The Traitors Interview: Derrick Levasseur on Nearly Pulling Off a Legendary Move

Derrick Levasseur was a few votes shy of pulling off a big move on The Traitors that could have changed the trajectory of the game. The former cop and Big Brother winner, who entered the season late as part of the Cage Boys, had correctly identified Boston Rob as a Traitor and was secretly shoring up the votes to get him banished from the castle. And he almost pulled off the unimaginable, presenting an airtight case against Boston Rob and risking his own standing in the game to take a shot at the reality TV legend. Unfortunately for Derrick, he missed, leading to his eventual murder in the latest episode of The Traitors. 

To break down everything that went on in the castle, Derrick hopped on Zoom to discuss why his plan to get Boston Rob out didn’t work, the one mistake he made, and if playing The Traitors is tougher than Big Brother. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.  

How surprised were you that the Traitors murdered you? 

Not very surprised. It was pretty much expected, kind of predicted that I was on my way out. And listen, that's just part of the game. I knew that if I wasn't able to get them on board [to vote Boston Rob out] at that point, it probably wouldn't happen until after I was dead. It's a blessing and a curse because I do think that my murder ultimately led to what I was trying to do, but unfortunately it came at my demise. But it's not unexpected, and I take it as a compliment.  

What do you think went wrong with your master plan to get Boston Rob out?  

I'm biased, but I think I gave a solid argument. I think I presented everything I could, including Rob's origin story of how he became a Traitor. But unfortunately, there's things you can't calculate for. I didn't expect Wes to respond the way he did, and I also didn't know that Carolyn and Danielle were fighting, which ultimately resulted in Carolyn voting for Danielle instead of Rob. So, yeah, there are some things you just can't anticipate. All I could do was go in there with factual information, present it, and hope that they could process that information and come to what I considered a logical conclusion. But unfortunately, like I said in the episode, they were more basing it on emotion rather than objectivity. But it was fun. We were one vote short, and I really think if we switch that vote and it's a tiebreaker, I can maybe swing that one extra vote and we're looking at a completely different game. 

The roundtable vote was the closest to where things could have gotten interesting in the castle.  

The reason it was close was because Rob didn't know I was going to do it. If I went around telling everyone, it probably wouldn't have gone as smoothly. Rob had no clue that I was coming for him. I was a complete blind spot and that was by design. Unfortunately, he correctly diverted the attention to Wes, and I don't think Wes was ready for the allegations. He was prepared for Rob. He wasn't prepared for everything else. 

When you entered the game with Wes and Rob, you had all indicated that you were going to work together. How true was that statement? 

We did behind the scenes; we were working together. The Cage Boys had all the attention on them, but as soon as we had that coffin incident, that was a gift for me, and we wanted to put the attention on [other players], which is why you see me go after Ciara and Wes go after Nikki. That was a calculated attempt to try to make sure that people would look at them as opposed to us. So, there was some collaboration there.  

But at this point, we're more than halfway through the season, I can see the chess pieces being moved on the board by Rob and you want to make sure that you put yourself in a position to win at the end. I wasn't just trying to last a certain number of episodes, I wanted to put myself where, if I got there, I could actually pull it off. Rob was banishing and murdering all the independent thinkers and if anything, I had waited one roundtable too long and [that's] why I didn't get that [one] vote [against Rob]. You gotta make your move at some point, and I felt like we worked together initially to protect each other but it was bound to happen [that we'd split up]. I wanted to be the person in the driver's seat.  

Can you compare your experiences playing Big Brother versus The Traitors? Was The Traitors more challenging? 

It was a great experience. The teams at NBC, Peacock, and Studio Lambert are unbelievable. I haven't been on a show in almost over 10 years, and part of that was because of the stress that reality TV brings. I had someone from the [Traitors] team every week, while the episodes were airing, reaching out to check in on me mentally. How are you doing? How are you feeling? That doesn't happen, I promise you, which is why I've been so hesitant to do reality TV again.  

But as far as the actual game itself, Big Brother, you can get a gauge of what's going on, and you can set up moves. Even if someone picks up on it, there's time to course-correct. With The Traitors, I give this analogy: Imagine playing chess with someone, you're moving chess pieces, and by the time your opponent figures out what you're setting up, it's too late, right? But in The Traitors as a Faithful and I'm playing chess against a Traitor, as soon as he — Rob, in this case — figures out what I'm doing, all he has to do is hit this big red button that's next to the chessboard and I instantly lose. So that's frustrating in that sense; there isn't really a way to protect yourself. You have to put him in a checkmate without him even knowing it. It's an extremely difficult game and I wanted to control my own destiny, so we went for it.  

