Whoa, a scheduled update!
Isn't this rare?
xD
ALSO TO MY BELOVED REVIEWERS: I MISSED YOU GUYS! :') Thanks for making me feel less lonely as I finished writing last chapter.
Enjoy a great treasure of a chapter: EVERY HIDDEN CLUE FROM AGENT'S ELEVATION!
THE HIDDEN CLUES
There were a plethora of clues that pointed to the identity of the Mole. Each chapter itself had at least two or three unique clues, and there were also the addition of themed clues as well scattered throughout each chapter of the story. With most of them subtle, some of them were also more open to the audience. Which of these did you find?
Episode 1's Clues
1) McHallyboo's Mole
In the very first scene of the story, McHallyboo is describing a Mole. Though it may simply seem like the definition for a typical, generic saboteur, in some of his lines, McHallyboo was actually hinting at Eclair all along.
A. Someone who watches over people - As the ruler of the Waffle kingdom, Eclair indeed watches over the people of her land.
B. ...and keeps something going on - Her occupation, a Patron, has the definition of, "A person who supports causes, charities, institutions, etc. with money, gifts, effort, and endorsement."
C. The Mole holds the highest place in life, and in this game as well - As a princess of royalty, Eclair indeed holds the highest place in life.
Also to further point you to these lines' significance, on the Mole story's website, McHallyboo's Mole quote is seen at the bottom of his page. If you look closely, these exact lines are bolded in contrast to the rest.
2) French Occupation
There is something hidden in four sentences spoken by the French princess, all in Chapter 3.
Flashbacks of Eclair (to Dashell outside the tents): "I must especially thank you for your reassurance during our jump.
(to Mimi about her dream): "I do not remember...everything...but I do remember my dream like a picture.
(as Dashell helps her off the carriage): "Thank you for the assistance on this desert."
(to Tiny before the desert game): "Is this all the money you have for this next game?"
If you looked closely at these sentences spoken by Eclair, there are certain italicized letter. The first two letters of certain words are secretly italicized: especially, picture, on, next. Putting these secret italics together, they spell out the word espionne, the French word for spy.
Episode 2's Clues
3) A Historical Princess
As Eclair was chatting Yoshi at the dock in Delfino Plaza, she states a false identity.
Flashback Eclair (to Yoshi): "I am Princess Stephanie from the land of…umm, Hohenlohe Desert. I am very lost in this...foreign ocean land."
It may at first seem like a random, on-the-spot name and location. However, if you researched this oddly-chosen identity, you would have discovered something.
Stephanie von Hohenlohe was a real princess from Austria born in 1891. Though she served as a princess for her people, she was suspected by the British, French, and even the American people as having another role in life: for being a spy for the German government.
A parallel between both princess Moles.
4) The 5 Dinner Dishes
For the dinner game with Wario and Luvbi, the time limit were the five dishes to be served out. However, look at the food being served to the players in order of their mention in the game.
1st Dish = Escargot
2nd Dish = Caviar
3rd Dish = Italian Wedding Soup
4th Dish = Tuiles
5th Dish = Melon
The first letters of these dishes spelled out a clue = E.C.I.T.M. They stand for a very revealing sentence: Eclair Choux is the Mole.
Episode 3's Clues
5) Mushroom History
In Mushroom Mix-up, there was a secret meaning to the order of which the first 3 mushroom colors rose.
The first mushroom was pink. The second mushroom was green.
If these colors seem Moley to you, they indeed are. They are the colors of Toadette and Yoshi respectively, the first and second Moles. So what was the color of the third mushroom to rise? Brown: matching the color of Eclair's clothes and dress.
6) Arrived at 2PM
At the haunted house gate, the players encountered a note.
Good day, players!
In this board, the land will already be dark at as soon as 2PM in the afternoon. Coincidentally, that is also when the Mole appeared too!
