Episode 5 Private Confessional

Eh. Well, part of me is disappointed that the lovely Mole didn't pick me to be Mafia to have a shot at the exemption, and I'm also disappointed that I didn't get a chance to do much in that first all-important round. I wanted to do something Mole-ish, but didn't get much of a chance to thanks to stupid Brian deciding to kill me for reasons I'm still unaware of. I'm EXTREMELY glad that he was prevented from getting his exemption in the final round (go Blaise!), and that I prevented him from getting Mole bucks by voting him out in the final round of the second time we played. It was down to my decision, and I had a feeling Brian was Mafia again, and that Ginger was being honest, so I went ahead and did it, and I couldn't be more glad I took him out. BOTH times he got eliminated in the final round when he was THIS close to succeeding, and I couldn't be happier that it was prevented. I don't really blame Elise for what happened, especially since it seems like it was Brian who forced her to kill me. But Brian was also INCREDIBLY stupid in several aspects of how he chose to vote. He actually may have easily gotten himself his exemption had he not made some mistakes he made. So, though no exemption for me, it was the second best possible outcome, because no exemptions were earned and Brian left empty-handed. Yay. :)

Mitch's execution wasn't too helpful in the sense of eliminating suspects, but it still brought a lot of positives. I actually think it would've SUCKED to play the Mafia game with him around because of how roguishly shady he was at challenges, always wanting to just screw absolutely everything up, and SO obviously. Yes, these other people who are left in the game HAVE done their share of sneaky things in challenges, but I don't know, at least they do it with, like… class. Mitch totally didn't. Check out my last private confessional if you want a reminder of just how poorly I thought of Mitch's gameplay. I also have to say that I'm very glad that things pay off eventually, even if they don't pay off immediately. Two quizzes ago, I noticed the fact that he posted his public confessional after the deadline, and I pointed it out to you, since you hadn't noticed it, and this got him a -1. I figured "Oh, cool, well, maybe this'll get him executed, and if it doesn't, I guess there's always a SLIGHT chance that he'll screw up again, and he'll then have a -2 instead, so I think it's good that I did this." JEEZ, who would've thought that the guy would screw up the week IMMEDIATELY after that? It's awesome, though, and I certainly am glad I had a hand in it. :) I'm sorry, but Mitch NOT getting those penalties may have easily meant me getting executed, and Mitch, if you read this at some point, considering how dirty a player you were, I'm sure you would've done the same to me if you'd gotten the chance. No hard feelings, really, and I'm sure you're a really cool guy in real life, and it'll be interesting to find out who you really are at the reunion.

Poor Ginger. She no longer has Mitch as an ally, and she apparently believes that people don't realize how obvious it was that they were together. Well, maybe people don't realize it, but I sure did. At least she's not alone, though; she's still definitely got Brian. I'm assuming that's who she's referring to in her recent blog post in which she says she still MIGHT suspect someone depending on whether or not they start acting shady again. But really, now that Brian and Ginger are alone in this game, it's like they feed off each other. It's like they have a mutually dependent relationship. Like, if Brian were a penis, Ginger would be the blood that flows into it, so if Ginger gets executed, Brian will be limp, so to speak (unless he can gather some more hemoglobin from elsewhere).

I'm so glad that Blaise worked together with Paul to coordinate a vote majority to get rid of Elise, and that he then made the right choice to side with Breaux at the end and send Brian's mafioso ass out the door. By doing that, he kept the exemptions from being won, and I couldn't be happier about that. At this point, I do think I can trust him a lot, especially since he actually REVEALED that he purposely sabotaged the Trust/Betray challenge in order to look suspicious. This is the reason why I've been trying to pitch the idea of him being The Mole to other players when talking to them. At this point, I'm not all that sure that people suspect ME, so I might as well try to get them to suspect someone that I don't believe is The Mole.

