Ten Dutch celebrities go to Hong Kong and who knows where else to perform tasks. Succeeding at these tasks earns money for a pot that one of them will win. But one of the celebrities is playing a different game – they’re being paid to sabotage the tasks without drawing attention to themselves. Watch people’s actions very carefully as winning this game doesn’t come from completing tasks, it comes from most successfully answering the ultimate question: Who Is The Mole?
Thanks to our Dutch friends (led by ThatDarkSpark) we are able to follow and play along on Youtube. You will need to put the English subtitles on when watching the videos.
You can also play along with Dan Peake’s The Suspect List game, details here.
To avoid spoilers, I will link to videos and the beginning of discussion here. I ask people not to spoil anything specific until the English translation has gone up, then it’s fair game.
- Episode one video, Episode one discussion
- Episode two video, Episode two discussion
- Episode three video, episode three discussion
- Episode Four video, episode four discussion
- Episode five video, episode five discussion
- Episode six video, episode six discussion
- Episode seven video, episode seven discussion
- Episode eight video, episode eight discussion
- Episode nine video, episode nine discussion
- Episode 10, and of course we hope ThatDarkSpark is OK.
The Suspects
(With thanks to Squared Eyes, whose brilliant Dutch TV blog can be found here – from left to right)
1. Susan Visser – She is a very well known, experienced actress, acting mostly in comedy roles. Was one of the main characters in Gooise Vrouwen, the Dutch Desperate Housewives.
2. Maurice Lede – He might be the least recognized, as he is the host of ‘Klokhuis’, an educational series for early teenagers, airing in access prime-time.
3. Tygo Gernandt – A very well known, extremely experienced and good actor, doing a lot of ‘bad guy, intense’ roles. He will probably do anything to win.
4. Jennifer Hoffman – She is a real pretty face, has been acting for a long time. Not the eye-catching roles, but always recognizable.
5. Owen Schumacher – One of the main comedians of NL, starring in his own TV show ‘Koefnoen’ (Little Britain like). Together with a partner, they do all kinds of impersonation sketches of famous and non famous, typical characters.
6. Daphne Bunskoek – Has been a host for years, did both public and commercial stuff. Is currently back on air for RTL4 with a new show ‘Volgende Week’.
7. Aaf Brandt Corstius – A columnist and writer, and personally for me together with Maurice the big unknown. She appears regularly in TV talkshow, but what she is like? No clue.
8. Freek Bartels – He is currently one of the main musical stars, since he won the (original BBC) TV show ‘In search of Joseph’ in 2008.
9. Sofie van den Enk – She is a young, energetic upcoming host, doing a range of shows for the public broadcaster KRO.
10. Jan-Willem Roodbeen – Probably a very unknown face to almost everyone, but his voice might be very recognizable, as he is a radio DJ on Radio 2, having an afternoon show and doing voice-overs.
Wow. Fantastic episode. And the past and future game had just the hint of the change the future execution twist of a few seasons ago, but was done differently enough to be interesting.
Tygo’s no longer my main suspect, so my head and gut are now agreeing with each other about him – I’ve apparently not ruled him out completely, mind.
Jan-Willem did a lot of what looked like subtle sabotage this week, and I always find giving away jokers without getting anything for it suspicious, but Freek was involved in more of the jeep oddities than Jan-Willem was. Still think it’s a guy.
Here’s some extra footage of episode 6. 🙂
Make of it what you will. 😉
Hi all 😀
Well we all need an appetizer after 2,5 Mole-less weeks, right? 😉
So here’s the official promo for episode 7.. 🙂
What do you think will happen? And who do you think will be going home next?
Stumbled on the audition episodes for the Junior version starting 3/9…pretty interesting how they’re doing it. They’re 10 minute episodes showing possible players playing Mole games to see how they could work together and such. They start with 30 candidates, whittle it down to 20, and then down to the 10 who will be on the show. Once that happens, 2 people who were Moles on previous seasons will interview them and see how they work and they’ll decide who the Mole will be.
http://www.npo.nl/wie-is-de-mol-junior/POMS_S_AVRO_480138
Are you planning to upload the Junior Series, TDS?
No I’m not, sorry.
Translating and subtitling this series already takes up a big chunk of my time each weekend.
