The Mole 5: Final 3

Okay, so now that I don't have to go to sleep early in order to get up at 6am, I have time to write this recap right after the show has ended. First of all, I'm still thrown off by the fact that Mark is still here and Paul is not. It kind of pisses me off because now I don't know for sure that Nicole is the winner. I'm still pretty sure, but Mark puts a little doubt in my mind because everyone keeps referring to him as this supposed nice guy on the show. Do I doubt for a minute that it's Craig though? You gotta give me props for calling two of the final three. I'm willing to bet that it would've been Paul instead of Mark had there not been an exemption, too. You know it was pretty convenient that Craig called #4, which was the cell number that I immediately shouted out when Jon gave them the opportunity to choose which cell they'd be in. That's the only thing I really saw in the last episode that seemed a little convenient.

Let's talk about this episode. I have to say these were two good challenges out of a season of kind of lame ones. The first one with the bomb was similar to Australian Mole Season 2 where they had to figure out which wire to cut when. It was too easy. Or I'm not giving them credit for being the brightest set of contestants we've seen in awhile. I think this whole season should've been more intense and more difficult. Maybe it's just me, but $418,000 is a lot of money. I thought they said this season's total was out of $500,000. Maybe they didn't ever say that, but for some reason I thought I heard that, particularly because I remember making a comment about how it used to be out of a million. If it was out of half a million, then their total pot won is ridiculous.

I wish they would've done some classic Mole challenges, like Three Questions, or like Paradise Mole-tel where they have to each escape from a locked room. I thought the last challenge could've been tougher too. Wasn't it more fun when Heather was almost eaten by a wild animal than when the biggest complaint of this task was Nicole didn't feel like doing anything? I'm a little pissed that Mark took the dossier, but I'm hoping it's easier the same as the Mole's journal, which we can all see on the website, or it's all chicken scratch and a bunch of confusing information. I hope the dossier doesn't just give shit away.

So it would be nice to go through the past episodes and take notes on everything and then come out with a spreadsheet on everyone's stats. I could do that because I do happen to have all the episodes at my disposal, but I don't know if I'll be able to do that because it'll be extremely time-consuming and it might end up really irritating me and I want to end this season on a good note. I hope they decide to do another season but make it more intense and more exciting. I have to say I'm a little disappointed. And if it is Craig and Nicole does win, either I've gotten a lot better at reading people and reading editing over the past few years, or it's gotten way too easy.

I like to be proven wrong. I like to be blown away. I was blown away when Bribs was eliminated in the second season. Although, I have to say I did call Kathryn as the Mole fairly early on in the first season. Not as early as I called Craig this season, but I was pretty sure about her and wasn't surprised at the ending. Other than that, I haven't had a great track record with picking the Mole. What I do have a record with is calling winners, however. I didn't get Steven in Season 1, but I got Dorothy really early on, I got Kathy Griffin and Dennis Rodman in the Celebrity Editions. I got Jan in Australian Mole 1 and Liz in Australian Mole 5. I didn't get Australian Mole 2 and then 3 and 4 were spoiled for me. Well, I spoiled them for myself. I wasn't really paying attention in UK Mole 1 or 2, plus their editing was sporadic. And in all of these, I never had a good hunch on who the Mole was. Kathryn was my only correct guess prior to this, and Bribs was my incorrect guess throughout most of Season 2.

Anyway, most people haven't seen these other seasons and probably don't care, but my point is that I typically find this really challenging, so I'm hoping that I end up being off. If I am right about Craig, I hope when they do another season, they make it especially challenging. There's only so much you can do to bring in viewers by making it viewer-friendly and easier to play from home before you start losing their attention because it's not exciting enough. I can't say there's been an execution where I've been blown away. Maybe it has to do with all the new technological capabilities and the access to previews and commercial promos. I don't know. I just hope next week is really exciting. I hate to be typing up what is becoming a whiny recap, but I just watched American Gladiators before this and that finale was INTENSE. I was rooting for Ally and her come-from-behind win was awesome.

I'm probably going to go watch the hotel challenge from Australian Mole 2 now because that's some exciting shit. I hope people aren't pissed off by this recap. I don't feel like there's a point to go over each contestant individually since there's only three of them and I've been saying all along how it would play out. I still think Craig is the Mole, Nicole is the winner, and Mark is a loser. I will say I'm less sure than if Paul was here, but I have a hard time seeing all this male vs. female conflict ending with it affirming any sort of institutional bias. I think there wouldn't have been so much included about Nicole being the only woman, being this strong female character, for it to just end up with her losing out to a man. She did beat Paul and I'm afraid that's supposed to be something significant. I still see her winning. And I'm still positive Craig's the Mole. I can't wait to see the hidden clues and see which ones we picked up on over the course of the season.