Episode 4

Season Two

Presenter: And then there were 7. Breloom scored the lowest and was eliminated. Life might be hard for them, the game might seem complicated, but then, along comes the little matter of exemptions. Unfair maybe, but don’t forget, OUR rules, OUR game, OUR PokéMole.

Day 10

Presenter: After travelling overnight to Fuchsia City, the contestants were asked to assemble at the gate to the Safari Zone, for their next challenge.

Presenter: Welcome everybody, to the world famous Kanto Safari Zone. Today’s challenge is simple minded enough, but certainly has more to it than meets the eye. Put quite simply, your challenge is to find the Secret House. Inside the house lies 10,000, but it will only remain there for one hour. You’ll split up into two teams – one containing 4 of you and one containing the remaining 3. If the team containing 4 finds the Secret House, 4000 will be added to the prize fund. The additional 6000 can also be gained if the team of 3 also finds the Secret House. Please now split into your two teams.

Presenter: The team of 4 consists of Mightyena, Vibrava, Gligar and Surskit. The team of three consists of Houndour, Girafarig and Heracross.

Presenter: Now, you must at no time leave your team. Doing so will result in your whole team being disqualified from the challenge. Your one hour starts… now. Happy searching.

Presenter: As I said, there is more to this challenge than meets the eye. Before the challenge we confronted every contestant separately, and told him or her that by leaving their group at any time, they would disqualify their team from the game, but also earn themselves an exemption. Every contestant thinks that they were the only contestant offered this exemption. Let’s see how it turns out.

Team 1 – consisting of Mightyena, Vibrava, Gligar and Surskit have started off well. They’re travelling in the right direction, but then they reach an open plain. Mightyena, Vibrava and Surskit all want to continue straight on but Gligar reckons they’ve gone the wrong way, and wants to turn back. Instead of giving in, Gligar marches off backwards. He travels about 50m backwards, and then suddenly seems to change his mind, and agrees that forwards is the direction to go. The team absent-mindedly continues, unaware for some reason, that they are now disqualified and Gligar has earned the first exemption of the series. The team continues onwards, and with some very lucky guesses from the exempted, actually find the Secret House after just 28 minutes. They all reckon they’ve won. Poor deluded fools.

Team 2 – consisting of Girafarig, Houndour and Heracross, start off going in completely the wrong direction, following the middle party’s (rather useless and impulsive) decisions. It’s only when Girafarig starts to question Houndour’s decisive decisions and is backed up by Heracross, who suggests they turn around, that Houndour becomes angry and storms off, thus disqualifying his team from the game. Girafarig instantly realises the challenge is over for them, and storms angrily back towards the entrance, ironically earning himself an exemption. After the hour ends, there’s still no luck for Team 2 finding the Secret House, and so they receive an announcement over the loudspeaker informing them that the hour is up, and that everybody must follow the signs back to the entrance.

Presenter: Well everybody, this is how you did. Team 1, you made it to the Secret House after just 28 minutes. Team 2… was, to put it lightly, a disaster. However, there was a small matter of exemptions. You all know about the deal, since you were all approached about it. That’s right – the deal was not offered to just one person, but to every single one of you. Three people took up the offer, and have earned themselves exemptions. Team 1 – Gligar left you briefly early on, meaning you were disqualified long before you even reached the Secret House. Team 2 – Houndour left you as Girafarig realised, but then Girafarig left as well. Despite the challenge already being over for the team at that point, Girafarig still broke the rules and has still earned himself an exemption. Other than that, the challenge was a complete disaster, and with no money being earnt, the prize fund remains at 38,980. I want you to meet me tomorrow at the Hotel Lobby. I’ll see you then.

Girafarig: I can’t believe I broke the rules in the last challenge. At least the challenge was already over, so in a way I earned an exemption for nothing. Houndour did as well, so we’ll both live to fight another episode.