Also watching this obviously contains spoilers for people who still want to watch older series because it involves people who were Moles in the regular series. So be sure to take that into account. Might be better just to watch the series itself not the selections in order to prevent being spoilt. 😉
That was going to be my plan anyway! Thanks anyway, TDS – you do a great job 🙂
Here’s the one minute preview of episode 7. 🙂
Well finally we’re back after a 3 week hiatus, with brand new episode 7 of the Mole S14 in Hong Kong and the Philippines. 😀
Enjoy everyone, and feel free to share your thoughts: Who is the Mole?! 😉 😀
I love how Art tells the contestants at the end of the second challenge that the fingerprints belong to the Mole. I would LOVE it if they actually were the Mole’s enlarged prints, and someone actually manages to secure the Mole’s identity using that as a clue. That would take some crazy memory though, since I’m assuming they didn’t get to take the planks with them, but I love the idea of someone having the guile to pull off the classic “dusting for prints” trick.
Does that ending mean we’ll be having a *SPOILER* double elimination next week? Or will it be a four-person finale? If she’s not the Mole after that choice of the group exemption over 2,000 Euros, she’s an idiot.
Don’t forget they only earn interest on the envelopes if the players they’re addressed to make it to Episode 9. With more people surviving, they stand to win more than they otherwise would. It’s possible they could make more than 2000 Euro in interest.
The Suspect List – Week 7 is now available!
Go on, you know you want to…
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1s8wThHSwJBB7JRcwh1N2aMbSXFQsqY_2Fqwjh9m3kpE/viewform
I normally get good gut feelings as to who ISN’T the Mole, but I’m finding it quite hard to eliminate people at this stage. I think I can eliminate Freek and that it’s likely one of the women, but it’s fifty/fifty as to which one.
Fun episode.
That’s exactly what I’m thinking, can’t eliminate anyone, feeling it’s one of the women, but no clue which one of them…
I left with two suspects. Susan and Jan-William.
It is actually funny that Sofie never make it into my radar (Ok, actually once, when he and Freek sent the money.)
Anybody has figured out the title?
Sofie seems to do lots of small things that look suspicious, although I don’t think she’s made any huge moves. Like I say, either the winner or the mole I reckon.
I always like it when moles get away with huge sabotages, if there’s one thing WiDM lacks in recent years I think it’s those really audacious moments.
There was a good one in the Iceland series where the mole bankrupted the pot at the half way mark
Here’s some interesting extra footage on episode 7. 😉
Enjoy!
Oh so much intrigue, and a clue, possibly a clue anyway. Everyone playing the mole a bit here and there and of course the ending. What a molish thing to do, but were they thinking that when they did it?
lol Qusion, that’s always the question indeed. 😉
Here’s the new promo for Episode 8 😀
Is two non-elimination episodes normal? I didn’t think it was…
I don’t think it’s normally, but it all boils down to the condition of the bonus for anything mailed if – you get a bonus if the person you address it to reaches ep 9 – the odds of bonuses increase with that secondary non-elim!
Ooh – I’d missed that factoid. Suddenly the usually molish seeming thing of costing the group money to not eliminate anyone switches to straight gamble…
Depends whether the bonuses are worth more than 2000 Euros or not!
Time for brand new episode 8 of the Mole S14 in the amazing Philippines.. With a slight hint of ‘Survivor’ this time.. 😉
Enjoy! 😀 😉
Thanks TDS!
Thanks TDS! I’m super disappointed about the elimination, but it was another great episode, and I’m confident in my mole pick (having said that, I was last year too, and look where that got me!)
Could you clarify how many episodes we have left? Is it one episode with an execution and the first part of the reveal next week or have we another two before the official reveal?
I don’t know for sure, but based on what was written in the tv guide, I would guess there will be a final elimination during episode 9.
They might do a partial reveal (winner/runner-up) in episode 9, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they saved the whole reveal for episode 10 in this case. 🙂
Go Fish, Connect Four… Wonder which classic children’s game they’ll use to determine who to give the Excemption To the Finals away next…
This is something that bugs me about a lot of reality TV.
Players are flown and ferried to an beautiful island paradise where they must play a round of Connect Four. It’s like the more exotic location, the more mundane the activity is that they do there.
