In this, the first season of The Mole, the players only knew ahead of time that they had applied to, and been accepted to appear on, a new reality game show.
The Mole was hired separately, though it was revealed during the season finale that he was artificially put through the rigours of the application process, so that he would be able to naturally talk about the experience with the others.
Shortly after the assignment began, the host phoned Patrick and offered him one final clue - he needed to find a blue envelope.
The boat team was out of contact for most of the assignment, until Rocky noticed that Abby seemed to be hiding an extra phone battery.
After the helicopter found them and dropped a message in a bottle with the details of their assignment, all three vehicles made it to Patrick's cell in time.
The others were divided into two groups of four, given cameras, and told that within two hours they must record, among them, at least one minute of the sound and picture of other people laughing.
They easily achieved this, but afterward it was revealed that this was only a test run - the real challenge, for $5,000, was to then replicate this feat without their subjects seeing the video camera.
The players found this part of the challenge to be considerably more difficult, as it was tricky to film people without them knowing, and without a visible camera there was nothing to excuse their silly behaviour and thus the inhibitions of their subjects were greater.
The Labyrinth: Immediately after Patrick's elimination, late at night, the remaining eight players were told to pick two people who deserved a nice time.
The final runner was Rocky, guided by Jan, and he survived inside the maze for a minute and 47 seconds, winning the $10,000, despite the fact a clear path to the exit was available for him well before reaching the three-minute mark.
He approached numerous local businesses to get them to donate prizes to auction off at the party, and set the cover at $6 a head.
Alan, Abby, and Ben all became extremely seasick on their trip, due to swells in the water and the stinking fish guts they had to use to bait their cray pots.
They'd enjoy a relaxing evening on the yacht with the host while the others had to rough it, with only the fish they'd caught in the previous challenge to be their food for the night.
The group predicted, based on the time of day, that Linda would not order an alcoholic drink with her food, but she in fact did, so the challenge was lost.
Interrogation: The host woke Abby, Alan, Beverley, and Jan up at quarter to one in the morning the next day, and took them back to Richmond Gaol.
Linda called the host a few hours into her interrogations, and gave a specific, correct answer to the question of what the other four had done the previous day.
She managed to get a security guard to give her access to centre court, where she was able to photograph Jelena Dokić, but she had forgotten to ask permission.
After some fruitless celebrity-hunting in cafes and hotels, Abby at last encountered a Seven Network sportscaster (Jim Wilson) and a football player from Essendon, and photographed them with their permission.
Alan dyed his hair blond, drew a rather crude nude portrait, and had an acupuncture session himself, meaning all four envelopes had been completed, winning the money.
Bike the Mountain: The players met at the foot of Mount Wellington and were told to, in relay, cycle to the summit.
Incredibly, the players encountered snow and ice on the road as they neared the summit though the episode took place in the middle of summer.
Jan took a photo with him, but Abby actually brought the man back to the host, which was what was needed for that treasure to count.
They collected photos from an exhibit on dinosaurs and with a Tasmanian devil, and Alan found the lost phone, so it seemed the $10,000 was won.
However, Alan broke a driving law in pursuit of the phone (he made a U-turn over a median strip), so the money was revoked.
They gathered in Sydney to watch episode eight on TV, during which time only Abby, Alan, and Jan knew the outcome of the game.
The following acts of sabotage were revealed in the final episode: Hostage Rescue: Alan jammed the signal on communications coming into the helicopter, and purposely searched for the key to unlock Patrick in places he knew it would not be.
Humour Test: Alan's camerawork caught very little human laughter, but it perfectly recorded his teammates' cheating.
Fishing Trip: Alan was the only one to go out to re-check the cray pots, and on his return to shore, his motorboat mysteriously ran out of fuel.
Brainteasers: Alan did almost nothing to help Beverley and Jan solve the brain teasers, instead he encouraged them to double-check their answers, even when he was sure they were correct, in order to waste time.
Celebrity Photography: Alan is an AFL fan and lives near Essendon, the team of the football player Abby photographed.