Wie is De Mol ’15

It’s baaaack!

Bother’s Bar favourite Wie is De Mol? returns in January, this time taking in the environments of Sri Lanka. Ten Dutch celebrities try to complete physical and mental tasks to earn money for the prize fund, but one of them is a plant designed to sabotage the tasks. To win the money, the other celebs must try and best work out… who is the mole?

Last year saw some great new meta-gameage including the black exemptions, nullifying all help in the end of episode elimination tests. I can’t wait to see what they’ve got cooked up this year. Fingers crossed English subbed eps will be going up Youtube, this site looks like it might be worth keeping an eye on. The series begins on 1st January.

demolgroupphoto

Who are they? From left to right (comments from Friend of the Bar Squared Eyes):

  • Martine Sandifort – “Martine is a well known and liked comedian, with a range of characters and impressions.”
  • Evlien Bosch – Presenter, “Evelien does a lot of child programs.”
  • Marlijn Weerdenburg – “Marlijn is an actress, who got her big break in Dannii Lowinski last year on SBS.”
  • Margriet van der Linden – “Margriet is a magazine editor, but mostly a hardcore feminist.”
  • Rik van de Westelaken – “Rik is one of the news anchor of the most important 20.00 NED1 bulletin, he was asked before, but wasn’t allowed to participate, now he is. Obviously.”
  • Viktor Brand – “Viktor is a host for SBS6, doing all kind of shows, expect the big, entertainment studio shows.”
  • Carolina Dijkhuizen – “Carolina is probably a bit unknown for the audience, but a huge musical star.”
  • Pieter Derks – “Pieter is a young, upcoming comedian.”
  • Arjouad El Miloudi – “Ajouad is a host, a combination of research/investigative factual shows and youth programs. Likeable.”
  • Chris Zegers – “Chris used to be more famous than he currently is, was a soap actor, hosted a couple of shows and did a lot of travel formats.”

As ever, we’d love to hear from our international friends, but please remember that this is a UK-based site and we’d ask not to spoil anything in the comments that has yet to be translated (usually a few days after it goes out in the Netherlands). Once it’s up, it’s fair game. Thanks!

Here are links to where chat about episodes start in the comments so you can elect not to spoil yourself:

147 thoughts on “Wie is De Mol ’15

  1. Michael

    I concur with Aiden – another great episode. Next week looks like the closest we’re gonna get to a Meet the Mole challenge too! 😀

    Reply
  2. Michael

    For the first time ever, I think I might have actually picked up on a hidden clue. It’s to do with the rope game. Obviously won’t post it publicly, as I’m not 100% who it points to.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Clearly the numbers mean something, and they’re all under 26 so presumably there’s an anagram there – although it’s rare that they’re so obvious about it!

      Reply
          1. Michael

            I badly want to know, but don’t want to cheat till The Suspect List is over. I’ll see if I can work it out for myself.

  3. Daniel Peake

    The results for Suspect List Week 6 are in.

    Your top three are:

    3rd equal: Chris and Margriet
    2nd: Martine
    1st: Rik

    (Pat yourself on the back if you can work out who’s fifth.)

    Reply
    1. Michael

      Another great episode. So happy to see the game from Japan with everyone pretending to be the Mole return. Interesting ending too.

      Reply
  4. Clicky

    Margriet’s attempt to make people think she is the Mole… hilarious… LOOK AT MY FACE.

    Reply
  5. Aiden

    it seems with every new episode i gain a new mole suspect! Im still on Martine even though i see her as the mole less and less with every challenge

    I wonder how this double elimination is going to work?

    Reply
    1. Michael

      If last year’s anything to go by, there’ll be an extra test in the finale.

      Reply
  6. Nico W.

    I wonder how many people changed their order of the suspects after this episode. I couldn’t find any new clues this time.

    Reply
  7. Brig Bother Post author

    I’ve just noticed I’ve got Martine and Marlijn the wrong way round in the photo. I’ll change that tomorrow.

    Enjoyed Rik’s bare-faced lie over the money.

    Also fascinated to know where the money was on the train, there was some obvious ‘make Chris look well dodgy’ editing going on, I suspect we’ll find out the truth in the final.

    I’m happy for Art to ask ethical decisions of the players, I think the notes from the Mole are a cop out – they’ve clearly had very little influence and a runner is putting them there.

