Series / Wie is de Mol?

Wie is de Mol? (Who is the Mole?) is a Dutch Reality Show. It was produced by AVRO (later AVROTROS) and aired on Nederland 1 (NPO 1 after the name change of the channels). The first season was in 1999.

The show follows ten contestants who have to perform three tasks every episode. If they succeed, they earn money which one of them will win in the finale. However one of the contestants is actually The Mole. He or she tries to secretly sabotage the tasks to prevent the others from earning any money. At the end of each episode everyone has to make a test about the identity of the mole. The person with the most wrong answers is sent home. When there are three contestants left, it's time for the finale where they make one final test. The person who has the most right answers wins all the money they have collected that season.

Wie is de Mol? is the Dutch version of the Belgian show De Mol. There's also an American version called The Mole, as well as a UK version with the same title, which ran for two series in 2001. However the Dutch is by far the most successful. It currently has over 20 seasons (plus a special anniversary season) and is still going strong.

The series provides examples of the following tropes:

• Arc Number: The number 8 showed up a lot in the eight season. It was a play on the 8th month of the Mayan calendar (in a season that took place in Mexico) being "mol", the Dutch word for mole, and made multiple appearances around Dennis.
  • The 21st season had 21, owing to the season number itself. The candidates are being revealed on 21-12-2020, and the season itself started on the second of January (02-01-2021 in Dutch notion). The answer of the first task in the third episode is also 'eenentwintig' ('twenty-one') which contains 12 letters. Accordingly, it had also Playing Card Motifs.
• Ascended Extra: Twice in the show's run has a previous contestant and winner come back to host the show in a later season, with Art Rooijakkers (of season 11) taking over for Pieter Jan Hagens the following season and Rik van de Westelaken (of season 15) succeeding Art four seasons later. It helps that both of them had prior experience hosting reality shows of this nature.
• Auction: Was held at least twice in the Dutch seasons, and both times they managed to somehow empty the pot. The first time was in Thailand, and the second one, in Oregon, was in particular littered with several Whammy Bids. (for jokers, nonetheless, the lowest tiering wildcard) In Oregon, Mole Thomas cleverly managed to bump up the bid every time, but consistently pulled back at the end, something that's funnily enough also done in a similar manner in the manhwa Solo Max Level Newbie.
• The Baby of the Bunch: The Mole of season 4 used this to their advantage as by being this, they could easily act like an innocent young student, throwing off suspicion until the end.
• Back to Front: Seasons 11 and 15 of the Dutch version used this to reveal who the Mole was in their final episodes with the scene of the three finalists standing before the host being "rewound" to the very beginning of the season to reveal the Mole's face.
• Big Bad Friend: The Dutch series has had several instances of the Mole becoming best friends with a contestant and thoroughly convincing them that they couldn't possibly be the Mole until their reveal in the finale, including Kees to Zarayda in season 13, Thomas to Diederik in season 17 ^note  Which is especially notable since Diederik, being a science journalist, was The Smart Guy of the team and was the last candidate to be executed as his trust in Thomas killed him , and Jan to Olcay in season 18.
• Bilingual Bonus: Inge Iepenburg, the Mole of season 7, used the word 'toen' ('then...') often, as the Thai word for 'mole' is a near homophone for the word 'toen'.
• Born Lucky:
  • Paul Rabbering, the winner of season 7, would fall under this trope. Early season, he almost instantly focuses his view on the wrong suspect (his arch-nemesis in the game) and he gets eliminated because of it. He is brought back through an auction in the following episode (despite everyone swearing that they would not bid on him) and manages to survive the following two eliminations through shear luck (as he was focusing on (another) wrong suspect yet again). Then, during a mission in an elevator, he comes face-to-face with the mole (despite not knowing half the answers due to his brief absence), which he initially shrugs off (as he believed he didn't answer the questions correctly either). However, as the game progresses, he slowly starts to realize that he actually met the mole during the elevator mission and starts to get on the right trail. He then tries to load as much suspicion as possible on himself, to convince the other candidates that he's the mole, which wins him the game.
