Or as he's known in my house, "that asshole who makes me unable to root for the guy from the town I was born in."
PAUL
Over the Falls: missed the bag
So did at least three other players who aren't the Mole.
Robinson Crusoe: stopped running and putting sand in the timer after some time
We didn't see how long he was running for. If he was running up and down stairs with buckets of sand for, say, fifteen minutes straight, I don't blame him for giving up.
Race to the Summit: collapsed on the field after about twenty minutes, then picked on Bobby for doing the same. On the way up the hill to the gondola, stayed back in the slow group.
Before those twenty minutes, he was shown playing pretty hard. Liz, Bobby, Ali, and Clay were also very slow in getting up the hill, and we know they're not the Mole.
When Pigs Fly: didn't seem to be sabotaging anything during the pig catching
He broke one pig for an exemption, costing the team at least $1000.
The team caught 28/44 pigs. Y'all can decide whether that's suspicious or not for yourselves.
Fruit of the Luge: got 5/7 fruits correct for $10000 and didn't speak after the finish line
Though Ali, his partner, called out the fruit order correctly, he was the one to place the fruits and he messed up the last two, causing $4000 to be lost.
Dress Code: made an effort to get clothes and make it to the restaurant on time
Was he trying to throw suspicion off himself?
Midas Rush: his team made it to the top with 34 bricks and 30 seconds to spare. If he was the Mole, it would have been easy for him to waste those those 30 seconds.
He told Craig to stop many times.
Then again, so did Alex.
Who Said That: didn't get his question right. At the journal burn, quickly volunteered his journal to be given up... did he know in advance he would be the only one that would get to keep it?
There was no obvious tip-off in his question. He genuinely doesn't seem to use his journal much.
All for One: no suspicious behavior
He did play a lot of mind games, though.
Travelers: refused to participate in the mission
Even if he's not the Mole, there was no way he was going to be the ass end of a llama with Nicole in the front.
Grapes of Cache: Communicator, mocked Nicole as she tried to solve problems and gave the wrong coordinates once
He's ALWAYS mocking Nicole, and he corrected himself on the coordinates.
Swing Out: jumped but missed the target
So did everyone except Alex.
Go Figure: had the map when his team got lost
It could have been a genuine mistake. If you gave me a map of a city where I didn't speak the language and let me loose there, the chances are likely I'd get lost too.
Ticket to Ride: no suspicious behavior
He wasn't given the opportunity to sabotage other people, and he wouldn't have passed up an opportunity to see his wife and daughter for $10000.
Paul's definitely shady and has done his fair of sabotaging, and I wouldn't mind if it turned out he was the Mole and was, in fact, putting on an act when he's actually a big softie who picked on the players that were on to him, but... I don't think that's happening. The most suspicious thing he's said was during the Travelers mission, when Mark was talking about how it was impossible to travel the distance they had to cover in 45 minutes: "Mark's almost convinced me I can't run an 8-minute mile!" Paul, though he looks athletic, seems to suck at physical missions. If he's the Mole, hiding his athleticism could be a good cover, but he could have just accidentally admitted that he is, in fact, athletic - an 8-minute mile, from what I remember from my two years on high school track, is pretty hardcore. The thing is, I've found literally nothing that could be a clue for him (if the apple = Big Apple = New York thing is indeed a clue, I'll be pissed, because Yonkers isn't New York City!!!!! Ahem. Sorry. New Yorker.)...
Paul, as portrayed, is an asshole who's sexist (when Nicole said that he can't deal with women doing anything other than sitting in the kitchen cooking and making babies: bingo. And I know Nicole must be a pain in the ass to be around 24/7, but remember he went after Victoria too, and his "worst fear" was not catching the bag in Over the Falls when a woman did), homophobic* (the constant inference that Bobby wasn't a man, whereas when Craig screwed up mission after mission physically, Paul said nothing), and possibly racist (I can't tell whether he dropped a garden variety MF bomb on Clay, or something, uh, let's just say more specifically oriented). I totally despise him, and I hate the comparisons more than a few have made between him and Boston Rob. No. Boston Rob had a certain indefinable charm, and he mostly used his deceitfulness and at times abrasive tactics to pick off alpha males and alliance leaders, not the weaker members of the game. Boston Rob could also handle other strategies being used against him, whereas Paul freaks out when confronted with other people using his strategy, like Clay and Nicole. God, I hope he doesn't win, and I hope he makes up with Nicole/she makes up with him.
Is he hot, though? I can't decide. Part of the "eh, not so much" might be his personality, though, and how much I am so not into tattoos. (Does it destroy the power of my "he's sexist" argument when I follow it up with asking how hot he is? Hmmm.)
Okay, I need sleep...
* to be fair, though Paul doesn't deserve it, Bobby had some interview in Advocate where he said Paul was totally cool with him being gay when he originally came out prior to the game actually beginning, and Paul even said he went to gay clubs all the time (straight guys do not go to gay clubs, even in NY, unless they are comfortable with their sexuality. This is pretty much a cast-iron fact. Sorry, guys.). So, who knows.
