WIDM Anniversary

Starts Saturday 5th September on Avrotros

Well this is all very exciting, ten celebs, previous players of WIDM, get a second chance at glory in this special 20th anniversary edition of the show filmed in secret last year. None of them are winners, so they’ve all got something to prove.

They are:

  • Ron Boszard – took part in S18 in Georgia, where he got eliminated first, was offered a way back into the game and failed.
  • Tina de Bruyn – took part in S20 in China earlier this year, finished 8th.
  • Nadja Hüpscher – Took part in S07 in Thailand, finishing 4th.
  • Nikkie de Jeger – star of S19 in Colombia where she finished 8th.
  • Horace Cohen – Took part in S11, El Salvador and Nicaragua, finished 8th.
  • Ellie Lust – Took part in S16 in the Dominican Republic finishing seventh, made a big thing about “etherdiscipline” (walkie talkies).
  • Peggy Vrijens – the contestant show was on the longest time ago, S06 in Argentina, finishing third.
  • Tygo Gernandt – Took part in S14, Hong Kong and Philippines, finished 3rd.
  • Patrick Martens – Took part in S08 in Mexico, where he finished third.
  • Jeroen Kijk in de Vegte – Took part in S17: Oregon, USA, finishing fifth.

It sounds like our usual translator will be doing translations (Thanks Maria!) so look out for those on Youtube in due course. Please remember we’re a UK site with primarily a UK audience, so please don’t spoil what happens until the translations come out – thanks.

Jump to relevant points of the discussion:

129 thoughts on “WIDM Anniversary

    1. Brandon

      I might actually have a chance at doing reasonably well at this if I actually remember to do it past the first few weeks. That is partly based on the quality of the show and I have a feeling this is going to be a good series, but then we were mostly positive about last series going into it and it had some lazy, dull moments.

      Reply
  1. John R

    There is bound to be a clue in Episode 1 relating to the year the former contestant and now Mole appeared in!

    Reply
    1. John R

      The only cast list you need is :-

      Ron
      Ron
      Ron
      Ron
      Ron
      Ron
      Ron
      Ron
      Ron
      Ron

      Not quite sure how I feel about the producers disallowing the Taskmaster style thinking by the candidates in the meal challenge…

      Reply
      1. Brandon

        Nothing too original, although I thought that the looking for people with the right names in the meal task was very entertaining. “Do you have a friend called Mario?” “No.” “Do you have a friend called Stefano?” “Er…no.”

        Reply
      2. Brig Bother Post author

        Agreed on all counts.

        Also already looking forward to seeing if anyone *just* missed the Mole in the final task.

        Reply
        1. Matt Clemson

          I do hope this means that the Mole now has a big stack of exemptions and will – just for the look of the thing – play one at every test.

          Reply
    2. Chris M. Dickson

      Crikey, that was quick! Many thanks to the fansubber.

      Fun, low-octane stuff. I’ve seen far from every season of WIDM but will be hoping for those I remember to go all the way. As usual, I have no idea.

      Reply
  2. Matt G

    I’m so excited! I usually forget that the season is starting, so I end up missing the chance to play along with everyone. I’m loving the Reality TV Warriors podcast, too!

    Reply
    1. Brandon

      The twist at the execution was rubbish,as if they’d put an extra chair out by mistake and didn’t want to admit it so they made up a game on the spot.

      Reply
        1. Holger

          I think this is simply “Ellie doesn’t get to see her screen”. If she had done the worst test everybody would’ve been through.

          Reply
      1. Harry

        While I agree a little I don’t think that subplot has ended yet. The next time trailer shows Ellie getting into a blacked out van on her own so I’m sure she’s given herself something special next episode. The exemption seemed only needed to prevent her going out until then (which is a bit naff but so be it)

        I enjoyed that episode. The graphics during the laser assignment were nice and we don’t often see it in dutch mole. The first assignment was a variation on a classic but a goodish one, though I do wonder what belgian mole would do differently if they were to base a challenge on that idea (there are lots of things which could make it better)

        The last challenge was a bit of a damp squib though. I was expecting the treasurer to have to answer all the questions that were asked to build up the potential money instead of just being offered 1500

        I still haven’t a clue who the mole is but all my favourites are there still at least!

