Who is the Mole?

I find The Mole to be one of the more interesting reality shows. Overshadowing the poor editing and low production values, they have a hook that keeps interest high: one of the players is covertly working against the other players as they try to complete tasks to earn prize money. That player is The Mole.

Since Week 2, my bet for The Mole is Paul, a utility worker from New York. Each week, all the contestants are given a quiz about which player is The Mole, the player with the fewest correct answers is eliminated. So not only is The Mole sabotaging the other players, but all of the other players are also occasionally sabotaging other players in order to get other players to think that they are the mole. Fun!

So what is a viewer to do? Watch for sabotage that does not look like sabotage to the other players. Paul did such a thing in the second week, and again this last Monday which is why I'd bet there is a 70% chance that he is the mole.

Here's what he did. In the competition where half the players tried to solve multiple choice brain teasers while the other half of the team ran to find wine bottles whose location was given by latitude and longitude for the correct answer. There were 7 brain teasers.

Now, Paul had to volunteer twice: once to be on the brain teaser team, and a second time to be the member of the team responsible for communicating the answers of the brain teasers to the team running and looking for the wine bottles. So he put himself into the position he needed to be.

The brain teasers were pretty easy--the brain team got the first 6 correct and only missed the seventh. Here's the fun part. Paul skipped questions 4, 5, and 6 and sent the running team to question 7. Why would he do that unless he knew that the answer to question 7 was the only wrong one? Moreover, at that point none of the brain teaser team knew that the answer was wrong. If Paul knew the answer was wrong and he wanted the money he should have sent the runners there last. If Paul was trying to delay the runners, then because he couldn't tell the others that he knew the answer was wrong (by the rules of that competition), making it was sabotage that couldn't be traced back to Paul. Sabotage that can't be blamed on a person only benefits one player: The Mole.