'The Mole's three remaining fifth-season players take their final quiz

Mark Lambrecht, Craig Slike and Nicole Williams competed in their final two The Mole missions and also took their last fifth-season quiz during last night's penultimate broadcast of the ABC reality series.


Either Mark, Craig or Nicole will take home The Mole's fifth-season pot of $420,000 based on the results of the quiz taken during last night's episode.  In addition, the final player will also be executed based on the results and The Mole's fifth-season saboteur will be revealed.

The Mole's ninth fifth-season episode began following the previous execution of Paul Grassi, with a total of $368,500 currently in the pot. 

"I feel great about making it to the Final 3, but I'm worried," said Mark, a 42-year-old high school history teacher and soccer coach from Mukwonago, WI. 

"I'm not going to sit here and lie and say, 'Oh yeah.  I've known who its been all along.'  I haven't.  I haven't had a clue.  If it's Craig, Nicole knows.  If it's Nicole, Craig knows.  I don't think either one of them is targeting me."


"I really think that Craig is the mole," said Nicole, a 32-year-old OBGYN doctor from Chicago, IL..  "If he's not the mole, I'm going to faint."

"Mark could definitely be the mole.  He's on the top of my list," said Craig, a 31-year-old graphic designer San Diego, CA.  "But I'm still not positive who the mole is, and that is terrifying at this point in the game."

Still in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the three remaining players then met host Jon Kelley for their next mission, which would be worth $50,000.

Titled "Tick Tock Boom," a case containing $50,000 was placed behind a bullet-proof wall and connected to a bomb.  The three players would have one hour to defuse the bomb before it would go off and destroy the money.  Everything the players would need to defuse the bomb was located in the room.

Jon left the room and the clock started to tick, and the players immediately found wire cutters and realized it would be important to determine which of the bomb's wires to cut to defuse it.  Also in clear sight in the room were a list of world locations, a giant clock, a series of letters on the wall, and a glass board with blank spaces on it -- but there was also a hidden item.


Craig located the hidden item -- a time zone map -- and they determined it was important to match the world locations with their time zones in relation to Greenwich Mean Time.  Craig, Mark and Nicole alternated who held down the time zone map and who wrote down the 24 times corresponding to the 24 world cities. 

While they completed that part of the mission with more than 30 minutes to spare, they didn't know the next step.

"I don't think that we're going to be able to accomplish this mission," opined Nicole.  "We're freaking out."

But Craig was more confident, and he didn't forget about the giant clock in the center of the room.  He realized that the cities and time zones from Greenwich Mean Time corresponded to a time on the giant clock, which corresponded to the letters that the hands on the clock pointed to.  Those letters then needed to be written on the glass board and rearranged to spell a phrase.

All 24 letters were eventually written on the board while time continued to wind down, and Mark quickly realized that Nicole had incorrectly written down the wrong time zones earlier in the mission.  While he was able to quickly correct the mistake, both he and Craig still found it suspicious.


Eventually the players unscrambled the words "clue, cut, is, blue and red" -- however there were two words they couldn't figure out and they were unsure if they needed to cut the blue and red wires or the purple wire.  Craig cut the purple wire with 21 second left in the mission and the bomb was defused.

Jon then revealed the words read, "Clue: Cut wire that is blue + red," which would have led them to cut purple.  For successfully completing the mission $50,000 was added to the pot, bringing its total to $418,500.

The next day the players met Jon in Central Buenos Aires for their final mission.

Dubbed "Three to Tango" and worth $75,000, each of the players selected one of three envelopes.  In each envelope were three different sets of clues unique to each player.  In addition, each player would be receiving a cell phone.  On Jon's go, the players would individually read their first clues. 

Once they figured the location the clue was pointing them to, they'd call Jon on their phone and he would give them a task to complete once they got there. 


The first player to finish all three tasks would receive a picture of the final destination.  Once he or she arrived at the final destination, they could either decide to put the $75,000 in the pot or exchange it for the mole's dossier, which could contain helpful information for the final quiz.