Now, last confessional I spoke of my four suspects, and yes, I'll repeat that it's totally lame that I have four people as suspects when there are so few people left. In fact, four is a majority of the group now. The good news? (Well, hopefully it's good news, anyway) I think I'm starting to zero in on one of these people. I don't want to say which one yet and I don't want to explain why, because if The Mole reads this, I don't want him/her to exploit what I say to his/her advantage. However, that doesn't mean I'm not gonna give you ANYTHING. Last episode, I discussed why I thought each of those four people could be The Mole. This episode, we'll do the reverse. Let's talk about reasons that make me think each of them is NOT The Mole. This is actually something people should do more frequently. Rather than looking for shady things (which non-Moles may be pretending to do, anyway), it's important to try to find things that seem to suggest the person couldn't be The Mole at all. So, let's take a look at each of them, and again, the order is completely random, since my mind changes every day:

PAUL:

In my last private confessional, one of things that I mentioned that made me suspect him was something he said in his very first conversation with me about how he wasn't sure if he should play like a hardcore player who ostensibly cared only about pot-raising, and how he felt that strategy was idiotic, yet it's the exact strategy he's been pulling. Well… there's something he said also in that conversation that made him UNsuspicious in my eyes. He confessed that he was worried that someone would figure out who he is in real life (as in, someone who's known him in a past ORG) and would be able to "trace things back." Yes, those are the words he used, and I don't believe a Mole would be too intelligent to word something that way, stating fear that someone could discover him/her. It just doesn't seem like a smart thing for a Mole to say. In addition, I know I said that for all his whining he hasn't helped MUCH at challenges, but at the Hangman game, he certainly did help by giving us that link and figuring out that the word had to be either "defenestrate" or "teledendrite," but then again, maybe he figured we wouldn't be able to get enough letters to figure out which one it was, and so he took the opportunity to appear helpful.

ELISE:

I so knew Elise was a Mafiosa right away. :) She starts it off by saying "any suspicions, guys? lol", and I knew right away, and of course, had no way of doing anything about it, since I got killed early. But actually, the thing that makes me not suspect her is something I've talked about already. I mentioned it in my last confessional in the paragraph I wrote about her. She refused to give out her full bio. Let me tell you something. I DO like Elise a lot, and I suppose I'll congratulate her if she is The Mole, and I actually would still love to keep in touch with her even if she is The Mole and manages to pull the wool over my eyes… but if she's revealed as The Mole at the finale, I'll definitely have to ask her why she did this, and I'll have to ask her even if I'm the winner and was the one who discovered her. Sure, I'll be elated to have won, but I'll still need to ask, because as I said last week, I think that the refusal to give out bio information on The Mole's part is unethical, and I don't mean unethical within the strategic limits of the game. I think it would be unfair in the grand scheme of things because if a player is smart enough to go to The Mole and ask for their information, he/she should be able to get the information, since that information is what helps you win. If someone was intelligent enough to at least suspect the real Mole, he/she should be given the necessary tools to navigate the quiz.

BRIAN:

See, now it gets tricky. I can't think of many non-Mole reasons for these last two. But, um… let me think. Well, several weeks ago, we were in one of those post-challenge group chats and people were doing the usual thing of laughing and accusing each other of being The Mole in jest. Brian had to leave, and right when he had to leave, someone apparently referred to him as being The Mole, and right before leaving, his last message was like "and I'm not The Mole." I don't see this as something The Mole would risk doing. In fact, it's an awfully dumb thing for The Mole to do. If you say "I'm not The Mole," are people going to believe you, even moreso if it's the last thing you say before leaving? It sounds MORE like something a player pretending to be The Mole would say… but I'm not 100% sure about that. As I said last week, I think that if Brian is The Mole, he's doing okay, but certainly not great, and I have a feeling that a lot of people may think it's him, which isn't good for me at all. It'd be a lot more convenient if Breaux, Elise or Paul were The Mole. Okay, and there's another thing… something that I wish I could confirm. I had a very short-lived coalition with Richard. I never trusted him much because I really suspected him of being The Mole, and it seems more people than I thought believed it could be him, too. But anyway, Richard TOLD me he suspected Brian. In fact, he told me he selected Brian on the first quiz. This would lead you to think he targeted Brian again on the second quiz, and hence got executed, meaning Brian isn't The Mole. But I can't be sure. Even though Richard left the game so early, he was very active while he was around, so he could've certainly been a very smart player who just wasn't lucky. So, maybe he didn't think Brian was The Mole, but he wanted to convince me he was, to throw me off. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the reason why Richard allied with me was because he suspected me, which would mean he went for me, instead of Brian. I really want to believe Richard, though. Now that he's gone, the guy seems like the most honest and harmless person ever. But I can't be sure.

