I still think Nicole is the mole, even though she claims she wanted to leave. She could have genuinely miscounted (it WAS tricky), but it could be sabotage.
If there isn’t a band called Krull yet, there should be.
I forgot it was on. Who got eliminated tonight?
Clay. Nicole claimed she was tired of the game and intentionally wanted to flub the test and go home, but there was a tie between somebody (maybe Nicole?) and Clay.
Thanks for the update. I didn’t suspect that the eliminated person was the mole, though I haven’t really decided in my mind who is.
Nicole has been an obvious suspect since the very first show, which is precisely why I don’t think she’s the Mole. To a lesser extent, Paul has been a major PITA, and I have tended to discount him as too obvious as well.
I was extremely suspicious of Mark from show 1, when he, supposedly a history teacher, identified several 19th century objects as having been featured in Robinson Crusoe (c. early 18th century). However, in recent episodes he has had several really good opportunities to sabotage the mission (on the treadmill, for instance) but didn’t, and in tonight’s episode he corrected the math that Clay got wrong. So, much as it pains me to say so, I’m beginning to think it’s not him. (But if it is, remember that I said so from the beginning!)
Craig has not done anything really, really obvious to sabotage the game that I can recall, but he’s been so low key, he might be the Mole. But I don’t think so. In fact, I think he’ll be the next one out.
This leaves Paul and Nicole. If it is Nicole, I will be really pissed, because she was way too obvious. Paul could be the Mole, but his abrasive personality made him an obvious choice, too. I won’t be as pissed as if it’s Nicole, but I won’t be happy.
Tonight’s ep raised some questions in my mind about how they pick the Mole. I’ve always assumed that the Mole was selected from the start by the producers, outside the regular contestant tryout process. I just assumed, perhaps without justification, that the Mole would need better than average acting and deception skills, and that they wouldn’t just pick twelve players and then choose one to be the Mole. But the presence of the loved ones tonight made me wonder if the Mole’s loved one was an actor, too, or his/her real loved one, who may or may not know if he/she is the Mole.
Does anyone know how they pick the Mole?
For some reason, I think The Mole is Craig. Don’t know why.
But then again, I was positive Victoria was The Mole at first, so what do I know?
I’m positive the Mole is Craig, and have been since Victoria got the boot. Not least because the producers, for completely practical reasons, wouldn’t want to have a potentially grating and unlikeable person (Nicole/Paul/Mark) as the one who’s guaranteed to be there all season long. If it’s a double-bluff, it’s not a smart one.
Although I have to say that I’m really warming to Mark. He just blew everyone away with his help on the brainteasers in the treadmill task last week, and his deadpan “a scarf ooh wait a purse” line was easily the funniest moment of this week’s show. He seems like a really sharp guy.
My understanding is that when they do the open casting process for the show, they keep an eye out for people (who otherwise might have been regular contestants) who they think might make good Moles.
Remind me what Craig has done to sabotage the missions. He almost screwed up the counting in last night’s show, but then got it right at the end.
If he is the Mole, then do we assume his health problem on the mountain was fake? If so, what did it accomplish?
His health problem could have been real and he could be the Mole. Moles are human.
I think it’s Paul. He could stand up and announce that he was the Mole a thousand times, and everyone would simply blow him off because it’s just Paul bragging again. He can disrupt everything, and it’s either his lousy personality (which to a great extent I think it is), his stupidity (although he occasionally displays a certain shrewdness) or Paul’s “cunning plan” to win.
I came to this conclusion last week, but after this week’s episode, I became more convinced. How could he totally misread the directions like that? How is it that he didn’t know anything about his own wife? (But apparently his desire to see his own family won out - I can’t blame him a bit.)
First of all, remember that Mark was only allowed to identify things brought to him. Perhaps he would have done better had he been on the beach, but he wasn’t. Also remember that he KNEW some of the objects were not correct but as he said, they needed 5 items on the table to get credit for what they did have correct. IIRC, out of the 3 correct object brought to him, Mark correctly identified all 3. You cannot use the incompetency of the searchers against him.
Since day one, I have said that Craig is the Mole. The Mole is not overt about the sabatoge and let me turn your question around. Can you recall anything Craig has been brilliantly successful in? He is always ALMOST successful - brilliant mole behavior.
I think you may be right, Saint Cad. Craig has been very low key, and hasn’t done much to help increase the pot.
Does anyone know how it goes from here? Presumably the last show features three players, but will they do it in one episode, meaning the last show is in two weeks? Two shows over two weeks? A two-hour finale?
So the reason to make it seem like you’re the mole, when in fact you aren’t, is so people take the quiz with you in mind and then they get a worse score than you.
At this point, I think everyone has the same person in mind and it’s just who gets the most answers right or gets done first wins.
If that’s the case, then kudos to the editors for making it seem like it’s still in question.
Also, is the quiz the worst part of the show for the viewer? As soon as the quiz starts, I just fast forward to the elimination. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. Am I?
Only if you’re watching with such attention to detail that you could answer questions as whether the person you think is the mole was wearing a dark shirt or a light shirt in thus and so competition, or care about the various reactions of the players while they are.
I skip the quiz and elimination also, because they are nearly identical between eps and the “camera talks” never reveal anything interesting. I suspect Nicole is the Nic-mole, because everybody has been tied on the quiz these last few weeks. All the guys already know it’s Nicole and have known for quite some time. The producers saw this in the quiz answers, so that’s why they burned the journals. That’s why the guys tried to get Alex drunk. If everybody knows, then it all comes down to reaction time.
If everybody knows, then it’s because the mole has been too obvious. Nicole was the most obvious, therefore she is the mole. This is all speculation on my part, but I would like to think it’s also a bit from deductive logic.
Are you saying that for weeks everyone has been answering the quiz as though Nicole is the Mole and that there have been three-, four-, or five-way ties? That strains credibility for me.
ISTM that ties mean that two people are making the same wrong guess, because they only disclose ties for last place. Two or more people guessing correctly about the Mole shouldn’t end up in a tie for execution as long as someone else gives at least one incorrect answer about the Mole.
Considering how easy the questions are, each player just needs to remember the experience for Nicole and Nicole alone to ace the quiz. I don’t think it’s too hard to believe all the players are tied for 100% on the quizzes. I guess time will tell if my theory is right.
When I tried out in 2001, one of the questions I had to answer was, “Would you be OK with being the Mole?”
They cast one of the potentials as the Mole.
Okay, well that changes a lot for me. I had always assumed that the Mole was an actor, or someone chosen outside the regular selection process, not just regular contestant who had been “turned.” So I also assumed that his/her backstory would be false. Which made Mark’s mistakes in show 1 seem more telling than they should have been.
So I reluctantly give up on Mark as the Mole (unless he really is, in which case I called it from the start!). Craig is my top suspect now, but IMHO it could be anyone but Nicole.
Hmm. It seems to me that in the past they didn’t ask anywhere near as many ‘positional’ questions. You know, like, when we shared a glass of wine after the whatever challenge, counting clockwise from me, what position was the mole in?
Perhaps you are right that several of the players have settled (correctly) on the Mole’s identity, and they need to ask more and more obscure questions to differentiate between the players.