'The Mole' Season 2 Finalists Talk Through the Season's Biggest Moments and Unseen Gameplay

SPOILER ALERT! The following interview contains information that reveals the final outcome of The Mole Season 2 on Netflix, including the winner and the identity of the Mole. Please do not read ahead if you do not want to know the end result.

Season 2 of Netflix's The Mole was full of plenty of twists and turns, ups and downs. The contestants this season traveled throughout Malaysia and experienced plenty of ups and downs. They built up and drained their prize pot. They made sacrifices for the team, and sabotaged out in the open to draw attention to themselves. They got into tense conflicts and even sparked romance.

Along the way, various cast members failed to figure out the Mole's identity, falling out of the competition. That included Deanna Thompson , a web investigator and star of fellow Netflix series Don't F**k with Cats , and Hannah Burns , who went from taking $35,000 out of the pot for the first Exemption of the season to declining an opportunity for the final Exemption to add money back in. In the end, former undercover cop Sean Patrick Bryan wasn't just lying about his past career, as he was this season's saboteur in the Mole. Though he had built a game of explicitly sabotaging as a double bluff, both of the people he stood next to in the end were onto him. The final quiz only came down to a couple of questions. But for Michael O'Brien , those couple of questions proved to be worthy of $154,000, as he edged out Muna Abdulahi in the end.

Parade spoke exclusively with Sean, Michael, Muna, Hannah, and Deanna about their time on The Mole Season 2.

Related: Everything to Know About Netflix's The Mole Season 2

To start, how did you each end up applying for a show like The Mole ? Were you a fan of its prior seasons?
Sean Patrick Bryan: Me and my wife, that was one of the shows back in the day. We watched the original one with Anderson Cooper. And then when Netflix rebooted it, we got back into it. But my wife actually got an advertisement or notification that they were casting for Season 2. And, of course, I do what my wife says. So she sends me the advertisement. I went through the process of the application in the video, and that's what got the ball rolling. So the wife made it. She started it.
Michael O'Brien: I originally applied, and heard nothing. And then someone reached out to me and was like, "You should apply." And I was like, "I already did!" So I applied twice. And then I went through the whole process, got selected, and I was so excited, because I loved Season One on Netflix. I was at the edge of my seat, trying to figure out who's the Mole, who's gonna win. And one of the main reasons why I wanted to be on The Mole was representation for the LGBTQ community. This cast alone, you look at everybody, and it's such a diverse cast. And I think that's one of the best things that came out of this season is everyone got to represent what their life is and what they stand for. And I love that.
Muna Abdulahi: I'm a big fan of The Mole. Just the whole franchise as a whole, internationally, Belgium, etc. And just social strategy game shows in general. And so I saw the ad somewhere, I forgot where it was, and I applied the old-fashioned way.
Hannah Burns: I watched Season One, and I loved it. I was obsessed. And I don't watch reality TV that much, or TV in general. I have a really short attention span, if you can't tell. [But] it really held my attention the whole time. And I was like, "This is such a dope show. I would love to do something like this." And then, a couple weeks later, it was an Instagram ad that they were casting. I don't know, they probably heard me talking about it, and targeted me. [ Laughs .] And so I applied.
Deanna Thompson: It was a little different entrance. I was approached. And I initially was like, "No." Reality TV isn't really my genre. I deal a lot with families and victims and whatnot when in my true crime. I don't want to really come on a show where I might have to lie and maybe get a bad rep. And then they kept asking. So I was like, "Well, okay, let me make it an internal challenge to see if I can take my computer skills and sleuthing and my data analysis offline to the real world." So I thought of it as an internal challenge, and how fun would that be to see how it works?

So I want to go back over to Sean. Because, throughout the season, you kept saying in confessionals that the sabotages you were doing were purposely obtuse so that the players would think you were the Mole and get eliminated. Considering you were actually the Mole, was that just a double bluff for the audience?
Sean: Yeah, that's what it was, a double bluff for the viewers, and even for the players as well. Because if you're that open about sabotage, they're like, "Yo, this dude, there's no way. Why would he be that?" You want to be discreet. So I took my moments to do things a little bit more behind the scenes. But when I knew there was eyes on me, I would take those moments to let those eyes see something. So then they're like, "Well, that's not him. Why would you be that blatant about it?" But for everybody, the players and the viewers, you want to make an entertaining and fun show and keep people guessing through all 10 episodes. So, I mean, that falls on me heavily, because my job is to be discreet. I have to play as a player and the Mole, and it was for everybody.

