Author's Note: I'm really getting into "The Mole," a fantastic show on ABC that features players competing for money, except one of them is trying to not let that happen. It's a very interesting show, and I thought that having the characters from "The Office" play the game would be gold. So, here we go.
Disclaimer: I do not own "The Mole" and "The Office."
Episode One - The Adventure Begins
Part One - I'm Always Smarter After Eating
"You ready for the voiceover?" a producer asked the tall, black man with graying hair.
"Yeah," the man replied in his deep voice. "As ready as I'll ever be."
The producer got behind the camera crew and counted down the time with his fingers. Five…four…three…two…
"Twelve Americans are now arriving at JFK Airport in New York City, to play a game that will change their lives forever," the man clearly spoke into the camera. "This adventure is designed to push the contestants to their limits, both physically and mentally.
"They all look like nice people, but one of them is not who they seem. That person is the Mole, hired by the production staff to sabotage the missions and put as little money into the pot as possible. It's up to the players, and you, to solve this mystery and discover…
"Who is the Mole?"
The producer put down his headphones and yelled, "We got it! Thank you, Jon."
"No problem," Jon Kelley responded, sitting into a chair set up for him. Now they had to play the waiting game for the players to arrive.
And for the game to begin.
The opening sequence begins for the broadcast on the television. The graphics have a green background, and silhouettes of the contestants around parts of a city street, spying on the other's every move.
"Twelve players, eleven weeks, one winner, taking home up to 500,000. But one player's being paid to deceive the others, and sabotage the missions. That player is the Mole. The player that figures out who the Mole is and does the best job of tracking and remembering their every move, wins the money. Can you figure it out? Who is the Mole?" Jon's voice says throughout the video.
Then the player's title cards appear, and we receive information about them. Their name, age. But their location and occupations are strangely similar.
"Is it Meredith, a 47-year-old supplier relations representative from Scranton?" Meredith is shown trying to look menacing, but rather looks hung-over.
"Stanley, a 46-year-old sales representative from Scranton?" Stanley looks very serious in the video instead of being usually bored.
"Jim, a 28-year-old assistant regional manager from Scranton?" Jim tries to act serious and brooding, but smiles near the end of his segment.
"Phyllis, a 44-year-old sales representative from Scranton?" Phyllis starts off with a smile, then goes into a stern look on her face.
"Holly, a 39-year-old human resources representative from Scranton?" Holly crosses her arms and gives her famous withered look.
"Dwight, a 29-year-old sales representative from Scranton?" Dwight stares menacingly into the camera, not doing much anything else.
"Michael, a 44-year-old regional manager from Scranton?" Michael mimics "Charlie's Angels," pointing at the camera with his hands like a gun.
"Angela, a 31-year-old accounting supervisor from Scranton?" Angela crosses her arms and frowns at having to do this stupid segment.
"Kelly, a 27-year-old customer service representative from Scranton?" Kelly places her hands on her sides and smiles to the camera, being all bubbly.
"Oscar, a 40-year-old accountant from Scranton?" Oscar furrows his brow and concentrates on the camera, looking very analytical.
"Andy, a 35-year-old regional director from Scranton?" Andy grimaces at the camera and looks down at his Cornell t-shirt.
"Or Pam, a 29-year-old receptionist from Scranton?" Pam looks timidly into the camera and crosses her arms in this uncomfortable situation.
"Who is the Mole?"
Two vans are driven to the entrance of JFK at the end of the intro. The players shuffle out of the cars, some eager and some nervous to what is about to come.
"The players have all just met, so for the Mole, the deception begins now," Jon's voiceover announced as the players neared Jon.
"Hello everybody, I'm Jon Kelley, and welcome to 'The Mole,'" Jon welcomed the players as they all gathered around him. "Thank you very much for joining me here at JFK Airport."
"All right!" Andy whooped out of nowhere, being overly excited at being a part of the show.
The show cuts to a talking head with Dwight. "I've watched every single episode of the Mole. It's a very intellectual game that will undoubtedly give me a distinct advantage from everyone else. I was made to win this game."
"You all know each other from your jobs at Dunder-Mifflin," Jon continued, pointing out how these people weren't strangers to each other's eyes. "And you all have gotten to know each other over the years. So it should be easy to know who the Mole is amongst all of you, right?"
"Oh, for sure!" Kelly chimed in, smiling.
"I've got everyone pegged down," Kelly said in her talking head. "I know whenever someone is lying to me, so this game will be a piece of cake. Oh my God, I had a piece of cake once at this birthday party, and it tasted like—"
"Everyone has been a part of this company for some time," Michael began to say in the talking head. "And I'm friends with everyone here. I know all of their strengths and weaknesses. I got all of those in my evaluations of them."