What was the meaning? 2PM could be a time, but it in this case stood for something else: Paper Mario 2 (Thousand Year Door). It is here where Eclair had made her appearance and mention in Luigi's story.
Episode 4's Clues
7) Extra Bio Addition
In the beginning of the episode , this was Eclair's biography. But do you notice something off?
PLAYER: Eclair
Surname: Choux
Birthday: June 30
Occupationm: Patron/Pastry Maker
If you look closely, there is an addition of a single letter. However, if this was supposedly a typo, then is indeed to be questioned: the author would never unnecessarily write the same bio over and over again at the beginning of each episode. Most logically, they would copy and paste this information each time for the start of each episode. The extra letter, m, could only stand for one thing: Mole.
8) Sorry to Say
When Eclair and Dry Bones finished their Snow Tours mission, McHallyboo announces their victory to them in the following way.
Flashback McHallyboo: "And the rest of the surveys, I'm sorry to say to one of you, were rated 'Excellent'".
It made little sense for McHallyboo to say that he was "sorry to one" of them for a victory...unless one of them was the game's saboteur. And as Dry Bones was eliminated that very episode, it only left one person in the duo: Eclair.
9) Eclair the Red-Nosed Reindeer
There were several mentions to both noses and Rudolph in Episode 4. First, the little boy on the bus who pointed at his nose, and eventually Eclair, decide to sing, "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" on the bus. At the end of Chapter 19 in the author's note, I mention Rudolph's name in respect to the approaching Christmas seasons. Then at dinner before the execution, McHallyboo mentions how animal moles are blind and use their nose to guide them. He compared real animal moles to the Mole of the game.
Flashback McHallyboo (at the dinner table): "Did you know that actual Moles are blind? They use their nose. As a guide. In this game, the Mole is like the same...except they use their nose to sniff the innocent natures out of their opponents. And then with their nose, they guide them to a terrible fate: execution."
Through these subtle mentions, a connection was made between the Mole and Rudolph. And who is the one who volunteers to guide the players through the snowy blizzard as they all made their way to the ice caves games, using a mysterious red, glowing lantern in her possession as a guide for the others? Eclair.
Episode 5's Clues
10) Enters Here
When the players have to choose which tent path to go down, they see that each tent path has a unique description at its entrance. The pathway that Eclair entered was the following:
To heed everything: minus one lies entailed,
Even no treasure, even rich sparkles,
Hear enrichment, real enrichment
And vital clues are here for you
Look at the first letter of each word in the first 3 lines of the message, and a revealing phrase is spelled out. And for that entrance, the Mole did just that.
11) Tentway Clues
Clues that pointed to the identity of the Mole were present in Eclair's tent path.
EVERY MOLE JOURNAL HAS A CLUE = Indeed, later in this chapter, we will see that every Mole journal page had a clue towards Eclair.
WHERE A PINK MUSHROOM WAS STARTS A LINE OF MOLES IN IMAGE = This was a reference to the Mushroom-Mixup mushrooms, starting with the pink mushroom and leading to a brown mushroom, Eclair.
But what did the last clue, COMBINE A MOLE'S CREATION WITH A MOLE'S PURCHASE, AND A TRIPLE THREAT YOU RECEIVE, refer to? It referred to Episode 1's game "Purchase of the Desert".
Bowser Jr. discovered a mysterious wooden carved mole in the shop during the game with a price tag of 250 coins. At the end of Saboteur's Island's Trivia Section, it is stated that Yoshi himself was a wood carver as a side hobby, and even carved the wooden mole that the final 3 players from Traitor Aboard had to race against in their final mission during a log-cutting mini-task. This very wooden mole in the shop was the same one Yoshi had created. In the Purchase of the Desert game, Eclair's dress costed 83 coins.
250 (A Mole's Creation - Yoshi's Wooden Mole) + 83 (A Mole's Purchase - Eclair's dress) = 333. A triple threat indeed.