On that note, Michael and Muna, you both land on Sean as your final guess for the Mole. At what point in the season did he become your prime suspect?
Michael: I went all in on Sean Quiz Two. And it wasn't so much what Sean was doing. It was what everyone else was doing. I kind of canceled people out. The first two missions, it was a lot. It was a big learning experience being a part of a TV show. And it was hot; I was sweating like no other Malaysia. So, at that moment, I felt confident. I was like, "Either I'm going all in and I could possibly win this game. Or I'm gonna have a lovely vacation in Malaysia for the next six weeks". Fortunate enough for me, I was correct. I had some doubts along the way. But from that point on, I tried to learn as much as possible about Sean, continue to be suspicious, and then try to block Sean's sabotage so no one else saw it. So they would think I was the Mole long run, so that they go home and I stay.
Muna: So Sean was suspicious to me the very first moment that I met him. It was right next to Andy. I was like, "It had to be Andy." So it was like, Andy, Sean with the sprinkle of Mel. Mel was suspicious! But then you see me in the theater go and watch Sean. And after that, I voted fully for Sean all throughout.

Hannah, you were showing some Sean-like behavior in the beginning of the game, specifically when you took a significant amount of money from the pot to get an Exemption. But, bu the end of the season, you were one of the biggest team players, even declining a chance at the last Exemption to put money into the pot. What prompted your change of tune?
Hannah: I mean, I didn't take the Exemption to be suspicious. I never tried to paint myself as the Mole. I took the Exemption because I didn't want to go home! [ Laughs .]
Muna: That's fair.
Hannah: I took the exemption because I'm just selfish, not because I was trying to be suspicious. And I changed my tune after towards when Q got eliminated. And it was because, at that point, everyone was trying to throw suspicion on themselves, and nobody was putting money on the pot. Neesh drained the pot. And it just started getting really frustrating. Here I was; I had really, really given it my all in a lot of these missions. I was physically and mentally exhausted. It started getting narrower and narrower, and now there's only six of us left, and I could be at the end of this thing, and we're going to have $0 in the pot. So it did surprise me, because I didn't plan on doing that. I kind of planned to hold my cards close to my chest, and I think I made it pretty obvious for everyone that it wasn't me as the Mole. Which kind of puts a target on your back, now people can rule you out. So it's definitely a riskier way to play the game. I mean, I didn't win, so maybe it's the wrong thing to do. But whatever. [ Laughs .]
Muna: It's riskier, and people don't talk about that. It is a risky game to play, being kind of the honest player. I mean, very risky.

Well, you talk about putting yourself out there. Let's talk about your relationship with Tony, which became surprisingly romantic, especially for a show like The Mole .
Hannah: So it started out as strategic, as you saw, with Tony, Je,n and I. I was like, "These are people right away that I felt like I could trust." I pretty much ruled them out immediately. They were both super eager for an alliance, and I kind of assumed that if you were the Mole, you wouldn't want to get close personally to players, because it would be pretty obvious for them. So right away, I pretty much ruled them out. And then Jen, obviously, went home immediately. So then it was Tony and I, and we started spending a lot of time together. Obviously, they fit six weeks into 10 hours of filming. But we were spending all day together every day. And so the romance started as strategic, and then it was on and off screen.

Deanna, you had mentioned your desire to put your sleuthing skills to the test. How do you feel they ultimately translated offline?
Deanna: Muna, on day one, you asked me, "Who do you think the Mole is?" What did I say?
Muna: Sean.

Wow! Was it just a vibe? Did he approach you differently in the field?
Sean: Yeah, give him the answer, Deanna!
Deanna: It's not strategic. It was not a strategic answer. We're such a diverse cast, right? We are such a diverse cast. And I was like, "The only normal, straight, average, middle-aged white man here is Sean." [ Laughs .]
Sean: Average?! Normal?!
Michael: Middle aged, wow!
Deanna: Michael was such a good player. And I really think it's underestimated how good Michael is. Michael got in our heads. I mean, he really got in our heads. He played the game so well that, even though I felt confident the most with Sean, I still would answer one question or so for him. And ultimately, that's what got me out of the game. And so, I mean, I think it's really undervalued and underestimated how great he played the game.

Lastly, let's go back to the "normal, straight, average, middle-aged white man" in Sean. We heard so much throughout this season about how close you all were getting, and how tough it was to separate logic and emotion. As the game went along for you, did you have any difficulty sabotaging, given how much it was affecting people you grew to care about?
Sean: I loved it. I loved every moment of it. That's the job, right? That's the job. I mean, it's a big task to be deceitful for six weeks. And don't get me wrong, it got to me towards the end. But it's a job. You're hired to do a job. And with these 11 other players, they all got it; they understand the game. So the more that they understood how the gameplay was, I didn't feel bad. I wasn't crushing dreams or breaking up marriages or homes after the show. They understood the rules at a game. So I made it easier for me to do my dirt and do my job.

Next, check out our interview with The Mole Season 1 finalists Joi Schweitzer, William Richardson, and Kesi Neblett .