Now that both Bobby and Ali are gone, the players are kind of stunned. Craig in particular is upset because he liked both of the departed a great deal. Nicole admits that Bobby was her prime Mole suspect. She must not be the only one, or she'd be gone by now. Victoria cries some more.
The players travel to Uspallata, Argentina, in the Andes Mountains. In the van, Paul has drawn a face on a lemon and jokes around, claiming that it's the show's mascot, Lemon Head. I feel like they are trying to make me not hate Paul. It's kind of working.
The players join Jon on the side of a mountain, as he regales them with tales of how high the altitude is there. Craig complains about the freezing temperatures, but maybe he should have worn something a little warmer than a hoodie. Jon instructs the group to split in half: one team that's Selfish and one team that's Selfless. The Selfish team ends up being Clay, Victoria, Nicole, and Kristen. The Selfless team then is Paul, Alex, Mark, and Craig. Today's mission is called "Midas Rush" and it involves gold bricks, which Jon unveils dramatically. Jon gives a little history lesson that boils down to the fact that the Spanish used to force the Incas to carry gold bricks through the mountains for them. For this mission, the teams have 50 minutes to carry as many bricks as possible to the top of the mountain, for a potential total of $50,000. The team isn't finished until all of its members make it to the finish line, and there is an exemption available to the team that makes it up there first. The whole team? That's weird. Jon reminds them to take care of themselves due to the high altitude.
The teams rush to pile bricks into their backpacks. Kristen takes 8, Victoria and Clay each take 5, and Nicole takes four. Clay interviews that his strategy was to make sure his team got across the finish line first, even if that meant taking fewer bricks. On the Selfless team, Mark piles like a million bricks in his backpack, of course, because he's Super Veiny Brick-Carrying Dad. Mark disparages Craig's mountain-climbing capability, and he kind of has a point. One thing they don't mention is that the Selfless team is taking more bricks, but it's also made up of four dudes, while the Selfish team has three chicks, who probably have less overall strength. Except maybe Kristen, who's kind of a brute.
The teams start up the mountain. Nicole keeps slacking off, and interviews that she wants people to suspect her as the Mole so that they vote wrong on the quizzes. Craig interviews that he kind of hates being the weakest player now that Bobby is gone. The players all complain about the altitude, and having climbed a much smaller mountain at a much lower altitude, when I was about 16 years old and in really good shape, I do have some empathy.
Jon stops the Selfish team and tells them that they need to choose one of two scales and schlep it to the top. One scale is heavier, but they don't get to pick up the scales before choosing one. The Selfish team picks the lighter one, which is also smaller, and takes off. The Selfless team is later told that they have to carry the heavy one. Mark drops about four bricks and picks up the scale, all angry about it. Jon asks if he's sure he wants to do that, and Mark acts all pissy. Craig interviews that he thinks it's suspicious. The Selfish team continues to pull ahead and jokes that they'll give up all the money for an exemption if they can. The Selfless team cheers Craig along, and Craig's face is alarmingly red, and he's hacking up phlegm. Gross.
The Selfish team makes it to the top first, and discover that they brought 23 bricks. They hunker down to wait for the Selfless team, who ramble up with about thirty seconds remaining. Paul kind of earns a little of my respect back as he appears to be really helping Paul. The Selfless team brought up 34 bricks, and Clay is shocked. Jon say that their total for this task is $14,250. He explains that the Selfish team has earned an exemption, but there's only one. The team needs to unanimously decide who gets it, and if they can't decide, no one gets it and they lose all the money. That just reminds me of the first celebrity edition, where everyone was going to give the exemption to Erik, and then it became chaos, and it was hilarious. This is not nearly as funny. Kristen claims that she wants it, but Clay wants it to, so they sort of agree that Clay hasn't had an exemption yet and they give it to him. Kristen interviews that she knew Clay wouldn't back down.
After they get down to the bottom of the mountain, Craig takes a turn for the worse, and an ambulance is called in. Jon voiceovers that Craig has hypothermia (which I didn't know was caused by strenuous exercise). The paramedics give Craig oxygen and claim that he was in and out of consciousness. The other players are worried about him, and ultimately, Craig is taken off in the ambulance.
So Craig's half-dead and everyone is understandably quiet and somber. By the time they get back to their cabins, Craig is released, but is told to take it easy. Craig interviews that he hopes people don't think he was trying to look like the Mole by nearly dying. The girls discuss the chances of Craig being the Mole, and dismiss it.
Alex and Victoria have a weird conversation about coalitions and the Mole that seems weird, except that Victoria says she'd be shocked if Alex were the Mole, so maybe that means something. Meanwhile, Mark is going all Super Veiny Conspiracy Dad with his journal. Seriously, his journal writings are all tiny and cramped and take up a million pages like he's the Unabomber.
Everyone reports to dinner, except for Craig, who was told by the doctors not to attend. Jon wonders how important the journals are, so you know something's up. Mark is basically making out with his journal, while Paul and Alex claim they don't think their journals are that important. Jon collects all of the journals and walks out, and the contestants freak out over what's going to happen.
Jon returns later, and gives the journals back. Everyone waits for the other shoe to drop. Victoria flips through her journal and claims that there's an exemption inside, but then admits that she's just kidding. That was actually kind of funny. Turns out that Jon wrote down some quotes from the journals and they have to guess who wrote what. They also did this on the first celebrity edition and I think one of the regular editions as well. For each time they guess right, they add $2000 to the pot, and players aren't allowed to try to signal to each other to help out. Victoria is asked who said, "At dinner, Victoria drank a lot." Instead of answering the question, Victoria is all defending her non-alcoholism, but finally guesses that it was Mark, which is correct. Clay is asked who described him as, "Very quiet. Cool guy. Like his vibe." Clay guesses it was Kristen, which is correct. Paul is asked who said "they are hoping that this time it will work out right." Whuh? What a nondescript question. Paul guesses Nicole, which is wrong, and Jon won't tell them the correct answer. Alex says quietly, "You're mean in Argentina," which cracked me up more than anything else in this episode. Kristen is asked who said that the first mission was the craziest thing anyone ever did for money. Nicole really obviously coughs and then blinks her eyes really fast at Kristen, who guesses Nicole, and is correct. Jon asks Alex who said that he was taking control. Alex guesses Mark, which is incorrect. Jon asks Mark who said, "This is to [sic] easy," and Mark guesses Paul, which is correct. Jon asks Nicole who said that Nicole is just there for fame. Nicole refuses to guess at first, like an imbecile, and then says Paul. That's wrong, but Jon says that the actual author can 'fess up and earn the money, so Victoria does. Nicole doesn't hold a grudge about it, probably because it's true. Jon says that Kristen's answer is disqualified because Nicole was clearly signaling her. Then the waiters bring out crème brulee and they focus on it for like twenty minutes, so I was expecting a random exemption inside or something, but nothing happens. I just checked the forums and SVNBob pointed out that it was probably foreshadowing for what happens , so keep reading.
My Mole pick is still Clay. I'm sticking with it until he gets eliminated. Although my second place pick has changed from Victoria to Alex. See you week.
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