BREAUX:

Every episode, when we take the quiz, we are asked that pestering question: "Who is The Mole?" Talk about stating the obvious, huh? (lol) But anyway, that question is meant to be a challenging one that gets us to consider the actions of each player. However, if that question, were instead asking "Who is The Mole", as in who would you LIKE to see be The Mole (basically, if you could just pick a favorite rather than have to make a decision), I would totally pick Breaux. In my last confessional I wrote that I think he's doing a very good job if he's The Mole. I don't think I even knew THEN how excellent it was, though. I have spoken to Breaux more in the last few days, and EVERYTHING the guy tells me makes me want to think it ISN'T him. He also has gotten me to like him a heck of a lot. If it's him, he's doing it fantastically, and I hope he keeps doing what he's doing and that nobody else considers him. I say I'd like him to be The Mole for two reasons. First, I don't think many people would know it, which would give me an advantage to get to the end, and secondly, silly as it sounds, I actually get excited when I see an excellent Mole performance, as someone who's personally been The Mole and done a good job at the role. If Brian's The Mole… well, after the Mafia challenge, I'd say he's actually doing quite poorly. If it's Elise, she did well, but it isn't a groundbreaking performance either. And if it's Paul, he did do well, even though I'll have nitpicks. But if it's Breaux, I'll totally applaud him to no end. Let's get off this tangent, though, and focus on specific reasons why Breaux wouldn't be The Mole. Aside from what I just said about EVERYTHING he says making me want to think it's not him, there are a few, I guess, TECHNICAL things that make me think it's not him. Like, I just cannot BELIEVE that you picked #6 to be The Mole in OMC 6. That's ballsy as heck. Also, and I know this is silly, but I wouldn't think you'd give The Mole the DARKEST pawn color out of all of them. Or maybe it's supposed to be a clue, since well, a mole (the animal) is dark-colored, right? Also, considering that this is an alias game, I would've thought that The Mole wouldn't pick an unusual name for themselves, so as to not stand out. "Brian" and "Paul" seem more like aliases that a Mole would pick. Speaking of the aliases, though, I found it interesting when Breaux recently told me that he was wondering who this guy Sam is (the one you referred to as OMC's most successful Mole ever). Since this is an alias game, you could easily have people who've played past OMCs playing this one, too, and who better to play your Mole than the person you describe as having been your most successful Mole ever? Breaux's ostensible curiosity to know who this guy is makes me wonder if he actually IS this guy Sam. I do have to mention something I feel bad about, though. Last confessional, when I was talking about my feelings on the players, I sort of lumped Breaux into the "immature" group in one of my statements, and I'd like to retract that. I also know I haven't spoken very nicely of him in past confessionals (even referring to him as a mosquito on the first one). Before you start getting ideas, NO, I'm not saying this now because I think he could be The Mole and I'm like "oh no, I better start talking nicely about him, maybe he's The Mole and is reading this," but rather, it's because I've finally gotten a chance to have a decent conversation with the guy, and I've found that he's really great. Add him to the list of people I like, along with Blaise and Elise. Everyone else, I could take them or leave them at this point.

Even though it's great that no exemptions were won, I'm still very vulnerable. None of the players remaining is irresponsible. They won't get penalties. And a lot of them may have a good clue of who it is. I guess being executed now wouldn't be terrible placing, but I sure as heck want to do better. And if I do go, it's like, I'll have to wait what, 3-4 weeks of knowing NOTHING until the finale? It's funny, but I actually think that if I get executed, the question of who The Mole is will plague me even more, because I'll be like "Jeez, where was I wrong? Who the heck WAS it, then?" Basically, though, I'm hoping once again that at least one person will be going after someone who it isn't, which would mean that even if I'm wrong about what I do on the quiz, it would still be enough for me to stay. I guess The Mole clearly doesn't like me, though… so maybe it really is gonna be my time to go. :(