"We're here at LaGuardia airport, and in one of the biggest airports in the United States, why not make this the home of your first mission?" Jon introduced to the players.
"What?" Kelly gasped, shocked at the mission being this early in the game. Angela crosses her arms and isn't pleased one bit by this.
"Jon gave us our first mission not even five minutes into the show," Angela told the camera in her talking head. "And I wasn't happy about this whatsoever."
Jon smiled and pointed into the depths of the airport. "Inside this airport are the plane tickets we've planted for you retrieve to get to your destination. Each of you must find your ticket and make it to the correct gate. For every one of you that gets their ticket and makes it to the gate will earn 2,000 into the pot, and get to fly first class. If someone doesn't find a ticket, that person will earn no money into the pot and will have to fly coach."
Oscar and Kelly groan at the possibility of flying coach. The others don't seem all that bothered by it.
"I've never flown before in my life," Pam confessed in her talking head. "So I'd like my first flight to be as enjoyable as possible. I'd like to be in first class."
"Is everyone ready?" Jon asked the group.
"Yes!" the players responded, tensing up and getting ready to run in the airport.
"You all have sixty minutes to make it to the gate," Jon set the timer on his watch. "And your mission begins now."
Most of the players run or jog into the doors of JFK while Angela, Kelly, and Oscar stay behind.
"I didn't see why everyone had to just run into the airport," Kelly said in her talking head. "Sorry, but I can't run in my high heels since I don't want to scruff them up. So me, Angela, and Oscar decided to team up."
"How are we going to do this?" Kelly asked Angela and Oscar, looking up at the departures sign.
"I say we look in this terminal on the walls," Angela suggested. "Maybe the tickets are stuck on them."
"That seems likely," Oscar nodded his head.
"Of course it's likely," Angela scoffed as the three of them heading into the airport and scanned the walls, looking for their tickets.
Inside the airport, some of the players decide to look for the ticket alone; Phyllis, Stanley, Andy, Dwight, and Meredith, while the others are in pairs; Jim and Pam, and Michael and Holly.
"Pam and I have been dating for a few months now," Jim explained in his talking head. "So as soon as the mission started, I wanted to team up with her."
"Jim's going to be my rock during this game," Pam said in her talking head. "I trust Jim, and I hope to see that he trusts me as well."
"So if you were a ticket on a reality show, where would you be?" Jim asked aloud, Pam giggled beside him.
"Let's ask some of the ticket counters," Pam thought up.
"Not the most original idea in the world," Jim pointed out. "But that's the best thing we got."
"I know it's a great idea," Pam smiled as they walked to the first ticket counter they saw, which was for LAN Airlines.
Phyllis and Stanley are each running in opposite directions, looking in the local stores and restaurants in the airport. They're not having a lot of luck. Meredith is sitting on a bench, exhausted at her effort. Michael and Holly are walking calmly and scanning the area for the tickets.
"There's got to be a green fingerprint somewhere," Holly put her hands on her hips.
"Oh, is that what we're supposed to be looking for?" Michael asked, confused.
"Well, I thought that they would have the tickets in a green envelope or something, with a fingerprint on it," Holly explained. "That'd make it easier for us to identify them."
"Or throw us off," Michael retorted. "It could be a red herring."
Holly ignored him and they continued to scan the room. Michael shifted uncomfortably and said to her, "Are you mad with me and Jan?"
"What?" Holly asked, not sure of what she heard.
"Me and Jan. You know...staying together."
"Michael, you can do whatever you want," Holly told him, not wanting to talk about this right now. "I just want to find these tickets and put some money in the pot."
"Right," Michael nodded his head, helping her look through the airport.
Meanwhile, a few hundred feet away, the trio of Kelly, Angela, and Oscar are stuck.
"That was a stupid idea," Oscar said to Angela. "The tickets weren't going to be on the walls."
"You didn't bring up any better ideas," Angela replied, crossing her arms. "You agreed with me."
"Guys, let's just try and figure out, like, where we're even going to," Kelly suggested. "Maybe that'll help us all out better."
"That's a great idea, Kelly," Angela smiled. "Only we don't have any clues to go on."
"There's gotta be something to look for," Kelly continued on, ignoring Angela being a pessimist. "Maybe an arrow?"
Angela rolled her eyes and pointed up at the signs. "There are your arrows. Do you want to head out to customs or the bathrooms?"
