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The Mole: Traveling in Chains

Before we get down to business, can I indulge in a bit of shameless self promotion? Thanks. If you’re interested in my take on WALL-E, follow that link for my review.

Okay, now to tonight’s episode of The Mole.

Now that Victoria has left the show, I am completely in the dark as to who The Mole could be. So I am back to where I was in week one. Well, I do have one advantage. Now I’m trying to guess who it is from seven players instead of twelve.

Tonight’s episode opens in Lispallata, Argentina. (You’ve got to love a DVR to get details like how that is spelled.) The remaining players arrive at an abandoned train station where prisoners were chained together.

The seven players were chained by their ankles to bars behind them. There is enough slack that one person can reach the key in a cage opposite them. Every 10 minutes, they will have a one minute window to get the key. The person who gets the key can only free themselves. Once you are free, you get a nice bed, a warm fire, and good meal. If all the players leave, they get $25K for the pot. However, there is also an exemption card next to the key. If someone takes that, they get the exemption, but those still chained have to stay there over night and no money gets added to the pot.

Before we begin, I’ve got to say I hope Craig goes first since he’s cold and still sick. And Paul will grab that exemption card.

Shall we see if I’m right?

Well, Craig did use the health card and convinced everyone else to let him go first. True to his word, he took the key, unlocked himself, and split.

But things immediately fell apart after that. After bitter arguing, Clay was stretching out a sleeping bag. But eventually, Kristin was allowed to get the key during the next window.

Paul immediately starting campaigning to be next, swearing on his daughter he would take the key. He claimed this was the only time he could be trusted. And sure enough, after trying to fake them out by reaching toward the exemption, he did take the key.

The last four were starting to bicker. They don’t trust each other to not take the exemption after they have left. Heck, Mark was getting so bitter that Clay began to question their alliance. But he still went, as did Nicole.

So we were down to Mark and Alex. Alex went, leaving Mark, who no one was willing to trust, for last. All alone, he has to decide what he will do when the window goes up. And he took the key. Not only did no one take the exemption, but they did it in about an hour. I figured they’d be out there longer before everyone went. And I really did think Paul would sentence most everyone to stay out all night.

Instead, the pot gets $25K.

At this point, they did get new journals. That wasn’t enough to make Mark happy. But it did make the others happy.

From there, the team traveled to Mendoza, known as the Napa Valley of Argentina. Paul and Clay got into it during the driving there. I’m with Craig; this game is bringing out the worth in people. Craig switched cars, but at that point, Clay threw a lemon at Paul. At which point Clay and Kristin switched places.

Things haven’t improved the next morning. Paul is still mad, but Clay is trying to get beyond it. Craig isn’t feeling completely better, health wise, either, even though they are at a lower elevation in warmer weather.

The next mission involves traveling about 5 miles in 45 minutes to a statue in the middle of town. The seven players will be divided into teams of two. The odd person out is the transportation captain, and was chosen at breakfast. The first player to say the word exemption, which happened to be Craig, was the captain. He gets to divide them into teams and he gets to designate the teams’ mode of transportation.

And yes, there is an exemption on the line. If none of the teams get to the statue on time, then Craig gets one. Of course, no money is added to the pot.

Craig goes for the exemption and humor. In fact, he was upfront about that with everyone else. Here’s what he chose:

Alex – Conquistador leading a donkey.
Mark – Dressed in scuba including the flippers.

Clay – Unicycle
Kristen – Stilts

Nicole – Head of llama costume
Paul – Back of llama costume

No one was happy about that, but Nicole was extremely bitter.

Mark once again refused to try. And he led a mutiny, with Kristen right behind him. Alex wasn’t ready to give up, thinking there might be a twist along the way. No one would take responsibility for the decision once they made it and drove to the finish line, however. They also refused to admit that Craig earned that exemption. Frankly, I thought it he was trying to earn that exemption, he did it brilliantly. It wouldn’t have been impossible, but it would have been hard for any one team to make it there. It did make everyone furious with him, however.

Which leads us to the quiz. Once again tonight, there was a tie. The difference in time? One second.

Tonight’s victim was Kristen.

As I watched tonight, I tried to focus on who The Mole could be. And you know who I thought it might be? Kristen. Oops.

That leaves Nicole and five men. That will make for an interesting mix.

So I actually took the quiz tonight (before I found out who left, so I look like a fool) at abc.com. The majority of the people who took it seem to think Mark is The Mole. I think that’s too obvious. I would hope The Mole is more subtle than that. But I really don’t have a clear suspect at this point.

Any theories?

According to my TV Guide, The Mole is off for a week so that The Bachelorette can finish up. Assuming that is correct (and I plan to double check when it gets closer), we’ll see you in two weeks.

Mark