13) Lie Detector Lies
The lie detector chair that the players encountered for their game was told to not be 100 percent accurate.
Flashback McHallyboo (next to the chair): "This chair on average has a 93.70 accuracy. So like most true life-detector devices...it can still be flawed. There still lies that small margin percentage of false answers and sabotage. Nothing is perfect."
Then what is that small margin of false answers and sabotage? 100 - 93.70 is 6.30.
6.30 is Eclair's birthday.
Episode 6's Clues
14) A Little Shell
In the beginning of the episode, the Mole and McHallyboo are having their regular interaction. The Mole is then described to be holding a shell.
At the end of the episode, what does Eclair give Dashell while sitting at the top of the ocean's cliff? An oyster pearl. She had gotten it from that very oyster shell she was seen holding in the episode's beginning.
15) S.S. Reward
If you looked at the bottom of one of the Missions Page of the Mole website during the duration of Episode 6, you would have seen "Chapter 26: TMSI" written. The 26th chapter of The Mole: Saboteur's Island, titled, "A Choice's Reward" held a clue. In that episode, a mock quiz was given and one of the questions was based on ships, with each fictional ship standing for a player and their occupation.
3. What would the Mole's ship be named?
-S.S. Diamond = Goombella (6th Executed)
-S.S. Music = Luvbi (7th Executed)
-S.S. Dollar = Wario (The Runner-Up)
-S.S. Painter = Vivian (The Winner)
-S.S. Cocktail = Yoshi (The Mole)
Within the Destination Sail game of Agent's Elevation, when the S.S. Reward sailed across the sea, there were hidden mentions of each fake ship from Saboteur Island's quiz question. Dashell's captain hat had a diamond symbol, Snifit heard music in his cave, Tiny's guiding flags had dollar symbols on them, Piantissimo's quarter-master hat had a paint brush symbol, and Eclair was offered a cocktail during the mission. In this hidden sense, each final five player in Agent's Elevation was matched paired with another player from Saboteur's Island, with their ultimate fates and roles as either an executed player, the winner, or the Mole all lined up perfectly and subtly revealed.
Episode 7's Clues
16) Phone Number Hunt
If you felt like there were numbers connected to each item in the city scavenger hunt list, you were ultimately right. Each item symbolized a number.
Triangle Cake Slice = 3 (three sides in a triangle)
Pair of Boots = 2 (two boots in a pair)
Baseball Mitt = 5 (five fingers in a mitt)
Pair of Sunglasses = 2 (two frames in a pair)
Bronze Car = 4 (four wheels on a car)
Winning Lucky Ticket = 7 (seven is associated with luckiness)
You get six numbers: 325247. Using a telephone key pad (where 2 has letters ABC, 3 has letters DEF, etc.), you can spell out an important name: ECLAIR.
17) Royal Apocalypse
There were several references to royalty during the Apocalypse game, clueing into Princess Eclair as a member of royalty. First, the instructions for the mission in the beginning of the game stated that:
"The end of the world will begin with the color of purple. It is near you. The color of evil and ruin."
Subsequently, the purple paper explodes, starting the apocalypse. Purple, the color of royalty, is stated here to also be the color of evil and ruin, a metaphor to Eclair as the Mole.
In the canyons, a note is present on a deserted shop stand:
Look above, at the top of the mountain…the pinnacle, the cliff, the summit, the peak. Its head full of danger.
What is another word for the top or pinnacle of something? A crown, which is what a member of royalty wears on their head.
Also, in the canyons before the collapse, the crows start to fly in an "N" shape. If we combine the two together, then Crow + N = Crown.
18) S.O.S Ending
At the end of Episode 7, the end of the episode and chapter is introduced as so.
. END EPISODE 7 - -
There are strange marks before and after the text that look like random dots and dashes. But they are not random marks. What do they mean? They are more code for two letters.
. = E
- - = C.
E.C. = the Mole's initials.
