The Mole: Midas Quotes

I’m going to do things differently this week. I’m operating under the assumption that I know who The Mole is and will be watching their movements for sabotage. And who do I think The Mole is? Well, I’m trusting my alliance partner Glenn and working under the assumption that The Mole is

Victoria.

Why?

Glenn spotted a thumbprint on Victoria’s helmet during the first mission, something that wasn’t on everyone else’s. And during last week’s episode, she was the only one to get a chocolate massage. Why is that important? Because chocolate is known in Latin America countries as MOLE. I knew that, but had forgotten it. As he points out, those are the classic clues they love to use on the show.

I’d love to say I spotted them or will spot the new ones they slip in, but we all know better than that. Glenn? I’m counting on you to help me out here, okay?

But let’s get to this week’s show, shall we?

We start off with confessionals about how shocked everyone is that Bobby has left. Victoria is especially heartbroken about it, saying there is no one left in the game she trusts. But she can trust everyone because none of them can trust her.

We’re leaving Chile tonight and heading to the Andes Mountains in Argentina. And it’s very cold, too. Everyone shows up bundled up for winter weather. Considering they filmed this months ago, I can understand. But we’ve been dealing with record triple degree heat, so it blows my mind that anyone would be cold right now. Just me being crazy. Move on to the next paragraph. Nothing to see here.

They divide into two teams of four, selfish and selfless teams. Victoria, Nicole, Clay, and Kristen were on the selfish team, while Paul, Alex, Mark, and Craig were on the selfless team. Paul? Selfless? There’s a laugh!

They are then shown a pile of gold bricks and told they have 50 minutes to take as many as they can to the top of the mountain. Every brick is worth $250. Every member of the team of four must arrive together. And the first team to arrive together gets an exemption. That would mean four exemptions are at stake here. That just doesn’t quite seem right.

Naturally, different strategies come into play. The Selfish team takes a few bricks and tries to make it to the top, while the Selfless team takes as many as they can. Of course, as Mark pointed out, with Craig on their team, there was no way they’d get there first.

Nicole started having problems right away breathing. But she said she was just trying to draw attention from the real Mole. And Victoria is the one encouraging her along.

Half way up the mountain, Jon announces they also have to carry a scale. The Selfish team got to the check point first, so they chose the lighter scale. The Selfless team complained the entire way up about how heavy the second scale was.

Craig’s face turned bright red along the way.

Unsurprisingly, the Selfish team got there first. They brought 23 bricks with them, earning $5,750 for the pot. But they had to wait for the other team before discussing the exemption.

Craig pushed through and the other team made it with 30 seconds to spare. They brought 34 bricks, with meant they earned $8,500 for the pot.

Now comes the exemption. And the twist. There is only one exemption (I knew 4 was too many.) They four members of the Selfish team had to unanimously decide who got it or all the money earned would be forfeited. Clay immediately pointed out that he had never had an exemption. Nicole and Kristen had had one before. Victoria wasn’t happy since she hadn’t had one yet either. No one thought that Clay had really earned it. But they gave it to him since he obviously wasn’t going to back down.

Once they got down from the mountain, Craig actually got worse. He felt like he was going to black out. And he was suffering from hyperthermia. They brought in a medical team who took him off to the hospital. He is treated and then told to rest and stay warm. And his biggest worry? That they’d say he was The Mole and using getting sick to cover for it. Look, if you were going to use getting sick to cover for being The Mole, you would have gotten sick before reaching the top of the mountain.

During their down time, Alex approached Victoria about forming an alliance. Stupid move, dude. Rule number one of the show is, He who forms an alliance with The Mole is the next to be executed. Okay, that would look a little too suspicious. But it will be soon.

Mark has a unique strategy. He’s matching the remaining players with his quiz answers to try to figure out who The Mole is by process of elimination. I wish they hadn’t told us that. I think it’s time to switch journals soon, don’t you? Or have something happen to them.

That night at dinner, Craig stayed behind because the doctors wanted him to rest. And Jon took away their journals. No surprise there. After learning all Mark was putting in it, I knew something would be up at dinner. Besides, they’ve played that card in seasons past.

After dinner, Jon brought the journals back. Instead of switching them (which is what I expected), he took some choice quotes and turned it into the next mission. He would read a quote and ask a particular player for the answer. No signaling allowed. And each correct answer was worth $2K.

Victoria gets the first quote about her drinking a lot at dinner. She correctly guesses it as Mark. +$2K

Clay’s quote is about him being a quiet, cool guy, as said by Kristen. +$2K

Paul’s quote, “This time, I am hoping it will work out right.” He says Nicole, but that was incorrect. And we don’t know who said it.

Kristen is asked who called Mission one (the waterfall) “The stupidest thing every done for money.” She said Nicole, which was correct. But considering she was coughing and drawing attention to herself, I’m not going to count that money quite yet.

Something thinks Alex is taking control. He incorrectly thought it was Mark.

Mark, however, guesses that Paul thinks it is “to easy.” (Misspelling his.) +$2K.

Nicole doesn’t want to guess who thinks she is there only for the fame. When forced, she says Paul, but is wrong. But since Victoria fessed up, they got the $2K.

And I was right, they didn’t give the money for Kristen’s correct answer to the group. Nicole really seems out to sabotage. Look, if you want suspicion on yourself, you’ve got to be more subtle. Heck, Victoria helped them earn money by fessing up as soon as Jon offered money since it was the last question.

After dessert, they went for a drive. To the middle of no where on a river. With a fire burning. Jon asks who is willing to sacrifice their journal. There is some discussion, but ultimate Alex wins the right to sacrifice his journal. He’s then told to gather everyone else’s up. That’s right, Alex got to keep his, but everyone else’s journal was burned. They got me. I figured when they got the journals back they were safe. But they weren’t.

Frankly, however, I agree with Mark. He was visibly angry. And, seriously, if you give them one thing to write in, you really shouldn’t take it away from them like this. However, he completely takes off, and when they started to leave, they can’t find him for a few minutes.

Did anyone else notice the shirt Victoria was wearing to sleep that night? It said “Smooth Operator.” Interesting, no?

The next night is the next quiz and execution. Craig joins them. He did get to keep his journal since he wasn’t there to observe the behavior or the events of the night before.

And with that, it is quiz and execution time. I did notice that they twice they had someone pointing out how suspicious Victoria was being. And question nine was specifically designed to call her out. “During the quote game, did The Mole confess to writing a comment about another player?” I’m beginning to think Victoria will be the one going home tonight. But I’m trying to keep my faith intact.

For the first time this season, there is a tie. So, the executed player will be the player with the most wrong answers and the slowest time, a time difference of only five seconds. And that player is Victoria.

I suspected as much after they pointed out just how suspicious she was being. So, next week I guess we’ll be back on the lookout for other suspicious activity. I just find it so funny that I made the decision she was The Mole on the week she was executed. But I’m not editing this post to make myself look less stupid. I’ve been convinced all week.

I will say, however, that it was nice that Craig’s health was the main drama of the week. I’m glad he was okay, but I’m happy we didn’t have to deal with Paul driving everyone crazy. Looks like we’re back to that next week, however. As long as Craig is doing better, I will tolerate Paul.

Mark