It’s going to be the biggest question after “Who will end up on the Iron Throne in House of the Dragon?” Who is the Mole?
Netflix‘s reboot of the beloved reality competition series has landed, with the first eight episodes now streaming. Like the various versions before it, the show is a game of Poirot-style character observations, Clue-level bluffs, and The Crucible-worthy accusations amidst challenges worthy of any Squid Game, though thankfully less bloody.
This time helmed by journalist Alex Wagner (incredible host, 11/10), the set-up for The Mole is the same as it always has been since the Belgian original: A group of strangers work together to complete missions in order to earn money only one of them will win. Of course, there’s a twist. One member of the group is a double agent who sabotages these challenges to either make the group fail or earn less cash. Just knowing this person exists means no one in the group trusts each other, ever. Knowledge about the other players is power, and this plays out in diabolical psychological experiments. During each episode, the group must answer 20 questions about who they think the imposter is, and the furthest from the truth is sent home.
This time around (and shout out to the Australian series of The Mole that ran in the 2000s), Netflix’s The Mole is set in Australia, taken place in some of the most stunning locations in the country, including the Daintree Rainforest, the Great Barrier Reef, the Blue Mountains, Sydney Harbour, and more.
So, who is the Mole?
Well, The Mole has released batches of its 60-minute episodes over three weeks since Oct. 7 with the last two, including the finale, arriving on Oct. 21 — so we don’t know yet. But we can take a red-hot guess based on the slick editing of the production team (basically, those whose job it is to make sure you can’t guess until the finale), and the actions of the players themselves.
The players are all intelligent professionals with experience solving puzzles, working under pressure, and reading other people: software developer Kesi Neblett, real estate broker Osei White, commercial pilot Joi Schweitzer, COVID ICU nurse Casey Lary, professional gamer Avori Henderson, lawyer Pranav Patel, warehouse worker (and TikTokker) Dom Gabriel, marketing consultant Greg Shapiro, mental health counselor Samara Joy, therapist Sandy Ronquillo, firefighter Jacob Hacker, and brand manager William Richardson. Essentially, they could all be the Mole.
The key to the game is to make other players think you’re the Mole if you’re not, and to shift suspicion away if you are. The show makes people and the viewer constantly paranoid, pointing fingers for ineptitude, wasting time, or not showing skills they should. The missions are often physically dangerous and challenging, which sets up ample opportunity for sabotage or simply being inept. People’s professions come into play. Clues cost money and opening them casts high suspicion. Each challenge ends with flying accusations going over every detail of when people fucked up, like a game of Mafia or Werewolf.
So, we’ll do that too! Who is the Mole?
Extreme spoilers ensue for The Mole episodes 1 to 8
Credit: Netflix
The way players decide someone is or isn’t the Mole is fun to watch and play along with, as the production team has allowed ample opportunities for sabotage. Really, anything can be used as evidence for or against someone being the Mole. You’re rewarded or accused for taking the lead or following the leader, being too keen, being too quiet, sucking at physical activity, adding too much money to the pot, or taking it all away in one fell swoop. The producers have also dropped some solid twists and turns in the challenges.
If you’ve watched the first eight episodes of The Mole, you’ll know by now that multiple players have been eliminated from the game after failing to identify the betrayer. Osei, Samara, Dom, Sandy, Casey, and Greg all got the red mobile screen of doom during elimination, so we’re assuming they can’t be the Mole unless the production team have something dramatic up their sleeve.
So, we’re analysing the players currently still in the game after episode 8.
Is Joi the Mole?
Credit: Netflix
Probably one of the most j’accused and powerful of the players so far, Joi has made enemies by making some extremely smart moves in the game. A pilot, Joi has roused suspicion by seemingly failing to read maps twice: once in the Daintree in episode 1 (everyone in her team is now eliminated) and again trying to beat the train on the mail run in episode 5. In the jailbreak mission in episode 2, Joi failed to see the key outside Kesi’s door through her tiny peephole — but then again, so did Kesi. But her biggest play so far came from the dossier incident in episode 3, when Joi decided to take a $25,000 gamble on which players looked at a stack of player dossiers. She correctly guessed Greg and drained the pot of all but $3,500 by winning an exemption from elimination.