Episode 8's Clues
19) The 3 Mole Obstacles
In the Three Questions game, the players were faced with three "obstacles" before their three questions. These obstacles would hinder them from success. But just what did these three obstacles symbolize, blocking their success in the game? The three Moles of the series.
The pungent fungus mushrooms which the players had to eat in the jungle in the first round symbolized Toadette.
In the second round which they had to retrieve a dinosaur skull from a sunken ship, klaptrap gators which McHallyboo described as "part lizard, crocodile…and even rumored to be part dinosaur" symbolized Yoshi.
In the final question within the factory, there is this exchange.
"Final challenge...begins now," the host spoke quickly, as the two players immediately faced McHallyboo in surprise.
"And that is…" Eclair voiced with uncertainty.
"You!" he said, pointing at Eclair. The two players looked confused.
"Me?" she answered.
"Yes, you.." he replied. "You are the last obstacle...yourself." Both Piantissimo and Eclair looked at him skeptically.
McHallyboo made sure cleverly to point directly at Eclair. She was the final obstacle of the game, and in result, the final Mole.
20) Last Messages
In the final mission of the game, the players had the opportunity to fix previous mission. At the start of each mission, there was a message left for the players with instructions for the mission. Being the last game, last episode, and last everything, it only made appropriate sense for something to be hidden in the last letters of these messages. Below are the final sentences of each Mission Message. Pay special attention to the final letters.
Cliff Springs Jump = As you can see, you are at the cliff in the very beginning of The Mole: Traitor Aboard. Your first task? Jump.
The Hostage Game Good luck. Go far.
Bell of Endurance = P.S. The darts however, not the bell, should be your foci.
McHallyboo's Funhouse =Show affection towards her. Toadette never did. And you may, with permission, move on from this house of frighten.
Air Combination = Oh, and P.S. Your parachutes will deploy in T minus 15 seconds….zzst...szzzt…zzzzec.
Wiggler Cowardice Challenge = Will you be a coward against this tide?
5 Become 1 = This game is worth forty-thousand coins. Make your choices.
The Final 3 Mistakes = "Four minutes left...to fix last three mistakes."
Looking at each final letter, what do they spell? "princess"
French Pastries
In tradition with the past two seasons, there were reoccurring theme clues referenced within each episode that hinted to the Mole's identity. With Eclair's name being based on a French pastry, it only made sense to have this certain sweet, scrumptious theme be hidden throughout: French pastries. This time around, they were more obvious and more suspicious in terms of standing out. How many of these did you find?
Episode 1- For the players' first meal in the desert, they were given a food-filled meal. Every dish, according to McHallyboo's, was of Egyptian cuisine and origin. If this fact was indeed true however, then the dessert served to them that first lunch must have raised some eyebrows: it was a plate of Macarons, desserts of French origin.
Episode 2- The cruise dinner with Luvbi and Wario had five meals that spelled a clue. But one of these dishes held a clue itself: a plate of Tuiles, which are crispy, baked wafers. In fact, Eclair herself even points out, when they're served, that they are from France.
Episode 3- When McHallyboo describes to the group their potential boardgame map destinations, one of them is Peach's Birthday Cake. The host describes the board as being upon a large St. Honore cake. However, was is not true and incorrect. In fact, Snifit directly afterwards corrects McHallyboo that the board was on a strawberry shortcake, not a St. Honore cake. A St. Honore cake is a specific kind of French cake.
Episode 4 - During the Snow Tours bus tour, the bus goes through two locations: the Angel Wings cave and the Powdered Tundra. Angel Wings are a pretty name, but also the name of a twisted-dough dessert, which are covered in powdered sugar.
Episode 5- The cafe that Tiny and Zess eat and discuss at are serving nothing but French pastries. A Goomba baker is described preparing Jesuits, triangular flake pastries. The female pair are ultimately served Creme Brulees. In addition, Zess comments how the cafe was a beautiful place that both Tiny and Eclair, had created.
