The Mole in Review

There was no new installment of The Mole tonight, but after last week's debacle, in which my prime suspect was executed, I felt compelled to go back over everything so far and see if I could somehow get back on track. Looking back over the first five episodes, I've decided the most likely Mole in my mind is Clay.

I still begin with the assumption that the Mole would want to perform well in the first mission of the game, so as not to arouse suspicions right away that could never be discouraged. Clay successfully nabbed a bag in the "Over the Falls" mission, putting him on my list. It is true, though, that the fickle falls could have kept someone who legitimately wanted to grab a bag from doing so -- so this time I won't eliminate other possibilities just on this one criteria.

Actually, I think the stronger Clay evidence in that first episode was in the "Crusoe" mission, in which he was placed on the Scavengers team that had to find items on the beach and retrieve them for the guessers. At the conclusion of the mission, host Jon revealed the two correct items that were never found. There was a copper tea kettle, which was then shown on camera, and a tobacco box, which was not.

Why not show the tobacco box too? Perhaps because it was not sitting out in the open to be filmed at the conclusion of the mission? In other words, a tobacco box is a really small object. If the Mole were out there among the Scavengers, it would be a simple matter to just kick some sand over it and leave it where it would never be found -- not even by the camera crew. But of the remaining players in the game, Clay, Alex, and Craig were all on the Scavengers team in that mission, so this doesn't conclusively point to Clay either.

What finally put it over the top for me was listening again to some of Clay's comments in his interviews. All the players are occasionally given sound bites, describing who they don't trust, or who they think could be the Mole. Frankly, most of Clay's sound like bullshit.

After failing the "Fruit of the Luge" mission because he continued talking after crossing the finish line, Clay complained about Bobby's "many mistakes." Yes, Bobby called an avocado a pear. How is that "many mistakes?" Clay himself made more in the same mission -- speaking after the finish line, and getting two of the fruit in the wrong order.

In discussing last week's mission in which the players were chained up in the cold and only able to leave by trusting one another, when Craig argued to be let go because of his health, Clay said in his interview: "I don't know if Craig is telling the truth about his health." What kind of crap is that? The man was just driven off in an ambulance after the Andes mission. I'm pretty damn sure his health issues are the real deal.

And also last week, after the entire team "mutinied" in the final mission and refused to use the transportation chosen by Craig, Clay said "I can't remember a time I've ever quit without trying in my life." Try two weeks earlier, when you were the first player to opt out of the Dress Code mission!

In my mind, the only player who needs to lie that much to the viewing audience is The Mole. It's a private interview -- none of the other players are seeing it, so who is Clay trying to deceive if not all of us?

So, when The Mole returns next week with a new episode, my attention will be focused on Clay. But just to be sure, a quick examination of the other five remaining players might be in order:

Mark. Mark's anguish at losing his journal seemed too genuine for him to remain a viable suspect in my mind. He was already moving away from the list before that because of a few moments in which he really tried to rally for teamwork. (I've mentioned before that getting the players to work together is something the Mole should never, never do.) During the When Pigs Fly mission, he tried to help load the slingshot faster, arguing that any "unlaunched pigs" when the time ran out was just a stupid waste. And during the Midas Rush mission to hike up the mountain, he reminded his team of the time pressure. (Unnecessarily, were he the Mole.)

Nicole. It's so hard to think of her as a viable suspect, because her actions every week are blatantly those of a player wanting everyone to think she's the Mole. And yet, I have to admit to a doubt or two on that. She has claimed two or three times that the player she most suspected was the one eliminated the previous week. I'd have to think if that were true, wouldn't she have been eliminated by now? Could a viable Mole strategy be to be so overt in repeated sabotage that nobody would suspect you?

Craig. He helped make the slingshot work in the When Pigs Fly mission when he didn't need to. He found the clothes in the in the Dress Code mission when he could have just walked right by the laundromat. And it seems unlikely the producers of the show would select a Mole with the kinds of health issues he's displayed. He's been off my list for a while, and even though I was thrown for a loop last week, he remains off the list now. It may be a bit of a stereotype, but there it is. But speaking of stereotypes, I would have bet in week one that he'd be executed from the game by now. Every week he sticks around adds just a little glimmer of possibility that he's the Mole. (Though in fairness, he has displayed that he's a very smart and clever person. That must be how he's remained in the game.)

Alex. The biggest strike against Alex, in my mind, is that he doesn't keep a journal. He left his journal behind in someone else's room in the second episode, and when the players looked through it, they found nothing of any real note. I would think the Mole would have to go through the motions of being a player, and that would include note taking in the journal. Not necessarily with the same obsession as a Mark-type player, but some kind of notes. Throw in his repeated helpfulness with his Spanish, and he just seems like too unlikely a candidate to me. But for a tiny bit of doubt, consider this: he mentioned in one interview that Nicole was one of his top suspects. And yet he's still in the game. Either he's changed his mind, he's right and Nicole is the Mole, or he is the Mole himself.

Paul. To accept that Paul is the Mole, as with Nicole, you have to expand your idea of what a viable Mole strategy could be. He's been so standoffish, so in everybody's face, that it's hard to believe a Mole wouldn't try to keep a lower profile. And yet for all his bluster, talking about how he's not there to make any friends, he's shown some unusual moments of concern during the game... at times when it stood a chance of ruining a mission. After the soccer match, he stopped at the side of the road with Liz while she took off her shoes and waited for her to catch her breath, and encouraged her to stop again whenever she needed to. During the Andes climb, he was more encouraging for Craig to stop and rest than anyone. You could easily construe this as Mole behavior, trying to make other players take the fall for a failure rather than yourself. If the Mole turns out not to be Clay, I admit Paul looks like a viable alternative.

I hope all this pontificating has satisfied in this week with no new episode. Let's see what happens next Monday when we're back in action.