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I love The Mole. More than any other reality show, The Mole inspires and encourages paranoia in contestants. Watching these people become more and more frazzled week after week is, perhaps oddly, incredibly enjoyable. Then there's the fact that we get to travel that road with them every week, looking for the tiny hints and clues, and wonder about everything, absolutely everything, we see. What could be better summer fare than that?
I'm still on a little bit of a high this week that Bobby is gone. He just rubbed me the wrong way. Of course, he rubbed a lot of people, like Paul, the wrong way too. Craig actually talked about liking him and Victoria said Bobby was the only one she trusted in the game. I wonder what they saw that we didn't.
For the first task tonight, the contestants moved to Argentina and everyone had to divide into two teams - the selfish and the selfless. The teams would have to carry 200 gold bricks (or as many as they could manage) up a mountain. The team that made it up to the top first would get an exemption. Each brick that made it to the top would add 250 bucks to the pot and, funnily enough, the selfish team took far fewer bricks than the selfless team.
Throwing a wrench into my "Mark is the mole" theory, he recognized that his team (the selfless ones) had Craig and that with Craig they would be slower and couldn't possibly get the exemption. He figured that they should therefore grab as much gold as they could and increase the pot more. But, when the team had to grab a 20 pound scale halfway up the mountain, and Mark dropped bricks to do it, I breathed a sigh of relief. Mark was also very happy when Craig had to stop during the trip as the whole team had to arrive, in time, together.
While the selfish team made it to the top with plenty of time to spare (and 23 bricks), the selfless group just barely made it (but with 34 bricks). The selfish team wound up with one little issue though - only one of them could get the exemption, not the whole team. After some discussion, it went to Clay, ensuring his safety this week.
Once it was all said and done though, Craig ended up with hypothermia and altitude sickness. Medics had to be called in. Happily, he was released later that day and seemed fine. As I doubt that the producers would have had that happen on purpose, or faked it in order to dissuade us from considering him, I think we can safely say at this point that Craig isn't the mole. Plus, he didn't participate in the rest of the episode's events (save the quiz), and I don't see how the mole could have skipped a task and still be the mole.
At dinner that same night, Jon took all the players' journals from them and left the room. Awesome. I was a little disappointed that he brought them back untouched, but what he did do was to write down a bunch of comments from them. The next task had begun. Jon would give a single player a comment from a journal, and if the player could figure it out cash would be added to the pot.
Despite the fact that the players weren't allowed to signal one another, Nicole certainly signaled Kristen when Kristen was asked about a quote (Nicole was the author, something Kristen should have known anyway). Very happily, Jon caught Nicole and at the end of the mission he took back the money for that answer. Nicole's not the mole, she's too obvious every time she costs the group money, she's just plain annoying.
After a delicious-looking crème brulee, the contestants all took a lovely trip outside into the brisk night air. Jon, standing in front of a fire, asked one person to volunteer their journal. Alex volunteered his and everyone assumed it was going into the fire. However, it was Alex's journal, the volunteered one, that was the one book that didn't get burned to a crisp that night.
That perturbed my mole candidate mightily. Mark, who, we're told, wrote everything he possibly could in his journal, went from well and truly angry to near tears. And then, he disappeared. Everyone was ready to go home for the night, but Mark was nowhere to be found. I figure he was getting mole-instructions from the producers and he did reappear eventually, never saying where he had headed off to. Mark was even more angry that Craig, not being at the dinner, didn't lose his journal.
This week also brought the first tie in quiz results this season. Ties mean that the slower player, who was only slower in answering the questions by five seconds this time, goes home. It's a tough way to go home, tougher than a regular loss, but them's the breaks.
Despite the fear caused by losing his journal (allegedly), Mark was not eliminated this week. Victoria, however, was. It's sad, I kind of liked her, not enough to see my choice for mole go, but I liked her.