In this case, the ferrying seems to have simply been so that they could have it during the survive a night challenge (Which is enhanced by the location), without letting the contestants see the set up of it so that it would be a surprise/making it harder to form advanced strategies.
…The Go Fish challenge I think was in a casino at a casino that was in the city they were in at the time? Making ‘playing cards with each other’ appropriate to the location, while helping emphasize how much the specific card was incongruous to the stakes (which I think may have been deliberate)
I’m really disappointed with today elimination, but really happy about the today’s episode content.
I was curious of the next-week episode. They showed where Susan caught the same hand-writing. Why the envelope is not opened yet? Do they still risk losing the money in the envelope?
Great episode – loved that they had the Expeditie Robinson/Hummell Gets The Rockets theme to open the challenge.
I wonder if Jan-Willem was trying to look Mole-y in not giving Freek away. Didn’t work, evidently. Shame to see him leave – although they’re all big characters at this point – but he wasn’t on my Moledar anyway.
I thought for sure that the “Five in a Row” title for Episode 6 was a double meaning suggesting we’d lose the five female players in a row. Colour me stunned. (It’s right next to ‘Green with Envy’.)
I am wondering now if the 2nd defense of the last exemption is going to intertwine with the envelopes next week….
and I know TDS isn’t translating it, but here’s the first ep of WiDM Jr if you’re interested-quite fast paced for a half-hour show.
http://avro.nl/wieisdemoljunior/Player/AVRO_1665555/video#.Ux9bMs6mUoE
(all the players picked an endangered animal- the show is alligned with the World Wildlife Fund- and the winner will have the pot donated to a program helping the animal they chose)
There’s no second defense of the exemption…
Art meant: It had to be defended in the hunting game as well as fought in the test. That was the second time it was in danger (where Daniel failed to take the hurdle last year).
So Freek is in the finals, regardless. 😉
That does make sense now that I think about it…I wasn’t even thinking about the test.
I’m rather surprised the black exemption didn’t show up.
It is the new season’s gimmick and would of been the ultimate twist to play with the best exemption in the game
I think the black exemption only works if you can’t be certain if people are using other stuff or not. Against the exemption to the final, if it’s in play and can be used, someone’s using it.
Sorry it’s so late – but here is The Suspect List, Week 8!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/11y8x9IlcGl00EZ50HaRYFQuIroezEDvwqzUVrJjU_2U/viewform
Time for brand new episode 9 guys! 😀
So..: Who is the Mole? 😉
I look forward to watching this later, thanks TDS.
Welp, I’m out.
I won’t spoil who in case someone accidentally scrolls a bit too far, but my pick whom I’ve had at the top of my Suspect List since episode one was eliminated in the early execution, and the other three I kept at the bottom of my List, so I’m just plain out of the running for it. This is tradition, I guess. I thought I genuinely picked up on one of the episode title clues (which confirmed my suspicions), but now that I was clearly wrong, I need to see what they really intended with it.
Perhaps because of my disappointment from the execution, the last challenge was boring to watch. Yeah, the last challenge is always a review game, but last year’s train adventure with the cryptic clues was way more interesting than watching people wade through water and look at true/false statements.
The most interesting bit of this year’s review game for me was the potential to sabotage – if the mole was quick enough, they could destroy the winnings. Pretty confident on my mole still though – it’s officially not Freek, Susan’s not the winner and Sofie’s not the loser! I ruled Tygo out early on for trying too hard.
Well whatever the mole picked up wouldn’t count Art said as it wouldn’t be fair, although they could certainly just scoop up all the bottles to stop the others getting them.
Sofie wins, Freek runner-up, Susan is the Mole. Surely. I presume there’s one more Suspect List week left?
We’re very much on the same wavelength there – I suspect the Mole’s tactic was to get as many bottles that were true out of the way to reduce the winnings of the challenge. I’m glad I’ve been so rigid with my theory of “Susan is the mole” for weeks, because Sofie’s made me slightly doubt myself this episode. I’d love to know who picked up that other envelope.
Thinking about the suspect list I was really confused by Sofie this week. Actually I thought of the same result as Nick, but Sofie confused me so much that I had no idea. In the end I’ll also stick with Susan as mole, so Sofie must be the winner. As this was my first season: Do they always reveal it in the end like that (you’re not the mole, not the runner-up, not the winner)? Because I really liked it and it was the thing that confused me most.