        Reply
        1. Brig Bother Post author

          Yes, agree with all this pretty much, there is clearly going to more to the Ellie thing than meets the eye. Basically, feels like a Belgian style twist without quite the finesse. Classic WIDM. We’ll see.

          Otherwise a pretty enjoyable episode in the main, we really missed out on Ron not getting back into the game in his season, he’s so entertainingly useless. In fact I think this is probably the best cast in years, albeit not from a standing start.

          Reply
        2. Brandon

          The laser challenge was the best version of that in a few years. I think there’s something going on with the Ellie twist like a variant of the On The Run challenge from Mexico, except here it really doesn’t feel like she’s earned this where Joke had to get down the wall in the fastest time. Maybe the other contestants had to predict who would sit there.

          Reply
          1. John R

            Ron and Nikkie had me in stitches as much as the taxi challenge from the previous season! I wonder why they played the elimination sound effect whilst revealing Nikkie’s green screen

  3. John R

    I can’t believe I only just randomly stumbled across this but someone on Spotify has literally created a playlist of Wie Is De Mol finale music tracks and it is AMAZING!

    Reply
  4. Alex McMillan

    Is it frowned upon to speculate on clues to the Mole’s identity here?

    Reply
      1. Alex McMillan

        Wonderful! I currently have a theory regarding the intro, in which we get a brief shot of the third assignment of Episode 1, showing the former Mole in the red outfit (don’t know names, apologies!). Now, I believe this shot was being shown from the Mole’s perspective. Only two people met that particular mole; Nikkie and Nadja.

        Reply
  5. Clicky

    I have a theory from Episode 1 that I’m interested to hear other people’s opinion on.

    During the third assignment of Episode 1, at the beginning, Rik informs the contestants (when he talks to them one on one) that they have the chance to earn $2500 AND Vital Information.

    The question I post: What, exactly, do you all think the vital information is?

    I don’t/didn’t really think the advise from a former mole was actually vital information (?).

    My initial thought, before even seeing the mission itself, was that since he said $2500 AND Vital Info, that it really meant (without the contestant being aware) that however you can gain the $2500 is in itself, what also offers the vital info (and identity of The Mole). The way to earn the $2500 was to collect the $250 bills… And so when I saw who was on the $250 bill… I was like ha, that’s my Mole suspect. And that aligns with my current opinion of that person’s behavior compared to last season. I think there is a lot going on to distract from what Rik initially said at the beginning. I think my theory might be *too* clever to be real, but I still like it xD.

    Reply
    1. TVs Michael Harmstone

      I think the vital information was just meant to be how a Mole thinks from the old Moles. If it was just “whoever’s on the 250 is the Mole”, then they’d have hidden it a bit better who was on it and not let everyone just walk past and look in I think!

      Reply
      1. Brandon

        The “vital information” was almost useless though, just basic stuff that anyone who’s seen this show before would know, which makes me think there’s some kind of hidden clue in what they said, maybe the first letter of every word spells out something for example.

        Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Right, elephant in the room – no expected reprucussions for Ellie taking the exemption seat. ‘Huh.’, as they say in American podcasts.

      Really enjoyed this episode. For all the production decision doubts we’ve had over the past few years, they’ve never lost their eye for a great location and Tuscany has provided in spades.

      Fun challenges this week (including, for the second week in a row, an explanatory graphic!), the fortress was obviously the highlight. And gosh, the ending – not even a preview! Have to say this feels like the most confident WIDM has felt in ages, certainly since Art left.

      It also occured to me that production are missing a trick in not selling collectors sets of Mol Money after each series – they put so much effort in the designs usually, and we never really get to see them.

      Reply
      1. Brandon

        Even if they just put the Molgeld designs online so you can print them yourself, that would be good enough. We rarely get to see it close up.

