Green or Red”– Red on left green on right–possibly trying to push her to pick the right because of the order he said them in

          Reply
          1. Ronald

            On rewatching, tend to agree that Art was suggesting the green cards.

            I would say that places some suspicion on Tania, but I’m not convinced that this suggestion would work so consistently.

            However, watch out for the Dutch->English translation, which I think is a red herring:

            For example, Art actually says
            “Toch, Zarayda” – this is hard to translate but “Right, Zarayda” is meant in the sense of “Anyway,…”: it doesn’t have the same sense of direction as in English.

            Also, Art doesn’t literally say ‘left’ (I think here he says “Kees and Daniel – you are alone in tension”).

        2. Brig Bother Post author

          If someone did get eliminated this week I expect they’d just keep repeating it in subsequent weeks until they get the week off – the series tends to run for one more week then there are eliminations so there’s usually a twist elimination somewhere.

          Reply
  28. Michael

    I suspect this week’s episode wasn’t a brilliant one for clues about the Mole – nowhere near as much written down as normal, and nothing really stood out as being moleish behaviour.

    Reply
    1. GIzensha

      Though a couple of competitors did distinctly unmoleish things, though nothing as massively stand out as such as we got from Carolien back in week 2. But, yes, picked up far less information this week than last week.

      Reply
  29. Daniel Peake

    In the elimination, was I right in spotting it was always GREEN/RED, then RED/GREEN, then GREEN/RED again… etc, so if they spotted that pattern then they could decide whether to green/red screen someone of their choice?

    I’d want to be sneaky, it must be said, and pick a red.

    Week 3 Suspect List stats coming up in 20 mins.

    Reply
    1. GIzensha

      That’s as I recall it, yes, which /could/ be coincidence, and certainly I don’t think it would be until player 3 or 4 that someone might have noticed. Tania being the only person to not pick green, rather than her picking red as such, is what made me somewhat suspicious of her from that, if everyone but one had gone red I’d have had a similar reaction.

      Reply
  30. Daniel Peake

    Here are the results of The Suspect List Week 3.

    From a scale from 0 to 6, with 0 the least likely and 6 the most likely, here is who we think is The Mole:
    Paulien, 3.83
    Kees, 3.50
    Tania, 3.41
    Carolien, 2.92
    Daniel, 2.92
    Zarayda, 2.58
    Tim, 2.08

    And here is the standard deviation in our Suspect Lists, a higher number indicates that we are less certain about whether they’re The Mole or not:
    Kees, 1.45
    Paulien, 1.95
    Tania, 1.98
    Daniel, 1.98
    Zarayda, 2.11
    Carolien, 2.23
    Tim, 2.31

    So there are a couple of things that stand out from the statistics. Firstly, we’re all thinking Paulien could well be The Mole. Secondly, Tim’s “execution” has really confused us.
    I wonder how this will change for week 4. Good luck everyone!

    Reply
    1. Ronald

      Starting to think that random will win!

      I basically suspect everyone, it is a chore to put someone towards the bottom.

      Reply
  31. Ronald

    I have watched Episode 5 before even the Dutch subtitles are online, so these are my thoughts through a haze of mistranslation and unsuccessful attempts to avoid gross spoilers (sorry):

    In the game of Mafia that is played, Art says something like ‘in this season there is 1 mole, but tonight there will be 2 moles’. I also noticed the cards are not necessarily distributed randomly. I find this potentially a significant hint.

    One of the players suggests strongly against taking part in the second part of a challenge. This seems highly unlikely behaviour in a candidate. Even if you figure the possibility of a trap, you would still want to play on for the experience.

    Tania asks after the execution: “…how is that possible?!” – well, I can think of at least one way.

    In conclusion: everyone is curiously suspicious this week.

    Reply
    1. GIzensha

      Oooh, they play Mafia/Werewolf? Hopefully will televise better here than it did back when the BBC tried to make an entire format out of it.

