Warning: Major spoilers for the third season of “The Traitors” are ahead.
The Olympic games of reality TV have commenced and fans of “Survivor,” “Big Brother” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” are rejoicing.
“The Traitors” dropped its first three episodes of Season 3 on Peacock Thursday night, giving viewers a taste of the treachery, surprises and murders to come. The cast features 23 contestants including two surprise players that weren’t initially announced to the public.
The Emmy-winning series is set in a Scottish castle, where a few contestants are selected to be traitors who must hide their identity as they collectively eliminate someone each night. The rest of the group, known as the faithful, must figure out who the traitors before they are “murdered” one by one.
Both the faithfuls and the traitors work as a team to compete in “mission” challenges to raise their total prize pot of at least $250,000. Every episode includes a “murder” as well as a banishment, where everyone sits at the roundtable and votes for who they think is a traitor. By the end of the season, if any traitors are present they take all the money for themselves.
Here’s what to know about the first few episodes.
Who are the traitors? How many are there?
There are four traitors in Season 3 consisting of “Big Brother” star Danielle Reyes, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” winner Bob the Drag Queen (Christopher Delmar Caldwell), “Survivor” finalist Carolyn Wiger and “Survivor” winner “Boston” Rob Mariano.
Danielle, Bob and Carolyn were all hand-selected by host Alan Cumming at the start of the show while Rob joined the team as a surprise player. Together the four make the largest cohort of Traitors to ever play the game in a season at once.
Who are the surprise players?
In Episode 2, Cumming surprised the cast with three reality TV contestants they didn’t know would be joining them.
The first was Rob Mariano, better known as “Boston Rob,” whom the group met at the start of the series. Cumming gave everyone the chance to bring him into the game by sacrificing another player. However, no one was willing to take the offer so Rob was presumably the first banished from the game.
Yet Alan later surprised the group once again with three contestants trapped in cages, including Boston Rob, who joined as a traitor. The other two were “The Challenge” player Wes Bergmann and “Big Brother” winner Derrick Levasseur. All three players were granted protection from banishment, safety from murder and a shield to protect a player of their choosing from murder.
Who was murdered?
No housewife is safe in the Scottish castle. “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Dolores Catania was the first person “murdered” in Season 3 of “The Traitors.” While Carolyn argued she should stay in the game as an easy target for banishment, Danielle and Bob decided the kill would create confusion.
The second “murder” was “The Real Housewives of Dubai” Chanel Ayan, who was also devastated her game was cut so short and by her outfit choice that morning.
Who was banished?
“Bachelor in Paradise” contestant Wells Adams was the first person banished at the roundtable despite being a faithful. With so little information available it was Bob The Drag Queen’s accusation and “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Dolores Catania’s suspicion that sealed the bachelor’s fate.
Two-time “Survivor” winner Tony Vlachos was the second person banished at the end of Episode 3. Multiple players were suspicious of the police officer for his background as a strategic mastermind. Boston Rob also claimed Tony could not be trusted because of a lack of communication between the two after Rob gave him a shield. During Tony’s banishment, he called Rob a “sell out” for his spontaneous betrayal.
What is different about Season 3?
Unlike the first two seasons, Season 3 has made a major game change. In the finale episode the banished players will no longer reveal whether they are a faithful or a traitor, making it unclear whether there are any traitors left.
Where to watch ‘The Traitors’ Season 3
All three seasons of “The Traitors,” as well as the two seasons each of “The Traitors UK” (hosted by Claudia Winkleman) and “The Traitors Australia” (hosted by Rodger Corser), are available to stream exclusively on Peacock.
Subscriptions begin at $7.99 a month.