The mission commenced and all of the players opened their first clue.  Craig was the first to complete his first task and he quickly moved onto his second clue, although he had a hard time finding the location it was leading him to. 

Mark decided to interact with the Buenos Aires locals to find his locations instead of using a map, which seemed to cost him considerable time since he could have quickly run from place to place had he known where he was going.

Nicole seemed incredibly disinterested in the mission from almost the moment it started, as she didn't listen to the specifics in the first clue and then bickered with Jon when he told her she was incorrectly completing the task.

Mark completed his first and second tasks while Craig couldn't find the theater he was trying to locate as part of his second task.  He finally did, but not until Nicole was able to catch up by completing both of her first two tasks.


For his final task Craig had to locate Evita's grave and snap a photograph of the family name above the crypt.  He did so and was the first player to receive the location of the final destination.  However Mark completed his final task at the Congress building and received the location to the final destination seconds after Craig.

Both players rushed to the final destination -- Calatrava Bridge -- and since Craig had been gushing about how eager he was to visit it, Mark didn't think he stood a chance.

"There's no way I'm first," said Mark.  "That's impossible."

However Mark was "shocked" to learn he was the first player to reach the bridge.  Craig arrived shortly thereafter as Mark pondered whether to add the $75,000 to the pot or see the contents of the dossier.  Jon eventually sent a car for Nicole, who never completed her third task.

Mark eventually revealed he decided to read the contents of the dossier instead of adding the cash to the pot.

"The game is more about the quizzes than it is the missions.  So with that in mind, this dossier could possibly give a person a leg up going into the last quiz."" explained Mark.  "I hope to find in the mole's dossier at least one piece that I've been missing."


"Once the dossier is open, the quiz will change," opined Nicole.  "Whatever is in the dossier will end up on the final quiz.  There could be anything in there, of course I'll never know."

"I'm a little disappointed that Mark took the dossier instead of putting the money in the pot," added Craig.  "But it was expected because it's the mole's job to keep money out of the pot."

Jon then revealed he would "bump up" the pot to a total of $420,000 before the three remaining players met for their last supper together.

"I am not at all confident about this last quiz," said Nicole.  "But I'm going to do everything in my power to try and win."

"There's a lot more pressure tonight than other nights," said Craig.  "I'm run down and I am weary, but I'm still going to do it as best as I can and as fast as I can."

"To ensure myself a win I have to make sure that I pick the right person as the mole," added Mark.  "I need to be as accurate as possible in a reasonable amount of time.  But if I have the wrong person selected it doesn't matter."


The Mole's ninth and final fifth-season quiz took place -- with each of the players answering 20 questions about the mole that would span the entire length of the game. The player who scored the lowest on the quiz would be the last player executed from the competition.

The first 10 questions on the quiz were is the mole male or female; in "Over the Falls," what was the outcome of the mole's jump; in "When Pigs Fly," what did the mole do after returning from Pomaire; who was the mole paired with during "Fruit of the Luge;" how much money did the mole's team add to the pot during "Fruit of the Luge;" where did the mole sit during "Fruit of the Luge;" where was the mole standing from left to right after "Fruit of the Luge;" how much money did the mole's team earn during "Midas Rush;" what color pants was the mole wearing during "Midas Rush;" and where was the mole standing from Jon's perspective at the end of "Midas Rush."

The second 10 questions on the quiz were was the mole wearing a collared shirt during "Grapes of Cache;" did the mole open a bottle of wine after "Grapes of Cache;" how much did the mole guess to win exemption during "Swing Out;" where was the mole standing from Jon's perspective during "Tick Tock Boom;" did the mole cut the wires during "Tick Tock Boom;" where was the mole standing from Jon's perspective during the intro of "Three to Tango;" which food did the mole consume during "Three to Tango;" which fact did the mole highlight in their application; how many exemptions has the mole received; and who is the mole.

The Mole's fifth-season finale will air Monday, August 11 at 10PM ET/PT on ABC.






About The Author: Christopher Rocchio