The players settle into the castle as big personalities fade into the background so that players with strong convictions can make some risky moves in The Traitors US 4.04 “Cut the Head off the Snake.”
Spoilers follow…
Missed a review? Episodes 4.01-3
Let’s tackle the murder first, shall we? As predicted Caroline Stanbury wound up being killed in a face-to-face meeting with the Traitors in the woods. This was pretty heavily telegraphed by the conversation in the turret, so no big surprise there. Still, this extra salty exchange between Caroline and Lisa Rinna felt especially over the top:
- Caroline: “I’ll see you at BravoCon.”
- Lisa: “No, no, you won’t”
Like…huh? You’re not actually murdering her, Lisa, so yeah, you probably will see her at a Con in the future!
Anyways, so long Caroline; someone had to go. Or, as host Alan Cumming says at breakfast, someone has to get “snatched like a Housewive’s jawline.” <meow>
The rest of the episode follows the same Mission trajectory as its UK brethren, which means the trial by fire/spear challenge. These kinds of missions, where players are forced to work collaboratively in teams of arbitrary numbers and then grow the prize pot at the expense of the safety of others, is always good for driving up the conflict and paranoia.
And since these are all celebrities with enormous egos and fragile identities, you get weird reactions like Michael Rapaport repeatedly yelling Tara Lipinski‘s name, or Maura Higgins taking it personally when comedian Ron Funches takes her out and calls her a Traitor (it’s literally the name of the game, Maura!)
Needless to say, the mission is a huge hit financially ($20K in 25 minutes!), but their success leaves 10 players vulnerable to murder.
Of course not everyone even makes it to the evening; poor gamer Tiffany Mitchell doesn’t survive the Round Table after more than half of the players vote her out. This was another minor surprise, if only because Traitor Candiace Dillard Bassett‘s defence of Tiffany is pretty compelling (she argued it was another Porscha pile-on).
Perhaps even more surprising is that it wasn’t really “man on a mission” Colton Underwood who drove the stake through Tiffany’s game, but rather Eric Nam. The musician trotted out his pitch perfect expertise to claim he recognized Tiffany’s laugh while he was up for murder in the woods, which wound up swaying a great deal more players than expected.
It will be intriguing to see if the error plagues Colton and Eric like Porscha’s ouster (still justified IMHO) has for Ron (somehow I doubt it). Aside from Rapaport, who makes a loud declaration about ringleaders “pushing” things at the table, everyone else falls over themselves to reassure Eric and, to a lesser extent, Colton that their actions weren’t malicious.
Still, the Traitors have eight options for murder and zero heat on them, so they’re crushing this early stage of the game.
Other Observations:
- Colton boastful refusal to apologize or change his game plan is the opposite of endearing. His cunty baby blue cape look aside, the former Bachelor seems headed for a fall – either from pushing his agenda too hard and being accused of being a Traitor, or being too persuasive with the group and getting murdered. He’ll be lucky to make it past the halfway point at this rate.
- Ditto Monét X Change who has played things mostly under the radar, but makes a fatal mistake of confiding in Candiace that he doesn’t entirely trust Lisa. Oops!
- As an introvert, Ron’s lament that he didn’t realize being an “off person” on occasion would be such a detriment in the game really rang true. At the Roundtable, Dorinda accuses him of not making himself “available” and all I could think was “Not everyone is an extroverted Housewife!”
- Tiffany didn’t do herself many favours. Her exchanges (plural) with Yam Yam were extremely confrontational and standoffish. I didn’t mind when she clapped back at Colton and Eric (they were directly accusing her, after all) but it veered into rude with Yam Yam.
- Best line, however, does go to the gamer. Upon her exit, Tiffany boasts: “You get what you deserve. You all didn’t deserve me.”
- Runner-up: There’s just something so funny to me about Rapaport saying “One of those three hunks is a traitor” (about Colton, Rob, and Stephen)
- Sidebar: I can’t believe people (Tara specifically) were actually crying at the Roundtable! The editing really did not make it clear why folks were so affected.
My predictions for episode 5 and on:
- Team Boring/Just kill them already: Johnny Weir, Kristen Kish, Dorinda Medley and Tara
- Most likely to secretly win everything:
- Traitor: Rob Rausch. As they say in the UK edition, my man is playing a blinder
- Faithful: Survivor‘s Natalie Anderson or perhaps Dancing with the Stars’ Mark Ballas
- Most likely to be murdered: Maura, Stephen Colletti
- Most likely to be banished: Colton, Yam Yam, and/or Ron
The Traitors US airs Thursdays on Peacock
Leave a Reply