In the opening series of interviews, Nicole still wants to beat some of the guys, and feels like she finally has some idea who The Mole is, especially now that so many of her suspects have been eliminated. Sounds promising.
Jon greets the remaining players and asks them to divide into a group of three smart players and two dumb players. Craig and Nicole immediately volunteer to be dumb. Nicole claims that she's trying to keep an eye on Craig, like she hasn't been in a group with him almost every time. Jon explains the game: they will get clues that will lead them all over the city looking for answers, in the form of numbers. Then they have to return to home base and enter the numbers in a computer, but they aren't allowed to write them down. The "dumb" players have to remember five numbers and the "smart" players only have to remember three. Mark interviews that he's concerned about sabotage from Craig and Nicole. Is Mark ever NOT worried about sabotage? He listens to the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" on repeat, and then he plays it on Rock Band (side note: I am awesome at the drums for that song in Rock Band).
The clock is set at seventy minutes, and the players take off. Mark and Nicole arrive at the location for the first clue and decide that Mark will do the math for their team, and Nicole will do the memorizing. Their first answer is 13. If Nicole's not good at math, I'm kind of worried about her ability to prescribe the correct dosage of medications for her patients. Was she the doctor who prescribed Heparin to Dennis Quaid's twins? It all kind of makes sense now. Meanwhile, on the "smart" team, Mark and Clay have a disagreement over the math, with Clay using some wacky new math and claiming that he's a math genius. Mark finally points out why he can't be wrong (because 7 - 2 = 5, kind of hard to argue with), and Clay realizes his argument isn't going to work and gives in. Paul is pretty silent throughout. Mark quickly solves the rest of the clue and comes up with 610.
Craig and Nicole figure out their second clue (we don't see it happen, so they must get it right pretty quickly), which is 21. For the third clue, they try to do the math and Craig either gets confused or purposely tries to mess things up, but Nicole catches him and they get their third answer: 89.
The "smart team" has their second answer: 4181. Meanwhile, with almost an hour left, Nicole and Craig are heading for their fourth clue, which they discover is 189. Even though they had more answers to discover, the numbers so far have been smaller and thus easier to remember.
Paul has the map and gets his team totally lost somehow. Mark stops some ladies and gets directions and finds out that they went the complete wrong way, like eight blocks. So they take off running back the way they came, trying to beat the clock.
Craig and Nicole have reached the site of their final clue. For part of the answer, they have to count tiles, and Nicole keeps screwing it up. Craig wonders whether it's on purpose or not.
The "smart" team finally reaches the right plaza, and suddenly there are only fifteen minutes left. Nicole and Craig agree on their final answer and walk back to home base chanting their five numbers, but they learn from Jon that they have to wait for the other team to arrive in order to enter their numbers into the computer and see if they are right. The "smart" team runs back and does some math on the way to figure out their final answer. They arrive back with seven minutes left on the clock. The "dumb" team punches in their numbers first, and then the "smart" team and it turns out that the "dumb" team got their last answer wrong. Jon explains that they get twenty minutes for one "dumb" team member to go recalculate the number. Possibly because of the running aspect, they send Nicole. While she's gone, Clay and Craig try to figure out if there's a pattern to the numbers on the screen, and Clay proposes that the missing number should be 233. Nicole comes running in and says that it's 227, but everyone knows that's wrong because the computer is telling them that the middle digit is not a two. With everyone gathered around, Craig types in 233, and with thirteen seconds on the clock, they win the $30,000 for the pot. Hmm. Clay was my Mole pick, but there was no reason for him to get that number right. Unless, the producers took pity on them -- it was a pretty easy task overall. I mean, that extra twenty minutes to make a correction was kind of bullshit. So maybe the producers fed him the numbers or told him the pattern so he could save the day and alleviate suspicion. Or maybe I'm just telling myself that because I think he's The Mole. In an interview, Mark runs down all of the ways that every other player acted Mole-ish during that challenge.
Back at the hotel, Mark and Clay discuss the quiz. Mark reveals that he answered all of the questions as if Nicole is The Mole and so did Clay, and they're both still there. They are both fairly sure that it's Nicole, but also think it could be Craig. Clay admits in an interview that he doesn't trust Mark, because he could be The Mole. But to Mark's face, Clay just agrees that Nicole is probably The Mole. I thought Alex was leaning towards Nicole too, and he went home, so...
And then Clay, that little sneak, goes and meets with Nicole. He tells her that he answered the quiz as if Craig were The Mole. Nicole interviews, with a smile so she's probably at least partially joking, that she thinks she can trust Clay because he's the only other black person there. Clay tries to convince Nicole that Mark has acted Mole-ish, and she acts like she's buying it, but I don't think she is.
The players travel from Mendoza, Argentina, to Buenos Aires. Mark tells the others that his daughter's birthday is coming up and he's really missing his kids. Paul points out that they're all missing their families. Gee, what a random segment to show -- do you think something related to family is coming up?
