The Israeli Mole
Episode 3
(Thanks to Tomer
Israeli)
Ruthy was the second victim of the Mole. Another departure,
which reminds us that everyone is here only for a limited time.
The first failure of the group has been noted. Maybe it was because the mission
was too hard, maybe not. What is certain, is that everyone that remains,
everyone that wants to continue the game, will look more carefully for the
fingerprints OF THE MOLE.
Day 5
The day starts outside of the group’s guest home in Kibutz Manara, in northern
Israel.
Oded and Zehava give Dana a hair cut. The look she’s
going for is pretty simple: Baldness!!!
Dana uses this opportunity to start a conversation with Zehava.
Because of the delicate situation the
group is in, it’s never certain whether this is simply a chitchat, or an
attempt to gather information on one’s competitors (or suspects). Zehava
tells Dana she grew up in the city of Afula, and that she and her
husband, Moshik, set a wedding date a month after they first met. 4-5 months
later they were already married. After a while, the rest of the group joins the
haircut operation, and everyone helps. Doron, one of the more dominant
"bigshots" in the group, shows everyone how it is done properly. Even Israel
shaves a few hairs although in general, he says protests and says that he
refuses to take part in this act.
Oded: "Fine, don’t cooperate, and protest for the
protocol."
************************************************
Itai and the group are standing in the woods. Each person has to write down the names of one man, and one woman, which he would like to see being spoiled for a day. The contestants put their votes in a green bowl, and later, the results will be revealed.
In the meantime, the contestants get to make a first phone call home after a
week in the show.
We see Oded and Zehava talk on the phone in their rooms.
Oded: "I thought I’ll be home by the weekend, and it didn’t
happen. What makes me think that I might not be home for a while."
Zehava talks to two of her daughters. One of the girls has a throat ache.
The other girl is angry with mommy.
Oded: "What else I wanted to tell you? There are some crazy
things going around here, you’re not gonna believe this; One of the girls
here, she’s a teacher in a school of Shas! She’s a conservative, and we
turned her here into a heretic. Yesterday we took her out, we got her drunk for
the first time in her life. She’s a mother of three daughters, married woman.
It’s like, you won’t believe!"
Zehava (to her husband): "You won’t believe what I’m
going through around here. I have a lot to tell but I can’t. I don’t know
where to begin. I haven’t digested a lot of things that happened... No, I’m
not talking about the missions themselves. It’s me, as Zehava. I’m going
through so many changes that I hope I return as Zehava and not something else."
In the meantime, Oded’s girlfriend has an interesting little theory.
Oded: "What? What do you mean maybe not? Oh, you mean that maybe
she’s the mole and she’s not really religious? Oh, but you know what’s
really cool? Something I never really thought of. During the first days of the
show I didn’t really give it much thought, but in the past few days I realized
that I’m a really serious suspect! Really, many people suspect me."
Israel is standing on a bridge in the evening, talking to his wife.
Israel: "Everything is suspicious. Every move, every pips. Every
pips. Every blink by someone, makes you look what they mean by this and what
they mean by that and what not to suspect. It’s like everyone here is in an
Agatha Christie thriller. Well, that’s it. What’s going on over there? Did
you have rain?"
At night, the group goes to a parking lot. There is a big square marked
there, with cars parked on it. Some are vertical to each other, and some are
horizontal to each other. The square is divided into 36 smaller squares, 6 by 6.
One of the cars is red, the others 
are
white. Big cars have to be parked on 3 squares, and a small car has to be parked
on two squares. Every car can be moved straight to backwards or forward. The
mission is to get the red car out.
The contestants have a TV, showing the car "playing board" from above,
to help them consult. Once they start to actually move the cars, they have
exactly 30 minutes to get the red car out. During that time they’ll have to
move all the other cars to find the way out, and return to the TV for future
discussions, if necessary. A success in this mission will bring 6000 Shekels
into their joined account.