Episode 6- In the underwater hotel palace, there is a Yule Log flickering in a fireplace by the dinner table. This is odd, considering that the location or atmosphere was not a Christmas setting in any way whatsoever. This was a hint to a yule log as a cake, referencing another dessert.
Episode 7- Before the execution ceremony for the final four, McHallyboo says, "Le Petit Four". Is he referring to the final four players? He may be, but he's actually referring to a small bit-sized French confectionery called a Petit Four.
Episode 8- A store with a glimmering sign is called, "ECLAIRS" is in the Waffle Kingdom, and the princess describes it as the first shop she ever opened.
Where do all these French pastries appear again? In the final chapter. For the final dinner before the final quiz of the game, there are many desserts on the table: macarons, tuiles, St. Honore cakes, angel wings, jesuits, creme brulees, yule logs, la petits, and of course, miniature eclairs. All of the aforementioned French pastries are mentioned in a single line: the final, important desserts of the game.
Execution Dresses
At every execution, only Eclair's clothing and outfits are described in great detail, while no other player gets any mention. Why?
If you knew Eclair's history, she had one secret item from her origins from the Waffle Kingdom: the Marvelous Compass. In Luigi's adventures seen in Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door, this compass was seen to be able to view the future.
Eclair was of course never permitted to use this magical compass...except in one certain aspect of the game: to know the identity of the Executed victim the morning of the execution. And in result, she did indeed dress the occasion for each ceremony: she wore clothes to symbolize each executed victim for each execution ceremony.
Execution 1 - Eclair in the hotel hallway during the morning of the execution is wearing a white dress, "the air in the hallway making it expand in a beautiful manner". Dashell realizes the aim of her dress when he remarks that "from a distance, (she) looked like some sort of big cloud." This dress symbolized a cloud and in result symbolized the first executed victim, Flurrie, a cloud spirit.
Execution 2 - While strolling along the shore of the beach, Eclair's dress was said to be wearing a red dress was illuminating in the sun, her dress "glowing like the fire of the sun" before her. Her dress being the appearance of fire hinted to the fire-breather Bowser Jr.
Execution 3 - In the woods before the final quiz,, Eclair is described as wearing a green dress, "glistening and camouflaging in the woods".And at dinner time before the final execution, she is seen hurriedly putting on one of her red earrings. These two colors, green and red, symbolized the two players who left that episode: Mimi and Snifit.
Execution 4 - During the Execution quiz, Eclair is seen grabbing onto her gray dress. And at dinner, she wishes the others luck, "feeling her grey, winter gloves, but they were not strong or layered enough to keep her from the cold." Dry Bones, a skeleton exposed to the cold, was symbolized here.
Execution 5 - The design of her dress, a dress with black lacing and polka-dots, was immediately recognized by Zess herself. When Zess spots Eclair, she even states, "Why! That's a 1960's style dress, is it not? That's the time I grew up in!" Zess was spot on: the dress was indeed based on her.
Execution 6 - At the ocean cliff, Eclair this time was not wearing a dress, but wearing attire "which was meant for athletic swimming". From her track pants, she took out an oyster pearl and gave it to Dashell, the athlete who was executed.
Execution 7 - Eclair at the execution is seen wearing a translucent dress, hinting at the existence of Snifit: a character who at that point was almost non-existing from a lack of energy and ready to soon fade away.
Website Clues
(To see these pages, google, "The Mole Agent's Elevation" and find the website link!)
Journal Clues
Every journal clue, seen on the Mole Website, held a hidden clue to the Mole. Which of these did you find?
1 - The journal's caption is, "They just overlap with the past Moles, don't they?" In the middle of the page, you can see ten circles in purple representing the ten players (in the order they appeared in the building). Flurrie is seen as an X, and Snifit is seen as faded, hinting at his existence as a fading A.I. The third circle is Eclair. If you look behind the 3rd circle, you can see a hidden mushroom in the background design. Eclair overlaps with a past Mole: Toadette.
