Who is The Mole? What We Know So Far About the Mole's Identity
Netflix released their first batch of episodes of their "The Mole" revival. Fans have been searching for hints.
I was too young to watch the original run of “The Mole” on ABC. Part of the fun I missed out on was the online community working together to figure out the identity of the Mole. Now that the show has been rebooted by Netflix, I can join in on the fun. Here are my thoughts and what I’ve found from others.
In the old seasons there were hints such as names and faces being flashed on screen when the Mole was discussed in the intro. The zodiac sign of the Mole has been shown as a hint. There were also morse code messages stating who the Mole is. Words associated with the Moles first and last name were frequently used. I’m not sure how much of this is going on in the new series. But if it is I’m excited.
First I’ll go through my method of trying to figure out who the Mole is. Then I’ll go through each of the remaining players and give my thoughts on them, and if I think they could be the Mole or not. Then I’ll finish with some theories I’ve run into online and information from the interactive quiz (now closed) on who the mole is. Obviously there will be spoilers from the first five episodes and online bonus content from Netflix. As well as spoilers from the original seasons of The Mole US.
The Suspects
In order to deduce the identity of the Mole. My strategy is to use process of elimination. I believe it’s easier to figure out who isn’t the Mole than who is. In no particular order, here are my thoughts on the remaining players.
Players I Have Ruled Out
Avori
Avori is someone who I don’t believe is the Mole. She has a coalition with Pranav and the other players (Will in particular) are aware the two are close. In the past seasons of the Mole that I’ve seen, the Moles were not shown to have any formal coalitions. I believe the Moles tend to avoid coalitions because it reduces the amount of lies they need to remember. The other reason I have ruled Avori out is that the edit implied that Dom was executed after switching his quiz answers to Avori after she intentionally tried to sabotage a mission to appear like the Mole as a strategy.
Avori has, however, contributed to a lot of money not going into the pot and hasn’t performed well in the past few missions. She slowed down the running team a lot in the mail delivery mission. As mentioned earlier, she claims to be pretending to be the Mole. However, past Moles have said the same thing in confessionals.
Avori noticed Jacob miscounted money during the bank heist mission but kept the information to herself to increase her chances on the quizzes aginst her competitors. If she is the Mole, then pretending not to notice when someone makes a mistake is the perfect subtle sabotage.
Pranav
I’ve eliminated Pranav as a Mole suspect, mostly because of his coalition with Avori. He also appears to be trying his hardest in the missions. He recieved some blame for the bank heist mission, but that failure seems to be because of Jacob. Also doing all of that math by hand seems difficult. Pranav is in law school which means math probably isn’t his strong suit.
Will
Will is the player who I suspect the least. Now that Dom is gone he seems to care the most about getting money in the pot. The Mole usually has more of an “I’m just here to have fun” attitude.
Joi
Joi is focused on heavily in the edit as a Mole candidate. Many of heer fellow players are suspicious of her. However, it does seem like she’s being set up to fail in some cases. In the mail delivery challenge she was the navigator for the car, despite all the players blaming her inability to read maps for her team’s loss in the first mission. It would also be too obvious at this point.
Joi wiped out almost all the money in the pot for an exemption and it appears like she is going to choose an exemption over more money going into the pot at the start of episode 6. I don’t think she would take two exemptions this early as the Mole. The Mole doesn’t need exemptions and I doubt she would put herself through eating wasabi and drinking apple cider vinegar for an exemption she doesn’t need just to prevent about half the money she took out of the pot from going back in.
If Joi is the Mole, then she’s absolutely ruthless.
Greg
Greg has had his share of Mole-ish moments. Most notably, he causes a lot of drama and tension during missions. During the under water treasure chest mission he didn’t seem to be useful at all. He also looked at the dossiers, which he knew would prevent $10,000 from being added to the pot (it’s Mole-ish even though it’s the smart thing to do in the game).