Oded, a natural leader, leads the discussion. He and Israel argue
about the best way to solve the problem at hand. Right when they reach an
agreement between them, Sharon gets up and offers to make the first few
moves they are set on, and only than continue to discuss future moves. The group
rejects that idea immediately.
Israel: "If we make a mistake or it’s the wrong moves, we’ll
be stuck in a dungeon we can’t get out of."
The discussion continues. Sharon, Doron, Oded and Israel
reach a solution. They all get up and walk to the cars.
As they get up, one of the guys, maybe Doron or Israel, says they
don’t have the solution yet. Sharon says they do. At any case, the countdown
has started.
The moves go slowly. Right at the beginning they all seem to try and lead. And
people start to complain. Eldad is sitting in his car and comments that
they gave Sharon a car that is too large for her. He also comments that
the cars have almost no fuel and so they have to be turned off whenever they are
parked.
Dana can only drive in an automatic gear. She seems to do it slowly due
to some problematic strategy. At first she can’t get anyone to give her
directions. She calls for Oded but he’s too busy arguing with Israel
and Doron. In the end, they all give her different directions, which
leads to an argument between Doron and Sharon. Dana says
that she needs only one person to give her directions. After about 15-20
minutes, the business gets stuck and they all return to the discussion.
Doron offers a new strategy: Two or three people will seat by the TV and
make the decisions, a few people will seat in the cars, and one person will be a
runner, who’s job is to coordinate between the two teams.
Doron: "Who wants to be in the brain team?"
Oded: "I do."
Sharon: "Me too."
The contestants split into two teams. Dana stays in the driving team,
which makes everyone understand that she only recently got her license, and
until now, she didn’t have much use for it. Zehava is sitting next to Dana
in one of the cars, and the two have a chance to get a little girl talk.
Dana: "You wanna tell me that Moshik was your first and your
last? I’m shocked."
Zehava: "Why?"
Dana: "It seems like madness!"
Zehava: "You mean it looks weird that I didn’t experience it
first with someone else?"
Dana: "You don’t know. Maybe Moshik is lousy."
Zehava: "He’s very good, I’m telling you."
Dana: "I don’t know."
Zehava: "I’m telling you."
Dana: "I think they probably hear us in the speaker…"
Zehava: "Look, there’s a camera in the car."
The two women laugh as they understand that what they were saying was captured
live on camera.
Two minutes are left. Things get really tense but it seems like they work
well and they might have the solution. In some cases, people don’t even listen
to what the others have to say.
Eldad: "You know, Sigi. I could have brought my grandson, he
would have done this in a second."
Doron (heading out of a car): "So come here and do it."
Eldad: "No, my grandson."
Doron keeps insisting that Eldad would do whatever he was talking
about.
Eldad: "No, you don’t get it. He’s not here!!!"
There is a little more than a minute, and Oded, a natural leader,
takes matters to his own hands, telling everyone exactly what to do. No one asks
questions. Dana, however, moves very slowly.
20 seconds are left. Dana goes into a car and immediately leaves it,
telling Oded she can’t drive it. Oded pushes her aside, enters
the car, and drives backwards.
10 seconds left. Now it’s Doron’s turn to drive his van. Eldad
and Zehava are standing near the van, telling Doron to start the
van. He seems to try but he doesn’t start it.
3 seconds left: Doron started the van, went forward, and made the way
clear for Sigi who is in the red car. Sigi starts the car, and
goes forward to get it out of the lot. But Itai (the host) is standing in front
of the red car, with his hands in the air. The time is up, and right at the nick
of time, now more than ever.
Zehava: "But the car didn’t start. The car didn’t start."
The contestants get out of their cars and start arguing.
Doron: "I told you all to keep the engines on all the time."
Sharon (raising her hand in the air, as if to smack Doron): "Why
didn’t you manage to start the car?"
Doron: "Because they left it at 'Drive'. They turned the engines off
and left it at 'drive'."