  • Jochem from season 17 of the Dutch series may not have won his season but he definitely had the goddess of luck beaming down on him, being clearly out of his element multiple times in the game and not once suspecting the actual Mole but being saved no less than four times by an exemption, joker, or being faster on the test than someone else. In the words of the man himself at the finale:
    Jochem: I dragged two alliances into the wrong hands, I think I lost 6,000 euros from the pot, I've lost my molebook, I lost my joker, and I put four questions in total on [name of the season's Mole]. Four questions out of all of them! It's by the hands and feet of God that I'm here.
• Celebrity Edition: Every season after the fourth one casts Dutch celebrities only. Strangely, unlike with the US celebrity seasons which all but killed the show, the Dutch celebrity seasons haven't had nearly as much of a negative impact on the show considering that the show has remained popular enough to go on for at least fifteen celebrity-only seasons.
• Cheshire Cat Grin:
  • In a challenge in Season 10, episode 2, the players could give jokers to their 'friends' or keep them for themselves. Sanne tells Tim she can only give him one joker (a lie) whilst displaying an enormous smirk. This may even have caused Tim's elimination that episode.
  • This trope also gave away who won season 11 earlier than the producers planned. They tried to build up the suspense about who the winner and Mole could be at the end of the 9th episode for the official reveal in the final episode, but the winner's inability to conceal a huge grin after the host revealed that another finalist was the runner-up completely ruined the suspense.
• Death By Greed: Happens frequently due to the often speculative nature of rewards (see "Greed"), but taken to a whole new level in season 23. The remaining contestants had to make the test, but instead of the infamous execution following straight after, were then sent on a roadtrip instead. In between various minigames they would then encounter suspiciously large boxes with their names on them, which they could purchase for prize money. Said boxes came with a question note best translated as How confident are you?. Most contestants took this as a hint that the contents of the box would help them out when the inevitable execution occured later. Instead, upon arriving at the site of execution, contestants who bought the mystery box found it out it only contained a chair. Whoever had bought such a chair then instead had to attend the execution, with those who didn't advancing to the next round automatically. This ultimately led to Nabil being eliminated through spending money on an unknown item he had deemed to be valuable.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Being the Mole. To begin with, every candidate who will be featured will be held a thorough interview with, during which they have to essentially open up about everything, from their favorite number to the most embarrassing thing they've ever done. The one who falls the choice upon, will also be tested psychologically in order to ensure their ability to withstand the pressure; there's a psychologist who's part of the team. ^note  An example from the Belgian version would be the Mole giving up their identity prematurely due to becoming so paranoid over the thought of someone having them found out; this is the exact kind of situation that the Dutch team tries to prevent This is not without reason: while candidates have to keep their participation a secret, it is even harder to keep your identity as the Mole secret as the entire show revolves around you. In the game proper, the Mole has to find out their own way to be an effective Mole, and has to lie, sabotage and manipulate under the eyes of at least nine other people, and because of their Plot Immunity they will be more suspicious naturally as they will remain standing. They have to constantly keep a pokerface even when they're brought under pressure by especially alert candidates; not to mention having to make up things on the spot more than once. If you are a good Mole, however, then your name will be forever a staying memory within the fanbase and your celebrity career will likely take to the skies.
• Elvis Impersonator: In season 17, episode 2, Jeroen claimed that he spent the day he was "kidnapped" from the group acting as an Elvis impersonator and Roos claimed that she spent the same day in Las Vegas where she got to pose with two Elvis impersonators for a photo. They were both telling the truth and it was Diederik, whose story didn't mention any Elvises, who was the liar.
• Engineered Public Confession: Done in season 17, episode 1 when four contestants who got exemptions and then lied to the other contestants that they didn't get them were asked by Art if they would be willing to give up their exemptions to ensure that no one would go home that episode. Unbeknownst to them, they were being filmed and the other contestants could see them, exposing their attempt to hide their exemptions (though Roos already hadn't been the most convincing liar earlier).