Gligar: I’m becoming less and less sure about my suspicions all the time – that’s why I took the exemption. I thought I’d be hated amongst everybody, but since the deal was offered to everyone, they’ve taken it a lot better than I would have thought.

Heracross: Girafarig probably isn’t the PokéMole, and now I feel really vulnerable having not taken an exemption when I had the chance. I wish I’d have started to walk back first, rather than Girafarig.

Houndour: I didn’t initially mean to take the exemption – that just came as an extra. I got really wound up when they ganged up on me. I’m a born leader.

Mightyena: If I didn’t know any better, I’d probably think I was the PokéMole. But I have got some common sense, and Surskit is looking more and more likely by the day.

Surskit: I’m getting more and more annoyed by this whole thing everyday. I guess I just have to keep remembering it’s just a game, but I really do want to leave.

Vibrava: This show really isn’t as easy as it looks. The eliminations seem to come along too quickly, and I’m starting to convince myself Heracross isn’t the PokéMole. He has got me this far though…

Day 11

Presenter: Hello again everybody. After yesterday’s disaster of a challenge, we’re going for something slightly easier today. All 7 of you have to answer one Pokemon related question, with the answer “True” or “False.” All 7 of you must get your questions correct, in order to add 5000 to the prize fund. We’ll go in reverse alphabetical order so Vibrava, here’s your question:

Ninetales only learns one attack naturally. True or False?

Vibrava: That’s gotta be true.

Presenter: True it is. Surskit, your question is:

All the R/S starters evolve into their final forms at Level 36. True or False?

Surskit: Erm… true?

Presenter: That’s correct again. Mightyena:

At the Lilycove Department Lottery, 3 matching numbers will earn you a PP Max. True or False?

Mightyena: I know that’s false.

Presenter: Well done. Houndour:

A Fluffy Tail costs 1000. True or False?

Houndour: I really don’t know this, but I’ll guess at true.

Presenter: True is actually correct. Heracross:

Lunatone is only found on Ruby Version, whereas Solrock is only found on Sapphire. True or False.

Heracross: That’s definitely false.

Presenter: Well done. Gligar:

The Contest Pass can be obtained from Verdanturf Town. True or False?

Gligar: I think that’s true.

Presenter: Well done. The last question goes to you Girafarig:

By defeating Roxanne, you earn TM40, which is Rock Tomb. True or False?

Girafarig: That must be true.

Presenter: I’m afraid you’re wrong. TM40 isn’t Rock Tomb – TM39 is. So, you’ve failed another challenge. The prize fund remains at 38,980. I want you to meet me at the Fuchsia City Gym tomorrow. I’ll see you there.

Girafarig: I knew it wouldn’t be long before it was my fault a challenge was lost. I guess there was just a little glimmer of hope it’d never happen.

Gligar: I suppose it’s nice to not have to worry about whether I’ll be here next episode or not. It gives me time to sort things out in my mind.

Heracross: I wish Girafarig hadn’t got his question incorrect. My suspicions are starting to return again. It’s starting to do my head in.

Houndour: I’m not even worrying about the PokéMole. After all, I don’t need to.

Mightyena: I can’t believe we lost another challenge! I don’t really see how the PokéMole could have got some sabotage done in that challenge, without being obviously noticed. I’ve never suspected Girafarig that much either, which is why today’s challenge was a bit useless to me.

Surskit: I’m getting to the point where I couldn’t care less about the money. The game gets too hard to continually play. But I’m no quitter – I’ve nearly reached the halfway point and if I persevere maybe I can turn it around.

Vibrava: I’m getting sick of making sure I do my part to win money in the challenges, only for others to let us down. I’m just getting really sick of it. We keep wasting good chances to earn money. Simple challenges like that won’t be coming around that often, I can tell that.