Sigi: "Who turned it off and left it at 'drive'?"
No one admits.
Interviews
Oded: "The failure in the cars was simply an unfortunate
challenge."
Doron: "The mishap in this mission was the fact that people
turned engines off and the Savanna I went on was turned off when it’s on drive
for some reason, and that was very strange. Now that the car was left on drive,
there is no ignition."
Sharon: "He really, really, really tried hard. I was watching him
from my car and as I was driving I saw his face and I could see that he was
trying very hard to start the car."
Oded: "Most people did cooperate. Eldad didn’t cooperate, but
it wasn’t something very unusual. Eldad usually doesn’t stand in the first
line and shout his mind."
Eldad: "It was easier than what it seemed to be, in my opinion.
Everyone pulled in all sorts of directions, one stood in the way of the other.
One put the car in drive, and until they started it, it took exactly half a
minute and so we lost."
Sigi: "It was a real bummer, because it was a matter of seconds.
It’s not like we didn’t have the solution. We already solved it."
Oded: "Look, if Dana would have done the reverse a little faster,
we would have done it."
Dana: "I entered the last car in the last few seconds, and I saw
it was a gear. Now, I don’t drive gear. So I got out, and maybe it stalled us
by a few seconds, but just a few seconds."
Sigi: "I suspected it, but than it just seems like Dana’s
natural insecurity."
Oded: "I have other suspects, other than the only serious
suspect I have, but Dana isn’t there."
Sharon: "Forget about Dana. Dana is not a mole!"
Sigi: "I looked at the others all the time, more than on the
mission. Because that’s the game, right? I had a little battle with Doron when
he said "I’ll stay here and you all go to the cars". Now, I’m not
going to leave him alone. I know what he’s gonna do? So I insisted of staying,
and acted like I know how to solve it."
Flashback, Doron
and Sigi are arguing near the TV screen.
Sigi: "So he gave up because he saw that I’m not
planning on leaving. And than there’s Israel. Israel has a very logistic way
of thinking. Israel sees stuff from a bird’s point of view. He understands how
things work, he grasps in a very wide perception. I had no doubt he’ll know
how to solve it."
Israel: "I think I said, that we don’t have to let it backwards so
far, but in all the chaos, no one noticed me."
Flashback: Israel
and Oded argue. Each one tries to talk. Israel tries to explain
something but Oded interrupts him. Or is it the other way around?
Sharon: "I suspect, as I said, Oded, and I’ll keep
saying that."
Dana: "I’ve decided I’m going all the way on Sharon."
Zehava: "I am locked on Doron as the mole."
Eldad: "It’s either him or Sigi. One of the two is the mole."
Oded: "Doron I didn’t even suspect... I suspected him in the
beginning-beginning-beginning, and than I erased him completely, and than he
rose up again, like a rising star in the music world!!! The singer Nava Ran, is
nothing compared to him."
************************
Doron is sitting with a cell phone, looking at the pictures of his two
twin girls.
Doron: "Call my parents, tell them that everything is ok, because I
can’t call them. It’s like a prison, we only get to make one call. Hello?
Hello? (pause) Hello?"
Eldad has the most interesting phone call. His wife tells him that
their daughter is coming from New York to visit for five days. He hasn’t seen
her in over a year. But he’s stuck in a TV game and can’t see her.
He talks about it with crew members who are not seen on camera, and with his
friend Sigi. Yes, Eldad and Sigi are very close, and as it
turns out, they are also the winners of the group vote that took place the day
before.
Eldad and Sigi, wearing fancy clothes, walk arm in arm into a
limousine that is waiting to take them to the promised day of fun.
Day 6
The day seems to have started nicely. Eldad rises a toast to finding the
mole.
The television in the car is on. Suddenly they see Itai’s face on it.
