Mission #1: Child's Play

The first mission was a little strange. The final four were broke up into two teams: Mark and Paul, Craig and Nicole. Mark and Craig had to wear goggles that were controlled by a video camera held by their teammate. All the images sent to the goggles were mirror images. The goal of the mission was to complete a kid's obstacle course using the goggles.

In the first round, Mark and Paul added $3,000 to the pot and Nicole and Craig added $2,000 to the pot.

The most entertaining part of the mission was when the goggle-wearers were put on a plank mounted between two buildings. They stopped in the middle and picked up a piece of chalk, ran across the plank, then write a phrase on a chalkboard on the other side. Paul made it across pretty quickly. Craig had a much tougher time. He was barely on the plank most of the time. And because of his weight, the board was bending slightly.

$22,500 was added to the pot during the mission.

As for moleish behavior, Paul openly lied about feedback during the competition. All the shots shown through the eyes of the goggle-wearer were just fine. It is somewhat suspicious, but I'm not sure that it was mole-ish or just him trying to cover himself in case he failed.

Mark didn't necessarily show "The" in the last phase of the competition where they had to spell out "The Mole was here." But in a brief second, it was quite clear that there was SOMETHING to the left of "Mole."

Mission #2: Cell out

The players are put into jail cells. The first player that solves the puzzle first and gets out of their cell becomes a paintball sniper. The sniper then has to shoot each of the players as they run through a maze. One of the players has an exemption and if they get shot the sniper wins the exemption.

Mark was out first and scored the sniper position. Paul's plan to use their numbers worked out pretty well. On the other hand, Paul was the only one that made it to the end without getting hit by a paintball. Paul's escape adds $15,000 to the pot. Mark got lucky and grabbed the final exemption, which was connected to Craig's cell.

It seems like Mark has backed off on sabotage lately. It doesn't do anything but make me wonder if the producers backed off on him in the editing room, because it was just too obvious. But he did solve the second mission's puzzle in 53 seconds.

During the final execution, Nicole was openly shivering and freaked out. But it was Paul who went home. Would the mole be so worked up during executions? Probably not. But it'd be a brilliant strategy by the Mole to throw off the other two players.

I would love the bragging rights of calling it from the first episode if Mark were the mole. I secretly hope that I'm wrong so that watching the show wasn't completely pointless. I think Mark/Craig have both been pretty obvious in some sabotage. But to be honest, any of the final three could definitely be the mole. There is not a player in the game right now that could not be the mole. Next week, we'll see in the season's finale.