The Traitors US 04 — Opening Thoughts

Immediately upon arriving, Alan Cumming revealed that a Traitor would be immediately chosen before the cast has had much time to mingle. What he did not tell the players was that this Traitor would be a special Traitor known as the Secret Traitor. This Secret Traitor would not directly choose which Faithful to kill that round, but they would create a shortlist from the list of Faithfuls up for murder that round for the rest of the Traitors to choose from. The normal Traitors and the viewers at home would not know who the Secret Traitor truly was, but they would earn the opportunity to learn who they are soon.

I'm not sure I like this mechanic. At best, I think this mechanic had wasted potential. Major (hoverable) spoilers for the opening episodes, our secret Traitor was voted out at the second Roundtable. They admit they did not play the best game so perhaps this was just bad luck, but still.

What I don't understand is did the Secret Traitor know who the Regular Traitors were? Presumably not since they added one of the Regular Traitors to the shortlist on Night One, but if the Secret Traitor was aware then they could in theory rig the shortlist to only allow the Regular Traitors to murder a specific player that round if they got REALLY unlucky with shields that round.

Second, were they even supposed to work with the Secret Traitor? On the surface they were, but the Regular Traitors were handicapped by the existence of a Secret Traitor they could not communicate with; they had almost no control over the game anymore and the Secret Traitor's goals may not align with the group. Of course, the Traitors are likely to... well, betray each other, but that's normally for self interest, not direct game mechanic.

Thirdly, why were the Traitors able to earn the identity of the Secret Traitor as early as after the second Roundtable? And with a pretty easy challenge?

I was rooting for Ian ever since I learned he was on the cast. His Big Brother 14 run and Rachel Riley's Big Brother 13 run are the only seasons from my childhood I remembered decently well. I was super disappointed when his grave was filled, and I was especially disappointed to see him chosen by the Traitors. Oh, well, that's how the game goes sometimes.

I still think the idea behind the Secret Traitor if they told us everything about them is weird. Donna Kelce, the Secret Traitor, made a great call choosing players she knew would be great at social deduction games that were doing a great job of laying low. Excellent play on her end, would have been even better had the Traitors known she was specifically picking players that were laying low instead of just "The Gamers."

Don't get me wrong, the Regular Traitors' logic for picking Ian was sound logic as well. It just feels like cognitive dissonance how they have it set up here. It almost feels like the Secret Traitor was intended to be a separate group akin to the Mafia versus the Coven in Town of Salem but a producer later thought the idea was too complicated so close to the beginning of the season. If that is what happened then I completely understand the idea of not making this game too complicated, it just feels weird.

Fingers crossed Ian Terry ends up in some celebrity charity Town of Salem event or something. Or he gets the Dorinda treatment.

I was honestly hoping the Secret Traitor and Regular Traitors would have picked Dorinda purely because that would have been the funniest option that round.

I felt so bad for Porsche watching that Roundtable. At the time we didn't know for a fact but I was pretty sure she was not the Secret Traitor. I was almost expecting her to comment something akin so "I said we killed Ian because I feel bad we filled his grave." Might not have saved her but it would have been a good counter to "Why do you keep saying you killed Ian?"

Michael needs to shut up so bad. At this point I was back and forth between thinking either he or Donna was the Secret Traitor. If it was Michael then yeah no wonder he's playing so weirdly he's clearly going "Would a Faithful be THIS bad at it?" or whatever wording Rob Cesternino used. If it was Donna then... well...

Honestly I clocked her from the beginning as the Secret Traitor purely on the logic of "this is a television show what would be the most entertaining choice." I'll get to how well she played later but for now know I wasn't clocking her because of her gameplay, that's for sure.

Speaking of Michael, though, kudos to Tiffany for immediately deciding to be the only person defending him purely so he wouldn't go after her later. It's a shame he wasn't secretly the greatest Secret Traitor ever. I'm afraid that will backfire on her because of the wrong read, but oh well. That's the game.

I thought that was really stupid. Rob Cesternino did a great job deducing that a really early Murder in Plain Sight round was taking place. He did a great job of telling only people he trusted. He did an amazing job indirectly stopping one of the Traitors from being able to move around.