        Reply
    2. Brandon

      First challenge was a little bit confusing to watch but not impossible to follow, lesser shows would have struggled to get the balance of making it look a bit chaotic still but easy to watch. The red shutters task was a simple idea done well, still not really sure what happened with the money as you would think it’s unfair if the wind or the people living in the flats shut it as some of the contestants guessed. I can’t really remember a time where any of the pairs were split up that the mole could have gone back and done something, but obviously they would edit out anything too blatant. The castle challenge is just brilliant, I might have made the minitasks lead into one another a bit more but that’s only a minor complaint, it feels like the WIDM we know and love is back again where there’s actually some effort and thought put into every challenge, not just the bits that look good in an advert.

      That is, except from one big thing everyone has noticed. Did they just forget about the Ellie exemption thing? I liked Ellie’s line where she explains she waits for everyone else to sit down because it’s polite, but what’s the point in it? If this loose end isn’t tied up at all in the series that’s just lazy, I’m hopeful for something next episode, but they had no way of knowing Ellie would go through this time… unless she’s the Mole. Maybe the reason there was no Next Time was to avoid spoiling a big twist.

      Reply
  6. Joseph M

    Had to drop in to mention how strong this last episode was! WIDM has been inconsistent at best in recent years and the first two episodes this year didn’t feel overly strong either outside of a couple of highlights in the names challenge and the laser game. But this was an incredibly good episode with three really strong concepts for challenges.

    The chain game while a little bland visually was still a good and challenging mechanic that everyone understood and the time limit certainly tested the team. The blinds game was stunning visually and played out fun as well with a nice little mystery at the end of what might have gone wrong. And then there’s the castle games which would have been at home on De Mol with its classic minigames structure and layered play!

    What an episode! Hoping the cliffhanger plays into something fun.

    Reply
    1. Alex McMillan

      Was the choice of showing the current execution as a sort of flashback something they usually do? It felt very odd to me

      Reply
    1. Holger

      I have a weird mole theory.

      So far we’ve seen the moles from Peggy’s season (Milouska), Nadja’s season (Inge), Patrick’s season (Dennis), Horace’s season (Patrick), Ellie’s season (Klaas) & Jeroen’s season (Thomas) appear on the season.

      That means the moles from Tygo’s (Susan), Ron’s (Jan) & Nikkie’s season (Merel) have not yet appeared.

      What if the moles from every participant’s season appear apart from the mole of the new mole’s original season?

      Reply
      1. Matt Clemson

        I can’t help but be suspicious about Ron prominently wanting to get his photo taken in a *Pinocchio* cutout. But on the other hand, it’s such a Ron thing anyway…

        Reply
    2. Brig Bother Post author

      Well the car thing was a big ball of nothing (classic WIDM), but the painting challenge was good, and just an obvious tweak away from being excellent, if they swapped the paintings with the other team of painters, so they couldn’t rely on the descriptions given whilst painting them themselves.

      Second challenge was good fun, should have been called Bait and Switch.

      Enjoyed third challenge as a character task, and also gave us more Nikkie and Uncle Ron action.

      It’s been years since the first name to be put in got eliminated, hasn’t it?

      Reply
      1. Brandon

        I agree about the painting task, what swapping the paintings would have also done is the person describing the painting is more likely to describe things that weren’t on the original. For example on the Belgian challenge similar to this one, one of the paintings showed a horse from the front but the contestant painted it side on.
        I think they would have swapped the paintings if the 2 pairs were at the same place, maybe it would have taken too long to move them, also there’s a chance they could have been damaged in transit. They could have got round by only sending photos of the paintings instead of the real thing.

        A thing I don’t think anyone picked up on: why was the prize for the second challenge €2250? Why not €2500 or €2000, was this explained and I just missed it?

        Reply
          1. John R

            It felt a bit harsh that they had to notice ALL of the 3 previous moles and keep an eye on the briefcase! (it was never actually mentioned if the briefcase thing was in fact a complete decoy and they would have all contained money anyway)

            Also the producers are really trying to mess with the heads of the viewers this season with all the ‘twists’ that turn out to be…nothing, Rik doing his introduction piece AFTER the titles, and ‘I’ll see you…at the execution!’ where the challenge result was revealed rather than revealing it after the challenge followed by ‘prepare for test…and execution!’