"Customs. We're going to go through them anyway, so let's just get them out of the way!" Kelly decided, leading the way.
Angela scoffed at the thought, but she and Oscar followed Kelly anyway through customs.
Dwight is now going through the crowds of people, and randomly asking different people questions. "Excuse me, ma'am?"
A short woman with black hair looks at him, a bit frazzled. "What do you want?"
"I'm here on a mission, and I must ask if you have any idea where my ticket is?" Dwight asked her.
"Of course not," the woman walked off, determined to get away from the strange man.
"Get back here!" Dwight yelled at her.
"I'm pretty confident that that woman was an accomplice of the Mole," Dwight said in his talking head. "No one would just run away like that unless they were told to do so."
"Damn it!" Dwight swore, looking around frantically.
Just a few hundred feet away, Holly is standing outside of the bathroom, waiting for Michael.
"Holly, you gotta check these bathrooms out!" Michael shouted from inside. "It's all shiny!"
"That's great, Michael," Holly yelled back, annoyed.
A man came out, wiping her hands, with a frustrated look on his face that could only mean that he walked out because of Michael. Holly looked at the man apologetically and sat down on a bench nearby, which was next to a plant.
"So, as I was waiting for Michael to get out of the bathroom," Holly said in her talking head. "I looked behind a plant, and there was a black box there with a green thumbprint on it. I looked inside, and all of the tickets were in it."
Holly smiled at discovering all of the tickets, but saw that there was a note written in it. She read aloud in a hushed voice, "Congratulations, you found the tickets! You can either take a ticket and give one to everyone else at the gate circled on the ticket, or take an Exemption and a ticket, while disposing of the box and the rest of the tickets. No money will be added to the pot, and you will be the only one who flies in first class."
Holly quickly closed the box back up and took a deep breath.
"With that little curveball thrown in there, I had to make a quick decision and think about what I was going to do," Holly told the producers in her talking head. "Either everyone was going to like me, or they were going to hate me."
Holly opened the box and took out one ticket and the note. She spotted a trash bin nearby and threw the box in just as Michael was coming out of the bathroom.
"I swear, that bathroom even had a bidet!" Michael chuckled, amazed at the bathroom he had just came out of. "And there were nozzles that would spray water at people!"
"That's great, Michael," Holly pocketed the ticket and note before he noticed them.
"I came up with an idea," Michael said, walking up to her. "Let's look in all the bathrooms!"
"Michael..."
"Don't worry, I won't go in the women's bathrooms."
Holly sighed and went with Michael's plan, going into the women's bathroom alone, using that time to figure out the gate where she's supposed to go before time was up.
At the ticket counters, Jim and Pam have gone through LAN, Aer Lingus, and Mexicana. They decided that this would be the last stop for them before coming up with a new plan at British Airways.
"Hello," Jim greeted the ticket lady. "Are there any flights going out that we have reserved for us?"
"What are your names?" the lady asked, getting ready to type their names into the computer.
"Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly," Jim answered, leaning on the counter.
After hitting the 'enter' key, the lady said, "I have a James Halpert and Pamela Beesly. Is that you?"
"Oh, yeah," Jim answered, forgetting to have used their actual names.
"James Halpert," Pam giggled. "Jamestown, Jenna James-on."
"Pamela Schmela, Pamela Anderson," Jim retorted. "If you hadn't of broken up with Roy, you know that second name would have been yours."
Pam cringed at the very thought of chaning her name to Pamela Anderson and the ticket lady looked back up at them from her computer. "There are seats for the both of you on a flight from our carrier."
"Do you have tickets for us for first class?" Jim asked the ticket lady, hoping to easily complete this mission.
"I have coach for you two, but not first class," the lady informed them. "I can print out your tickets now so you can head to the gate."
Jim and Pam looked at each other, not sure if they should get the tickets or not. "Do you want to go find those first class tickets?" Jim asked her. "We won't earn any money if we go with coach."
"I think we've got fifteen minutes left, so let's just get the tickets now," Pam said. "If we find the first class tickets, then we can just swap them."
"Sounds like a plan," Jim agreed, following her orders. He turned back to the ticket lady and ordered, "Can we have our tickets, please?"
The rest of the players haven't gotten any closer to finding the tickets, not knowing that Holly had already taken care of them. After Angela convinced Kelly and Oscar to go back to the terminals, they meet up with Andy outside a McDonald's.
"Hey guys," Andy greeted, eating a Big Mac. "Mmm...that hit the spot."
"Oh, fries!" Kelly grabbed a few of Andy's fries and popping them in her mouth.