      Reply
      1. Brig Bother Post author

        It was used as a basis of a horror-based reality game in the US called 13: Fear is Real. Sam Raimi was behind it. It was OK.

        Reply
      2. Ronald

        When someone first explained the rules of Mafia to me, I could not understand why anyone would want to play or how it could be any fun at all. And then, I absolutely loved playing it.

        I think that makes it hard to televise. WIDM do a pretty good job.

        Reply
    2. ThatDarkSpark

      Ronald no offense..
      But I would sincerely appreciate it if you didn’t discuss spoilers here on an episode I have yet to post after translations.

      Obviously the end note on this is to the admins here but I for one don’t appreciate it when people post spoilers. Surely you can have the courtesy to wait a couple more days till we get everything subtitled before you ‘share’ your thoughts? Thank you!!

      Reply
      1. Ronald

        I’m sorry if you’re offended – I tried to avoid making any clear spoilers, and I tried to give a warning. Please let me know later if there was anything specific you were unhappy with.

        I would appreciate some moderator guidance on this – if we need to agree a spoiler delay, then it must be clear exactly when and what is ok to post.

        (Personally, I would not be able to contribute to discussion easily if there was significant spoiler delay – indeed my comment is 3 days old already.)

        Reply
        1. Michael

          All anyone (myself included) would ask for is for you to wait till the English translation has been published – it’s usually Sundays, but once it gets uploaded, the link is usually in this thread and then I’d assume it’d be open season.

          Reply
          1. ThatDarkSpark

            Thanks Michael that was exactly what I was trying to say.
            I’m sorry if I came across as offended, I was just taken by surprise – personally I prefer to see it for myself and not be spoilt. I have heard many people who feel the same way. Unfortunately there are no spoiler tags.

            We do try to get this done asap but everyone has busy lives and we do this in our spare time – plus it IS a lot of work. So yes the subbed version generally takes will Sunday to get all done. I think it’s not reasonable to ask people to cough up several hours on a free Friday evening either eg. 😉

            Anyway thanks a lot for the guidelines brig bother 🙂

        2. Brig Bother Post author

          I would prefer no spoilers, although as you say you tried to avoid obvious obvious ones.

          I’ve never really been one for getting pissed off at spoilers, it’s been on and it’s availiable (albeit in Dutch), the world can’t stop waiting for someone else to keep up. In this instance, I don’t think you’re going to get much conversation until the English subs have appeared though so it is probably worthwhile holding off.

          Reply
  32. ThatDarkSpark

    Now then, time for an all fresh episode 5 of the Mole in SA! 😀

    Enjoy! 🙂 And discuss! 😉

    Reply
  33. Michael

    Wow. Good episode! The episode titles are really starting to mean something as well, I suspect.

    Reply
  34. Brig Bother Post author

    That was hugely entertaining, thanks very much. I very much enjoyed the game of Werewolf.

    There’s one cntestant who has been slowly creeping up my suspect list, I think they’ve been rather more overt these last two episodes.

    Next week’s looks VERY exciting!

    Reply
  35. Greg

    I think this is the first time i have suspected somebody in episode 1 and not changed my mind or had them eliminated this far into a series.

    As the episodes go on my Mol Carolien is just confirming everything i have thought from show 1.

    The final task in this weeks show should be enough to get anybody thinking about her as a serious suspect.

    I am so convinced it is not Tania i would bet my house on it.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      I’m becoming increasingly convinced it’s Zarayda. In the last two episodes we have:

      * Let’s Tim out of the cage before anyone says anything. That looks very much like a producer instruction.

      * Standing around in the putting the map together game.

      * Her performance in Werewolf was nothing short of magnificent. An absolute masterclass in how to take control of the game to get the desired result (i.e. no money) without apparently anyone attracting suspicion – pick on the weakest, the Werewolves will happily let them hang around whilst they aren’t threatened. Get down to the last three, start accusing the Werewolf, suddenly change tack and lose the game. Poetry.

      * Don’t find much gold.