Day 12

Presenter: As Day 12 begins, the contestants know that by passing tonight’s elimination, they will have reached the halfway point in their journey. Of course, Girafarig, Gligar and Houndour have already made it. But before they can start the celebrations, they have one tricky challenge ahead of them:

Presenter: Welcome contestants, to the last challenge before 6 of you reach the halfway point of PokéMole 2. In fact, we’re about to start the celebrations early. Since today’s challenge is worth a staggering 15,000, which will be the biggest monetary prize from an individual challenge this series. It’s called Blind Eye, and it’s perfectly simple. To win, 5 of you must walk to the middle of the room within 10 minutes. But of course, this is the Fuchsia Gym, and it’s full of invisible walls. Thus, this challenge is a maze that you cannot see. You’ll all be starting off at different points around the outside of the maze, and no communication is allowed whatsoever. Any communication between two or more contestants will result in everybody being disqualified from the challenge. We’ll now take you to the separate start points around the maze. As soon as you hear the klaxon, you may start working towards the center. Now let’s move.

Presenter: The overhead map shows the start points and the final destination. The black dots represent the starting points, whereas the red square represents the centre of the maze, and the target for our seven contestants.

Girafarig quickly starts off in the right direction… before he walks into a wall. Girafarig then feels the way around with his head, and rather amazingly, finds a gap, which has a direct route to the centre, after just two minutes.

Gligar quickly finds a way into the maze, and straight away has the common sense to try and feel around the walls. Gligar then ends up doing almost a complete full circle, before finding another way forward. Following the same pattern each time, Gligar manages to find the centre of the maze after seven minutes.

Heracross starts off on a bit of a circle around the edge, supposedly searching for a direct route to the centre. After briefly bumping into Surskit, Heracross strangely changes direction, and finds a gap in the outside wall. After blundering around a bit, Heracross manages to move a little bit nearer towards the centre. But then disaster strikes, and Heracross finds himself in a dead end. The klaxon then goes for the end of the challenge, meaning that Heracross has failed.

Houndour apparently doesn’t believe that the walls are invisible, and goes galloping forwards quickly. It manages five steps, before crashing into a wall. Incredibly, Houndour creates a hole in the wall with the impact. Houndour darts through it, and easily makes it’s way to the centre, after just two minutes.

Mightyena chooses the feeling around method. She finds a path quite quickly, and despite making her way towards the centre quite quickly, she suddenly finds herself in a dead end. Having no choice but to turn around, Mightyena finds itself going around in a circle, before finding herself in another dead end. Starting to get a bit annoyed, Mightyena takes another path, which actually finally leads Mightyena to the centre, after eight minutes.

Surskit starts off feeling her way around the edge of the maze. After nearly making it halfway around, Surskit bumps into Heracross, who was also not looking where he was going. Surskit really struggles to get anywhere in the maze, and seems too worried about bumping into walls. It’s for those reasons that when the final klaxon goes, Surskit is nowhere near the centre.

Vibrava finds a gap directly in front of it, but strangely ignores it and tries’ working it’s way around the edge. It finds another gap and takes it. The path is very long, but Vibrava perseveres… and finds itself in a dead end. Vibrava appears to have gotten stuck in the maze, and is definitely lost. After many dead ends, Vibrava tried one more path, and to everyone’s amazement, most of all Vibrava’s, the path leads to the centre, and Vibrava makes it… seconds before the klaxon goes. The challenge has only just been passed.

Presenter: Well contestants, 5 of you did make it to the centre, literally seconds before your time is up. It appears that money spurs you on, since you’ve finally ended your little losing spree. The prize fund now stands at 53,980. But of course, before you all celebrating, you have to face your fourth elimination. I’ll see you there tonight.

Elimination

Presenter: It’s time to say goodbye to somebody else. You’ve taken the test, and in a moment, I’ll start entering your names into the computer. You know how it works - if the screen turns green when your name has been entered, you’ll pass through to the next episode. If the screen turns red, then you are the PokéMole’s fourth victim. We know that Girafarig, Gligar and Houndour are safe, but let’s get on it with.