Many years they’ll reveal the winner in episode 9 but leave the reveal of the loser and Mole until episode 10.
Oh Art!
I think with just the big reveals to go I think we can begin a postmortem of sorts of the series. Basically the challenges weren’t all that great if I’m honest although I think they picked up a bit after leaving Hong Kong. The new *ideas* bought into the show DID largely work quite well – the black exemption definitely, the envelopes I don’t think quite fulfilled their promise but would be willing to see given another chance – the reveal after building them up all series was a bit of a damp squib. The metagame stuff like the fake elimination at the start, the seeing into the future task etc. were largely great.
Which leaves the two things Dutch Mole seems to do better than any other reality game I can think of and this year is no exception – the artistic direction and the casting, both of which show some amazing talent of the producers year in year out. Even when the tasks are a bit crap, they look good and they’ve got a mix of players who you do at least enjoy seeing take them on. It’s pretty amazing how I’m willing to overlook duff challenges on a challenge-led show because everything else feels so right.
When Art Rooijakkers took over as host I thought he was OK but lacked the gravitas to carry it off convincingly. I think he’s really grown into it over the last few years though, he carries an air of mischief which works well.
Can’t wait for the reveals, looking forward to next year’s already.
I do wonder if they were deliberately playing it safe with the challenges this year after what happened with whatshername in the diving challenge last year. There did seem to be notably fewer adventure-sports-y challenges this time around, which unfortunately led to a glut of walkie-talkie challenges to try and hide it.
I definitely agree that the casting and editing has been top notch this year, as always, but… for some unknown reason, I’m still not feeling Art works as a host. He has charisma, sure, but I think the mischievous tone results in the gravitas he needs being lost somewhere along the way.
The Suspect List – Week 9!
It’s the final week, and there’s just two candidates to pick from.
And it’s a DOUBLE POINTS week, a whopping 20 points on offer if you correctly identify The Mole.
This means that the maximum possible total for The Suspect List is 100. I’ll reveal how everyone has done in the week following the finale.
Best of luck!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1x8ugVFHRpP38xL6Wg0K6K034jnjuFbyG1CZSqUX95wM/viewform
So basically either I’m going to win the suspect list..
Or I’m coming dead last..
Maybe, maybe not. I think I’m in the same position as you. My current Mole suspect had been my #1 for several weeks now, and #2 for several weeks prior if I remember correctly. The other 2 players have been towards the bottom of my suspect lists since week 1.
It goes without saying by the way readers that I’d prefer it if finale spoilers weren’t posted until the subbed ep goes up at the weekend, even though it will be common knowledge in the Netherlands tonight. Once it’s posted discuss away. Thanks!
I can’t wait for the final episode so I watched the entire season of 2013 since Saturday. It was great! And I really didn’t of that person to be the mole so I’m doubting my guesses this year again. I think I preferred the challenges of 2013 but the looks of this year’s season. It’s such a beautiful well told show, I’m already looking forward to the next season! Once again: Thanks for subtitling ThatDarkSpark!
Well this doesn’t look good
https://www.youtube.com/user/ThatDarkSpark/discussion
Christ no that’s not good, I was going to post asking if they’re alright.
There’s not really a lot you can say to that is there. I hope it’s just some mundane reason thats keeping her away from her computer and she’s back with us soon.
TDS’s online friend Joost has posted again, alas there is no news other than TDS being uncontactable.
https://www.youtube.com/user/ThatDarkSpark/discussion
Joost and the others will continue to subtitle The Mole, but it is sad to be missing a friend of the bar.
Yes indeed.
Obviously we wish TDS all the best and hope for some news, in the meantime there might be a fiddly solution coming likely Sunday.
OK.
In lieu of ThatDarkSpark there is a work around, and we’ve got [redacted] to thank – but be warned it’s a bit fiddly. They’ve taken the Dutch captions and Google translated them into English, the results are said to be surprisngly passable (at time of writing I’ve not watched them yet I’ve just made sure everything works for watching later).