I can’t tell you how much this move rules. Joi now either makes the team think she’s the Mole or makes them really, really mad at her, but either way it’s a perfect play. The team has no choice but to suspect her and get it wrong in the elimination quiz if she’s not the Mole, but they still have to work with her as a teammate to earn back the money. Plus, if she’s not the Mole, she’s done them quite the service with this move, so they may let their guard down.
Then, in episode 6, Joi chose the hero road and didn’t take the exemption card in the bomb challenge, adding $15,000 to the pot. This raised William’s suspicions. This could also have contributed to Joi’s shocked reaction to Kesi’s brutal exemption card move.
But the biggest Joi moment was in episode 7, when she accused Jacob at the table of being “the shithole Mole” — even though she’d earlier told the camera that she didn’t think Jacob was the Mole, just untrustworthy and acting like the Mole to throw others off their game. “Partner, I’m about to throw you under the bus” is truly iconic Joi.
Joi later says she thinks William is the Mole, and vice versa. Joi works hard in the hide and seek challenge in episode 8, accurately identifying where Avori is through the pigeons. And later, at dinner, she tells the camera she deliberately tricked Greg by pointing to Jacob. “Time to play some more mind games,” she says before apologising to Jacob and moving her accusation to Avori, then really going for Kesi — neither of whom will have it. MOLE?
Is Avori the Mole?
Credit: Netflix
A clever strategist as a professional gamer, Avori has sabotaged several tasks right in front of the camera, deliberately drawing suspicion. Is this Mole behaviour? Perhaps. Dom went home after thinking the Mole was Avori during the Great Barrier Reef treasure hunt, during which she faked seaplane sickness and purposely dropped crucial items along the shore. Avori rationalised opening the dossiers through the paper clips indicating someone else had cracked, but she still looked, people.
Avori established a strong alliance with Pranav in episode 1, saying, “Forming a relationship with someone, swapping information, and staying loyal to each other will win you the game.” William even separates Avori and Pranav in episode 2’s jailbreak task, but they absolutely smash the warehouse code-cracking mission. Then in episode 4, during the bank heist, Avori decided to keep the information she found out about Jacob miscounting the cash to herself. Avori was visibly upset when her pal Pranav was eliminated, so if this was acting, it was pretty damn good. But now everyone in that team except Avori and Jacob are gone — and Jacob has since been Avori’s main suspect.
Avori nailed the mountaineering challenge in episode 6, both leading the team through the course and guessing correctly that Casey had money in her bag. In episode 7, Avori played a pretty low key game, but in episode 8 in the hide and seek challenge across Sydney, she missed the crucial phone number on the pizza box and took an age to match the Jimmy on the pizza ticket with the Jimmy mentioned in the news article. As Avori says herself to the camera: “Maybe I didn’t see the number in the box. Maybe I did. Maybe I’m the Mole.”
Is Jacob the Mole?
Credit: Netflix
Jacob is calculating his way through this like the rest of ’em — don’t give me that heroic small town firefighter innocent schtick! As Joi and William point out, Jacob has added a very minimal amount to the pot. He pulled Will far from the searching area in the Great Barrier Reef treasure hunt, and he trod water for maybe too long. Underestimated until episode 3, Avori appeared to have caught Jacob throwing the bank heist challenge by miscounting the cash, whether deliberately or not. Though Greg suggested using the clue in the Daintree challenge, Jacob quickly jumped to back him. When given the dossier choice, Jacob chooses not to look but notably says, “It’s tough to think what the Mole would do in this instance. Because yes, it would be super easy to yank $10,000 away from everyone. But then it would be blatantly obvious to look at those people as the Mole, that it could potentially harm the Mole for future endeavours.” Seems pretty aware, right? In the mail run, Jacob keeps driving past the mail pickups, which could be Joi’s error with the map, or could be sabotage.
