Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Mole Season 2, Episodes 1 to 5.
All of us know that one couple—a bizarre pair who somehow hit it off over something seemingly random and completely unromantic, like pickleball or a shared adoration for biographies of the founding fathers. But it wasn’t until I tuned into Netflix’s The Mole Season 2 that I encountered a couple with the strangest kink of all—losing money.
Of all the many, many reality shows that Netflix produces, The Mole would not be the one I’d expect to crank out a game-changing showmance. If we’re being honest, it’s the nerdiest of the bunch. In this high-stakes battle of wits, 12 players complete mental and physical challenges to add money to a shared prize pot. Among them is the “Mole,” whose job is to covertly sabotage the missions as much as possible without getting caught. Each week, players must take a quiz and answer questions about the Mole’s background and identity; whoever scores the worst goes home until, eventually, one person exposes the Mole and wins the prize.
Based on this description, I’m sure you can see why whenever a Mole player winds up on, say, Netflix’s summer dating show Perfect Match, their castmates’ eyes tend to glaze over at the mention of the show. Unless you’re into mind games, it’s just not very sexy. And yet—and yet!—two weirdos named Hannah and Tony dive into a relationship almost from the jump. Only one of them makes it through the first five episodes, which debut Thursday, but wait a minute—does the way that one of them goes home actually reveal the true Mole?
On the surface, Tony and Hannah (Tannah? Hony?) are a match made in heaven. He’s a 24-year-old VIP host who “has been working out for half his life,” according to Netflix’s Tudum, and he apparently averages 19 hours of screen time per day. (How?!) She, meanwhile, is a 23-year-old marketing consultant who has a Doberman puppy named Bane and once “had to complete a blind landing in a single-engine prop plane.”
These two look like two people who would absolutely fall in love over smoothies at the gym—or maybe over a pitcher of something very sweet and strong at the club afterward. On The Mole, however, their version of flirting is goading one another in a financial game of chicken.
During the show’s second episode, the group faces a twisted challenge: the prize pot begins to hemorrhage cash, and the only way to stop it is for everyone to get up from their seat. Whoever sits the longest, however, will be exempt from taking the elimination quiz. Tony wastes little time before declaring to the group that he’s willing to watch the money go down to zero. “I don’t give a damn about the money,” he says with a reckless grin. “I just want to win.”
While the rest of the group huffs and panics, Hannah instantly matches Tony’s freak. “I came here to win a game,” she says. “There’s only one winner.” Never mind that if they drain the entire pot, there won’t be anything left to win; as far as these two are concerned, there’s plenty of time to win that money back. But Hannah is also betting on something else.
“I definitely think it will come down to me and Tony in the end,” she tells producers, “and I know he’ll give it to me.” Why? Because this woman knows how to flirt.
Watching these two stare into each other’s eyes while everyone else gets up is like watching a confounding mating ritual on Animal Planet. He grins and licks his lips as the money reaches a new low; she flips her hair over her shoulder while the group dwindles down to just them. Then, she tells him ever so firmly, “Tony, get up. Tony, get up.” And in the end, despite all his bluster, of course he does. She ranks as a “B-plus” on his trust meter, and besides, as he acknowledges, it doesn’t hurt that she’s hot. As if that entire spectacle was not enough, Hannah lets us all know who’s boss when she tells him, “Thanks, baby.”
One of Hannah and Tony’s fellow players, the 65-year-old forensic accountant Andy, calls it from the beginning—this coalition is dangerous. They both make it through the elimination ceremony that night, where suddenly they’re laying their arms on one another’s legs and kissing for everyone to see. But how much of this is real, how much of it is the game, and how much of it is simply a bid for screen time?
Both Hannah and Tony seem to think they’re playing one another, but from here, at least, it seems like Hannah’s the only one really thinking things through. As she repeatedly tells producers, people tend to underestimate her intelligence, and she knows how to use that to her advantage.
“Everything played out perfectly,” she says after the elimination ceremony. “I think Tony trusts me; he’ll definitely tell me everything he knows, but he would be smart not to.”
Hannah and Tony might spend the next couple of episodes making out poolside, sharing armrests, and playing the cute couple, but while Tony tells Hannah everything he knows, she decides to keep a few details to herself. Most importantly, she does not tell anyone (including Tony) that during a catering challenge that’s all about accurate communication, she spots her teammate Ryan—a 33-year-old volleyball coach—sharing obviously incorrect information.
That night, when the group takes their quizzes, Hannah sails through while Tony flunks. Hannah puts on her best “surprised” face while her boo flashes his red screen and packs up for the van ride home. In a private conversation with another player, Michael, she says she feels “so bad right now” because she feels like she sent a friend home (which, I mean, she basically did). Michael does not know that, so he tries to comfort her like any good Samaritan would. But wait—does this mean Ryan is the Mole?
Could be! Right now, Ryan seems the most suspicious. It’s also worth noting that during that early sitting challenge, she was one of the last people to get up before Hannah and Tony. She is not the only person to have sabotaged the catering challenge (a retired undercover cop named Sean did, too) but she’s the only one who did so inconspicuously. Sean, meanwhile, was trying to make a show of sabotaging the game in the hopes that someone would see him and fail their quiz by answering based on the assumption that he’s the Mole.
Then again, Hannah could also be the Mole; she’s a top suspect for plenty of people, and by her own admission, she loves it when people misjudge her based on looks. Still, part of me thinks she’s playing the game too aggressively, too carefully, to actually be the Mole. If she is, though, she’s doing one hell of a job.