Itai: "Good morning Eldad, Good morning Sigi. How are you feeling? Don’t
answer me. I know you feel good, very good, and that’s exactly the idea. Today
you’re going to enjoy, and than enjoy, and enjoy a little more. There is only
one thing I ask from you: Remember what happens to you, because at the end of
the day I’m going to ask you one small question about one small detail from
today. So that’s it, enjoy yourselves. And now, a little word from a mole that
wants to say hi."
Instead of Itai, they now see another figure on the screen. A person wearing a
red Marlboro baseball cap with the international mole symbol on it (a green
fingerprint). The person has blond hair covering his/her entire face,
sunglasses, and a megaphone covering his/her mouth. This is the mole, and it
talks to them in a scrambled voice.
THE MOLE: "It is time for you to wake up, to look around you. I’m right next to you at all times. I’ll screw up your missions, I’ll lie in your face, and send you home one by one. It’s me, THE MOLE!"
Eldad and Sigi look at each other and smile.
Sigi: "Does it look like me?"
Eldad: "What?"
Sigi: "Does it look like me?"
Eldad: "A little bit, the hair from the Whig looks a little bit
like yours."
*****************
The other members of the group are getting ready for them missions, and
upload the van. Oded notices a little gift from the mole. On the car,
there is a graffiti saying: Who goes home today?
Oded smiles, and pretend to be SO terrified of seeing that.
Oded: "May I have your attention please?"
Doron and Zehava walk over to Oded.
Zehava: "Wow."
Oded: "The question on everyone’s mind, is now also on the car."
Doron and Zehava examine the graffiti, literally! They both touch
it with their fingers. Doron even tries to sniff it.
They meet with Itai on a paved road.
Itai: "Your mission today is, how should I put this… a little
different from your friend’s mission. Today, you’re gonna run, and than run
a little more, and run a little more. 8000 shekels if you manage to do it on
time. But there is a little catch. Eldad and Sigi can not only make sure you
keep your money, but also enlarge the sum. If they fail, they don’t only lose
their own mission, but your mission as well."
*****************
Eldad and Sigi are still riding the Limo.
Sigi: "You think that there’s a chance that two amazing
individuals like us won’t be able to do the challenge?"
Eldad: "Maybe one of us is the..."
Sigi: "OH! I forgot about it, actually."
Sigi smiles a mysterious smile and sip from her glass.
Both of them suddenly turn quiet. There is some sort of unexplainable tension in
the air. Or is it something else?
*************************
The six runners have to run through 8 kilometers up a mountain road. Each
time one person runs while the cars carrying the cast and crew follow. Itai is
in the first car, the contestants are following him in the v
an.
Whenever a contestant gets tired, he or she is simple being replaced by another
contestant. Once you’ve been replaced, you can never go back. Each contestant
can ask for water while running, but it’s nothing like the waters of the
Jacuzzi and pool that their friends get to enjoy. Each one of the runners does
his/her part. Oded is a little tired, because he’s sick.
**********************
Sigi and Eldad have fun. At some point Sigi turns to Eldad
and reminds him of their mission. Eldad tells Sigi that that’s
why he brought her with him, so SHE’ll solve the mission. They try to go over
what happened so far. Eldad is not being very helpful at first. After a
while they quiz each other, as Sigi is lying down, having her faced
creamed by some woman. They agree that there wasn’t r
ain
in the way to the hotel. They also agree that the Limo was dark (IT WAS WHITE).
Sigi (to the woman): "You’re name is Hannah, right?"
Eldad: "No matter what the question is, it’s something we didn’t think of."
******************************
The runners have 33 minutes and four more kilometers to cover. The current
runner is Doron. All the other runners, except for Israel, already
ran. Doron sees a big sign in front of him: IS THE
MOLE RUNNING OR BEING SPOILED?
Oded, who wasn’t a very impressive runner, turns himself into a
coach. At the end, Israel runs to the finish line, with the music from
"Rocky" playing in the background.