I don’t believe Greg is the Mole for two reasons. The first is that the edit doesn’t seem to show his excuses for his mission blunders. I don’t think we heard his explanation for dropping the air tank into the ocean, wearing his life vest the completely wrong was (which looked kind of dangerous) and swimming like he just learned how. Although that could’ve been on purpose to get others to thinkhe is the Mole (which seems to be a very popular strategy this season). The other reason is that I don’t believe the Mole would try to cause this much tension in the group. Moles are supposed to lay low and blend in with the background.
Greg isn’t completely useless in all of the missions though. He did secure $2,000 for the pot on the train and got the the bank vaults lasers quickly. (Obviously being successful in a mission doesn’t rule anyone out from being the Mole. All of the past Moles have added money to the pot at one point or another. Production even sometimes tells the Mole how a mission works and to try and be succesful just to shake things up a bit. However, with all the evidence put together I have ruled Greg out.
At first I didn’t like Greg. I thought he was annoying and obnoxious. However, he’s one of my favorites now. He’s a good strategic player in most cases and brings lots of drama which I love.
Players I Have Not Ruled Out
Kesi
Kesi has been under the radar so far, at least according to the edit (which we know isn’t always accurate). Nothing has been shown that clears her for me. Moles tend to be under the radar both in the game and the edit.
Kesi has cost the group money a few times. She didn’t tell her team the correct names during the bank heist mission. The names seemed pretty obvious, although I’m not sure of any causation between being a software engineer and knowing about King Mitas, Goldie Locks and The Road to El Dorado, like her teammates seem sure of. Kesi also dropped one of the parcels while on the train. Before then she was unsuccessful it grabbing one, but Greg was on backup and able to secure it.
Jacob
Another player who I wasn’t able to eliminate is Jacob. He' has been given an ‘under the radar’ edit just like the other players I haven’t eliminated from my suspect list.
Jacob started getting more air time when Avori noticed he miscounted money during the bank heist mission. He is unaware that she saw him and we didn’t see him talk about that mission much in his confessional.
During the parcel delivery mission Jacob was on the car team with Joi. I was surprised that they put two people in the car and three on foot instead of the other way around, which seemed to make a lot more sense. Anyways, Jacob was the driver and Joi gave directions which raises red flags since all the players are aware Joi’s strong suit isn’t reading maps.
Jacob and Joi missed the first parcel and chose to waste time by going back for it. Although it seems like this is Joi’s fault, it could have been a sabotage on Jacob’s behalf instead. He could’ve pretended not to realize they were atthe destination. He also could’ve distracted Joi when they got close like Kathryn did to Steve in season one. Jacob also could’ve stalled for time by driving slowly. Additionally, he wasted some time debating whether or not to get the third parcel. They could’ve reached the end destination on time if he hadn’t done that.
Casey
I like Casey but don’t have much to say about her. She hasn’t gotten much screen time and I don’t remember much about the little she got. She is still a suspect because I have no information to rule her out. Seasons 3 and 4 seemed to have Moles who were smaller personalities instead of big names. Maybe that trend is being followed. I hope we see more from Casey in the next batch of episodes.
Netflix’s Quiz
At the end of the fifth episode there was a link on screen to an online quiz viewers could take to see if they’re on track to deducing who the Mole is. I’m not a fan of this because I think it directly gives away too much information, but I took the quiz and passed.
Reddit users on r/themole spent a while trying the quiz with different answers and comparing the results. Some users even looked through the source code of the quiz which revealed a LOT of information that I will discuss below. Obviously this is a spoiler, so this is A HUGE SPOILER WARNING. DO NOT CONTINUE READING IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THIS POTENTIAL (BUT PROMISING) SPOILER.
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In a now deleted reddit post, a user looked through the code of the quiz and came to the conclusion that Kesi is the mole. There is more explanation on how this was concluded from the quiz in the comments.If Kesi is the Mole I’m not sure why Netflix would do something to make it so obvious. It’s 2022 and a lot of people know how to reverse engineer an internet quiz.