2 - Look at the red text near the palm trees. If you look closely, just three letters or words overlap within the trees: E, C, and Mole. Eclair Choux = Mole. This is a subtle reference to the Saboteur's Island logo having the palm tree spelling out Yoshi's initials. Also, at the bottom of the journal page, the oil Eclair used to slip Piantissimo at the dock can be seen.
3 - If you look closely at the image of Mushroom Mix-up, you can see that Toad's flag color is photoshopped to be brown, hinting at the mushrooms clue and to Eclair representing brown. Also, in the journal, the Mole stated that it was the "most undesired drama to be caught in a web of lies". Eclair was the player caught in a web in the mansion that episode.
4 - There are multiple snowflakes seen on this journal page, but two of them are abnormally large. If you look to see where they are, they are under the words, "Executed" and "Cold". The initials of these words hint E.C, or Eclair Choux. Also, the red lantern light Eclair used to guide the players to the ice cave is seen on the right.
5 - The text has some letters that are very subtly faded. If you gathered all the faded letters within the message, you get the word, Germantown. The image of the building is from Germantown, and if given a google search, you will see that the name of the building is actually Nicetown Court, not the photoshopped Ninetown Eourt. An incorrect E and a replaced C spell the Mole's initials.
Video Clues
(some videos on the website don't work, so if you simple go onto Youtube and type "The Mole: Agent's Elevation", you will find them!)
The Mole- Intro Video - Right in the beginning of the video at the 5-second mark, as the Mole's logo flashes away, the text for "THE MOLE" flashes into another word for a single frame: "ECLAIR"
First Execution Video - The text before the execution ceremony at the 24-second mark reads, "If the screen turns red, however..." and then flashes into the next text, "You are the very first victim of the game". However, if you pause right between the static changes, for four frames there is another hidden sentence: "Eclair has beaten you".
The Sypnopsis
And for the final clue to top it all off like a cherry on a French dessert, look at the very synopsis of this story. The Mole had been hidden all along.
The chaos, deceits, and twists have escalated. 10 players are thrust into this new arena and are forced to play and survive. But one of them, like always, is out to eliminate them all. Someone has constructed this entire labyrinth of treachery and mistrust. Entailing countless lies, an individual ruins: the Mole.
Look at the final line: Entailing countless lies, an individual ruins: the Mole.
Eclair: the Mole.
And there's that! :D
Throughout the story, I had to keep a document of all the hidden clues, because I kept on forgetting some of them!
Actually, through re-reads, I would catch clues again that I totally forgot about and be like OOHHHH YEAHHH!
I hope you enjoyed these!
Some of you may have been wondering , "Hey! What about those clues that pointed to Zess? Piantissimo? Tiny Kong?"
Well, to answer that, there were two fake clues placed in the story for each other player! Hehe.
"That's unfair!" you may bellow and shout? Well, in a way, yes, but let me explain my reasoning in two points.
1) Though there were two clues for each player, there were over 40 clues that pointed to the real Mole, Eclair.
2) If you were to base your entire opinion on who the Mole was over ONE single clue, then what is the almost 400k-word story for? Hidden clues are not everything to discovering the Mole's identity: Interactions, sabotages, sentences they speak, and everything they do in the story are the true and proper indicators to finding the Mole.
I think the best way to take a clue for merit and value is if you discover at least several other clues pointing to one certain player, then you can take them to a more serious step. But let this be a warning: one clue can throw your entire game away! Never put your faith into a single clue or two.
Anyways, I hope you genuinely enjoyed these clues! :) I put a lot of effort and thinking into each one, so I hope you appreciated them this time around. Which of these clues surprised you the most? Which were your favorite?
Anyways, the next chapter is the final one. The players' goodbyes to each other. Sniff.
And a last author's note. :')
Stay tuned soon!
