[Warning: The following post contains major spoilers about The Traitors Season 3’s first three episodes, “Let the Battle Commence,” “Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Cold,” and “Nail in a Coffin.”]
The Traitors is back, and, yes, it is so back. The third season of Peacock’s Emmy-winning reality competition series features, once again, a variety of reality television stars journeying to the Scottish castle to bask in the glory of Alan Cumming‘s fabulously wild wardrobe and to try and suss out who he’s chosen to be the murderers in this mystery game. This time, there are some surprises tucked up the host’s silky sleeves, including some surprise (and seemingly unwelcome) additions to the cast list and more cloaked traitors than ever.
Things get off to an intense start right away when the initial group arrives and realizes there’s built-in history between some of them. For example, Danielle Reyes is still grudging against Britney Haynes for giving her the boot on Big Brother; Jeremy Collins and Tony Vlachos aren’t sure what to make of fellow Survivor Carolyn Wiger, and the feeling’s mutual; there are another batch of Housewives who instantly gravitate towards each other, including Chanel Ayan, Dolores Catania, Dorinda Medley, and Robyn Dixon; and Chrishell Stause is wary of Tom Sandoval, since she’s pals with his notoriously cheated-on ex, Ariana Madix.
Cumming puts all of these complicated relationships to the test right away by offering all of them the opportunity to oust someone else in the cast if they’ll only accept “Boston Rob” Mariano into the fold. Despite the temptation, though, everyone holds the line because it’s too soon to make a move, and, besides, Boston Rob’s reputation as a cut-throat player precedes him enough to make folks steer clear (the devil you know…).
Euan Cherry/Peacock
Once inside, each states their case to Cumming about why they should or shouldn’t be chosen as a traitor, and his conversation with Sandoval brings on a zinger to end them all: When the Vanderpump Rules star says he wants to be a faithful and answers in the affirmative that he’d feel betrayed if he was chosen as a traitor, Cumming quips, “Doesn’t feel so nice, does it?” Ouch.
Ultimately, Cumming lands on an eclectic group of traitors by choosing Danielle, Carolyn, and Bob The Drag Queen to carry out the season’s murders. (He also announces a rule change that’s sure to have an impact: “Those of you who make it to the final will no longer reveal whether they are a traitor as they leave. To determine whether there are any traitors left in my game, you will rely solely on your instincts. Dun dun dunnnnn.)
Once the blindfolds come off, the games begin. No one’s playing spot-the-traitor harder than Tom, who’s got a cartoonishly aggressive stare-down game but is immediately (and continuously) wrong with his assessments.
Things get testy for absolutely everyone, though, once the first mission begins and requires a set number of contestants to volunteer to miss the boat, literally speaking, at the various checkpoints. Not only does this make them ineligible for the murder shields waiting at the finish line (er, circle), but it also raises questions among the others about why they aren’t scared of elimination — are they (cue the Alan Cumming eyebrow raise) TRAITORS?! After all four Housewives step up, traitors Bob and Danielle volunteer, too, not knowing they’ve gotten that faithful tap and thus engaging in a lie-loaded conversation with Oscar-worthy performances. Bob Harper and Sam Asghari are the last two players to sacrifice their chance at safety for the greater good, while the rest just decide to turn around and give up another $20,000 for the pot in exchange for precious immunity — despite apparently having plenty of time to reach the last raft full of cash. This last decision sends the Housewives, particularly Dorinda, into a downright tizzy (cue the “Not Well B***” GIF for the seven zillionth time). Her flipout makes her a very easy target for the traitors — and Bob’s thespian skills continue at breakfast when he sheds real, actual tears for the women he just sent home.
Meanwhile, Alan’s treachery reaches new heights when he reveals that Boston Rob isn’t off flying back to Beantown — instead, he’s going to join the cast whether the others like it or not, and he’s been chosen as a traitor. And that’s not all! Also on tap to crash the party are The Challenge‘s Wes Bergmann and Big Brother‘s Derrick Lavasseur.
Euan Cherry/Peacock
The trio of incoming contestants are introduced as part of the second mission, in which they are placed in hanging cages for the others to bring down by retrieving money. This immediately becomes something of a popularity contest, with Rob getting brought down first, but eventually, they’re all rescued in time for the team to nab the full $50,000 for the pot. The newcomers then get to reward whoever they want with shields — but only after they quietly watch the next roundtable go down, with Wells Adams successfully targeted by Bob the Drag Queen and sent home. With that, two faithfuls down… Rob protects Tony, Derrick protects Dylan Efron, and Wes opts to shield Jeremy in hopes of getting in good with the Survivors.
Once Rob reveals himself to be a traitor to the others, he is immediately disappointed by the line-up because they can’t seem to get on the same page with one another, so he decides to exercise quiet control and pull them all together. After some heated debate, with Bob the Drag Queen boldly calling his own suggestion “flawless” and refusing to hear anything otherwise, they decide to send the very unsuspecting Ayan home just to weaken the Housewives even further (and before she could wear her whole wardrobe, the horror!).
The following breakfast is an awkward affair as Danielle attempts to show off her clever concealment skills in front of Rob by putting her foot in her mouth repeatedly. Rob can tell this is going to be a problem, but for now, the bigger issue is the fact that Dylan has gamely realized that Bob the Drag Queen orchestrated Wells’ elimination, and he’s telling everyone who’ll listen about his theory.
It’s not enough to sway the newest roundtable. After a pathetic showing at the funhouse challenge, in which the team earned exactly $0 for the team bank, it’s Tony whose name emerges as the main character of the moment — despite the fact that he did reluctantly go first in the mission — and is overwhelmingly voted for banishment. Dylan makes nice with Bob the Drag Queen, even telling him he’s newly convinced of his innocence, but he’s not giving up on his (absolutely correct) read on the RuPaul’s Drag Race alum. Watch this space!
For now, another faithful has fallen, and if that’s not enough, Alan decides to throw in yet another twist: Instead of a new secret murder meeting, he wants all four traitors to decide on a list of three people up for banishment, which means they have to find a way to sneak off and chat about it without anyone noticing. And subtlety is not Crystal’s strong suit. While they huddle in the wine room, others start to realize that there are people missing, and it looks like Gabby might just catch them in the act of leaving their little hidden meeting place.
We’ll have to wait until next week to see if someone gets caught, but from these first three episodes, it’s clear The Traitors is turning the tension up a notch in Season 3.
The Traitors, Thursdays, 9/8c, Peacock