Sabotages and Clues

Season Three

So, Jumpluff was the PokéMole. Tangela came close, but it was Torkoal who won the in-game.

Alas, what about the out-game? Has Phil managed to completely bamboozle me again by claiming the PokéMole crown for the third consecutive series? Or has somebody made my day by dethroning him? In this special episode we’ll reveal the Sabotages Jumpluff got up to, the clues that hinted towards the PokéMole being Jumpluff, and of course, the all important winner. Woo.

The Psychology Behind The Series and The Houndour Factor

When I sat down to plan this series, I looked at situations with which Phil had won the last two series. It occurred to me he’d picked up on early clues both times, and therefore since I knew he was likely to submit a guess as early as possible, the way this series was going to work was by rather than a possible jugular kill right at the start, to make it next to impossible at the beginning, and then gradually reveal more and more about Jumpluff, since Phil was likely to have already submitted his guess – it didn’t matter if he got it as long as he couldn’t win anymore. However, I couldn’t resist sticking a few early clues in. A certain opening sentence had a lot of people scratching their heads ;). That opening sentence could not be deciphered straight away – it got more and more possible over time, as you’ll see below, but remained pretty sneaky. This remained a common factor with a lot of the clues – they were always there, but only became visible over time. Looking back on previous episodes was the key to unlocking this series – something which has never been needed before. I gave Jumpluff a very quiet first episode – there were no sabotages, which explains why the Contestants won all three opening challenges.

Last time out, an awful lot of people submitted Houndour as their guess. This was no accident – I set out last series to purposely frame Houndour, and then had him eliminated on the penultimate episode, just to annoy the hell out of people. The problem was, some people realised Houndour was too obvious to be the PokéMole, and looked further into the series, and worked it out. So although the Houndour Factor wouldn’t work in this series, I chose to give it a whole new dimension. Contestants no longer acted like robots – they each had their own personality. Psyduck was the stupid one (added mainly for comedy value – the shinyness was just to add a bit of variety), Loudred the sarcastic one and Tangela and Torkoal the brainy ones, who I knew were ultimately going to form the final two Contestants. This meant each Contestant could be suspicious in their own right, which is why I think this series was definitely the hardest yet, so if you even came to within a whisker of guessing early on you should be very proud of yourself.

The Slight Mistake – 50/50 chance

I am human, and as Pkmn man pointed out to me on MSN, there was a very good way of eliminating one suspect from the final three straight away. One question in the final quiz asked for the colour of the Apricorn used by the PokéMole. Tangela was the judge in that challenge, and therefore never used an Apricorn, therefore based on the question, couldn’t be the PokéMole. Oh well – nobody’s perfect.

The Sabotages

Episode 2

Challenge 5 – Jumpluff made no attempt to solve any anagrams, thus making it a “three against five” situation, increasing the chance of the Team of Four failing, like she previously predicted.
Challenge 6 – Jumpluff quickly emerges from the icy water, making failure more likely.

Episode 3

Challenge 8 – Jumpluff positioned Torkoal near a Poochyena, making discovery more likely. Torkoal then did the rest without Jumpluff needing to do anything (although I loved the spore theories a few people suggested).
Challenge 9 – Jumpluff puts as little effort into her ball as possible.

Episode 4

Challenge 12 – Jumpluff reaches the room containing 8,000 before anyone else, thus more than halving the money won.

Episode 5

Challenge 13 – Jumpluff purposely made an incorrect guess as to how she thought the name was rated. She already knew the answer, as is the efficientness of my production team.
Challenge 14 – Jumpluff, already knowing all the answers, made sure she got put in the bottom placed group, meaning other Contestants had to answer more difficult equations.

Episode 6

Challenge 16 – Jumpluff mucks up its radio slot, making failure more likely.
Challenge 18 – Jumpluff lost to the Magneton on purpose.

Episode 8

Challenge 22 – Jumpluff tries to make the other Contestants think she’s found the correct flute. This wastes valuable time, and also psychologically implies the hugeness of the task to the other two Contestants.
Challenge 23 – Jumpluff gets both her questions wrong.

The Clues

1. In “Meet The Contestants”, the ‘mon were actually revealed in the same order they left the competition. Naturally, there would be one Mon who could never leave – the PokéMole, who naturally would come last in the list.
2. In the past two series, we’ve had a genderless Mole and a male Mole. Surely you guessed a female was on the way? ;)
3. All the Contestants’ had the same number of letters in their names (7) except for one who had 8 – Jumpluff. You do remember me saying the PokéMole was unique in one way?
4. Take a look at the first words of each episode – in order, they say “The answer is hidden in the second words.” Look at the first letter of the second words – they spell out Jumpluff. This was hinted at in the opening to Episode 2, using the phrase “second nature.”
5. In Episode 6, Jumpluff claims in it’s diary: “It’s always difficult, knowing someone you’ve gotten close to is gonna leave.” By the wording, Jumpluff clearly knows she’s under no threat from the eliminations, for the simple reason that she cannot be eliminated.
6. The messages daubed on the wall at each elimination were anagrams of the phrase “Last Introduced.” Guess who the last Pokémon to be introduced in “Meet The Contestants” was ;).
7. After the game “Tower of Terror,” Episode 4, the Presenter claims that “It looks like the PokéMole, just gave out three times as much speed.” This was a reference to the fact that Jumpluff gives out three Speed EV’s.
8. The answers to the three Jailbreak puzzles in Episode 5 were 069, 189 and 334 – the three current different Pokedex numbers of Jumpluff.
9. The PokéMole link on the home page of PKMN.NET very clearly told you “one is a plant…”.

The Winners

1st - Teh PC (Episode 3)
2nd - Christmas| Blazogre
3rd - Swinub
4th – MysticMew

These are the three people I believe gave sufficient evidence to prove they knew what they were talking about. A few other people were close but couldn’t quite put it into words.

Anyway, there is one noticeable thing about that list. PHIL HAS NOT WON. BROADCAST IT AROUND! PHIL GOT IT WRONG!

Full credit to the new PokéMole Champion - Teh PC guessed it was Jumpluff during Episode 3 (I think), at a time when Psythor asked me if I was sure I wrote a PokéMole in, due to the fact it’s the longest time into the series that the winning guess has been submitted. This being the intended aim, I think I can declare myself satisfied that PokéMole 3 lived up to my aims whilst writing.

PokéMole 4?

Ooh, decisions decisions. The popularity of Series 3 pleased me, but all good things come in 3’s, so for now I’ve no intentions of writing a fourth series, but I’ll never say never. Instead I’m going to be working on something new I think a lot of you will like, but don’t be surprised if one day in the future, if I’m bored, I turn on my laptop and start drawing up a list of new Contestants ;).

To everyone – thanks for playing!