Here I am, a day late. Had another ultimate Frisbee game last night. My team was tied when the lights went out. But that was at 10:30 about 45 minutes from home, so you can see why I waited until tonight to watch The Mole.
This week’s episode opens in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The first mission was called “How’s the View.” It was set in an old, abandoned mill on the outskirts of town. Jon asked for two players who were young at heart. Paul volunteered first with Nicole and Craig volunteering at the same time. Mark, seeing he was the only one without a hand raised, raised his as well. After the laughter, Paul and Craig became the young at heart players. Then, they found out that both teams for this mission would have a young at heart player on it. So ultimately, Craig was paired with Nicole and Mark and Paul paired up.
The mission: complete an obstacle course for kids. The young at heart players will be wearing glasses that will show only the images their partner shoots with a video camera. And the images will be backward. The players with the camera can not speak during the challenge.
Paul and Mark go first. The first challenge is one of those boxes with objects that only fit in one hole. The kind of things you give to toddlers. It’s got six sides and about three objects per side. Paul has one minute to put three items in the box; each item input is worth $1K. He has trouble, but he does it.
Nicole zoomed in too far, making it really hard for Craig. Of course, Craig asked for help on the last piece, and Nicole responded. I probably would have too if I were doing it. So, while he got all three pieces in, they only earned $2K.
The next challenge involved kicking two soccer balls into a net in one minute. Paul kicked both wide as did Craig.
Now, they have to pour tea into cups without spilling any outside the saucer. Four cups, one minute. Paul filled two cups, spilled on the third, and didn’t get anything into the fourth. Craig got one and spilled on the other two.
Finally, they have to walk across a board suspended between building two stories up. This is the point where I’d be out. Hate those heights. Anyway, they have to walk half way across and pick up a piece of chalk. From there, they have one minute to walk to the other side and copy what is on a blackboard. Paul pulls it off. Craig has major issues with heights, but he goes for it. He manages to get to the other side when his time runs out, however he ran out of time to write anything on the board.
Overall, between all the games, Paul and Mark made $18K while Nicole and Craig made $4500 for a total of $22,500.
The second mission of the episode is “Cell Out.” And the final exemption of the game is involved.
The players are in an old building (again) and there are four cells. Each player chooses a cell and gets locked in. Each cell has a puzzle called a doublet. Basically, there are two words in the cell. But changing one letter at a time, the players must move from the first word to the second. When the player gets the puzzle correct (and there are multiple ways to do it), the door will open.
From there, they will find an obstacle course. The first player done gets to go to the paintball gun and have the change to earn that final exemption. The other three must get through the course without getting hit to earn money for the pot. One of the players will be carrying the exemption. If the player with the gun hits them, they earn it. Otherwise, no one does. And no one will know who has it until the end.
And they are off and running. All four players were stuck on the puzzle at first. Mark got it in less than a minute, getting the chance to shoot the others and win the exemption. However, he has never played paintball. Craig is next, followed by Nicole with Paul completely stuck.
Craig and Nicole decide to wait for Paul and use his expertise to hopefully get through it together. They work together with a divide and conquer approach. One of them runs, then the other two move. He shoots Paul, but it doesn’t break. However, he does get Nicole. Paul manages to get through. But then he shots Craig. So only Paul made it through to earn $15K for the pot.
At this point, they learn that the player who represented the exemption was determined by the cell number they started with. And Craig had it, so Mark is definitely moving on to the final round. Which doesn’t make Paul happy at all.
But it doesn’t matter. It’s quiz and execution time.
Nicole was convinced that she was going to be executed, but it was Paul who turned read when his quiz results were evaluated.
I’m glad because it means he can’t possibly win. I won’t miss his drama.
However, I’m also upset because he has been my top suspect for weeks now.
I’ve been trying to ignore it because of the name, but I keep coming back to Mark. He’s been so focused on tracking The Mole’s every move, it would be a great cover. And with his constant talking about earning money, that would also make his less likely to be suspected. Plus, making sure he got the exemption would be a great twist of the producers.
However, I can’t rule out Nicole. But I doubt they’d make The Mole so unlikeable. And, since Paul has been saying for a couple weeks now that it is Craig, I doubt that it’s him.
So I have decided that Mark is The Mole. I guess we’ll see how it all plays out over the next couple of weeks.