"Andy, how can you eat food at a time like this?" Angela asked, angry at his actions. "You're going to make us lose this money."
"Oh, come on. It's gonna be okay," Andy toke a sip from his Coca-Cola. "I got this all figured out."
"Really?" Angela crossed her arms.
"Completely," Andy got up and threw his trash away. "I've been thinking about any clues that Jon might have given us, and I realize that he hadn't."
"Duh," Kelly interrupted.
"He hadn't physically given us a clue. But he did say something verbally that piqued my interests."
Oscar titled his head in curiousity. "Which was?"
"He said that they 'planted' the tickets, so many he put the tickets behind a plant," Andy revealed, proud at himself.
"I know a lot of people are confused at how I came up with this," Andy told in his talking head. "But it's just a matter of listening to those details, which I honed my skills from attending Cornell."
"How did you figure that out?" Angela asked.
"I'm always smarter after eating," Andy answered, joining the trio to form a quartet. "We've only got a few minutes left, so we gotta look fast."
As the quartet looked frantically through the plants, they caught up with Meredith, Phyllis, and Stanley and told them about Andy's idea. They all quickly looked through all the plants they could find, but time was running short, and the tickets were nowhere to be found.
Holly emerged from the women's bathroom nearby Gate 21, the gate that she needed to be at in two minutes. She knew that she needed to stay there in order to get the exemption, but Michael was proving to be difficult.
"Come on, Holly," Michael tried to rally her up. "We've got to find those tickets before time's up!"
"Time's already up, Michael," Holly sat down in a chair. "Let's just stay here."
"Nonsense," Michael refused, looking underneath the seat Holly was sitting on. "Maybe the tickets are underneath these chairs."
At that moment, Jim and Pam arrived at the gate, with their tickets visible in hand. Holly's eyes bulged at the possibility of them finding the tickets in the trash and knowing that she tried to get them to lose money.
"Hi, guys," Jim waved at them, the couple approaching them.
"Jim!" Michael sprung up from under a chair, bringing it with him. "You've gotta help us look for those tickets. We haven't had any luck--" Michael saw the tickets in their hands and cheered. "Yes! You got them! Where are they?"
"British Airways," Pam told him. "We got them there, so you two had better go get them soon. The mission's almost over."
"You heard her, Holly. Vamoose!" Michael pointed off, leading the way away from the gate. Holly looked up towards the sky, trying to think of a way to stay there for the next few minutes.
"Michael, I'm really tired," Holly tried to fake fatigue, slumping in her seat. "Can't you just get my ticket for me?"
Michael thought that over for a moment but grabbed Holly's hand and brought her to her feet. "But Jon said that we each have to grab them. I can't just get them for you."
"I was just thinking, 'Oh, no! I'm never going to shake him off,'" Holly reflected in her talking head. "I had to pull out all the stops."
"I don't want to, Michael Gary Scott," Holly sat back down.
Michael just stared at her, not sure of what he'd just heard. "But...Holly...the mission--"
"You're not the boss of me," Holly crossed her arms in an authoritative way. "I'm not going."
Jim and Pam looked at each other, afraid of whether to speak up or just watch the fireworks. Michael took a deep breath, and calmly said, "Holly, I want us to win this mission, and you're not helping us here."
Holly looked away from him and took a quick glance at the clock, seeing that time was indeed up. Jon emerged from the gate's entrance and greeted Michael, Holly, Jim, and Pam. "Hello, everyone."
"Hi, Jon," Jim and Pam said back, Michael looking angrily at Holly and Holly staring out the windows to the tarmac.
"Where's everyone else?" Jon asked them, shocked at no one else coming.
Kelly then appeared from looking behind a plant and groaned. She turned away to yell, "Hey everyone, the mission is over!"
"You didn't sound too happy there, Kelly," Jon observed.
"If you're here then that means we lost," Kelly concluded, joining them.
"Don't be so sure," Jon reminded her. "Maybe these other four found a ticket and put some money into the pot."
Holly got up from her chair just as the rest of the players gathered around the gate. They all looked sad at failing their first mission.
"Now that we're all here, let's go through if any of these four," Jon pointed at Michael, Jim, Pam, and Holly, "Found anything. They were here when time ran out, so that means that the eight of you won't be eligible to put money in the pot, even if you have a first class ticket."
Angela grimaced at being excluded and watched as Jon pointed first to Jim and Pam. "I see that the both of you have tickets in your hands," Jon said to the couple.
"We got them from the ticket counter at British Airways," Jim told him, showing him their tickets. "But..."