          2. Brandon

            That made some sense because of the 1.75x value, this one’s all or nothing as I understood it so I don’t really see why.

  7. Alex McMillan

    During the 2nd assignment in this episode, the theme tune from Pixar’s ‘Inside Out’ plays.

    You might want to look up the cast of the Dutch version of ‘Inside Out’…

    Reply
    1. Brandon

      I don’t know about in this cast specifically, but a lot of WIDM contestants have voice actors in the past so I’m surprised it’s taken them this long to use that as a clue.

      Reply
  8. Brig Bother Post author

    Treasure Hunters LIVES!

    Two fine WIDM challenges and a really interesting third one they probably could have devoted a whole episode to, indeed, maybe all next episode is the treasure hunt and I’d be down with that, frankly.

    The question is how fugitive do Nikkie and Tygo get to be, or will they be limited to the solution of the puzzles? I think in our heart of hearts we all have a preferred answer to this and a likely answer to it, but there we are.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      I should just like to add that nothing makes me more anxious than a WIDM task where the contestants are on public roads and are arguing on a phone, amazed there hasn’t been an accident yet.

      Reply
      1. John R

        Google Translating the YouTube comments suggests maybe civilians rather than celebs, or emerging celebs

        Reply
  9. Daniel Peake

    Week 5 of The Suspect List can be found here:

    https://forms.gle/KsQzBbyWkwGDo4uu5

    Now, HILARIOUSLY, I’ve accidentally deleted everyone’s responses from Week 4, so that week will not count. If you played a joker in that week, consider it unplayed, and you’ve got it still available to use.

    Oopsie!

    Reply
      1. Steve

        Thinking about this and the musical clue Alex spotted last week (for which I decided NOT to look up the cast list), how likely is it that the music is a clue, and not just something zeitgeist-y to set the mood? I remember a few seasons ago when it felt like half of the music was from Sherlock. Game of Thrones music seems like it would be a current music bed to pull from. Inside Out… a few years ago but maybe still relevant? Of course if there’s another voiceover link here, then I’m entirely wrong, but I don’t know.

        Reply
        1. TVs Michael Harmstone

          I don’t think it’s ever happened before in WIDM. Belgie however *loves* a music clue.

          I wouldn’t necessarily put too much stock into it for now – WIDM loves to use a piece of music from a movie soundtrack. Japan’s premiere has Harry Potter music IIRC.

          Reply
          1. Brandon

            And that used some music from Metal Gear Solid during the helicopter part, that season in general was great for video game music.

    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Loved it this week! A proper bit of adventure mystery, and the bit where one team discovered they had all the phones was pure comedy.

      My main question is: how long were Nikkie and Tygo locked up for? What was their effective time limit for breaking their chains?

      Reply
  10. Alex McMillan

    I feel like this week the 2 contestants who were being hunted, if the mole were amongst then, didn’t really have any way of molling this week?

    Reply
    1. TVs Michael Harmstone

      But ultimately, did it matter? They got a lot of money in that team of four this week, which suggests to me that the Mole was caged, but would they *actually* sideline the Mole for an episode and a half?

      Reply
      1. John R

        With the pot being so low I can see the producers allowing it, they’re doing things ever so slightly differently with it being the special season so maybe this whole task was them basically trying out an epic adventure format…and of course introducing MOLCOINS

        I’m still team Nikkie but prepared to kick myself as usual in a couple of weeks time, sad to see Ron go but he was a wildcard in my head!

        I don’t think Peggy is Mol anyway, with her going back and finding the clock clue

        Reply
        1. TVs Michael Harmstone

          The max pot is so low still though – they’re at about 33% of max so far. The maximum is roughly the same as China was after five rounds of play, but obviously there’s at least two fewer this season.

          Reply
  11. Chris M. Dickson

    I wonder whether they intended this task to be extended length all along, or whether they had plans for other tasks that were, quite literally, washed out by the inclement weather and forced a rejig? The results worked quite well in context, but I wouldn’t want to see that as a regular format point. (Compare with, say, the final episode of UK Mole series 2 for an episode-long talk with subtasks.)