Jon meets with the players and tells them that the mission is worth $50,000 but will also have some additional value beyond money. He asks them to choose their most trusted player. Mark chooses Clay. Paul chooses Mark. Craig chooses Clay. Clay chooses -- get this -- Nicole. Damn. Paul looks confused. Nicole goes last and chooses Mark, but she claims it's to tie the score so Clay and Mark each have two votes. Jon says he knows that they have suffered from lack of contact with their families. He tells each of them that their loved ones are just now arriving in Argentina. Mark interviews that he doesn't think this is going to end well.
The players go to the train station and wait for their loved ones to arrive, but also nervous about how this all figures into the mission. Clay and Craig are up first. Clay will be given a list of thirty questions about Craig's girlfriend, Brendi, and he has three minutes to ask Craig the questions. Then Jon will ask Clay five of the questions, and if Clay gets at least three right, Craig will get to see Brendi, and $10,000 will be added to the pot. If not, Brendi goes home and no money goes in the pot. Do you feel like there might be an exemption factored in here? I smell an exemption. Craig goes through the questions, but Craig doesn't know all of the answers right away, probably due to the pressure and also because he's only known Brendi for nine months. Jon asks Clay the questions, and at least one is one that we saw Craig pass on. Jon doesn't tell Clay how many he got right; instead, the train pulls up and they have to wait to see if the train doors open or not. The train pulls in and Craig can see her through the window. The train finally stops and the doors open. Craig and Brendi hug. Aw. They're a cute couple.
Clay and Nicole are up , with Nicole asking questions about Clay's wife. Nicole gets through the questions really quickly and then goes through and repeats all the questions and answers back to Clay. I guess that's how she got through medical school. We don't see Nicole's answers to Jon's questions, but the train pulls up and the doors open, so she must have got them right.
Now Mark is asking questions about Nicole's mother, but he's asking them really slowly and Nicole is kind of freaking out. Jon asks Mark the questions, and then the train pulls up. Nicole is giggling because her mom is talking to herself and they can't hear her. The doors open and her mom runs out. Aw. This is sweet.
Clay asks Mark questions about his wife. Mark interviews that this is the longest he's gone without seeing his wife since they've been together. Jon asks Clay the questions, and Clay draws a blank on at least one. As the train pulls up, Jon says that one of the questions he asked was one that Mark couldn't answer, so Clay had to get three out of four. The train stops, and Mark's wife runs out. Aw, and she's pregnant and has to take care of their three kids alone. I hope Mark is having fun.
Paul is the last one to play, and Mark asks the questions. Paul skips a lot of questions, and Mark is kind of nervous that he'll be asked the questions that were skipped. I wonder if the quiz is to give the answers that Paul gave, or to give the answers that his wife gave? The train pulls up with Paul's wife and adorable little girl inside and I will actually be sad if the doors don't open. Not because I like Paul, because I don't, but because I feel bad for his little girl, who can see her daddy but can't understand why she can't go hug him. Aw. I just bummed myself out. Oh, thank God. The doors open. The cutest part is that Paul's daughter points at the door and goes "Open sesame" and the doors open at that moment. Everyone gathers and Jon tells them that they added $50,000 to the pot with his mission. Mark interviews that he doesn't think that even The Mole would sabotage that mission.
The day, the players spend time with their loved ones. Nicole vents to her mother about how she feels isolated and like an outsider, being a black woman in the game. Nicole admits to her mother that she has a hard time dealing with the nastiness for a while. Her mom suggests that Nicole should just quit if she's unhappy. Way to encourage your kids to stick out a tough situation and learn something about character. Nicole interviews that she's going to "self-execute" by purposely failing the quiz and then leave with her mother. That's a whole lotta bullshit.
The players do interviews with their loved ones and everyone seems to happy and kind of cute! Even Paul! Even Nicole! I kind of want their loved ones to be present all of the time.
The players take the quiz. They do always find the coolest location for the quiz. It's always in a castle, or outside in a scenic location or something.
Time for results! The loved ones join the players to find out who will be executed. Jon reveals that there is a tie tonight, and Nicole says out loud, "Oops." Heh. Guess her self-execution strategy might not work out. Jon starts accessing the results. Paul... is safe. Nicole... is safe. She wrinkles her nose and apologizes to her mother. Clay... is out. Shit. There goes my Mole pick. Oh, man. Now I have no freaking clue. Nicole admits to her mother that she couldn't self-execute, and her mother calls her "Omarosa." Seriously, can Nicole's mom stick around? She makes me like Nicole.
Okay, so I need a new Mole pick. I'm going to go with Craig. I just don't think it can be Mark -- he's had way too many opportunities to sabotage that he didn't take. And I don't think it's Nicole. She's too unstable. So it's either Paul or Craig, and I have to believe that Paul is in it for the money. So I'm going with Craig, until he gets executed week.
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