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The Traitors Season 3 Premiere Recap
It has begun.
The Traitors, how we missed you. A new season of backstabbing, money-grabbing and murder commenced with 21 new celebrity contestants making the sojourn to the Scottish Highlands for the chance to win up to $250,000. The return of the Emmy®-winning competition series left no stones unturned, upping the ante on the drama and the tension, as the Traitors newcomers get the lay of the land.
Who is marked as a Traitor? Which alliances have already formed? Who is the first unlucky player to be banished from the game? Who is making the right moves to have a shot at making it far? Here’s what happened in the first episode of The Traitors Season 3, “Let the Battle Commence.”
Warning: Spoilers ahead!
Meet the New Players
Oh, how we love a dramatic entrance. The new crop of players enter the luscious castle grounds they’ll be calling home for however many days they last in the game, and already they’re sizing each other up. Split into four black jeeps, the contestants exchange pleasantries and express nerves as they roll up to the castle. Dorinda Medley takes the opportunity to ask Sam Asghari if his ex, Britney Spears, is a Housewives fan. He pleads the fifth. Some worry over who they’d least like to see playing alongside them while others get jittery when they spot Vanderpump Rules star Tom Sandoval.
The real highlight, though, is when the players meet host Alan Cumming, because that’s when they know it’s real. An Emmy® winner deserves a grand introduction and that’s exactly what the host gets when Cumming, in a voguish kilt and dashing turquoise cape, gallops in front of the castle on a stately white horse. He runs through the game rules – it’s still the same as before –and dismisses the gang of masked followers behind him. Suspiciously one remains. “Uh oh,” Dorinda says. Exactly, uh oh.
The First Big Decision
Immediately, Cumming presents the players with their first dilemma. If anyone wants to allow the masked figure to enter the game, they must step forward and shake his hand. Then they can choose who they want to exile right away. It’s the perfect time to get rid of their most formidable reality TV adversary. A few of the players, namely Carolyn Wiger (Survivor) and Danielle Reyes (Big Brother), seriously contemplate taking the offer to oust their biggest competition, Tony Vlachos and Britney Haynes, respectively.
But they end up deciding not to ruffle any feathers once the mystery figure is unmasked to be none other than Survivor legend Rob “Boston Rob” Mariano. Kick out a ruthless gameplayer and replace him or her with a more formidable foe? No thank you. Bye Boston Rob!
The Posturing Begins
Once the players enter the castle, they get the lay of the land, and already the lies have begun. Tony tells Carolyn he really wants to be a Faithful (a lie) and when she’s not buying what he’s selling, he marks her as “a liability.” Bachelor alum Gabby Windey sizes up Lord Ivar Mountbatten, who provides the CliffsNotes version of his British royal bloodline (he’s the second cousin to King Charles; Meghan and Harry’s children have the Mountbatten surname), and she concludes that he checks off every box that would make a good Traitors player. “Red flags everywhere!” Gabby says.
The players all sit with Cumming for their interviews, answering questions that clue him in on who he should pick to be a Traitor this season. Many desperately want to be tapped on the shoulder to be a Traitor, but Tom begs Cumming not to.
Who Are the Traitors?
The first roundtable is a dramatic one as Cumming reveals his picks for the Traitors. The lucky three are:
Danielle Reyes
Carolyn Wiger
Bob the Drag Queen
A New Game Twist
Unlike past seasons, where the end of the game allows the final four players to reveal if they’re a Traitor or not, that won’t be the case this time. When it reaches that stage, the players left standing will have to rely solely on their instincts to see if they’ve eliminated all Traitors from the game. After Cumming makes the surprising announcement, the room is thick with tension, anxiety, and paranoia as the contestants figure out how this may affect their gameplay.
Accusations are thrown out left and right the second Cumming leaves the room. Tom is suddenly suspicious of Chrishell Stause, who he was sitting next to, because she wouldn’t look around the room. Thanks to Dylan Efron, it quickly gets to Chrishell, who is stunned to learn of Tom’s allegation and makes the conclusion that it’s because she’s friends with Tom’s ex, Ariana Madix. Ironically, Tom correctly identifies Carolyn as a Traitor but laughs it off because she’s naturally fidgety and twitchy.
The First Mission
The Faithful and Traitors are tasked to row a boat to several stations to add money to the pot and collect fuel in 75 minutes. But to do so, they must sacrifice players at each station. Volunteering to be left behind comes with risks as it leaves the other players to question whether you’re a Traitor. Nonetheless, Housewives Chanel Ayan and Robyn Dixon are the first ones off the boat at the first station, followed by fellow Housewives Dorinda Medley and Dolores Catania. Dorinda realizes a little too late that getting off the boat so easily is not going to serve her well. Sure enough, people are already suspecting them as Traitors. Oops.
At the third station, Bob the Drag Queen calls out the sexist directive to leave the “strong men” on the boat to finish the mission and dramatically volunteers himself to stay on the raft. A tearful Danielle, clearly playing up the emotions, offers herself up as the second sacrifice. It’s funny to see two Traitors pretending to be a Faithful to each other when we all know they’ll be murdering together later that night. Next, Bob Harper and Sam sacrifice themselves at the next station.
They decide not to go for the final money chest (which Cumming says they had more than enough time for), choosing to go back so they can add $20,000 to the pot and be safe from murder. That means the eight players who they left on the rafts are the only ones eligible to be murdered by the Traitors, with the others granted immunity shields.
To say Dorinda is unhappy about it is an understatement. She makes her anger known over the fact that the safe players didn’t wait for the eight to eat dinner together, that they gave up on the final $20,000 during the mission, and that they didn't have one common goal in mind.
The First Traitors Meeting
The three Traitors have their first meeting under the cover of darkness, dropping their cloaks in a secret room – and It's about as delicious as it gets. Danielle and Bob the Drag Queen have a cackle the second they unveil themselves to each other: “Performance of a lifetime,” Danielle laughs.
When Carolyn joins, you can just smell the wickedness brewing. “No one will suspect you,” Danielle and Bob tell Carolyn as they excitedly conspire. Who will be their first victim?
There’s a New Traitor in Town
Remember when the players cruelly rejected Boston Rob from the game before it even began? Because of their decision, they unknowingly set him off on a new path: He will officially enter the game... as a Traitor.
And here’s another twist: There will be other players, potentially two, joining the game too.
Oh, it’s about to get good.
Stream the first three episodes of The Traitors on Peacock, followed by weekly drops every Thursday. The first two Season 3 episodes will air Jan 20 at 8p ET/PT and 9:30p ET/PT on NBC.
For now, catch up on the first two seasons of The Traitors, and go global with The Traitors: Australia and The Traitors: UK.