    Reply
  12. Holger

    AVROTROS have gladly provided all test questions from episode 6:

    1. Is the Mole a man or a woman?
    2. Does the Mole own a diving license?
    3. Who stood left to the Mole on the group photo of episode 5?
    4. Did the Mole lift the Gastenlijst puzzle piece to the centre in Stuk voor Stuk?
    5. Did the Mole place the Sleutelbos piece after the Laser piece in Stuk voor Stuk?
    6. Did the Mole grab an envelope with a car symbol before Route Beschrijving?
    7. Who sat opposite to the Mole during the breakfast in the country house?
    8. What is the worst attribute of the Mole?
    9. Which colour did the seat cover of the Mole’s cabrio have in Route Beschrijving?
    10. From which duo did the Mole get the directions in Route Beschrijving?
    11. Did the Mole drive the cabrio in Route Beschrijving?
    12. Did the Mole’s duo get a clue of a little white bridge in Route Beschrijving?
    13. Did the Mole’s duo pass along that they had a toilet break in Route Beschrijving?
    14. Did the Mole’s duo wait at a railroad crossing during Route Beschrijving?
    15. Did the Mole’s duo arrive first at the gates of Pisa in Route Beschrijving?
    16. The mole in episode 6 was locked up in a fort or searching for the other contestants?
    17. Has the Mole been in the Martello gates during the search?
    18. Did the Mole see the money bag on the anchor in the port first during the search?
    19. Which kind of music does the Mole love?
    20. Who is the Mole?

    https://wieisdemol.avrotros.nl/afleveringen/item/de-test-van-aflevering-6/

    Reply
  13. David

    Episode 7 is up.

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    Apropos of nothing, remember how they ruined the Patrick reveal by announcing Soundos was the runner-up and bloody Art couldn’t keep a straight face for the cliffhanger when he knew he was the winner? I wonder if there’s a reason I’m bringing this up.

    Reply
    1. John R

      This was a jam packed episode, throwback to Episode 1 (yet none of them bothered to turn around again!), test and execution, finale, and one of the finalists revealed NOT to be the mole ALL IN AN HOUR!

      Reply
      1. Brandon

        It’s not like they didn’t know to turn around, I’m sure one of them said something about it, but for whatever reason no one actually did it.

        Reply
  14. Steve

    I’m starting to type this while watching the final speech. That’s right, it’s time for the traditional “WELP, my Mole is gone” post!

    WELP, my Mole is gone. I had Peggy for most of the run, backing off on a couple episodes to look at Patrick. She was back on as my Mole in the last episode when I used my Joker, so I’m out quite a bit of points. My next best guess at this point is Jeroen. (And as I typed that, I expected him to be announced as the non-Mole, so I could WELP a second time. Phew! Dodged that bullet for one week.)

    I usually don’t pay attention to the episode titles, because they’re a little too cryptic for me to make sense of as clues except in retrospect, but I thought I would have a chance with this episode, “Deja vu”. And then I saw all four candidates (at the time) do things that could qualify as that, not even including the mirrors in the first challenge.

    Reply
  15. Chris M. Dickson

    Super-spoiler-y for the last minute and a half, hence extra space like it’s 1999 and we’re all on USENET:

    W
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    I
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    D
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    M
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    There are six possibilities, and we can rule four of them out:

    Jeroen Mole, Nikkie winner, Tygo runner-up
    Jeroen Mole, Nikkie runner-up, Tygo winner (impossible via Nikkie)
    Jeroen winner, Nikkei Moke, Tygo runner-up (impossible via Jeroen)
    Jeroen winnter, Nikkie runner-up, Tygo Mole (impossible via Nikkie, Jeroen and Tygo)
    Jeroen runner-up, Nikkie winnter, Tygo Mole (impossible via Tygo)
    Jeroen runner-up, Nikkie Mole, Tygo winner

    So it’s either Jeroen Mole, Nikkie winner, Tygo runner-up or Jeroen runner-up, Nikkie Mole, Tygo winner, and I think the reactions point to one of the two being more likely than the other. But, as ever, I’d be delighted to be wrong… 🙂

    Reply
    1. steve

      Agree i think the reaction of one of them kinda gave away which one it is

      Reply
    2. Matt Clemson

      If it *is* Nikkie, it does mean we’ve got the interesting factor of a full episode of WIDM in which the mole was barely involved… and the team still failed in their principal task in that episode. And then there was a double-elimination, in which all the potential eliminees had not been in proximity to the mole for that entire period.

