After a video recap of last week's doings, it all starts over.

Bill: "This thing has so many levels of complexity that it sort of defies the imagination. I mean, you cannot get to the bottom of this."

Elavia: "It's so hard, 'cuz we're down to eight people and that's really freaky. And you're hanging out with them and you're like, it kind of blows your mind that one of them is a freaky, stinky liar out to sabotage."

Katie: "I hate executions. Executions - they just suck. I wish there was a way we could play this game where nobody had to go home."

In the van, Darwin says the Mole is likely the person who has the most exemptions. He stares at Dorothy and Elavia, who each have had two. Someone speculates maybe the Mole has had none, pointing to Heather, Darwin and Bribs.

Heather: "We come down for breakfast and we find a message from the Mole, and it is 'I will break you', attached to a gnome."

Bill: "Each of us has a gnome. All the gnomes are a little bit different color, which just generated a flurry of activity, as everybody tried to write down the color and facial expression of everybody's gnome, since we don't know what's really important."

Anderson needs three people who would rather watch Romancing the Stone, and five people who would rather watch Gladiator.

Bribs: "I love Gladiator. Absolutely loved that movie. I had no hesitation about being put into that group."

Bill, Heather, and Elavia are the three Romancing the Stone people. They go off with Anderson.

Anderson says they'll have fun today. Well, he'll definitely have fun, and they might have fun.

They have devised a relay race, using gnomes as batons. The game is worth $30,000, with a 30 minute time limit. They have to grease their gnome with lard. If they break in the course of the relay, game over. One exemption is available, but it is not immediately explained.

They get to choose their gnome, and Heather can actually touch the gnome before picking.

The large gnome is light, and the small one is heavy, according to Bill.

The order is decided. Heather is first, Bill second, and Elavia third.

Anderson explains the odd relay race, and what the players have to do. Heather, the first leg, has to dodge hay bales, climb a ladder with her greased gnome and get someone to take her picture with it. She then has to race down the boulevard to hand off to the waiting Bill.

Bill has to take the freshly greased gnome over to a nearby soccer field and try to score a goal. After he makes a penalty kick, he has to take a picture immortalizing the moment. He then has to, with the greased gnome, bike through an obstacle course. At the end of the obstacle course there will be a staircase, where Elavia waits at the top.

Elavia has to put the gnome in a stroller and follow green arrows on a course through town.

Bill: "I think it's a very tough game. And doing it in 30 minutes, I would not be surprised if Heather didn't get here in 30 minutes. She's got a long run."

It is time to grease the gnome.

Heather: "So I start off by greasing the gnome, which was very interesting. And I realize that the game is going to be a lot harder than I thought, because it's a lot slipperier(I'm doing Heather and you a favor by not actually posting what she really said. She never actually spit out slipperier but I know that's what she was trying to say.) than I thought."

Anderson meets back up with the five Gladiator people. He tells them to pick a "Caesar" to defend, who will not have to fight.

Al: "Dorothy could be the Mole. Dorothy is definitely a suspect. 'Cuz she has pulled a couple of stunts, things that would keep her from contributing fully to games. She has no stomach for running or walking or anything. She lives in New York City. That's all you do is walk and run!"

They choose on Dorothy as Caesar. He tells her to remove her hat. She gets a crown of wreaths. The other four have to defend Caesar. If the crown remains after the game is done, $30,000 is added to the pot. If the crown falls, no money.

The other four pick their helmets.

Heather, et greased gnome, begins. She finds an American tourist to take the picture with after climbing the ladder.

Heather: "She's very hesitant at first. She seemed very shocked and actually a little bit afraid."

"I start running with the gnome and I realize that it's going to be difficult to run the whole way because I can't get a comfortable grasp of the gnome."

Anderson, again, is casually riding a bicycle as Heather has the heavy greased gnome to bear.

Anderson: "Sure is one greasy gnome you have."

The players get their armor in the Gladiator game. The players will have to draw blood, sort of. Each gladiator's armor has a lion on it, and the lion contains an egg of red dye. If they break the egg, it is considered a kill.

Katie: "I was so nervous being the only girl out there. It was one of my times to be like one of the guys."