Jacob’s main suspect for the mole has been Joi over several episodes, and also Casey after episode 6 (during which Casey was eliminated). In episode 6’s mountaineering challenge, Jacob insisted on not staying behind, explaining he and Joi had failed the mail run challenge and would probably be given the money in their bags — but to be honest, this doesn’t seem strong reasoning to me. Avori raised her suspicions to the camera that if Jacob knew he had the money in his bag and insisted on finishing, it’s a perfect Mole move. Later on, Jacob said aloud in the abandoned warehouse, “It would be stupid to take an exemption,” but would he have taken it if Kesi didn’t? Who knows…
Joi’s major confrontation with Jacob was two-fold: it was meant to confuse everyone and make people pick Jacob as the Mole (Joi says she actually believes it’s William). Avori is picking between Joi and Jacob and gets the green light after telling the camera Jacob is the stronger pick. But Greg went home after possibly leaning too much on Jacob instead of Kesi after Joi’s big display. Jacob actually saves the day in the hide and seek challenge across Sydney with the phone number on the pizza box, but Avori misses it on the box — is this a lucky break for Jacob? MOLE?
Is Kesi the Mole?
Credit: Netflix
Kesi should be quite the code-reader given her day job, so when she failed to recognise the code in her very important logbook in episode 4’s bank heist, eyebrows were raised. In episode 2’s jailbreak mission, Kesi tells Joi she doesn’t see a key outside her own door, but she has the same door and same opportunity to see this key as William, who definitely sees his own key. (Samara can’t see it though, so that might clear Joi.) Plus, Kesi spells one of the passwords wrong in the code-cracking warehouse mission, “neone” instead of “neon” — an innocent mistake? Or Mole-ish behaviour?
Kesi’s major reaction to Samara leaving in episode 3 swayed me; maybe these were genuine mistakes. In the Great Barrier Reef treasure hunt, Avori deliberately misses the dinghy on the shore from the helicopter, but it should be noted Kesi was on the same side of the chopper, so she could have seen it herself. And Kesi misses the mailbag in the train mission in episode 5, twice easily grabbed by Greg.
In episode 6, when deciding who stayed behind on the mountaineering challenge, Kesi suggested splitting the team into the weakest and strongest players in order to get “at least 50 percent” correct — was this a perfect play to disguise a Mole move before the team had even left or was it a genuine strategy to secure some winnings? Kesi and Greg were left behind, and Greg took full control of the radio, leaving Kesi to stay low key — and the editing didn’t show much of the pair’s voting deliberation.
But the biggest move Kesi’s made so far? The one that caused players to gasp out loud after deeming her the “most trustworthy” of them all? That exemption card steal in episode 6, when Kesi left the team to sleep in a freezing cold, abandoned warehouse, chained to each other at the ankle, and costing the team $20,000 for the pot. Absolutely brutal — and what a play.
Greg’s number one suspect was Kesi over several episodes, including episode 7 when he was eliminated. But on his elimination, after Joi had turned all suspicion on Jacob at the table, Greg told Alex walking out, “I think she got me…I don’t know if Joi’s the reason that I’m standing out here with you tonight.” Did Greg change his suspect to Jacob, meaning he had Kesi right all along? In episode 8, Joi suspects Kesi after her moves in the hide and seek challenge (did she actually stall looking for the circling pigeons? That rock-paper-scissors gamble was risky), but Kesi in turn suspects Joi. MOLE?
Is William the Mole?
Credit: Netflix
One of the more perpetually outspoken players, William constantly takes charge of assigning group members, which could put him in a good position as the Mole. He likes to appear the hero, and as Joi points out in episode 1, likability is a powerful way to deter suspicion. William’s already proven he’s got a strong poker face during his personal cargo-stealing mission in the Daintree, in which he had to throw off suspicion as the thief. (He ended up the hero in this circumstance, doubling the pot with this act, but still, a superb way to make people think you’re not the Mole!) As William says himself, “I want to make sure at the end of the day some people think I am the Mole.” Joi takes William off her list after he injures himself during the Great Barrier Reef treasure hunt, and William is only one of two people to vote for his mate Dom to come back into the game after elimination, along with Kesi — so was this friendship, or something more sinister?