      It *feels* like that’s not a production choice that they would have desired. But then I applied similar logic to the first elimination a few years ago (where it was feasibly possible to have had a one-on-one execution where one of those two was the mole with no scope for the candidate to escape) and that led me down a very wrong path in thinking about who was unlikely to be the mole!

      Reply
    3. Chris M. Dickson

      And I was wrong, and I was delighted, and I am thrilled for Nikkie, a wonderful winner.

      I can’t remember a conclusion to a Dutch season that I found as satisfying as this one. I watch the show for surprises, so a surprising outcome to the whole game thrills me, and I absolutely fell for the “Tygo winner” reaction. Jeroen’s reaction at the time was masterful, and quite possibly threw Tygo off the scent… albeit briefly.

      The really joyous part is that we get an answer to a question I never thought we would see answered in practice. Suppose a Mole tries a really audacious move, and gets caught doing so; what happens? The apparent answer is “the contestants are inherently so bamboozled that they’ll rule nothing out, and all the crew says screw it, we’ve got to proceed with the rest of the show as if it didn’t happen”. Fair enough.

      Is there a universe in which Nikkie calls it out at the time, and how does everybody react? (Can we be sure that Nikkie didn’t call it out at the time, and they hastily agreed a retake? Would be very un-Mole-like, but a desperate situation would call for desperate measures…) It’s fascinating to rewatch the crucial few seconds as they were portrayed first time – can you see anything in Nikkie’s face to suggest that she’s just worked out what she’s just seen and has essentially broken the game in episode one?

      To go back to another recent discussion, does Jeroen getting caught instantly make him a Crap Mole? I don’t think it does. It’s the journey, not the destination.

      Reply
      1. David

        No, he’s a Crap Mole for several other reasons. Getting caught instantly is a sign of Crap Production. The filler challenges designed for a shock reveal in the reunion NEVER work (the only one that ever has is the photo exhibition in the Japan season, and even that was more because of the logic than the Mole), and if they’re going to falsely insist on their necessity they need to be later in the season to avoid ruining it for the players (here) or the viewers (the Klaas thing). If the budget’s going to force them to do no-cash-prize challenges like these tend to be, then they’re better off just doing what they used to do and coming up with a new excuse to put bucketloads of jokers into the game every season. The current setup is TERRIBLE.

        Reply
      2. Stephen

        I put the blame solidly on production regarding how i feel about Jeroen as a mole I’m not even angry He was just a nothing character in Oregon, and a nothing character here so it’s just a disappointment that they decided to chose him for such a milestone season.

        Reply
    1. Jack P

      Thanks as always Daniel. Rather amusingly, that link has “tit” in it, which is also what I feel like after my tunnelvisie on an eliminated candidate completely ruining my list. Oh well, better luck next time.

      Reply
    1. Brandon

      Surprised this doesn’t happen more often tbh. I assumed that when they’re filming something in public there’s someone there to tell random passers by not to wander off with the envelopes.

      Reply
  16. Matt G

    I had a thought about the first challenge in the episode. Lots of people have assumed that there wasn’t really any money up for grabs in the game, but what if the money was in each person’s own envelope?
    If you’re confident enough that you don’t need more information and you can resist the temptation of the question mark envelope, you choose your own envelope and get the cash. Otherwise, why is their own envelope still a choice on the way back?

    Reply
  17. Brig Bother Post author

    Unusual season. Good cast, great setting, attrocious weather. Liked that they tried out some different things, even if they fell a bit flat much of the time. Jeroen was OK as Mole (and great as my future husband) – some properly gutsy stuff, and a good social game to deflect blame (or perhaps more accurately push people already considering others over the cliff) even if in terms of money lost it felt like several small beers rather than big sabotages.