Bribs and Darwin discuss their strategy prior to suiting up.

As do Al and Katie.

Bribs is the last one to dress. Anderson makes him a special offer. Because he randomly chose the helmet he did, he gets an offer. The helmet he chose is the 'Brutus' helmet. Everyone is quite familiar with the Caesar story, where Brutus betrayed him, and now Bribs is Brutus.

It's worth an exemption to him.

The other players have to all be dead, by the other people's hands or if necessary by Bribs' own. Once they are, if Brutus slays Caesar, and takes the crown from Caesar's head and hands it to King Anderson, he gains an exemption.

Bribs: "It's going to become increasingly difficult to pass an exemption as the game goes on from this point."

Heather is continuing to struggle with the greasy gnome.

Bill: "I see Heather coming toward me and I think 'Boy, she's really sweating', and I realize it is grease that has melted and run down her legs and arms. She is really a pathetic looking thing."

"As Heather is greasing up the gnome - and it's really hard to say that without laughing - but as she is greasing up the gnome, I'm saying to myself 'We have a shot at winning this $30,000."

"I run out to this little soccer field with a female goalie. I kick the first one or two fairly gentle, thinking she won't get it, I come to find out this female goalie's a pretty darn good female goalie. So I start kicking harder and harder, and, unfortunately, on the fifth, sixth, or seventh ball I kicked, hit this poor girl in the belly so hard I thought she was going to go down. But it did not go in the net."

Bill finally sneaks one past the gatekeeper, but forgets to take the picture.

Heather: "He actually had to get off the bike, run back, and take a picture, and it took quite a while."

Heather suggests he put the gnome in the bike basket.

Bill: "I was trying to balance the gnome on the bicycle and I didn't even see the basket. It was a good idea. 'Cuz I think trying to hold that gnome and ride would have been real hard."

Since he is holding his greased gnome, Bill can only steer with one hand.

He trips over an obstacle, falls, and the gnome shatters.

Inside the gnome is a piece of wood containing the word 'exemption'. Bill now has one, though he's not thrilled.

Heather: "Once I started thinking about the movie Romancing the Stone, I had a strong suspicion that the exemption was inside the gnome. I wasn't 100% sure, and since I didn't want to just drop the gnome and just take the exemption and run, you know, I just kept my suspicions to myself."

Bill: "I was going to hold the gnome under my arm, where I could see and ride, and Heather was the one that said 'No, no, put the base of the gnome in the basket. It was only after the basket fell off the bike and the gnome fell out of my hands and broke, that I went back and looked at the basket, and the basket was held on by something, but I couldn't find out what. She suggested that very directly. So there have been subtle and not-so-subtle indicators that Heather is deliberately, or accidentally, sabotaging the games."

Heather: "I was right. My initial feeling of the exemption being inside the doll was correct. He might have dropped the gnome on purpose. I mean, I considered doing the same thing, so I feel frustrated, because I really did give it everything I had."

Elavia: "At this point, I've gotten two exemptions. I knew that there was one in there, but I didn't want it, simply because it's getting to the point where we gotta put money in the pot."

Anderson explains the "I will break you" from the Mole was a clue. As was the movie Romancing the Stone, since something is broken in that movie.

Bill suggests to Heather that they hug Elavia, since she is dry. And they do.

They hug Anderson as well.

TEST FAILED

TOTAL - $236,000

Bribs has trouble with the exemption offer.

Bribs: "I'm being too honest in this game. And if I'm going to keep on going, if I'm going to start competing in a smaller group, I'm going to start having the be somewhat ruthless."

The gladiators march, with Caesar, towards the ampitheater for their battle.

Al: "We're going down the street, and, just, they're bustling with people. And people are stopping and they're looking at us. I mean, I was thinking to myself 'Man, I gotta keep my game face on', but way inside I'm going 'This is great!'"

"So we walk into the ampitheater, where there used to be, I guess, fights, we walk in, big, circular, building. Now there's a live audience! I'm going 'Holy cow! There's a live audience. Everybody's excited at this point. We can't wait to play."

Anderson reiterates the game, that Caesar has to keep her crown on her head sitting on her throne for $30,000 to be added to the pot. Caesar takes her throne.