"But what?"
"They're not first class," Pam confessed, looking down. "They're coach."
"What?!" Kelly gasped.
"You guys know what that means, right?" Jon asked them.
"No money in the pot," Pam said sadly.
"Have fun in coach," Jon patted Jim on the back and moved to Michael. "Michael, do you have a ticket for me?"
"No," Michael frowned. "But it's not from a lack of trying."
"Exactly," Jon moved on to Holly. "Did you find anything, Holly? Anything special you want to share with us?"
Holly bit her bottom lip and reached into her pocket, feeling the ticket and note she had found earlier. She pulled them out to the shock of her fellow players.
"Go, Holly!" Kelly squealed, happy at 2,000 going into the pot.
Michael looked shocked at Holly with the ticket as she handed it over to Jon. "You had one all along?" Michael asked her.
"No, I found it," Holly began. "With all the others."
Holly's teammates thought that she must have had their tickets with her and cheered. "Do you have the rest of the tickets with you?" Phyllis asked her, with a big grin on her face.
"No," Holly answered, showing them the note more clearly.
"What?!" Michael yelled, even more shocked at Holly lying to him again.
Jon took the note from Holly as the other players tried to pick up their mouths from the floor. "Since Holly first found the tickets, she had the choice of helping you guys out and putting money in the pot, or taking one for herself, and disposing of the rest for an exemption, without putting any money in the pot."
"And I went for the exemption," Holly added in layman's terms.
"Yes, I think it's very suspicious that Holly took the exemption instead of helping the rest of us out," Meredith answered in her talking head. "Very Mole-ish behavior."
"Do I blame Ms. Flax for taking the exemption?" Dwight said to the camera in the talking head. "Not one bit. People gotta do what they gotta do to survive in this game, and I would have done the same thing."
"The pot remains where we first started this game, at 0. But it's still early in the game, and you can easily put more money in it," Jon tried to encourage them. He then pulled out a box similar to the one the original first class tickets were in and opened them up to reveal the other player's tickets. "But let's not let this bring you down. I hope where you're all be flying too will calm you down. You want to know where you're going?"
"Yeah," Stanley answered, bored.
"We're going to..." Jon began, then paused for dramatic effect. "Cape Town, South Africa!"
The players cheered at going to an exotic locale such as Cape Town and grabbed their tickets to catch the plane. After everyone grabbed a ticket, Jon pulled out another box. "We're not done yet. We've got one more thing to deal with." He reached into the box and pulled out a black journal with a green thumbprint on it, as well as the number one on it.
"Christmas came early this year," Michael reached for the journal.
Jon playfully pulled the journal back and told them, "Each of you will also be receiving a journal. Use this wisely and fill up as much information as you can. You never know what will pop up on the quiz, so take meticulous notes to increase your chances on figuring out who the Mole is. Here you all go."
The journal-passing began with Michael grabbing the journal marked #1, becuase, "I always am #1." Jim and Pam grabbed journals #2 and 3, respectively, and this pattern continued for Meredith, Phyllis, Holly, Dwight, Oscar, Andy, Kelly, Angela, and Stanley.
"I'm going to take as much notes as I can," Phyllis revealed to the crew in her talking head. "About everyone here, so I can have information about everyone instead of just one person."
"Oh, for sure I'm going to fill up my journal on Holly," Kelly said in her talking head, doing the opposite of Phyllis' strategy. "I don't trust her at all, especially what happened today in taking the exemption."
Once the plane took off with the players on it, they had written down as much as they could following these first moments of the game. This was all taking their toll on everyone, and the first day wasn't even over.
"That mission was draining," Oscar reflected in his talking head. "So we all fell asleep on the plane or took notes. We don't know what happened to Holly, and we didn't care since she cost us money."
Holly was up at the front of the plane, with a glass of champagne in her hand. She sipped it tentatively, thinking if alienating herself for this game was a good idea or not.
"Right now, I'm not really regretting taking the exemption, because I wanted to make sure I wasn't the first player executed," Holly told the cameras in her talking head. "I'm regretting lying to them and being selfish."
The sun soon set and everyone in the plane was fast asleep. When they woke up, they were going to be in South Africa, their home for this great adventure.
Author's Note: How'd you like it? Was it any good? I must have spent hours typing, and I'm hoping you all enjoyed this so far. For right now, please review what you've read so far and tell me who you think is the Mole, who you think will win the whole she-bang, and who you think will be the first person executed. I'm curious to see what you all think!
Part 2 of the premiere will be up soon.