All For Meadow Muffin - An Interview with Mole 2's Katie Mills

It didn't take long for Katie Mills to make her presence known on the second edition of The Mole. For Mills, a teacher from Penacook, New Hampshire, the adventure began when she started watching the first edition of The Mole at the encouraging of her mother. Last year's Trap Test, set at the University of Seville, brought back memories of Mills' own experience of living in Spain. That one episode hooked the teacher on the reality series. Pretty soon she was shooting her own video in hopes of getting on the show.

Her audition process became a class project. With her students interviewing their peers and her fellow colleagues on the school's staff, Mills and her students carefully crafted a video detailing why their favorite teacher would not only make a fabulous contestant but a devious mole as well. Soon, she was off to Switzerland for the adventure of a lifetime.

In her first event, Mills was selected to participate in the Swing for Life - a swing across a gorge from a height of one hundred feet. For this New Hampshire school teacher, a fear of heights was not going to stop her from participating. In fact, coupled with the bungee jump she took later in the game, Mills conquered her fear of heights and even planned a skydiving expedition last December before plans ultimately had to be scrapped.

After wildly screaming her way through the Swing for Life challenge, Mills dedicated her success in the game to her stuffed cow that she assumed she lost during the Burning Bags challenge. Despite being warned to remove all valuable or important products from their bags, Meadow Muffin was still in her bag at the start of the still controversial challenge.

"We all had two bags - one for our clothes and our personal bag that had things like our journals," she explained. "I just didn't have enough room in my bag for him. I think he's more famous than I am now."

Following the Burning Bags challenge, Mills was one of the first players to confront the production staff. She admits to "dropping the F-bomb" on the crew and host Anderson Cooper. Proving that the destruction of their clothes and personal effects was nothing more than a bit of dramatic license on the show became one of her top priorities.

"I think we all tried to some extent to trip them up. Lisa had some medication that she had put in her bag and they actually went out to replace it. I think Elavia had some contact lens items in her bag as well and they replaced it for her."

And what of the mysterious cast that appeared on her arm and mysteriously disappeared a few episodes later? After competing in the Little John/Little Jane game ("Little John was a walking mountain," Mills joked), the group embarked to a swimming pool where it was later revealed that Al had to grant one of his fellow players immunity.

"While walking down the stairs from the pool, I slipped and landed hard on my arm. They had to take me to the hospital and I thought I had a broken arm and ankle but I just sprained my thumb really bad."

The cast was necessary in order to combat to swelling and bruising that occurred during the accident and to assist in the healing process.

Her biggest moment, though, came in the "Think or Sink" challenge. As her fellow player, Bribs, was valiantly treading water with multiple weights placed around his neck, Katie was scrambling to put together the answer to the puzzle - "Giulietta e Romeo," the title of the classic Shakespearean play as it originally appeared in Italian.