      If my reading is correct, I think she’s being a very overt Mole, but also apparently a very good one if only Carolien is really coming out and suspecting her.

      Reply
        1. Brig Bother Post author

          She was off my radar in the first few episodes but just recently I think a lot of things are pointing to her. I thin she’s got a good personality for being a mole, she comes across as quite loud and open so you don’t suspect but actually she’s been quite good at undermining in more private conversations.

          Of course the difficulty is tunnel vision, once you think something you start seeing into it everywhere.

          Reply
          1. GIzensha

            Not to mention consistently trying to drum up fear in the group, hadn’t really noticed her doing it before but she seemed to do it on no less than two occasions this episode. Yes, she’s nervous herself, but Tania Buck showed how useful phobias are as a tool of sabotage for the mole.

            I was hugely wrong about the identity of the Mole, mind, and Zarayda isn’t topping my list atm, but there isn’t much between her and the top of my list (Kees, nothing specific but a lot of general stuff)

            As for the Werewolf game, quite astonished that no-one picked up on Paulien eliminating the person who explicitly expressed suspicions against her, but Tania’s constant going for Tim who apparently isn’t the Mole suggests that the mole is either similar to Tim, or Tania (And the Werewolf game suggests it isn’t Tania for the same reason that it suggests it isn’t Paulien)

            Cheers again DarkSpark.

      1. Dave

        Something Zarayda said about the tubes this episode:

        (paraphrased) “Quick, let’s get them open before it gets dark”

        If they are photographic paper that needs to be developed that points me very strongly towards Zarayda as there’s no other reason why it being dark should stop them opening it.

        Reply
  36. art begotti

    This episode pretty much blew all of my suspicions wide open. During the third episode, I noticed a certain “mole behavior” (the sort of “tell” that the producers have the mole do to indicate “yes, they did this all along, but did you spot it,” which I feel had to have been borrowed from another series, maybe an old US one). I went back to the first two episodes, and it turns out this person did the same mole behavior, so I was locked in on that person from here on in with my Suspect List picks. However, in this episode, the mole didn’t perform the behavior, and at a very crucial time when I thought it would have been necessary, AND the behavior was subverted in two other instances… So I think I’m quite screwed with that theory. There’s a fleeting chance it still might be a valid possibility, but right now I’ve got to file it under “crackpot theories”.

    All that said and done, I liked their use of Mafia in this episode. I hate playing the game (I tend to be voted out quickly every time and rarely make it past the second night), but I love moderating games.

    Reply
  37. ThatDarkSpark

    @Greg
    To be perfectly honest I haven’t seriously considered Carolien as a suspect after episode 2.
    The contestant who earns the group pot €2000 effectively, having the whole task in their own hands and a perfect excuse not to earn it to me is very much not the Mole. Either that or they completely misunderstood their mission..

    In other episodes I seriously never saw Carolien sabotaging in the slightest. In this episode you claim she was because of the safe thing.

    Well just before that in the wolf game she immediately pointed out one of the ‘moles’.. That may not only have lead to Paulien’s demise but got her kicked out of the game too having no influence about it at all. What’s more if any of the other contestants would have paid any attention at all they would have picked up on that.. Presumably the benefit of the Mole would be that the ‘moles’ would remain in the game, as this would cost them the money. So why on earth would Carolien use this as a mole strategy? What would be the logic behind it?

    Secondly, her choosing to go against the group before even testing where everyone stood only made people suspicious of her but didn’t sway things at all her way. If you’re the Mole why would you go against the grain immediately without testing the waters first? You don’t know where any of the others stand so going right against it only results in people being suspicious of you. Which suits a contestant perfectly, not the mole.