    This might be the first team to end the series owing the production money.

    Reply
    1. Michael

      I did point out the Martine/Marlijn thing above! We need a very big money game soon to get the pot to anywhere decent.

      Reply
  8. Clicky

    I don’t know if anyone brought up the obvious as to where the money was on the train… The Mole probably took it the FIRST time they visited that compartment when they were in that compartment earlier in the game… thoughts?

    Reply
  9. Daniel Peake

    The Suspect List Week 7 is now closed!

    Your top three suspects are:
    3rd Martine
    2nd Chris
    1st Rik

    It’s basically the same as last week.

    Thank you to everyone who’s playing along – we’ve got a decent count of about 15 people playing regularly, which is up on last year and totally awesome. I hope you’re having as much fun as I am!

    Reply
  10. Michael

    I loved that final game, but DAMMIT at the result. I was 100% sure that the person who went home wasn’t The Mole, so I needed my second choice to go to clear everything up for me 🙁

    Reply
  11. Nico W.

    I’m about 80% sure of my mole. If I’m right, I’ll score about 80 points or so in the suspect list, because my second guess was Martine and I don’t think the others seem to be the mole.

    Reply
    1. Michael

      I’m 100% confident of my Mole, purely through necessity now – I want a perfect 100!

      Reply
        1. Michael

          By Episode 8, if you don’t have Tunnel Vision, you’re not playing along correctly.

          Reply
  12. Brig Bother Post author

    An interesting thing to note, there seems to be a much higher proportion of all or nothing challenges this year compared to the last few.

    Reply
    1. David

      Also the letters from the Mole have been counted as actual challenges to get to the usual three challenges per episode, so with all of that in mind it’s less surprising than it should be that the pot is so small.

      Reply
  13. Steve

    At the start of the series, my only hunch was that the Mole was “probably male”. And so I’ve been voting my guesses with Chris at the top, the rest of the men somewhat randomly next, then all the women in alphabetical order just to finish out the form. Luckily, Chris is still in it, so I’m still in it for a perfect score, but I haven’t seen that great of evidence either way. And this episode’s departure means I’m guaranteed at least one point per episode!

    But now, depending on how much you interpret the episode titles as Mole hints, I think the Mole might be one of the women. So do I keep my streak of going with Chris (which is not tunnel vision, by the way, it’s just complete blindness!), or do I take a chance and go for someone else at the last moment?

    Reply
  14. Daniel Peake

    It’s time for the results of the Suspect List, Week 8!

    As there are only four people left, I’m EXCLUSIVELY going to reveal who came fourth this week. Aren’t I kind?

    Your top 4 suspects are:
    1st Rik
    2nd= Chris
    2nd= Marlijn
    4th Margriet

    Please note that Week 9 will be the last week of the Suspect List and will be a DOUBLE POINTS WEEK, bringing the maximum possible total to 100. Good luck everyone!

    Reply
  15. Nico W.

    Now I’m confused. I thought Rik was the mole, but this episode was so obviously pointing towards him (he even stood next to Art in the end) that it’s just weird. I’ll vote for him anyway, but it doesn’t seem to fit the cleverness of the show.

    This season was almost always “all or nothing” without any exemptions after episode 3 (except for the black exemption) and somehow the cast was too happy together for me. They did rarely doubt the others when they failed and no one questioned anything (except for Chris in the tour guide challenge). However I love this show and it needs to be adapted to Germany again! (Might work with the tone of Newtopia on Sat.1 now.)

    Reply
  16. Jared

    I’ve never posted here before, but I just have to jump in to agree about how bizarre that final scene was, with Rik standing next to Art along with pretty much everything Art said. Like usually the host lays out how each person played the game and paints it in the context of both a candidate and a mole. This time, he basically just took everything that happened and said “Wow, wouldn’t that be ironic if Rik was the mole?”

    I was always split between Rik and Martine while she was still there, but now it seems too blatant. Rik even had a smug grin on his face. If he somehow ends up being the equivalent of last year’s runner-up I’ll probably lose my mind because I had massive tunnel vision for them too lol.

    Reply
  17. Joseph

    With the exception of week 1 (I didn’t know who to vote for) and week 5 (black exemption being in bowl 11), I have voted for Rik on the other 7 weeks.

    I remember last year voting for Freek throughout and he made it to the final and lost, so I am really hoping I haven’t done the same thing again.