Eldad and Sigi are already waiting for the others, wearing robes
and drinking coffee.
At the end of the day they all gather in the hotel with Itai. He explains
that both Eldad and Sigi have to write down the right answers for
the question. If one of them is wrong, the mission fails, and the 8000 shekels
are gone. If both of them are right, the mission is a success, and the 8000 turn
into 10000.
The question is: What was written on the robes that Sigi and Eldad were wearing
almost the entire day?
Eldad doesn’t remember anything about that. Sigi isn’t sure.
They give their answers to Itai.
Itai: "Sigi, Eldad; Two mistakes. You were going around with a robe that
was inspired by this day. It said: To relax, to spoil, to renew."
Sigi: "Wow, I feel like I turned in a paper to the teacher and
she looks and says: "You’ve failed." Sorry, guys."
Suspicions
Doron: "I suspect Zehava. It’s something that was built in for
while. I’m not closed on her completely, because I also have a certain
question mark about Sigi."
Sigi: "Everything got switched. Suddenly Dana appeared as a suspect.
Maybe I’m going insane."
Dana: "Sharon and Doron seem like options. I’ve been suspecting
Doron at the beginning, but it seems more like Sharon now."
Sharon: "The two people I suspect ran as they should have. Well,
Oded didn’t do so well but that’s because he was sick. The two people who
screwed up the mission were Eldad and Sigi, and I don’t suspect either of
them."
Sigi: "It was very important for me that I’d give the right answer
because they think I don’t donate enough to the group or something. And
suddenly I understood what it’s like being the mole, because if you are the
mole and you fail everyone it can be a real terrible feeling. So I could
identify from that place."
Eldad: "Sigi is a girl that knows to hide a lot of things."
Israel: "Oded today didn’t give the max."
Oded: "I wish I could have donated more. Running is not my strong
side, especially not today when I’m sick"
Zehava: "Whenever I get locked on someone I see they did help and
someone else doesn’t . And in another mission it all switches."
Eldad: "I don’t know, I thought of maybe dropping myself today.
Maybe answer as if I am the mole and just go away. I’m in a little dilemma
here. Should I stay or should I go?"
Suspicious
Oded and Israel were in battle over who runs the
show in the car mission.
Doron tried to control and handpick who will sit in the brain team.
Dana didn’t drive as fast as she could. The host bothers to explain it
was because of the license.
Doron was the last one to move his car in order to make way for the red
car. He did it right when there were 3 seconds left.
At the end of the mission, Sigi was sitting in the red car. A perfect
strategic spot for the mole in case Doron manages to move his car on
time.
Someone turned off Doron’s van and left it on "Drive"
Oded was sick and couldn’t run much, but as always, he was well enough
to lead everyone throughout the mission.
Sigi has acted very molelike in the Limo. And if you watch the show it is
not something that can go unnoticed. Why would she act that way if she is the
mole? Maybe she’s trying to get people think she’s the mole and she’s not.
But it’s a pretty vague strategy. Maybe she knows people can see through this
strategy. Maybe she really is the mole who behaves like a contestant who behaves
like a mole. Because a smart mole, knows it should act like a stupid mole.
During the phone calls the mole might have deliberately planted clues:
Oded told his girlfriend he is a major suspect. Israel mentioned
Agatha Christi thrillers. Zehava hoped to go home as Zehava and
not something else.
Eldad said that their Limo was dark. Sigi didn’t bother to
correct him. Both of them failed the mission.
The helpful mole: Since it’s a television show, and the producers are out for
rating, they might use the mole to create interesting situations.
If the mole was one of the runners, he/she we better off trying to win the
money, so the pressure will be on Sigi and Eldad.
Sigi seemed to encourage Eldad to remember details, which
obviously made watching them an interesting viewing experience.
Execution
Time for the third contestant to leave. Click to find out who it
is.
On the next episode: Between the lambs, sheep, dogs and Kibbutz people, go figure who is the mole.