    In other words, no sorry I don’t agree. Carolien to me proves again and again that she’s a true contestant. Either that or to me she didn’t understand what the mission of the mole is and I would be very curious indeed what her explanations would be at the end of it all. 😀

    Reply
  38. Daniel Peake

    OK, here are the results for Week 4 of The Suspect List.
    On a scale of 0 to 6, where 6 is the most Moley, and 0 is the least, here is who we think is The Mole:

    Tim, 2.50
    Tania, 2.58
    Daniel, 2.67
    Carolien, 3.00
    Zarayda, 3.17
    Kees, 3.42
    Paulien, 3.58

    And here is how sure we are of who the mole is (the standard deviation in poll responses). The larger the number, the less certain we are.

    Paulien, 1.78
    Zarayda, 1.90
    Carolien, 1.95
    Daniel, 1.97
    Kees, 1.98
    Tania, 2.19
    Tim, 2.58

    So, we’re the most certain about Paulien… and we think she’s The Mole! We’re least certain about Tania and Tim.
    This weekend, I’ll link to a spreadsheet with everyone’s poll responses to date. I need a bit of time to collate it first.

    Reply
  39. ThatDarkSpark

    It’s Sunday so that means it’s time for a brand new episode of the Mole.. Episode 6 already coming to you from high altitudes of the Drakensberg Mountains and a Dakota.. 😀

    The Mole will probably feel more at home in a dark church, when we meet them.. Or will they?? 😀

    Enjoy!! 😀

    Reply
    1. GIzensha

      Real oddball of an episode, that. More negative information than positive information, for my money, and not really sure what to think about the results of the organ game, which either gave a lot of information or basically zero, depending on if you think any of them got it all right or not.

      Reply
      1. Dale

        Well we do know one thing, the mole is female, for the question “is the mole male” the mole always answered no assuming that at least one contestant got their questions right than we have at least one piece of information to use.

        Reply
        1. GIzensha

          I’m not sure anyone, including The Mole, got all the questions right. (Of course, if Kees got all the questions right, the mole’s Carolien… But if Carolien’s the Mole she’s pretty atrocious at it, she keeps getting the group money when it would be easy to sabotage with no chance of drawing suspicion to herself. I’m also reckoning that there was €1500 in all envelopes apart from the Moles, who had €2000 in, but I’ll be very curious as to what was in the other envelopes in the end of season debrief)

          Meanwhile, if Kees is the Mole, he could easily have just come back with €500, or even nothing. “Well I can rule that person out of my hedged bets…”

          Reply
          1. ThatDarkSpark

            Dale: We don’t know that at all. In fact there is a good chance none of them had their four questions correct.
            From radio interviews we know that:
            – Ewout suspected Joep (Kees told Joep he suspected Daniel, but either he was wrong or he was giving wrong information according to what Ewout said himself..)
            – Joep suspected Janine (he said so himself).
            – Janine mentioned suspecting Kees in the tv show but we don’t know who she ultimately voted for in the last test.
            – Tim himself said he voted for Paulien in the last test in the Mole afterparty/talk after this episode. Obviously that doesn’t have to be true but I see no reason why they should lie.

            At any rate there is no way to conclude the mole thus must be a female because the Mole could answer at their own discretion if not all questions were right.. In fact it’s funny, if you take all the opposites of the answers, everything fits Kees perfectly (though melon and salsa are guesses because Paulien and Carolien asked this with two other people in mind according to their testimonials).

            Gizensha:
            This discussion has been going on for days on the forums.
            We simply don’t know how much is in the envelopes. So we have no idea how much it is relative to what would/may have been in the Mole envelope.
            The one thing that is true though is that it was the only money they could make this episode. If Kees would have returned with just eg €500 that may have aroused suspicions because it’s not very likely the real envelope of the Mole contained that low an amount of money. You can never be sure in this game but it would have certainly caused some suspicions. I have no idea whether this was mole sabotage or not but I won’t discard it either because it’s fishy to me how suddenly this all went down so smoothly. Perhaps the Mole saw a chance here..