Enter the gladiators!

Al: "Here comes the other gladiators and this is unbelievable. They got the black robes on, black shields, and the one big guy in chain mail and the horns coming up, he's got no shield, he's so tough he doesn't even need a shield."

"I had a sweat going. I was ready to go."

The four players must now battle the five gladiators. They must defend Caesar and beat the gladiators.

Darwin: "When you actually see the gladiators coming, it's like 'Okay, that egg is fragile, so you gotta be either really aggressive or just all-out protecting your eggs.'"

Al is quickly eliminated by his opponent. Darwin eliminates an attacker, who dies convincingly. Katie and Darwin double team another who falls. Then Katie gets one on her own. Another attacker falls, then the big guy falls at Bribs' hand.

It seems the test is passed.

Al: "I couldn't see anything! But when all the smoke had cleared, the other gladiators did great. Our team did great. Wiped 'em all out. We protected Caesarina, and it was wonderful. It earned us $30,000."

Katie: "It was the biggest natural high I've ever had in my whole life. It was just so amazing."

Darwin: "It turns out, we made a great decision keeping Katie in, 'cuz she killed one by herself. She was clearly excited about that."

At Anderson's prodding, Bribs tells the others about the Brutus exemption, and that he decided against it.

TEST PASSED - +$30,000

TOTAL - $266,000

Bribs: "If I had to go through this game, and be untrue to myself the whole way through, if that was the only way I could win this game I wouldn't do it. I'm proud of myself of so far."

The others appreciate his not betraying them.

Al: "When you give up an exemption, you give up, you know, a free pass to the next round. You take your chances."

Katie: "But whenever anybody is offered an exemption and it turns it down, it makes me wonder, just a little bit, 'Maybe they're the Mole and they don't need an exemption.'"

Darwin: "It's a tough decision. Then again, you don't want to have everybody pissed at you for the rest of the time you're here either. There's a lot involved. It's harder than you would think."

The very excited gladiators retire to the hotel. Anderson summarizes the day.

The conversation turns to how each of the players met their significant others or friends.

Heather met her boyfriend at a party.

Bill met his wife in an apartment building, scantily clad in a bikini, piquing his curiosity.

Dorothy met her boyfriend when her roommate had him over, from "home".

Katie, sadly, has no significant other.

Again, not taking the cheap ones.

The players get their own rooms for the first time in the game.

Heather: "It's almost like the turning point where you realize it's an individual game, not a team playing game, and you realize more and more that you're here for yourself and nobody else."

She plays solitaire in her room.

Elavia: "Having a room to myself actually feels pretty good. It's been a while, and I like everybody here, but after a while you just kind of want to have your own space."

Bribs: "Today I lived out one of my boyhood fantasies. And so if I leave tomorrow, no grudges, no regrets, I will never regret passing up the exemption. On down the road if I'm faced with the same type of situation, I hope I would make the same decision, but that's not to say that I definitely would."

The players meet at the table again for another dinner. They face their seventh execution tonight. Bill of course is safe.

The Mole is feeling generous tonight. Each player has a dollar bill in front of them, which they will use to rank the players from their favorite to least favorite.

Katie is first. She says her list is the same as the last one. Bill is still her least favorite. She just doesn't trust him. Elavia is also low on her list.

Elavia's list is not alphabetical this time. She even says it was a cop-out last time. Dorothy tops her list. Katie is at the bottom of her list.

Dorothy's favorite player is now Elavia.

Darwin has Bill at the bottom of his list again.

Bribs says Dorothy is playing the game very well.

Heather says Bribs is extremely fair.

Bill can't figure Elavia out.

Al's least favorite player again is Dorothy.

Al: "Katie has a jelly-phobia. It is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my entire life."

The players continue to eat dinner. Al makes jokes continously about it, which seem to embarrass Katie.

Al: "She's so desperate for attention that everything is exaggerated so she gets that attention she desperately needs and wants."

Katie: "I have absolutely no idea what happened with jelly. Seeing it makes me feel like I'm going to vomit."

Al is hilarious!