• "Eureka!" Moment: Sanne from Season 17 of the Dutch series had one in episode 8 when she realized that if Jochem was telling her the truth about not being the Mole, the only way she and Jochem could have lasted so long while believing completely different contestants to be the Mole was if they were both wrong and the Mole was Thomas. She described it during the final episode as suddenly seeing the Mole's true identity in full color.
• Greed: A frequent theme in the series due to the role money plays in it. Since candidates who are not the mole will want to maximize the prize money in case they win the season, the games often play into this by offering contestants the option of taking big risks to earn more money than they conventionally would or gamble with gained prize money. Envelopes or packages with unknown content are frequently featured, which may or may not contain either beneficial prizes (money, jokers/exemptions) or harmful prizes (usually negative money, but can also lead to Death By Greed). When money is not concerned, contestants are often tempted with wildcards, which due to their ability to help you survive until the end of the game are incredibly valuable. Contestants spending exorbitant amounts of prize money to gain these wildcards, or backstabbing their fellow contestants for them are a common occurance.
• Holding Both Sides of the Conversation: Occurred in season 13 when each contestant stood in the same (dark) room as the (completely cloaked) Mole and asked them three yes/no questions that the Mole answered by hitting certain keys at a piano; the Mole was naturally one of the contestants that was conveniently never shown in the same shot as the hooded figure at the piano and the final shot of the season even showed them talking to an empty piano bench. A very similar stunt was done in season 8, with two candles instead of piano keys. Also occurred in another season when Patrick entered his name in a lottery for the opportunity to contact the Mole in spite of being the Mole himself and actually won the lottery, leading to some creative Manipulative Editing to show him "talking" to the Mole.
• Insistent Terminology: Candidates in this show are executed, not eliminated in a process called the execution, not the elimination. It's the only Dutch show to use execution instead of elimination. Both in the fandom and in the show itself it is very common to refer to it using this word (it may even be slightly scary to an unassuming new viewer).
• Ironic Name: Season 14's Mole was named Margriet, a name that means 'Daisy', a flower that means 'innocence'. The word 'innocence' is also secretly alluded to at one point in the Season.
• It's Probably Nothing:
  • Played straight in season 8, where it became a Running Gag in the final episode for Patrick to repeatedly admit that he had witnessed suspicious behavior from the Mole but did absolutely nothing to act on these suspicions.
  • Initially played straight in season 11 when Art muses during a Confession Cam if his ally Patrick freely giving him multiple jokers meant that Patrick could be the Mole because the Mole would obviously have no need for jokers, then laughs it off as impossible. Art did eventually wise up about Patrick, however; hence the "initially" modifier.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Pieter Derks was the first to be executed in his season, and had not even seen any jokers. When he was a guest in the talk show connected to it, he first saw one and got to hold it:
  Pieter: So this is a joker.
• Loners Are Freaks: One major giveaway to the identities of the Moles in the 12th and 16th seasons for both contestants and viewers was their reluctance/inability to form alliances with others which caused them to become the suspicious lone wolf of the cast.
• Long-Runners: Over 20 seasons and airing.
• Meaningful Name: In season 17, the Mole's first name — Thomas — meant "twin" and pairs/doubles of items were continually shown throughout the season, including a reflection of Thomas's face in the opening credits, to hint at Thomas's dual nature as contestant and Mole.
• Mistaken for Evidence: The series has a devoted fanbase who can interpret anything and everything as evidence about the Mole's identity. One example was many fans believing that Hind constantly wearing red clothing in season 10 was a clue to her being the Mole (which had been an actual clue in an earlier season) but it was just her really liking the color red.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Season 12 of the Dutch series had the contestants play a high-stakes game for an exemption to the finals. The game? Go Fish. Happens once again in season 18, where a game of Jenga decides who gets the jokers.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: Ruben notes that his list of music during the car-aoke was "Largely bad music. And The William."^note  The Dutch national anthem .