            At any rate I really can’t for a second believe it would be Carolien like Gizensha says, that would be our worst mole in history imho : never sabotaging effectively, making money for the pot singlehandedly and being suspected by a LOT of people from early on. Can’t rule out anything but I certainly hope it’s not the case, not with at least 3 people left who would have done a much better job as the mole instead imho. 😉

          2. GIzensha

            Before I realized how big a direct hint it would be for the treasurer if the amount in the envelope they opened was either obviously largest or obviously smallest, I was thinking envelopes that weren’t the Mole’s, or at least one, would be worth less than the €250 extension they bought. As it is, I’m thinking €1000-€3000, but most likely in the €1500-€2500 range – Easy to imagine there being smaller or larger in other envelopes. Would pot growth have really been limited to €1500 in a single episode, though? And what the heck is in those tubes that the producers tried to drop an extra three in on them but have what appears to be blank photosensitive paper in. Will they turn into notes if developed, perhaps? But then why parachute three in via Tim’s Fake Elimination?

            Zarayda’s a very canny mole if she’s the mole, although there are a lot of similarities to the UK’s Tanya, but with more allowing others to go wrong than the centre of attention strategy the producers of the UK S2 instructed her to do.

            If she’s sabotaging, and she might be, then most of the sabotages she’s doing are quite subtle, and a lot of them are easily covered up by her personality. Namely – She doesn’t just panic to herself, she shares her fears with the group in such a way as to be contagious. Last week she got Tania worked up a bit with African wildlife, this week she was getting ‘fear of heights’ stuff in before they saw the plane and before they reached the airport (Which either Daniel or Kees predicted they’d be flying either just as they saw it or just before!)

            Obviously since it wasn’t a task it doesn’t really matter, but…

            At the moment I’ve got two suspects, two I’m sure it isn’t and Kees who’s gone from my prime suspect to just… Floating there. Paulien, imo, is either a very good mole or a very strong contestant (Weather she’s good at actually getting money for the pot or not, I haven’t noticed anything exceptional either way with that and her, I mean that in a ‘good at playing the game’ not ‘good at building the prize fund’), Zarayda’s coming off as very suspicious to me, and both Daniel and Carolien have been doing so much to get money into the pot I’m convinced they’re contestants.

            What’s really interesting is that according to Kees, Daniel and Paulien the pot was intact after Tanya dropped it on the bus (which until she was eliminated I thought I was going to wind up putting down as sabotage, and of the sort that a contestant Playing Mole rather than the Mole wouldn’t do, but if you’ve got the acting chops for it can be passed off as mistake. Granted, Daniel (or was it Kees?) has shown pickpocketing skills with Tim’s Tubes, so that might have been an act of sabotage that went wrong in that Tanya was eliminated just after making any deflection of suspicions in fallout from it worthless.)

    2. Ronald

      Organ game:
      If the Mole is really controlling the organ, then they have to be one of the final two out of the door?

      Reply
      1. GIzensha

        Nah. The contestants will have been in separate rooms, the Mole at the organ (if the Mole was ever at the organ) and the Mole (if the Mole was ever at the organ) would have either been telling the organ player how to answer while they were in the room, or (if the Mole was always at the organ) filming it in two lots with asking, then answering their own questions. Order of entry and exit, if they set the scenario up properly, will have had nothing to do with who’s the Mole. The contestants will have an idea of what order they went into the room in, but I don’t think that actually gives them any information.

        Or the microphone was linked to the Mole’s room, and the mole had some way of communicating with the organist out of view and earshot of the contestants. There was a small pause between question and answers in most cases.

        Reply
      2. ThatDarkSpark

        We’ve had similar ‘Meet the Mole’ challenges before. So far (if memory serves) it always really was the Mole being cloaked/hidden etc, except of course when it was the Mole’s turn to ask, it would be someone of the production team instead.

        Contestants are obviously kept apart so nothing can be derived from who leaves or who arrives sooner. I think that goes without saying otherwise the Mole would blow their cover straight away. 😉

        So no, nothing can be derived from that. In fact in most cases these challenges lead to no useful information, though they do more often than not contain a Mole clue. 🙂

        Reply

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