Moving on to my favorite, the hypercompetitive, borderline psychotic obsessive Michael-Scott-alike with wonderful comedic timing from the delightfully fake-sounding town of Mukwonago, Wisconsin (land of CHEESE).
MARK
Over the Falls: grabbed a bag with real money
If he's the Mole, this is an easy way of establishing trust right off the bat for a relatively small amount of money.
Robinson Crusoe: Appraiser, picked strange items to put on the table
I'd like to say I don't like this pro-Mark-as-Mole argument, because all three of the items actually found by the Scavengers were put on the table ASAP. What else was he supposed to put up there, the vacuum? The Mole sign?
Race to the Summit: won the uphill battle, costing the team $35000 and getting himself an exemption
Who wouldn't have tried? Kristen did it too, and we know she's not the Mole. In addition, Kristen wanted to take the cab for an extra $5000 out of the pot, but Mark refused. Also, them getting to the top first probably had a lot more to do with the soccer players sucking than him and Kristen being awesome. There's some deleted scene where Jon Kelley says Mark and Kristen got to the top of the hill well over an hour before the soccer team did!
But did Mark know in advance that the second part of the mission was going to be a soccer game, which he would have been incredibly useful in, and take himself out of it?
When Pigs Fly: was in the first group to get to the town, and brought back 18 pigs. Also told Alex to be quicker loading the pigs, which led to all the pigs being launched.
His team got lost on the way back. Was he trying to rush Alex by telling him to be quicker loading pigs?
Or was he just being hypercompetitive Mark?
Fruit of the Luge: correctly called out the fruit order to his blindfolded partner, Kristen, and didn't talk after the finish line. They got 7/7 for the full $14000.
Was he just trying to take suspicion off himself?
Dress Code: practically ripped off his robe when told about the mission, but dropped out immediately after Clay did.
Clay was his partner in a group of two. Without Clay, he (probably) would have been alone, in only his underwear, in a city where he didn't speak the language.
Mark: dropped four bricks in order to carry his team's scale
He was still on the Selfless team, carrying more bricks. His team made it to the top with many bricks and 30 seconds to go. If he was the Mole, it would have been easy for him to waste those 30 seconds. Regarding the dropping four bricks, that was just the weight of the scale, and who else on his team was going to carry that scale? Craig? He carried many bricks and was still far ahead of the rest of his team.
Who Said That: got his question right
But the grammar error made it pretty obvious it was stupid Paul. Would it have been too blatant to get it wrong?
All for One: clearly thinking about taking the exemption, which no one would have blamed him for, but he ended up not taking it
Or was he trying to put suspicion off himself by being the hero of the mission?
Travelers: led the revolt against the mission, calling it "impossible" (did he know something would come up down the road?). Refused to participate.
Kristen also led the revolt, and was, in fact, the original person to say "I can't do this" when assigned her form of transportation. It was clear nobody was going to try (except Alex).
Grapes of Cache: single-handed hero of the mission; solved almost all the brainteasers while running on a treadmill for over 53 minutes straight, much of the time at a top speed
Or was he fed the answers in advance and told to take mercy on the team and suspicion off himself?
Swing Out: jumped but missed the target
So did everyone except Alex.
Go Figure: when Clay miscalculated his number, Mark was the one to correct him, as well as doing virtually all of his team's math, which was all correct. He was also the one that realized they were going in the wrong direction.
Was he trying to take suspicion off himself or take advantage of the chaos?
If he was trying to take advantage of the chaos, wouldn't he have let the group run in the opposite direction even further? Dude, he figured out correct answers while he was running!
Ticket to Ride: no suspicious behavior, with much opportunity to do so. Was chosen by two members of the group as their most trusted person, indicating they don't think he's the Mole, and they've all gotten this far...
Would he really have been so heartless as to sabotage another person's chance at seeing his or her loved one?
Reading this recap, I've got to come to the conclusion that Mark simply isn't the Mole, or if he is, he's got some 'splainin' to do at the reveal. If he'd been the single-handed hero of a mission once, it'd be suspicious, but he's been the hero so many times. If he's the Mole, as much as I adore him, ABC shouldn't be paying him, because he sucks at his job. It's impossible to write anyone off, but unless Mark does some super suspicious stuff in the next two episodes (please let him win!), there are simply no facts to back up the fact that he's the Mole other than insane conspiracy theories/The-Number-23-esque spotting of clues pointing to him everywhere, which all of the other contestants have too.