Al: "If I had to choose who was going to be executed I would pick Katie. Because I think she's still getting on my nerves. I'm starting to become a pain in her side as well."

Heather: "Katie and I definitely share information, but the word 'coalition' seems strong for what it is. I thought I'd come into it, and work on trying to get everyone to suspect Katie and, you know, vice versa. Because she's so emotional it would be really hard to suspect her."

Now the quiz again.

1. What color hat did the gnome have that the Mole received at breakfast yesterday?

Elavia: "I feel that the difficulty of the quizzes, actually, they're getting harder."

2. What role was the Mole during the gladiator game?

Dorothy: "I think Bribs could be the Mole. He is playing the naive card a little too much, and that's why it's suspicious in a game like this."

3. What is the Mole's favorite food?

Katie: "I'm still, and Heather as well, we're very suspicious of Elavia. We're going to stay with our gut instinct."

4. What stage of the race was the Mole selected to run during the gnome home game?

Elavia: "The reason, I guess, I volunteered for Romancing the Stone is because I thought Heather was going to volunteer. Then Bill did, so I was like 'Great,' 'cuz there's some of my suspects for the Mole."

Katie: "He was very adamant about doing the second leg of the relay race. Which is really suspicious to me. I mean, he kind of got the exemption by fault, 'cuz he broke it, but maybe he broke it on purpose."

Dorothy: "I think it somewhat suspicious that Heather said she knew about the exemption being in the doll but didn't do anything for herself, especially since she's been saying foir so long that she wants an exemption and she hasn't had one yet."

5. How did the Mole meet their significant other or friend?

6. What is the Mole's lucky number?

7. What did the Mole wear on their head during their game yesterday?

8. How much does the Mole weigh?

Darwin: "I was surprised that Al went out so quick, 'cuz he was so pumped and ready for it and excited. Within like ten seconds, 'Al, you're out!'"

9. How many exemptions has the Mole received?

Al: "Elavia - I've been suspecting her as being the Mole from early on and up to date, she really hasn't done anything that would make me think otherwise."

10. Who is the Mole?

The players gather for the execution, but it is no normal execution. It is a historic site for executions. The old town executioner for the city of Lucca used to live on site. Heads of the beheaded prisoners were brought here, placed on sticks.

On a stick is the head of the gnome who didn't make it home.

Anderson reveals the players' picks as least favorite player.

Bill's least favorite player is Elavia. Dorothy's is Al. Elavia's is Katie. Al's is Dorothy. Bribs' is Elavia. Katie's is Bill. Darwin's is also Bill. Heather's least favorite player is Elavia.

So Elavia again gets the majority of the votes as least favorite.

But this time she gets a bribe. In the suitcase is $49,992. An additional $8 contains the "offensive" lists the others made. All tolled, $50,000 cash.

She can take $50,000 cash to walk out of the game tonight.

Astonished, Elavia along with the other seven players ponder this outcome.

Anderson taunts her, saying she has no idea how she did on the quiz, and could be executed tonight. He informs her this money does not come out of the group pot.

Slowly, with prodding from Darwin, she decides to take the money and run, going with her "legal counsel".

Darwin: "I didn't think there was any chance in hell that she was going to take it. I thought she was the Mole."

Al: "Elavia's departure screws me in a big way. Everybody has a pecking order, and the top of my pecking order just walked away."

Everyone is stunned that she took it. Many players had her pegged as the Mole, and they now need a new game plan, making it truly a new game starting with the next round.

The players comisserate on her gameplay and departure, just like after all the executions.

She departs in the old blue car just like all the others, but with a briefcase in her hand.

Anderson comes back, ready to carry on with the execution.

If a green thumbprint appears...

The players sit absolutely aghast.

Just kidding! Since Elavia removed herself from the game, there is no need for an execution.

Anderson gets called several colorful names after that little stunt.

Dorothy: "Elavia!! Why did you do it?! You know, you had such an upper hand! All those suckers out there, they thought you were the Mole! I know that if we wanted to, we could have plucked them out, one-by-one."

Who is definitely NOT the Mole: Bribs, Katie(who has gone in the other column)

Who may very well be the Mole: Bill, Dorothy

Click here for the recap of episode eight.