The Mole Week 1 Recap: Exemption Mania Raises The Stakes (And The Stress) — Plus, Grade Netflix's Reboot!

Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Mole's first five episodes.

A shady show from the past just got an even shadier reboot.

Welcome (back) to The Mole, Netflix's revival of an almost forgotten ABC reality show where 12 players "work together in challenges to add money to a pot that only one of them will win at the end," according to the official description. "Among the players is one person who has secretly been designated 'the Mole' and tasked with sabotaging the group's money-making efforts. In the end, one player will outlast their competition and expose the Mole to win the prize pot."

Sound simple? Far from it.

In the first five episodes (now available to stream), it doesn't take long for suspicions to start flying. And with editing that's akin to The Circle, this new series is bingeable to the max and highly addictive. (You've been warned!)

A bit of housekeeping: Episodes 6-8 will be available Friday, Oct. 14; the season's final two episodes will follow Friday, Oct. 21. Without further ado, let's take a look at look at the highlights from the first five episodes (and be sure to grade the first five episodes in our poll below)!

Taking the reigns as host this time around is MSNBC's Alex Wagner. Despite the fact that we'll forever miss Mole maestro Anderson Cooper, Wagner does a fantastic job at bringing some levity to the series while also riding shotgun in our voyeurism.

We kick off in Australia's Daintree Rainforest where we meet Casey, a COVID nurse; Kesi, a software analyst; Jacob, a firefighter; and Osei, a real estate broker, among others. The goal is, of course, to bank as much money as possible in the prize pot. After each task (or two), the players will be quizzed on what they know about the Mole. The person to score the lowest will be executed eliminated.

MISSION #1 | Retrieve three pieces of cargo from the jungle. Each piece is worth $5,000. One will be up high in the trees, one is buried in sand and the last will be under water. Two teams are successful. Thanks to Avori's climbing prowess, the up-high team secures its bag. The under water team scours a river to find theirs, but uses a clue, which costs them $2,500.

SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY | The Down Low team, however, runs into problems. Joi, a commercial pilot, tells us that her navigation and mapping skills are on point, but it doesn't seem like she can find her way out of a paper bag. Also, Osei neglects to open his team's cargo bag, which contained a bright red clue that could've helped them. Purposeful sabotage? Hmm... Then while everyone is sleeping, one of the two cargos they collected disappears. Let the finger-pointing commence!

Back at civilization, Alex shows them a video of what happened. Will stole the missing cargo, but it was all part of a secret mission. Since he successfully stole the case undetected, he doubled its worth.

PRIZE POT TOTAL | $12,500

THE QUIZ | Each player has his and her own cell phone in front of them. Similar to the original series, Alex types their names into a computer; if their mobile screen glows green, they're safe. If it's red, they're out. The Mole's first victim (which we technically learn in Episode 2 because cliffhanger!): Osei.

MISSION #2 | In Brisbane, the players must break out of cells at an abandoned prison. They select two players to be the "masterminds" of the mission (Casey and Dom), who then break everyone into teams. If all three groups escape within one hour, they'll bank $10K.

All of the cells are identical. One team member has a key on the floor just outside his cell which kicks it all off. While the players decide how chess pieces, a stool and other random items can lead to their escape, Alex offers Casey and Dom the chance to double the mission's prize money... if they agree to remove 10 minutes from the clock. They take the deal. With just one minute left and one team still inside, Alex offers them an extra minute for $5K. They have no choice but to accept. That minute makes all of the difference, and the players win $14,000.

PRIZE POT TOTAL | $26,500

SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY | Did Kesi really not see the key lying on the ground directly outside her teammate's cell? And how did Samara think the key ring was just a hair tie?!

MISSION #3 | The players are split into two groups and brought to a lab that looks straight out of a horror movie. Alex tells them if they do nothing for the next 45 minutes, then $10K will be added to the pot. But if one team figures out the password for the computer and presses a red button, that entire team will be exempt from the next quiz. "The password is close at hand," she tells them. But they'll have to scour this escape room-like scenario to figure it all out. Phones also connect the two teams every 10 minutes.

One team decides to do nothing, while Avori's team hits the ground running. But a conversation between Pranav and Dom goes horrible wrong, and when Pranav hangs up the phone, Team 2 knows they have no choice but to gun for the exemption.

Alex tells the group that both teams figured it out and pushed the button, and it was very close. However, Greg, Casey, Pranav, Avori and Sandy won the exemption. For the rest of them, it's quiz time!

SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY | Anyone on Avori's team could be the Mole! And speaking of Avori, she leapt into action the second the rules were dished out. Why didn't she even consider the money?

THE QUIZ | The remaining players unfortunately have a 1-in-6 chance of being eliminated. That unlucky player this time around is... Samara.

MISSION #4 | The players are offered a chance to look at some secret dossiers filled with information on their competition. But if every player resists the temptation, they'll earn $10K. "Integrity will be rewarded," reads the instruction, which Casey takes to heart. Others, however, assume that someone else will look. Avori notices that the paper clips on the dossiers all look different, so she guesses that someone already beat her to the punch. More on this later.