Photo: Euan Cherry/Peacock

What would you have done differently to set yourself up so that you could survive another roundtable? 

That's the thing. The easy way to last another roundtable would be to say nothing. That wasn't my goal. My goal was to set myself up to win in the end. And [Rob] was getting rid of anybody who would go against the grain. The only mistake, if I can pinpoint one, would be waiting one week too long. Bob H. was gone at that point as well and he was a vote for us. Deciding to take the shot a week sooner, Carolyn and Danielle aren't fighting, and I have Bob H. there to vote with me as well. As far as the argument [against Rob], what else could I say? I relied on people, other gamers, but they didn't vote that way. Britney didn't vote that way. Dylan didn't vote that way. They were gung-ho on the fact that Rob was a Faithful. And at the end of the day, you're not going to convince them in a couple hours. 

You saw what happened after your murder with Boston Rob getting banished after he tried to pull the same trick by misdirecting the blame on Britney. What are your thoughts on that? 

The strategy worked out, just not the way we planned. At the end of the episode, I basically realized Britney's not going to vote for Rob. She thinks he's a Faithful and so I have to put them against each other. Whether they're both Traitors or one of them is a Traitor, if I put them against each other, they can't defend each other at the roundtable. I dropped those parting words to Dylan and as I expected, they turned on each other. Nobody suspected Britney to be a Traitor. She really hadn't said much all season, but when [Rob] did that, honestly at that point, Lala [Alan Cumming's rescue dog] could have gotten him out. Honestly, he was a dead man walking. As soon as I didn't walk through that door [at breakfast], he knew he was done, but I think he was just like, "Hey, listen, I'd rather take my chances with the rest of the Faithful who haven't been doing so good as opposed to Derrick at a roundtable again."  

Would you play this game again? Would you do anything differently?  

I definitely would play again. As far as doing things different, no. I mean, I put the pieces together, I presented the case. I guess I could try to make better relationships with people, but they're coming from all different backgrounds, and ultimately, they're not necessarily gamers. You can try to pull on that emotional string a little bit harder, but if you do that too much, you could be viewed as being forceful, or, in Wes' case, they said that he was aggressive. And so, it's a really fine line. I think the best thing you can do is just be yourself, put the information together, and hope that it works. We were one vote away [from getting Rob out]. If I get that [vote], it's a completely different game. So, I'm happy with the way I played. Obviously, I would like to stay longer. You'd like to have the chance at the money, but I feel like I was put in there to find Traitors and ultimately, that's what I did.  

Because you've won Big Brother before, what do you think it takes to win this game?  

It depends on what role you're in. I don't want to minimize it, but it's a lot of luck. I gave you four or five different [scenarios] where if Carolyn and Danielle don't have that argument, if I'm able to have Wes talk to me one more time beforehand and say, "Hey, they're going to come at you" — a little thing here and there can change the whole trajectory of the game. I think if you play the game out 10 times with the same people, you're probably gonna get nine different outcomes. It doesn't mean one's necessarily a better player than the other, it's just the way it works out on that particular occasion. So, you have fun with it. You do your best. And as a Faithful, it's entertaining and fun to actually go after Traitors. 

There are several players still under the radar even as we pass the halfway point in the game. What are your thoughts on that? 

I was, for the first half of [Season 16 of] Big Brother, a floater. You could see this time around I was really playing aggressively. Part of the reason I was drawn to The Traitors was because I got to do what I love to do — to solve crime, to investigate cases. I didn't want to sit there and be like, I'm just going to be quiet and act dumb so I can make it an extra episode. I wanted to give the audience what they came there for, which was the Faithful trying to find the Traitors.  

Were you surprised by the identities of the Traitors?  

I knew Rob. I was onto Danielle at first; everyone was onto Danielle. And then I got away from that in the last episode I was there because of the things that Britney was doing. I thought to myself, She's actively defending this Traitor. She's probably a Traitor as well. I got off Danielle a little bit there, but I basically said Britney and/or Danielle, I didn't think it was both; Rob; and Carolyn I had no clue about. You could have given me 23 guesses; I wouldn't have guessed her once all season. So, Carolyn, good for her. She is flying under the radar. She's being herself. She's still in the game, so if you're still in the game you have a shot. 

Stream new episodes of The Traitors every Thursday at 9p ET on Peacock.