The Mole on Netflix: Episode 2 Recap and Thoughts
The sabotages ramp up.
As I mentioned in my episode 1 recap, Osei was eliminated at the start of this episode (I miss them calling them executions instead of eliminations in the old seasons).
The players’ next mission is to break out of a jail. They are separated into three teams, except Dom and Casey, who are the “masterminds” even though they didn’t really do anything. The three teams are in identical parts of the jail and have the same “escape room” esque puzzle to complete to get out of the jail. It reminded me a lot of the “escape the room” games I used to play on Addicting Games as a kid.
One of the teams was able to quicly escape. the other two teams were delayed a bit because Kesi and Samara failed to see the key outside of one of the cells (or thought it was a hair tie for Samara).
It’s also difficult to tell this season which players are sabotaging because they are the mole, and who is sabotaging to try to seem like the mole as a strategy. You also have to watch out for people who say they are trying to appear like the mole in their interviews, because they could actually be the mole like in season 4.
With these types of missions you not only have to watch out for mole sabotages, but also for players who seem to already know how it all works. In previous seasons, the producers would tell the mole the solution to missions like this one so they can seem like they’re not the mole. They did this for Kathryn in the final mission of season 1. It’s also possible for moles to discreetly sabotage when they’re given information by just not doing anything if their team is on the wrong path, or distracting them from seeing what they need to see. Bill did this during the mission in season 2 where they had to get the car through the door.
The masterminds Dom and Casey were given the option from Alex to take ten minutes off the clock in exchange for doubling the prize money if the mission is succesfully completed. Dom, who was the most concerned about putting money in the pot, wanted to do this. Ten minutes were remoced. Dom and Casey also had the choice to give one of the teams a clue, which Dom didn’t want to do, but Casey insisted. Dom also agreed with Casey at the last second to give the final team an extra minute in exchange for $5,000. The last team was able to make it out in time and the players won $14,000.
For the next mission, the players were taken to a creepy building that kind of looked like Hawkins Laboratory when they thought they were just going to dinner. They were separated into two teams and told by Alex that if they did nothing, $10,000 would be added to the pot. But if they wanted to, they could solve a puzzle using information in a table (the periodic table of elements) to get a password to type into a computer that allowed them to press a red button. Everyone on the first team to press the red button would recieve an exemption. As someone from Long Island I am hyper aware of when someone say in something or on something so I can yell at anyone who says in Long Island, so I woul’d’ve been useful in this mission.
The obvious play in this scenario is to go for the exemption. One player being exempt isn’t a big deal. But half the players being exempt, especially this early in the game gives a pretty bad probability of being the second player eliminated.
The team with Avori, Pranav and Greg were smart and immediately went to figure out the password, led by Avori. At one point the phone lines between the rooms connected and Greg did a bad job of lying about his team searching for the password. He used phrasing such as “I am not looking for the password” which quickly tipped off Dom. I don’t understand why he did that. If you’re going to lie just commit to it and lie.
After this the other team decided they should also look for the password. With 10 minutes left neither team seemed close and Alex gave them the hint about the password being in the table again. Both teams figured it out pretty quickly after that.
To end the episode Alex began to reveal which team finished first. Except as we all predicted, the episode ended on a cliffhanger because Netflix thinks everyone is watching this dying to know which team won, and aren’t more focused on like, who the mole is or who will get eliminated next.