Questions, questions, questions:
- What was up with Paul's lemon face mascot thingy at the beginning of the episode? Where did that come from? Where did that go to? Why didn't we see it again?
- What did Victoria mean that it was suspicious that Clay wanted the exemption, how did wanting the exemption make it more like that Clay's the mole?
- Only seven mole candidates left, who are you voting for?
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Clay grabbing the exemption meant 1. Everyone else was certainly on the chopping block, not just 6 of them, and 2. Made him look desperate, like he needed it, which is a good way to cover-up Moleish behavior.
I also thought Mark disappeared b/c he was getting Mole instructions.
My mole is still Paul. The one thing that was very subtle was the questions at dinner. Everyone but Paul was given a question that had a clear "voice" to it. Paul's question was so vague and broad, no one could blame him for getting it wrong. That to me was a deliberate producer manipulation to guarantee that the mole would cost them money but not look obvious, *loud cough* *big wink* *loud choking cough* Nicole. Speaking of which, why do people think it is in their interest to come off looking like the obvious mole. I think by now any logical sane person would immediately discount you as not the mole and it makes it that much easier. Now if Nicole was a little more subtle, her plan might work.
Secondly, we saw Paul's diary. I slow-mo'd it on my DVR and it was quite interesting. He had things like "Stay on your toes", "Trust no one but yourself" and drawings which looked to be where people were sitting during the various dinners. From what I remember of everyone else, they wrote more than that in their journal in hopes of recording what they thought was relevant. I don't know how good anyone's memory is, but from my experiences, with this much info being thrown at a contestant, why would you chance forgetting something unless you didn't need to remember it?
My take on Mark is he is doing mole like things so the producers are using that as a red herring. Each week he does something that we can clearly interpret as the mole, but I think that is just him and his personality. Do you really think the mole would act upset and disappear like that. To me it was an obvious overreaction, something I don't think the mole would do.
In conclusion, each week the show is edited to give the audience enough ammo to make a case for a few people. Unless we are there in the different situations experiencing the game unedited, it is hard to pick the mole right now. So far, my pick is still there but next week looks a little rough for him!
Nicole strikes again - in an obvious way this week. Well done. Her attempt at slowing down the selfish team was minimal, but the penalty against the pot was blatant.
I was actually waiting for the penalty after Nicole did that and thought it was weird that Jon didn't say anything. Of course, he mentioned the penalty after the game was over.
and was it wrong that I was starting to get infatuated with Victoria...haha
Did you notice the very obvious mole green jacket-vest Clay had on during the brick challenge?
Hmmmm.
I'm not sure that you can discount Craig from being at the evening challenge - did anyone else notice the creme brulee that was left untouched at the end of the table when everyone left?
Could it have been for someone that was in hiding at that particular challenge?
Maybe it was for the plant that kept appearing and dis-appearing off the table.
I missed Bobby as well. There are definitely players that are much more annoying (Paul and Nicole), and Bobby was always good for a laugh.
I'm still not sure who the Mole is, but once again I predicted who'd be executed. Unfortunetly this means I won't know who the mole is until the final episode. Right now I'm leaning towards Clay.
I don't think it's Mark though. Nor Paul. I can see the finale being Mark, Paul and the Mole (Again, right now I'd guess Clay).
Reasoning behind Clay has to do with the exemption this episode. Kristin deserved it for the work she did during the mission, even Nicole admitted that. All the women on Clay's team could have lost money from the pot by not letting Clay have it, and they'd all have obvious reasons (Victoria's never had one, Kristin did the most work, and Nicole...well Nicole is Nicole.) But they all allowed Clay to have it to keep money in the pot.
yes, the mole is CLAY, for sure.
i didn't even think of that (mark disappearing to get mole instructions) - do you really think the producers would actually do that right there?
- i love all these theories about creme brulee left untouched and green jackets, etc... we are all starting to sound like corbin bernson from the celebrity mole seasons and his seeing a clue/hint in everything.