    Would have been interesting to see how Nikkie would have done if she didn’t catch him at it in ep one. That was almost an incredibly reckless production choice, especially as it wasn’t removing money!

    Reply
    1. Brandon

      Incredible that he was actually taking the exemptions from behind their backs, a huge risk. I know we guessed that it might have happened, but I didn’t believe they would actually do it.

      Reply
  18. stephen

    such an odd choice from production to make Jeroen the mole and then under edit him very underwhelming

    Reply
  19. David

    Interesting choice for Jeroen to compare being The Mole to coming out of the closet again, given he’s the fourth gay Mole (Kees, Margaret, Thomas, now him) in the last nine seasons. Plus Jan did a photoshoot with Tim from the Dominican Republic season for one of Holland’s biggest gay magazines. I mean I don’t want to say WIDM has a type, and it would certainly have been hard not to pick an LGBTQ+ person this season given how many there were, but… bizarre.

    Reply
    1. John R

      So it turns out my mole was on to the actual mole from Episode 1!

      Some interesting and gutsy play, especially playing the same trick twice after being to an extent blown by Nikkie the first time round!

      Although where was the montage of suspicious actions by both Nikkie and Jeroen just before ‘ik ben de mol’ and viewer clues producers?! 🙁 (not even any on the website as far as I can see)

      Reply
      1. TVs Michael Harmstone

        Spoilers for when we record the podcast tonight, but I’m not even angry – I’m solidly indifferent. He was a nothing character in Oregon, and a nothing character here so it’s just a disappointment that they chose him. He’s probably my least favourite Mole since Dominican Republic, for many of the same reasons.

        Reply
        1. stephen

          100% with everything said its just disappointment that they’d pick such a nothing character for such a milestone season

          Reply
        2. Sinan Stan

          I was a bit suspicious when I first saw that the cast consisted of people who almost made the finale, memorable early boots, and one random UTR 5th placer.

          Reply
  20. Holger

    Can we please acknowledge what an awesome winner Nikkie is? Probably more important for the show’s future than Jeroen as a mole. 🙂

    Reply
  21. Brig Bother Post author

    In Belgian news, Gilles De Coster has said a series is already filmed for next Spring and it’ll be fully featured.

    Reply
  22. Daniel Peake

    So soon after the previous series – it’s time for the results of The Suspect List 2020b!

    Thank you to everyone who took part this year – it’s great to see familiar names again and most people played for 5 or 6 weeks, which is excellent.

    The maximum possible score, after I deleted Week 4 by accident, is 91 and in the series earlier this year, people were very good at spotting the Mole and the average was difficult to beat. What will happen here?

    Let’s start with the points for the LIST only. Each line represents [name], [number of weeks entered], and [points].

    Jack Pitts 6 35
    Holgermat 6 35
    Steve L 6 32
    Daniel Peake 6 31
    Zeus 5 30
    Scott Rux 6 25
    Christina 6 24
    Peter 1 20
    RANDOM 6 19
    Alex McMillan 5 19
    Aprilbride15 6 16
    AVERAGE 6 10
    Matt Guerrasio 6 9
    JackJackAttacks 6 8
    Gwilym 6 8
    TV’s Michael Harmstone (Muppet) 6 7
    Sjaak 1 6
    Tom F 1 6
    Laura 1 6
    Reid W 6 5
    Sinan Stan 1 5
    Ben (Clicky) 1 4
    Meg 1 3
    Ethan A 1 2
    Raisa 1 2
    Liam Davis 1 1
    Xavier 1 0

    This series – the Mole was very hard to spot! Lots of people scoring 10 points or less – and it’s quite tight up the top between a group of people. The average response based on everyone’s lists is well down, and an entry based entirely on random has come out quite high too! Curse you, random number generator!

