Basic Trope: The Mole has taken control of the organization to be infiltrated.
- Straight: Alex, having infiltrated the government, becomes the Dark Messiah.
- Exaggerated: Alex is secretly manipulating every organization, except the one he really works for.
- Downplayed:
- Alex is in charge of a small organization.
- Alex is only Number Two or a friend and adviser to the person(s) in charge of the organization.
- Alex is a leader in name only.
- Justified: Alex is a Consummate Liar, he uses this to slip up to a high position.
- Inverted:
- Alex the janitor is The Mole.
- Bob suspects that Alex is an agent of Emperor Evulz, but is shocked to learn that he is Evulz himself.
- Subverted:
- Bob brings evidence that Alex is the Mole, but it is proven wrong.
- Alex is merely Brainwashed and Crazy and isn't an agent of Emperor Evulz.
- Double Subverted:
- As soon as Alex is alone, Alex says that he is glad that he was not caught.
- Alex wasn't brainwashed and he merely acts like it so his true nature can be covered up.
- Parodied:
- Alex is obviously a mole, but is elected or appointed to a leadership position anyway.
- Alex, an agent of Emperor Evulz, is put in a position of power. However, he gets so caught up in the act that he forgets his mission, and ironically disrupts every plan of Emperor Evulz's.
- After the heroes catch Alex, he gives a Motive Rant in which he explains he became the Mole in Charge because he just wanted to learn embarrassing secrets about the others.
- Zig-Zagged: Charlie, the Number Two, is seen reporting to people concluded to be agents of the bad guys. When Bob confronts him about this, he learns that Charlie had no idea that they were bad guys, and only reported to them because The Leader, Alex, told him to. Upon further investigation, Alex reveals that those orders came from even higher in the chain of command.
- Averted: The leader of the organization is not The Mole. Lower members might be moles, though.
- Enforced: "Alex is supposed to be smart, but he really isn't. Let's make him a bad guy, and make his 'stupidity' really intentional."
- Lampshaded: "So, Alex, the president is really one of the bad guys."
- Invoked: Alex figures he's likelier to harm the organization more as a mole than as a known enemy of it and that the amount of damage he does will rise in proportion to his rank therein.
- Exploited: Bob, an Intrepid Reporter, has conclusive, irrefutable evidence that Governor Alex is an agent of the bad guys. He uses this to blackmail monetary or political favors out of Alex.
- Defied: People who were in the organization already are Properly Paranoid about Alex. They let him in but don't let him lead until they know he is trustworthy.
- Discussed: "Anyone here could be bad, even Alex himself."
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Alex's organization eventually finds out he's The Mole. He is executed for this.
- Reconstructed: Instead of executing him, they use him to feed false information to their enemies.
- Played for Laughs: Alex got the cause and effect backwards when he made the reason given in Invoked: he is subject to The Peter Principle when he's promoted in the organization he joined intending to undermine it.
- Played for Drama: Alex, the charismatic Father to His Men, is revealed to be The Mole and is removed from his position. The once efficient True Companions he led lose their chemistry and can no longer trust each other because of the betrayal, at least one of them becoming emotionally distraught.
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