William tried to guess a double bluff in the mountaineering challenge in the Blue Mountains, and kept insisting he should finish the challenge (mainly in order to watch the others), but was left behind. Joi has long been highest on William’s list, but he was splitting his vote in episode 6 between Kesi and Casey — and William’s “I’m gonna be sick” reaction to Casey’s elimination was either genuine shock or extremely good acting. William is Joi’s biggest suspect (not Jacob as she tells the table), and we don’t know whether or not Joi makes it through episode 8. William and Jacob fail the hide and seek challenge, so was this time-stalling in Bill and Toni’s Italian restaurant or was it Avori’s failure to see the phone number on the pizza box?
So, who is it?
Look, I’m going to be wrong. Don’t @ me. Are there two Moles, are they all the Mole? No matter who the Mole is, I bet you’ve never heard the word “mole” so many times in your life, right? Last time I updated this post I had six out of eight suggestions, so I’m not ruling anyone out. Every time I think Jacob (my strongest contender until episode 8 and Joi’s big move), I think Kesi. Every time I think Joi, I think William, then Avori. The editing is way too good to be sure. Who’s your pick?
Extra Mole notes from episodes 1 to 5
Credit: Netflix
Is Greg the Mole? [ELIMINATED]
Greg leans into the chaos by being one of the more unpredictable players in the game, with some of the best commentary about the other players. Greg inexplicably breaks out a triangle at the first meeting, saying he wants to “draw people in and make them trust me.” Greg is a marketing consultant and focus group moderator, so he knows how to read people and ask the right questions. He appears to slow down the search in the Daintree challenge and asks if the team wants to use the clue to avoid coming back with nothing, then on finding the loot, he tells the camera, “I needed this. I needed to be the one to find the crate.” But then he dropped the oxygen tank given to him by Casey in the Great Barrier Reef treasure hunt. Greg, like Avori, looked at the dossiers, robbing the team of a potential $10,000, but then Greg nailed two bags of mail in the train challenge in episode 5. MOLE?
Is Casey the Mole? [ELIMINATED]
Casey, she’s a nurse! She wouldn’t lie or deceive, right? WRONG! Casey’s friendly attitude is just the ticket for gaining trust and deflecting suspicion. She notably tends to shift responsibility by asking for consensus on team decisions. Casey is one of the masterminds in the jailbreak mission, and with Dom now eliminated, Casey’s decision to cut 10 minutes from the clock for cash, made by simply backing Dom up, looks a bit suspicious. But more importantly, in the code-cracking warehouse mission, when she’s supposed to bring back team members to help Greg trick the other team, she doesn’t, and it blows Greg’s ruse! Mole-ish! Casey does well in the diving part of the Great Barrier Reef treasure hunt, but did she actually pass the oxygen tank to Greg before he dropped it? Casey takes a very chill role in the mail-run challenge in episode 5, which is exactly where a saboteur would hide. MOLE?
Is Pranav the Mole? [ELIMINATED]
A lawyer who’s quick on his feet (literally and metaphorically), Pranav says in episode 1 he thinks people will think he is the Mole because “academically, I’m extremely intelligent, I’m a little hard to read.” Pranav appears consistently responsible in the missions, telling the group to keep a track of time in the Daintree Rainforest challenge, and smashing the jailbreak and code-cracking warehouse missions in episode 2. In episode 3, he tells Avori by the pool, “I also like to have suspicion on me,” which is the same game Avori is playing. “The Mole would be right to draw suspicion on themselves. Blend in.” Though Jacob is the one found to have been miscounting money in the jailbreak mission in episode 4, Pranav was the mastermind in this case, and the team was off by almost $700. An accident, given he had the hardest job changing currencies? Or MOLE?
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