• My Greatest Second Chance: The bonus season, Wie is de mol?: Renaissance, drove entirely on this trope, as ten former contestants were given a second chance to participate in what most of them considered a "once in a lifetime" experience. Among the contestants, several were eliminated early or under painful circumstances, making this second chance even more joyful.
• Never the Obvious Suspect: In every season, one contestant will be singled out as acting extremely suspicious and screwing up challenges left and right, such as Jochem from season 17 and Ruben from season 18. They will never, ever be the actual Mole.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Occasionally, a Mole will actually help the other contestants by accident, typically by being too successful at pretending to be a good contestant. In Season 11 of the Dutch series, during a challenge where contestants on a beach had to somehow inform another contestant in a lighthouse of a number code, Patrick suggested that they draw the numbers in the sand, believing that the contestant in the lighthouse would be too far away to see them. However, that contestant turned out to have eagle eyes and was able to make out the numbers.
• Non-Gameplay Elimination: In the Dutch series, Roeland from season 5 and Manuel from season 10 (both became too ill to continue), Janine from season 13 (got injured after she jumped the wrong way during a challenge), and Jean-Marc from Season 18 (left for personal reasons).
• Not So Stoic: Merel, the Mole of season 19, later admitted that her tearful and shocked reaction after the execution of Jamie, who she was the Big Bad Friend to was genuine.
• Obfuscating Stupidity:
  • George, the mole of season 3, was a master at pulling this off, to the point where he was an entirely different person in the confessionals. Throughout the game, he behaved like a dim-witted, slow and gentle kind of guy, who understood very little about anything (let alone the game). This was all a ruse to hide what must have been one of the most intelligent (and snarky) moles on the show, who knew exactly what he was doing (and how to manipulate the others in the process). His downfall, however, came when he started overdoing it, which eventually clued the other candidates in that he was the mole close to the finale.
  • Milouska Meulens, the mole from season 6, used a very similar tactic as compared to the mole of season 3. She would constantly mess up things she had to remember, not know how to do simple things during missions and be completely oblivious to the things happening around her. A prime example would be making a beeline for a bathroom furniture store with the conviction they would find the bookshelf they were looking for in there. She was, however, using this trope to conceal that she was the mole and only one of the candidates caught on. It should furthermore be noted here that this tactic worked, despite the fact that she's a research journalist and news anchor for "Het Jeugdjournaal", a news bulletin for children.
  • While he didn't use this trope to the extent the previous two examples used it, Dennis Weening, the mole of season 8, also tried his hand at this. During his run, he pretended to be this laid-back, hard-partying guy, who's participation on the show was essentially a means to get a free trip to Mexico. This caused all of the other candidates to not take him seriously (as he was just there for the entertainment) and they quickly crossed him off as a viable suspect. This, in turn, made him one of the best moles (if not the best mole) of the show, as only one of the candidates caught on to his ruse by the time the finale came around (and he only switched to him during the finale).
  • Rik from Season 15 who appeared to constantly fail spot checks and be duped or sweet-talked by other contestants into giving them jokers without getting anything in return. When he made the finals, many viewers thought that all of this behavior had to be a "playing dumb" act by the Mole. It wasn't, but it did help him become the winner.
  • Thomas, the Mole in Season 17, made this a habit. Every time Art explained something, he always sat there with a sheepish look on his face, and Sanne even remarked at the reunion that they constantly brushed off Thomas' suspicious behavior as him just not being too bright. Made especially apparent since there's a certain saying going 'incredulous Thomas' referring to the disciple Thomas not believing Jesus.
• Plot Immunity: The Mole has this. Since the Mole has to make it to the finals in order to be unmasked by the winner, the Mole can never be eliminated. To avert this from giving away their identity, the Mole will take part in games and notably the test + execution like they are a normal candidate, but their screen will always be green if chosen at random to see their screen during the execution. Before tests/executions, the host tends to remind the audience that the mole can't be eliminated.