You will need something like VLC to play subtitled files on. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html
Here is episode 10 – you will need to rip it – I advise ripping the Medium mp4 option which is about 200MB, your mileage may vary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__iVg4jyzFE
(If you have Firefox use something like the Download Helper extension http://www.downloadhelper.net/ – other methods are available, this is the one I use).
Download this subtitle file (This will stay up for the forseeable, but if you come here in five years time I can’t guarantee it will still work):
https://truck.it/p/_vVi7drAhI
Make sure the video file and the subs file are in the same folder, if you can’t get them to work make sure the file names match.
There you go. Good luck.
Just to follow up to Brig’s explanation – the subtitles have “(hq)” at the end of them, so delete that from your file name and it should work!
I knew it! A lot of those clues were definitely on the sneakier end of Mole clues ever!
I’m just trying to get my head around the interest calculations:
http://avro.nl/wieisdemol/Afleveringen/10/berekening_rente.aspx
There’s lots of other stuff online, like other sabotages and clues, at http://wieisdemol.avro.nl, worth a look.
Susan was a great Mole I thought, and ultimately a great series, even if it started off quite slowly.
This is the first time in an awfully long while I’ve pegged the Mole correctly – she was way too suspicious in the pre-season interviews for me!
OK, I think I’ve gotten the jist of how the interest worked-
-The earliest the envelopes could have been sent is episode 2, the latest was episode 8, a total of 7 episodes.
-If you had sent an envelope in episode 2 and the player was still in the game in episode 9, you would double whatever was in the envelope.
-If you sent it later than that, it would be less, based on the number of the 7 opportunities left:
ep 3. 6/7 of the money in the envelope would be added
ep 4. 5/7
ep 5. 4/7
ep 6. 3/7
ep 7. 2/7
ep 8. 1/7
(looks like they rounded to the nearest €25 so it would fit the bills they use)
Ah ha, that makes sense, ta.
I watched the episode in Dutch and I don’t think Susan was that great. I think 2013’s mole (I don’t want to spoil anything for others who might read this one day) was much cleverer and not as suspicious as Suus. Anyway I really like all the “Visser/fisher” references in the episodes.
And I think the right person won. Did the person winning the “exemption to the finals” ever win the show? I just know it didn’t happen the last two seasons…
Now I started watching series 10, this show is so addictive and I really think it would work in the UK and in Germany right now, so please make it happen TV- people!
By the way, though I don’t understand all the Dutch it seems to me that their apps and other “social” parts of the show (e.g. the forum) really work and could be a reason to give it another try nowadays in UK/Germany.
I’ve always maintained that as a cheap risk it’d be worth ITV trying The Mole on their difficult Tuesday nights. Get the Dutch guys in to make it. Absolutely no guarantee it would be a success, but if it caught on it’d be a really useful thing to have.
As long as it would be at least as good as the UK one, I’d be so up for watching/participating.
Except it wouldn’t be cheap. For reference a show like The Apprentice (i.e. a game show set in the real world) will have a budget approaching half a million quid an episode, while a studio show like Mr & Mrs, Big Stars Little Star or Through the Keyhole will most likely have a per episode budget that begins with a three, maybe even a two.
I’d be interested to find out what they’re making Dutch Mole on, the grand prize is in the €20k range (you would likely have to up this, especially if played with civilians) and they’ve been making it on a viewership of about 2m people over the last 10 years, increasing only recently.
I would certainly be quietly confident WIDM is being made on considerably less than €500k an episode.
Well here we are, FOTB Dutch TV professional Squared Eyes predicts closer to 150k an episode. Provided you made it the Dutch way obviously.
There are few big set pieces in this show, they tend to come up with games for places that are readily avaliable. That’s why I accept it would be a gamble, but Dutch and UK audiences don’t tend to be wildly different.
But we got another question unanswered. Who is the winner of the Suspect List? (For Pete’s Sake. Please post it here :))
I’ve finally watched the finale of WiDM 2014! Hurrah! I shall now start calculating who won. Expect results later this week, it’ll be a day or two (sorry!).
Today I dreamt I was de Mol, I think I watched it a bit too often now…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhQ2ROO9iss
for those that have not seen it an English subbed version is now up from a different poster
The results of The Suspect List are in! You can see everybody’s full submissions here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TXEAk09_DzH0lnSEFwdjCKbjImIm5ry88rCdcEt6WUA/edit#gid=0
Here’s how everybody has done. The maximum possible score is 100 points. Tiebreaks were based on “who I thought had a better idea of who the Mole was” and are essentially subjective.
