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Spoilers for The Traitors Season 4.
The first three episodes of The Traitors‘ fourth season dropped last Thursday. The cast is made up of the usual suspects: reality TV stars, professional athletes, comedians, and random D-list celebrities, who, in this season, is the incredibly annoying Michael Rapaport. I went in rooting for Rob Cesternino, Natalie Anderson, Yam Yam, Monét X Change, Tara Lipinski, Johnny Weir, and Donna Kelce, who was repping the “America’s Mom” category.
After a messy third season, the powers that be decided to switch it up a little. For the first time, two Real Housewives, Lisa Rinna and Candiace Dillard Bassett, were chosen as Traitors. They were rounded out by Love Island USA’s Rob Rausch, who had the most priceless look when he first walked into the turret and discovered who his fellow Traitors were. Producers also took a page from The Traitors UK and did a “Secret Traitor” twist. The Secret Traitor got to compile the short list of players that Lisa, Candiace, and Rob R. had to pick from to murder. To further complicate matters, the trio of Traitors and the Secret Traitor’s identities remained hidden from each other. While the Faithfuls were trying to suss out the Traitors, the Traitors and the viewers were kept on their toes trying to guess who the Secret Traitor could be. We didn’t have to wait too long, though. That player was banished (voted out) from the castle at the end of the third episode.
“This game is full of surprises,” Alan said. “I am about to pick my very first Traitor right here, right now. Players, 23 chests stand before you — one [for] each [of you]. Inside your chests, 22 of you will see nothing and remain Faithful for now. But one player will see the Traitor card, and a life of scheming and sabotage begins as they become my first Traitor.”
“Never before in my game has a Traitor been chosen in plain sight,” he continued. “Use this opportunity: study and observe your fellow players’ moves from this moment on. Let us begin.”
“Players, I hope you paid attention because my first Traitor has been chosen,” Alan told the group. “The deception has begun, and now I ask you this question sooner than ever before: Who here can you trust? Later tonight, we shall convene at the roundtable where I will pick the remaining Traitors. But, for now, it’s time to enter my castle. The game has begun.”
The secret Traitors’ identity remained a mystery to both their fellow Traitors and to viewers until episode 3, when Donna was voted out at the group’s second roundtable.
“I know I’m the sacrificial lamb, and I know that I had a blast meeting every single one of you,” Donna told the group. “On that note, I think I’m gonna go, but you got yourself a Traitor!”
Donna’s reveal was met with lots of cheers from the players. She revealed that her plan was “to be this sweet mom on the side, and then at night be this devious Traitor that is going to be murdering people.”“It’ll be just a hoot,” she said. “I can’t wait.”
After being voted out, Donna said “playing a Traitor was tough, but I gave it my best shot.”
“This has been a dream come true,” she said through tears. “These are happy tears that I get to do this at this point in my life. It’s just the joy of being in the game.”
While I didn’t hate the secret traitor twist, I did not think it was done well. I get why producers would want to have Mama Kelce in that role, but they didn’t give her any screen time to really be the hoot that she wanted to be! The educated viewer could guess that she was going after the “gamers” (someone from Survivor or Big Brother), but we never got any good confessionals from her to tell us why she picked her short list. She would have been much better served as a regular Traitor where she could give campy confessionals and outwardly deceive the Faithfuls. The smart play would be to have a gamer be the Secret Traitor. Can you imagine the chaos if Rob C (whom I was devastated to see go) was the Secret Traitor that kept the other Traitors on their toes by clocking the Murder in Plain Sight? Again, I get picking Mama K, but at least give her the screen time to justify it.
If you want more Traitors content, Boston Rob and Bob the Drag Queen are doing this season’s official podcast. They’re a fun, odd couple, and I enjoyed the first episode. You can check it out here.
I freaking love this show. Agreed that they needed to give The Secret Traitor a bit more room to work but this show gives me liiiife 🖤💀🔪
I was so sick of Rinna on Beverly Hills, but I’ll be damned if I don’t love her on Traitors.
I can’t believe what a failure this was for the writers. Everyone clocked Donna *immediately* because she was the odd one out on multiple levels, and the idea of a wholesome sweet mom distraction was just so obvious. I forgot which player said this, I’m paraphrasing: “she raised two Hall of Fame NFL stars, and you can’t do that without being tough and strategic.” Exactly correct.