    Reply
  18. Aiden

    I have now moved on to margriet being the mole after my tunnel vision with martine, who I missed this episode

    However from Art’s speech he is putting so much emphasis on marlijn getting screwed over by Rik that I can now see where this is heading and it will be revealed that Marlijn in fact was the mole and it was Rik who was too trusting . If Marlijn does turn out to be the mole I think she has done an excellent job, as looking back she has had her own mole tactics and sabotaged a lot of challenges , and no one has voted her to be the mole

    I would love for that to happen but my head is saying margriet just because none of the hints match up to Marlijn

    Reply
  19. Brig Bother Post author

    Some amazing reaction shot tennis at the end there. I love the bit at the end every year where Art paints all the contestants to be horrific people.

    I’ve had Marlijn down as the Mole from mid-series. Glad she’s made the end though, she and Rik were probably the most entertaining this year.

    Reply
  20. Steve

    Yep, with Chris gone, I’m pretty much out of the running for this year. That said, if it’s Rik, then I’ve probably got somewhere around 30-40 points right now, or else 7-15 if it’s one of the girls. Just for the sake of playing the points, I put Rik as my Mole this final time around, even though the only production clue I (think I) picked up on pointed to Marlijn.

    And as for that ending… There’s only so many permutations of “reveal one person, leave the other two until the finale” they can run through, so I’m glad they came up with a fresh mindscrew to torture us with.

    Reply
    1. Steve

      I literally didn’t get any clue that refuted it was Chris nor clues that it could have been anyone else until episode 8. As I said before, it wasn’t tunnel vision, it was complete blindness.

      Reply
      1. Brig Bother Post author

        Yet he was second favourite to be the Mole according to last week’s Suspect List stats, so evidently quite a few people thought this. I wonder if we’re watching a different show!

        Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      My gut feeling is wait until the episode goes out, but if you want to do it add lots of…

      >

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      …spoiler space just in case.

      Reply
      1. Ronald

        haha it seems I was actually wrong? Will update tomorrow.

        Reply
        1. Ronald

          So I picked up on the ONSCHULDIG clue from the rope game (innocent; un-guilty)

          But I saw also in the rope game that the prize was 2000 euros – which fits into only 8 kokers rather than the 10 for the letters of onschuldig – matching the suggestion that some ropes would have nothing.

          This leaves you with the 8 letter word SCHULDIG – guilty – plus O and N.

          So I had instead “N.O.SCHULDIG”, meaning the Nederlandse Omroeper is guilty.

          Totally wrong, of course :/

          Reply
  21. Nico W.

    So I’ve been utterly wrong thanks to this book in episode 2, which told me there were “No secrets in here” while flying in front of Viktor, Marlijn and Margriet. Thought it was a bit obvious, trusted it anyway.
    https://twitter.com/hideousyolk/status/574165819485192192/photo/1

    I think this is a great mole, I was suspicious for some episodes, but always ruled it out, because the best friend was more suspiscious.

    I’m already looking forward to the next series, I think this is imho the best European show I know. But can’t decide between The Genius and this as the best show in the world…

    Reply
    1. Michael

      I’m glad it was them, purely because they got me the most points in the pool. I don’t think I dropped them out of my top 3 for a long while (I know they were 2nd in weeks 1, 2 & 3)!

      Reply
  22. Daniel Peake

    The results for The Suspect List are in! With the Mole revealed, the points have been totted up, and it’s time to announce who’s done the best.

    First of all, thank you to the 23 people who played along this time. Let’s reveal the bottom thirteen. Note that the maximum possible score in The Suspect List is 100.

    23rd, 0 points: Ian D
    21st=, 4 points: Alex, Joris
    20th, 8 points: Zeus
    19th, 9 points: Matt Barr
    18th, 10 points: Dave Cooper
    17th, 12 points: Gwlmjjms
    16th, 15 points: Dale Mc
    14th=, 16 points: Ronald, Steve
    12th=, 18 points: Chris, Nick Gates
    11th, 19 points: Nico W.