    Will Jack Pitts or Holgermat win? Let’s add on the bonus points…

    [Name] [Bonus points] [Total points]

    Jack Pitts 15 50
    Holgermat 12 47
    Steve L 12 44
    Daniel Peake 12 43
    Christina 15 39
    Zeus 9 39
    Scott Rux 9 34
    RANDOM 9 28
    Peter 6 26
    Aprilbride15 6 22
    Alex McMillan 3 22
    Matt Guerrasio 6 15
    JackJackAttacks 6 14
    Gwilym 6 14
    AVERAGE 3 13
    TV’s Michael Harmstone (Muppet) 3 10
    Sjaak 3 9
    Reid W 3 8
    Tom F 0 6
    Laura 0 6
    Meg 3 6
    Sinan Stan 0 5
    Ethan A 3 5
    Ben (Clicky) 0 4
    Raisa 0 2
    Liam Davis 0 1
    Xavier 0 0

    Jack Pitts edges out Holgermat by one correct answer to a bonus question and wins The Suspect List 2020b! If Holgermat had played his joker in either of the two final weeks then he would have actually won instead of Jack! If jokers had been played in different weeks, Steve L could also have won. Also very well done to myself, Cristina and Zeus just a few points behind.

    Special mention must go to TV’s biggest muppet Michael Harmstone. No reason, just wanted to mention his name.

    The suspects were more polarising than normal in terms of how suspected they were – contestants tended to be suspected or not. Jeroen went from the middle of the pack to being hardly suspected by the Bothers Bar group for the majority of the series. The graph of how much people are suspected each week can be found on the “Week by Week graph” tab of this google doc spreadsheet:

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1m6maoW-9MEcOGc0nQJW7HPKzmeTxT4ecJsLh8wbl0Q8/edit#gid=472953646

    Peggy was high on people’s radars until she was eliminated at the final four, whilst very few people suspected Tygo throughout the series.

    In the other tabs of the spreadsheet you can see what everyone put each week, see the averages, see some nice pretty graphs and see the final league tables with all the scores. Please do geek out over it.

    Well done to Jack for winning – pat yourself on the back and buy yourself a nice doughnut. Thank you to everyone who took part, and I look forward to seeing you all again for The Suspect List 2021, in about nine weeks!

    Success!
    Dan

    Reply
    1. Jack P

      Hooray I won a suspect list! Interestingly I had Jeroen at the top for the very first week but never put him there again until the final two, that was good enough [just] to win. As always thanks for organising Dan, I’ll make sure to grab myself a doughnut.

      Reply
  23. Brig Bother Post author

    I’m extremely pleased that Nikkie won, partly because she’s a hugely entertaining winner, and because making your biggest star The Mole would be a shit and American obvious casting thing to do and the Dutch for all their faults are better than that.

    I’m OK with a more background character being The Mole sometimes because it’s more amusingly insidious and it harkens back to old series where it was less about what they are doing and more about what they aren’t, which they haven’t done for a while. It’s mainly a pity that their big OMG moves weren’t especially money related.

    Reply
    1. TVs Michael Harmstone

      I think my issue with it is more that he really didn’t do anything creative. Of the list of fifteen or so sabotages we saw, only one or two were of his own volition and didn’t even make a sense from the point of view of being the Mole. It felt all season like he was the mole in name only.

      Reply
      1. Brandon

        I put Jeroen at the top of my First Suspicions list just based on a gut instinct but as the season went on I start to think I’d really screwed up as he started to fade into the background and Nikkie, who I’d put second from bottom, and Tygo both went up in suspicion and air time.

        Reply
    2. Brandon

      Ideally, you want the mole to be somewhere in the middle of our Suspect List for most of the season, because that shows they’re suspicious enough that they’ve actually done some moling but not so obvious, both in the editing and in the sabotages. One of my big problems with Dutch Mole is that the mole rarely has to actually do anything, all the sabotages just following instructions from the producers. Of course there has to be a bit of that, but the best sabotages for me are the ones where the mole takes advantage of a situation that the other players have created and improvise a sabotage on the spot.

      Reply
  24. Matt Clemson

    I meant to flag it up last week, but since it appeared again this week:

    I was unduly excited about recognising the location for the second playing of the ‘path of temptation’ task… from, of all things, The Witness, the line-tastic puzzle game.

    Reply

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