Ryan – 2
Ben Wood – 4
Martijn – 5
Chris A – 7
Stephen Miller – 8
aks – 10
Pooche.EXE – 19
Thomas – 20
Joseph Bolas – 25
Lewis M – 25
KDS – 40
Dave Mattingly – 41
Gwlmjjms – 41
Steve Lewis – 42
Natalie – 46
Michael Harmstone – 48
David Cooper (Qusion) – 52
Nico W. – 53
RANDOM – 61
Brig Bother – 70
Dan Peake – 83
So there we have it. I’ve won my own competition! As organiser I shall step aside and say that the winner is Brig Bother! Well done, you win the internet for a day, don’t turn it off or let it get wet.
A couple of things to note:
– In the final week of the Suspect List, Susan was favoured as Mole by 2/3rds of us.
– There’s an entry called RANDOM. Their entries were created using a random number generator… and the only people to beat this random entry were Brig and myself. Hmm! Very much helped by 20 points in the final week.
– I had the right Mole for ages based on entirely wrong clues.
Did I really miss a week? Blimey.
I really am dead good at this.
And so, by only submitting in the last week, I beat seven people.
Wow. I got 40 points (I’m KDS btw.) I really like this competition. Too bad i missed the first and the last one :p .
I’m still reeling from the results. Are we sure Susan is the Mole? Can I get a recount?
This season was an excellent example of me barking up the wrong side of the right tree, to mangle a phrase. I actually ran an analysis of this season’s contestants against common features of previous Moles, and the results pointed to Susan being the most likely selection. Lacking any other clues, I picked her as most likely for the first two episodes, but switched to Sofie after Sofie turned out to be rubbish at everything, while Susan had been quite unsuspicious to that point.
I also picked up what I interpreted as a clue in the very first moments of the first episode. When they are delivering the mailed money to Ellis Island in the flash-forward, they take great pains to only show three names on the envelopes: Susan, Sofie, and Freek. I figured that those three were most likely the final three, and played accordingly. Halfway through the season, both Susan and Freek said in post-quiz confessionals that they were focusing on Sofie as the Mole. I thought that if those three were indeed the final three, the only way that could happen would be if Sofie was the Mole. Who could have seen Freek making the final three even though he was dead wrong about the identity of the Mole?
And to add insult to injury, my randomly submitted picks managed to beat my real picks. Why do I pretend that I have any idea what’s going on again??
Oh well. Thanks for running this, Dan, and congrats to Nick on your win. See you in 2015, where I will manage to find new and exciting ways to foul things up.
I specifically dismissed the envelope clues as “too obvious” and kept those three at the bottom of my list for the longest time. For that, I genuinely feel bad about beating Dave solely by means of the double-points final.
But thanks to Dan for running this again, and thanks and best wishes to Ms. Spark, hope she’s safe and doing well.
I cannot genuinely believe I missed two weeks! I knew I’d missed the last week (grumble grumble) cause I remembered about half an hour after the deadline!
At least I had a respectable showing this year! Susan was my pre-season pick, although as you can see, Aaf had my attention for a long while.
Thanks for doing this again Dan!
As predicted last place 🙁
(well last of all those who played each week)
Then again if it had been Sofie I’d of won with 99/100..
Like Michael I was Aaf-sighted right up until she was executed. Luckily my only back up was Sofie and I was becoming more and more convinced she wasn’t the mole. It was Susan’s decision to take the team exemption that secured her as my new mole though. That is the first time, in who knows how many series of mole, that I’ve chosen correctly from the final three.
Thanks for organising Dan 🙂
This page will be put into archive on Monday 14th in the Specials section, although it will still be commentable.
I don’t know, if you guys know, but apparently somebody uploaded the German version two years ago on youtube. Episode 1 is missing though, so here’s episode two:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-68tsq3ofTM
The quality is terrible and it’s not subtitled (if my new job allows it, I’ll start subtitling it in a month or so, well that would be late anyway).
But there is Steven Gätjen, I really like him!