• Prisoner's Dilemma: Episode 3 of season 22 features a third task that is all but explicitly mentioned to be this trope, with a slight twist. Every candidate is pitted against one other and are tasked to walk towards eachother until they meet in the middle. Each step they take, is on a tile that corresponds to a certain prize, all the way from 1 joker to an excemption for both. They both have a small sack of sand that any of them can drop at their current tile during the 30 seconds they remain standing there. If no one has dropped it, both will move one step closer to the last tile, but the first one who drops the bag, will get the corresponding reward - leaving the other empty-handed. They can only talk 1 minute before they start walking. This trope comes in as they realize that it is individually better to drop the sack at a reward that isn't the last one, since you'll gain something and the other doesn't. However, it is ultimately better for them both (if they're both candidates) to walk the path until the end. Fortunately, four out of the eight choose to do the latter. One of them chose for money, and another for 3 jokers of their own. Another factor was added in the form of Hila being able to gain a Power Nullifier (which she did).
• Public Secret Message:
  • Cleverly done in season 8 as a clue to the Mole's identity: During a challenge in which the contestants could each ask the hidden Mole one question, Dennis asked what sounded like "Is Edo (another contestant who had been behaving suspiciously) the Mole?" but was actually "Is ego the Mole?", i.e. "Am I the Mole?", to which a "yes" answer was shown. Almost no viewers caught this.
  • Also done in season 7 of the Dutch series as a major clue to the Mole's identity (in this case, quite a few viewers did catch this, although no contestants did): Every time Inge posed for the group shot taken at the start of each episode, she discreetly formed one of her hands into the shape of a Signed Language letter. Putting all of these letter signs together over the span of nine episodes spelled out the message INGE DE MOL ("Inge the Mole" in Dutch).
• Red Herring Mole: Produced by Manipulative Editing, lies, or simply following the wrong clues. It's amazing the elaborate theories some fans cooked up, only to have them smashed at the big reveal. Granted, part of the Metagame involves being a Red Herring Mole so that everyone erroneously suspects you. Every season has at least one contestant who comes across as incredibly suspicious and blatantly sabotaging and makes it all the way to the finals only for someone else to be revealed as the Mole instead. The winner of the 13th season even said during the reunion episode that EVERYBODY in the Netherlands, including their own family, was convinced that they were the Mole to the point that they received a ton of mail from viewers all saying, "I know you're the Mole!" Similarly, the winner of the 15th season received more votes than the other two finalists combined from the viewing audience on who they believed was the Mole.
  • This was also a tactic by the Mole themselves in season 11: Patrick gave Art jokers and kept on encouraging him to act suspicious because he knew that many contestants thought Art was the Mole and thus wanted to keep him around as a decoy Mole he could hide behind.
• Reunion Show: All Dutch seasons have also had one where the winner and Mole was revealed to all players. Starting with Season 15, the reunion show became a live show where the contestants outside of the final 3 found out the Mole's identity at the exact same time as viewers.
• Right Under Their Noses:
  • Season 11, episode 1 started with the contestants all having to look for various things while riding in a bus. It wasn't until after this challenge was over that they learned that the Mole had been sitting in the same bus as them the whole time (albeit with a wig and sunglasses on) and none of them had realized it.
  • Season 18, episode 4 had a challenge where each contestant was asked a series of questions starting with "Do you want to know who the Mole is?" Unbeknownst to them, while they were answering the questions, the Mole strolled right behind or past them in plain sight, their face completely uncovered, and still managed to go unnoticed by every single contestant.
• Sarcastic Confession:
  • In seasons 8 and 13, there was a test in the penultimate episode that would tell the contestants who the Mole was if they answered a series of questions correctly. When the Mole took the test in both seasons, they correctly identified themselves as the Mole even though they could have deliberately answered the questions wrong to get the name of someone else instead. However, since both cases occurred in the last challenge before the finale and no other contestants witnessed their "confessions," they were more like last-minute clues to the audience about the Mole's identity.
  • A straighter example occurred in season 9 where the Mole answered "yes" to a contestant's query if they were the Mole in the hopes of confusing her. It's implied that this didn't succeed in dispelling her suspicions, however.