    So, sadly Nick Gates is out of the running! Everyone please hold their giggles in until browsing a different website. Last year, I won the Suspect List, have I repeated the feat? Let’s start looking at the top 10:

    10th, 20 points: Dan Peake

    Nope, I haven’t won. So the field is now WIDE OPEN. Let’s look at the next five people:

    9th, 22 points: ChoirMatt
    8th, 25 points: PM
    7th, 29 points: Dave S
    5th=, 34 points: Joseph Bolas, Michael Harmstone

    So far, the points have been relatively low. They now start to shoot up. Here come the top four players:

    4th, 46 points: Scott Rux
    3rd, 54 points: Aiden
    2nd, 57 points: Tom F
    1st, 87 points: Ben (Clicky)

    So congratulations to Ben who wins Wie Is De Mol Suspect List 2015!! And, just to rub salt into the wound, he missed submitting his list in Week 4. Ben put Margriet at the top of his Suspect List for 7 of his 8 submitted weeks, and second in week 1. You were the only one to hang on to your conviction so strongly, but I must applaud the top three – Ben, Tom F and Aiden – for scoring over half points, which is very difficult. Also well done to Scott Rux, Michael Harmstone and Joseph Bolas for scoring over one third of the points, also difficult.

    Here is a link to the collated results of each week’s Suspect List:
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AihbRjhGTmsjg_ni4fTYSWBWC2-OX4ODXP_y95iA_bw/edit?usp=sharing

    There’s an interesting graph showing the percentage of Moliness of each candidate, week by week. (If everyone had put a candidate at the top of their list, that candidate would have 100% Moliness, likewise if everyone had put the candidate at the bottom that candidate would have 0% Moliness). Rik’s Moliness goes way up in Week 3 after walk-past-envelope-gate, and remains there for the rest of the series.

    Thank you very much everyone for playing along, I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. All things being well, The Suspect List will return in 2016. See you then!

    Dan

    Reply
  23. Brig Bother Post author

    Thanks Dan.

    Really nice Mole Final I thought. The series hasn’t been quite a classic in my eyes – I didn’t think a lot of the challenges (certainly in the first half of the season) were all that great, and it wasn’t until about halfway through the series I decided I quite liked the group, but Margriet was an excellent Mole who made many gutsy moves (although the Mole letters stunk of producer interference, I respect she actually went out and put them there), and as The Suspect List shows she fooled most of us most of the time.

    Roll on 2016!

    Reply
    1. David

      Most of the challenges this season were either not very good or were thinly-veiled copies of former tasks (even the floating mail delivery is similar to one from season six, which is apparently next in line for subtitles), so I’m wondering if perhaps Sri Lanka was their second-choice location like Iceland was a few years ago? At least that season picked up once they were in Spain, but this season did have that same kind of feeling to it.

      I mean, when the donation box challenge was the most interesting new idea of the season, I’ve got to wonder what the heck was going on when the season was being planned.

      Reply
      1. Michael

        I wouldn’t be shocked – I was surprised they went to Asia two seasons in a row.

        Reply
        1. David

          Oh, man. If they were planning on finally going back to Morocco and then pulled out because of Ebola… (The only other option I could see being plausible would be planning for Russia but quitting because of how many Dutch people were killed on MH17?)

          Reply
  24. Tom F

    For me, a good series with a very good cast. I do get a bit annoyed by the way ‘not really explaining the rules properly’ is used as a twist so often in challenges (Bentota, Train Riddles, Car parking, Cinema, Post-test-exemption, tourist photo, buddah statue, beach digging, ‘geld-drop’).

    As for guessing the mole, my 100% incorrect record was just sustained thanks to a week 8 switch to Marlijn. The fact I was able to get 2nd probably a testament to how good the mole was.

    I would also like to say, I TOTALLY SPOTTED the bowl 11/black exemption/beach digging clue mentioned, but talked myself out of it, because “they would never do something so definite”. Arrrg.

    Reply
  25. Daniel Peake

    Also, were people happy with The Suspect List? Are there any tweaks you’d like to see for next year? (Note: I’m probably going to ignore all of your suggestions, but I’d like to gauge public opinion)

    Reply
  26. Qusion

    Oh dear, picked the mole out in Week One, then got an almighty chest infection and was late watching for a few weeks. The only time I have ever picked the mole from the final three, let along the final ten. I will try to be well and watch promptly so I can Suspect List properly next year.

    I really enjoyed the series especially the action type games which seemed a little less samey than usual. Snapshot Security and the Thin Red Line were both good. Mole Election was entertaining and Tour Guides was a nice twist on the idea.

    Reply

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