MISSION #5 | Five treasure chests are hidden on the ocean floor. A boat team will be responsible for locating the chests, while a plane team will be responsible for securing the gear they need to find them. Spoiler alert: They only find one chest worth two grand.

PRIZE POT TOTAL | $28,500

SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY | While returning with the gear, Avori drops an oxygen tank in the sand and keeps on walking. She says she did it on purpose in order to attract attention toward her. Does that strategy mean she's not the Mole? Also, for someone who claimed to spend a lot of time on boats, Greg did next to nothing, then dropped a tank in the ocean! (William notes that Greg is "consistently in groups that fail," which certainly gives us something to think about.)

Before they take the quiz, Alex tells them she wants to have 1-on-1 convos. For everyone who did not look at the documents, she offers them a shot at an exemption. Choose the player who most likely looked at the dossiers, then bid on that person (here's the kicker) with money from the prize pot. Damn, y'all, The Mole is bringing it this season!

The group reconvenes and Alex tells them the winning bid is for $25,000... and the group ERUPTS.

Alex reveals that Joi was the winning bidder. Since she bid that money on Greg (WHO OF COURSE LOOKED AT THE DOCUMENTS), she wins the exemption and absolutely sinks the prize pot. (But this can't be Mole behavior, right? It would be far too obvious for the Mole to bid that much coin. Another person crossed off our suspects list?)

PRIZE POT TOTAL: Let's not even talk about it.

THE QUIZ | It's another stressful evening for everyone, but Dom gets the boot. However, the next day, the group gets a chance to bring him back into the game. If they help him answer nine easy questions, he'll re-enter and bring $10,000 with him. After a difficult decision, the team decides to not help him figure out the passcode. He's left hanging in the back of a car, which is surely en route to the airport.

MISSION #6 | ...is a good old fashioned bank heist! Two critical thinkers are chosen (Pranav and Kesi). One team must steal $10,000 in USD, but the cash they find is mixed currency. So not only do they have to count it all, but they have to convert it, as well. The other team must navigate a room full of lasers, then find gold bars inside safety deposit boxes. The critical thinkers have crucial information — the exchange rate for the currencies and the names of specific safety deposit boxes.

SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR | Kesi, an intelligent software engineer, couldn't figure out that K. Midas and G. Locks were related to gold? That seems like a major misstep. Why didn't she read all of the names out loud to her group? Since that was one big fail, it all comes down to the cash team. Jacob made some highly sus miscalculations and Avori caught him red-handed. Innocent mistakes or Mole-like shenanigans?

PRIZE POT TOTAL | Since both teams failed the bank mission, the team's bank account stands at a pitiful $3,500.

ANOTHER QUIZ! | The tension is at an all-time high as the group sits down for its next elimination. Sandy and Pranav seem to be targeting each other, while Greg is looking hard at Kesi. The Mole's next victim: Sandy. Looks like Pranav's gonna have to go back to the drawing board.

Worth noting since I haven't mentioned it yet: Pranav and Avori have an alliance, which means they've been freely sharing information. However, Avori has chosen to keep her Jacob intel close to her chest.

The group heads to Gympie for their next mission. For MISSION 7, one team will travel by foot, one by rail and one by car. It's a navigation-based challenge in which teams will collect three parcels and deliver them to Dagun Station. The car and foot teams need to beat the train back to the station or their collections won't count. If all teams are successful, they can earn $18,000.

SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR | Avori, Will and Pranav decide to hoof it, but the trek nearly kills Avori, poor girl. (Or poor... Mole?) Joi, meanwhile, who should be good at navigation but is so clearly NOT, once again fails to correctly read a map. And on the train, Kesi tries and fails to secure one of the bags.

The runners spend a bit of cabbage on some bikes since Avori is on the struggle bus. (Pranav notes that his partner-in-crime lands herself in "Mole-ish" territory sometimes). The bikers make it back in time, but the car team is 18 seconds late.

PRIZE POT TOTAL | The mission earns them $11K which bumps the total up to $14,500.

ONE LAST TWIST | The group arrives to a table which has $15,000 sitting on top of a bomb. And two of the players are sitting on detonators. The players will be eating a meal. The two sitting on the detonators will be served normal dishes, while the other players are served food mixed with hot wasabi, for example, or a glass of apple cider vinegar in lieu of beer. At the end of each course, two players are voted off the table. When Kesi leaves, a red light turns on signaling that she was on detonator No. 1, leaving just Joi and Will left. Will tells us he was sitting on the last detonator (because his food tasted fine), which leaves Joi (of all people!!) with the chance to earn the exemption.

She can either use wire cutters to diffuse the bomb OR let the bomb blow up the money and snag that exemption.

What's she going to do? We'll have to wait until next Friday to find out. Until then, grade the episodes in our poll and tell us your thoughts in the comments!

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