I thought we were going to get a surprise twist and Rob walked in alone after everyone else joined because the Traitors didn't all get together to discuss the murder. The editors even made a point to show Candiace in a testimonial saying she had no idea who they went after that round. Maybe I'm just taking things too literally but if they were told to meet and did not all meet then they did not complete the mission.

Speaking of the mission, how was that a Murder in PLAIN SIGHT?? Forcing the Traitors to hunt down the shortlist without being spotted, fair enough. Forcing the Traitors to meet with each other in front of the Faithfuls (minus Candiace) without getting caught, eh. Burning a card at any point and not having to make sure the card fully burned or making sure it burned while other players were still awake? I'm sorry, I just can't call that being sneaky anymore. I disagree with Rob Rausch saying anyone could have walked in at any time. He literally just had to throw the card into the fireplace at any point; if someone walked in while he was still the room seconds before or after he threw the card in then it would not have made a difference.

Regarding who they chose, again, Rob was a great choice from a gameplay standpoint. He showed the Traitors he was great at deduction and he was the only one who even knew the Murder in Plain Sight was taking place. I hope we don't use up all the great choices right off the bat.

That was painful to watch. Seriously Michael please shut up. I'm going to count breakfast as part of the Roundtable here Michael you are literally playing a game right this second what do you mean you don't play games??

Now that Donna's been voted out and is officially the Secret Traitor, this feels even more like wasted potential. Again, this could have just been bad luck, but they put so much emphasis on who the Secret Traitor was just to have them voted out during the first batch of episodes?

Even if she wasn't voted out, that lasted two rounds. The Traitors had to go two whole rounds of having to work with a stranger. They already earned the privledge of learning who the Secret Traitor was, and they didn't even get to learn who it was in time for the Roundtable where they voted out the Secret Traitor.

Sigh.

From a strategy perspective, I understand Donna trying not to give information. I don't necessarily agree that she had to share absolutely everything she knew to be trustworthy, but Donna didn't help herself by only offering information to agree with someone else who said it first and then not offering anything else. Donna was about as useful as Navi going "Hey, listen!" at the table. She probably would have gotten further had she been the one to say that Porsche was having those Freudian slips during the last Roundtable.

On a happier note, do they sell those Traitor tarot cards?

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They sorta do? It looks like the cards from the official card game match. But I'm not 100% sure, the official image does not include a picture of the Traitor card we see in the Night One flashback where Donna learned she was a Traitor.

This is also how I learned they sell the Traitors' wax seal. Gonna add that to my cart real quick never mind it's a shop outside the US shipping and tarrifs are worth more than the item.

So as of writing, we do not know who was killed for the Third Murder, just who was on the shortlist (of COURSE there's still a shortlist even though the Secret Traitor's gone, glad to know the Faithfuls deducing who the Secret Traitor in particular was made no difference in the end!). Up for murder this round are...

• Lisa
• Caroline
• Eric
• Ron
• Kristen

I also think it's stupid that Lisa wasn't tied up, I would have loved if the show at least pretended the Traitors might turn on their own here, but that's a different discussion.

I think Ron would be the absolute worst choice to eliminate this round. Ron's his own worst enemy during roundtables, everyone's been suspicious of the fact that he's been in danger every round so far but is still safe, and they wouldn't even achieve a "random" effect on the Faithfuls. He'd be a great distraction as Faithfuls try to figure out if the group of Traitors this season were sloppy/unlucky.

I don't remember Kristen making much of a splash (that could just be faulty memory), but she's laying fairly low so her being eliminated might achieve that "random" factor.

Caroline weirded me out with that whole "I'm not gonna worry about things I can't control" speech. Not in a "what is she not telling us" way, it just came off as "cringe" to me. At least whichever player begged the Traitors for mercy added camp to their pitch.

Eric's been doing a good job of leaving of leaving a social presence on the group. I think his elimination this round would make the most sense if the Traitors continued going for a "randomness" factor because that would in some way hit most of the cast.