• The Show Must Go On: During Season 13, one of the contestants suffers an accident during a jump from a cliff, crushing one of her vertebrae. The show wasn't cancelled, and the contestant actually says during a 'confession' moment that she's happy the show wasn't cancelled.
• Spoiler Title: The episode titles frequently serve as hidden clues about the Mole. For example, the title "Mirror Image" for a season 13 episode was a reference to the Mole's reflection being briefly shown during that episode.
• Spotting the Thread: Often, a contestant will be tipped off to the Mole's identity by something the Mole says or does that doesn't make sense under greater scrutiny.
  • In season 17 of the Dutch series, the thing that caused eventual winner Sanne to start really suspecting the mole Thomas was his claim during one challenge that his earplugs prevented him from hearing the other contestants yelling at him to turn back before he ran out of time, despite Sanne noticing that she had no problems hearing the other contestants when she wore the same earplugs.
• The Stoic: Art, the host of several seasons, had a habit of either being the Deadpan Snarker, or telling the candidates something shocking (like revealing that the Mole had been walking right in front of them without them noticing it) with a stoic face. After revealing said point, he had the guts to end with 'Good evening.' and walking away.
• Streisand Effect: The producers try their damnest to avert this trope, and even then there have been years in which they cannot fully prevent early details like the candidates, the country, etc. from leaking. They are aware of its existence and Word of God says that this is one of the reasons that lesser known celebrities have been participating as a group of highly popular celebrities all together on the airport would be highly conspicuous.
• Theme Naming: A strange inversion: certain seasons allude to the name of the Mole itself.
  • Season 9: 'van Eerd de Mol' ^note  [Jon] van Eerd the Mole was hidden in multiple (partial) anagrams like 'dom veel raden' ^note  'stupidly guessing a lot' and 'omrand [ik] de vele...' ^note  '[I] mark the many...' .
  • Season 10: Similarly, Kim's name was hidden in word combinations like 'Kijk Ik Mocht...' ^note  See, I could..., 'Kan Ik Met... ^note  'Could/can I do [...] with..., and probably most famously, 'Kennis Is Macht' ^note  'Knowledge Is Power' . The letters 'KIM' also stood for 'Kim Is [the] Mole'.
  • Later seasons hid the names in a nonverbal way. In Season 14, many aesthetic shots contained fishermen (as the Mole's last name means 'fisher'), and they did this with flowers when the Mole's name meant 'daisy' in the season after that. Lastly, they alluded to the Mole's name during Season 19 by showing a lot of birds in between (with the Mole's name meaning 'blackbird').
• Third-Person Person: Nikkie, during the second task of the fifth episode in the Dutch anniversary season.
  Nikkie: [...] Nikkie and Tygo need to know where to go next!
• Wham Line: In season 18 of the Dutch version, which started with this. It opened on all of the players having to meet each other while walking around in a further undefined East-European looking city. At a certain point, Ruben and Olcay decide to call another pair of players, Jan and Jean-Marc. What happens right then is priceless:
  Jan: Do you know exactly where in Kiev you are?
  Ruben: Kiev?
  (Beat)
  Ruben: We are not in Kiev, my friend! We are in Almaty, Kazakhstan!
• Wrong Genre Savvy: The series in general has coined the term "tunnel vision" to describe the extremely common occurrence of a contestant or viewer becoming absolutely convinced that a person is the Mole and interpreting everything they see as proof that their hunch is right even if it's actually dead wrong (i.e. getting so stuck in a mental "tunnel" that they can't see anything beyond it).
  • Daniel from season 13 admitted in the final episode that he didn't really pay attention to other contestants' behavior because he was so focused on being an Action Hero during the challenges...on a show in which paying careful attention to other contestants' possible Mole-like behavior is absolutely essential to win. Fortunately for him, he happened to be on a season where almost everyone had a hard time figuring out who the Mole was, which enabled him to survive longer than he would have otherwise.