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Confidence drops to a low point in ‘The Mole’. Maxim and Wout cannot agree on who can go to the middle of the arena: for 5,000 euros for the group pot or a personal exemption. The decision is not an inch closer. And the mole? He secretly enjoys the chaos. Yannis sums it up dryly: “Trust comes on foot and leaves on horseback.”
In the city center of Lisbon, the five remaining candidates of ‘The Mole’ enter the city. Wout and Julie are the duo that rolls up their sleeves. Their assignment: learn to make a pastel de nata, the tastiest dessert in the world according to Gilles De Coster. One pastry is worth 3,000 euros.
To do this, they have to go through five steps and slide a Portuguese pudding tart into the oven before the 60-second timer resets to zero.
Easier said than done, because as soon as their hands come off the ‘sticky’ table, time becomes their biggest opponent. Wout and Julie are short-handed and throw almost all their body parts into the fray to create this Portuguese classic.
Maxim, Isabel and Yannis are now going on a city trip through the capital. The trio must follow the track of the world-famous yellow tram and make sure they are not overtaken by the carriage with the ‘The Mole’ presenter on board. The trio gets a 10-minute head start and carries out assignments along the way to earn money: good food, soaking up culture and taking photos.
A selfie is taken on the steps of parliament. The photo was successful and 3 x 200 euros were set aside, on the condition that they stay ahead of the tram.
While making the pastel de nata, team #puddingtaartje has to split three eggs, because only the egg yolk is needed — a detail that suddenly turns out to be surprisingly complicated.
Wout agrees on a clear tactic with Julie: she does one, he watches and then they do the rest together. But Julie needs both hands to break one egg, so the seconds gradually evaporate. “Stop after the first egg,” says the gardener. Yet Julie continues. She breaks three eggs,
but there are barely 18 seconds left to save the mission.
Enough time to panic, but not for dessert.
“Maybe you should have added one more egg,” mutters the slightly over-enthusiastic pharmacist. A case of needless perfectionism or deliberate bad timing? At the restaurant, the ‘runners’ who try to stay ahead of the tram order the entire menu — as if hunger is mainly a strategic choice here. If they finish everything, an additional 900 euros will be added. Two more glasses of water are ordered, probably to gain courage. There is now 1,000 euros worth of food and drinks on the table. “We’ll never finish that,” Isabel feels wet. “Can’t we just move on?”
But anything that is not used is deducted from the budget. If they leave now, they will even make a loss. “What is that anyway?”
Yannis wonders about the cod. “Exactly Portuguese sand,” it sounds dry.
By not eating the steaming Francesinha, they leave with a much lower amount: 400 euros instead of 700 euros and with an advantage over the yellow tram, which is also shrinking considerably. And just then it goes steeply uphill.
Isabel gives in and Maxim and Yannis continue their city trip on speed. Maxim and Yannis earn 2 x 200 euros from the triumphal arch of Lisbon — although it goes remarkably slowly. Twice, the Arco da Rua Augusta is not in the photo, as if the monument itself has no interest in their timing.
The counter thus remains stuck at 1,400 euros. That amount is only final if they succeed in what is almost becoming a discipline in itself: “not being overtaken by a tram”.
And then it’s money time. Thanks to explorer ‘Vasco da Gama’ – after whom the famous bridge in Lisbon is named – an additional 500 euros will be added. Guessing the nickname of the yellow tram yields nothing, except perhaps frustration. There is one more chance to make money: a photo with a street artist.
But that photo failed, causing Maxim to gradually develop into an official “bad timing specialist”. Now they really have to sprint, unfortunately for them it’s steeply uphill. But they reach the finish line on time. Their glitzy visit to Lisbon yields 1,900 euros.
That increases the group pot to 14,620. Wout and Julie’s pastel, on the other hand, does not get into the oven in time and so 3,000 euros is lost.
After the hustle and bustle of the city, they return to the countryside.
There is even more at stake in the José Mestre Batista Arena:
5,000 euros and the first and only exemption from this trip.
Julie turns out to be the least agile on the mechanical bull and is immediately given a red rag. She had put it behind Wout’s back, but he exposes her as the cheater of the game and so her trial ends immediately. Isabel and Yannis are also removed from the arena without much ceremony.
A chained together Wout and Maxim play the final.
There, 5,000 euros or the exemption is literally up for grabs. But first the gardener and the digital designer must agree on who they trust most. It is a choice between cholera and the plague, especially because Wout has already proven for 2,000 euros that he is not a fan of team play. And the two candidates who are on the same chain continue to stubbornly refuse to budge even an inch.
Isabel, Yannis and Julie are eliminated, but not finished yet. By speeding up or slowing down their heart rate, they can avoid earning a single dollar today, or an exemption — a kind of cardio with consequences. After opening the last gate, they don’t hesitate for a second and press the red button. The exemption and 5,000 euros go up in smoke.
Maxim and Wout continue to argue about whose fault this is. But one person is of course satisfied that not a cent is being earned here: the mole.
Exit Yannis
Who certainly isn’t, is Yannis. The artificial grass distributor breaks down just before the last part of the journey. “It came completely unexpectedly, like a bolt from the blue. I really thought I was on my way to the final. But unfortunately,” he says about his exit.
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