Netflix viewers are wondering if the reality TV reboot of The Mole is scripted. From the clearly canned lines from contestants interview cuts, to host Alex Wagner’s apparently scripted lines given to the cast members, to the near close calls of practically every mission, fans suspect parts of the show are staged. Perhaps it isn’t just the mole up to shenanigans, but also the show’s production. Here are all the signs parts of the show are fake and making fans ask: is The Mole scripted?
The Mole‘s Cast Interviews & Host Alex Wagner’s Lines Sounds Scripted
Throughout the show’s 9 episodes the production editors put together the story by peppering in response monologues from cast members. These interviews are raising viewers suspicions. They find the interviews to be forced and prepackaged lines the cast members are reading.
“So the people on the show definitely aren’t actors. However, the reactions they are doing are all in [post-filming] and there is an extremely likely chance that they are being directed in what they say and they might not be a true reflection of their thoughts at the time. So they would possibly do things like make them say they suspected someone other than the person they voted in the quiz so that the audience is thrown off as to who the mole is. If all the last few people thought it was this one person then it would become too obvious,” said one astute The Mole fan and Reddit user Corka.
Another fan pushed back. “It is not scripted, at least not fully. They are certainly not all actors. My father works with Pranav, and he is currently practicing law.”
Meanwhile, others find Alex Wagner’s dialogue with the contestants to be scripted, too.
A writer at Variety called her interactions with the cast as “a bit tightly scripted”. Even if the interviews and the host’s lines may be scripted, it doesn’t mean the integrity of the game itself is necessarily fake, too.
maybe an unpopular opinion but #themole is SO insanely scripted when they’re doing these missions
— katie?? (@katiesveto) October 11, 2022
Why Some Fans Think The Outcome of Missions Are Staged
The majority of the missions end up in a buzzer beater or a buzzer loser. They go right down to the wire. The fact that many of the missions end up being completed or left incomplete by a mere couple of seconds suggests that the results of the missions or the editing is being fudged.
The jail break mission the last team makes it with only a few seconds to spare. The code breaking mission in the same episode, the two teams figure out the password within seconds of each other. The mail run mission, competitors Jacob Hacker and Joi Schweitzer fail to beat the train by a couple seconds. Need we go on?
On top of that, competitor Dom Gabriel is given a second chance (perhaps because producers liked his character and bromance with William Richardson) to rejoin the game. Despite the other cast members rejecting Dom coming back, he somehow is able to narrow the cities down to two all on his own. It all seems a little to story-book once again for shenanigans not be afoot.
On top of that, the rationale in some of the games doesn’t make sense. For instance, when there are two teams who can make money if they simply don’t crack a code, the one team only talks to Greg. Bizarrely, this team doesn’t think to ask Greg to pass the phone to his teammates to ensure they aren’t away trying to crack the code. It doesn’t pass the smell test.
The Mole Kesi Is Too Obvious & Bad At Acting
The Mole saboteur Kesi looking sheepish after the team discovered she had $10,000 in her bag that was lost from the prize pot (Netflix).
Throughout the missions, competitor Kesi Nesblett has blatantly tried to foil missions since episode two. Fans have noticed so many clues and signs pointing to Kesi being the mole. If Netflix’s finale reveals Kesi is the mole, it will really make people wonder. How could the other contestants not figure it out midway through the game. One logical explanation would be that the production crew stage managed the gameplay. If it isn’t Kesi, a lot of the other cast members don’t make sense as the mole because of their behavior throughout the game.
Production Editors & Writers Suggest Storylines Are Created For The Mole
Website IMDb’s page on The Mole lists credit to four writers for “series writing credits”. Those same writers are given credit at the end of each episode with the descriptor: “format created by”. How much of the show they write scripts for is a very open question. The Mole is touted as unscripted, but with reality TV it’s always hard to distinguish what’s real from fiction. On top of the show’s writers, there are a team of editors who helped make the show, too.
Although there isn’t clear evidence the show is scripted or staged, there’s a lot of circumstantial evidence. Parts of the show at least have been canned or doctored in some way. However, longtime fans of The Mole series hope that the overall integrity of the game still remains intact.
The Mole‘s Ending Doesn’t Make A Lot Of Sense (Spoiler!)
The Mole’s finale doesn’t make a lot of sense. How could Joi guess William Richardson after the final several missions she played right next to Kesi and saw her sabotaging with impunity. On top of that, Will would be the worst mole in the history of the show if he turned out to be the mole. He didn’t overtly ever sabotage missions, and he was the highest earner for the team.
The ending smells fishy, as if the producers staged the final quiz and had Joi decide to pick Will. To top it off, Greg Shapiro suspected Kesi as the mole right at the time he got eliminated behind several other competitors. It doesn’t make any sense that he would get eliminated before Joi when he suspected Kesi more than the pilot did. It all reeks of shenanigans, unfortunately.
Hopefully if Netflix renews The Mole for season 2 it will return to a more authentic version of the original. Or if it wasn’t staged, production picks a better actor and liar to be a more subtle mole.
