It finally happened. The faithfuls have finally found a traitor, and it was our dearly departed Cody. Maybe it was the editing between the last episode and this episode, but it looks like Cirie was the one who finally turned on him, and that sealed Cody’s vote. What is so genius about Cirie is that twice she tells Cody in code why she is voting for him. When she places her slate with Cody’s name in its tiny easel (really, we couldn’t find a more high-tech solution?), she says, “We’ve been getting it wrong, and sometimes you need your team to steer you in the right direction.†She is telling Cody, “They’re all voting for you, and I have to if I want to keep playing the most masterful game that reality television has ever seen.â€
After Cody’s teary elimination, where all the players hug him on the way out (the U.K. version would never!), he says in an exit interview that Cirie is teaching future traitors how to play the game. He is absolutely correct. Everyone loves her, everyone trusts her, and the only person to have her name in their mouth (Brandi) was eliminated early on. There is a great moment when Shelbe, feeling isolated from everyone, is sitting on her own, feeling sad. Cirie comes over and tells her not to separate herself from the group. Shelbe mentions how much she misses her daughter, and Cirie tells her about when she played Survivor the first time her child was 5 and how much she missed them. The empathy! The camaraderie! Two smart, Black women bonding over a stupid game. We love seeing it, which is why Cirie better win this whole damn prize pot.
The traitors’ job should get more challenging as the game progresses because there are fewer places to hide. The problem with the game, though, at least how everyone is playing it in this iteration, is that it rewards bad players. If someone is too intelligent or intuitive (like, say, Kyle or Brandi) and ends up headed in the right direction, either the Traitors murder them, or they sway the group to banish them. Who, among the Faithful, are we left with? A bunch of bad players. Andie hasn’t had a theory or opinion the entire game. Shelbe is too stoic to do just about anything. Arie’s only skill is to find the shield somehow every time in the armory. Kate and Rachel are so blinded by their hatred for each other that they can’t see straight. (What else would explain Rachel choosing those outfits voluntarily?)
And Quentin. Oh, sweet, handsome Quentin. They say that a broken clock is right twice a day; well, Quentin is a clock that no one turned forward for daylight saving time because he has yet to be right even once. Right before Cody reveals that he’s a traitor, Quentin gives this whole speech about how Cody was never on his radar, and he totally trusts him. This is after the votes have been cast and can’t be changed; why put himself out there like this? Does he want to bro down with a member of the Big Brother cast? What is wrong with him?
After Cody’s banishment, Stephenie (the only competent person left in the game) decides that the other traitors must be Kate and Shelbe because they didn’t vote against Cody. Arie is also onto Shelbe because he thinks she didn’t react enough to Cody being a traitor. Um, why is no one bringing up Quentin? I know he’s not a Traitor, but there is no more Traitor-like behavior than literally saying how trustworthy a Traitor is while he’s going out the door.
That night, the two remaining traitor meet, and you know Cirie thought to herself, “Now I am stuck with just this yahoo; Jesus take the wheel.†They can only choose between the three on trial — Kate, Rachel, and a blond ghost who is but a wisp of wind. Kate is the only one who doesn’t have a chance at the shield, so, though it is risky, they want to keep Kate because they think her survival will make her look even more like a traitor. With that, Cirie and Christian put on their Ghostbusters Brand Proton Packs, shoot a blond ghost full of paranormal energy, throw a yellow and black trap underneath her, and suck her into a containment unit, rendering the castle entirely free of ghosts. Good-bye, ghost. Never bothered to learn your name or where your accent was from.
But wait! The castle is still crawling with ghosts, and Alan Cumming calls everyone to his billiards room, where someone has been disturbing his enormous brooch collection. It is the ghosts of past players, and it’s some challenge — everyone is awful at it.
After the challenge, suspicion continues to grow about Shelbe. She and Kate say there is a clique of the other players they are outside of, and they know they won’t vote for each other, so they suspect the next banishment will be one of them. When they get to the round table, Rachel asks Shelbe to say why she’s definitely a faithful. Shelbe brings up an excellent point that Geraldine (which Rachel still spells Jerryallendeal), Michael, and Kyle all couldn’t convince the group that they weren’t traitors once suspicion landed on them. There’s nothing she can say. She’s right. This game is confounding because there is no way to prove one way or another that you’re innocent.
As they go around the table all voting for Shelbe, they’re like, “You’re such a good traitor,†but when she reveals she’s a faithful, they should all question what they think makes a good traitor because they obviously aren’t seeing it at all. Kate tells them, “Just because you’re not part of the clique doesn’t mean you’re a traitor.†Kate continues to go hard at the firepit. When Quentin says he feels awful, Kate says, “You should. You sent home a single mother.†Arie tells Kate that she is a cancer in the group, and she says, “What about the traitors who are murdering you and taking your money.†The group then gets up and goes inside, and Kate asks, “Is it something I said?â€
She is a gift, our Kate. An absolute pleasure. Put her on every show. Make her the new host of Jeopardy! Give her a seat on The View. Make her the new CEO of Twitter. Her best line, though, is at the next challenge, which was basically an escape room where everyone got bugs dumped on them. Alan Cumming, using a scarf as an ascot, leads them to cabins in the woods, and Rachel says, “I filmed a horror movie at a creepy cabin in the woods.†Kate immediately asks, “Was it your honeymoon?†I mean, come on! We don’t even deserve this.
Before we can get to the challenge, the traitors have a big challenge. Alan Cumming tells them that they have to recruit one of the faithful to become a traitor, but that person can decline their invitation. Cirie and Christian choose Arie, who they think is the only one dumb enough to join their team. He agrees, and we are once again three traitors deep. But Arie hasn’t proven himself especially adept or crafty at the game so far. Maybe he can keep it up.
The one thing the traitors need to plan for is how to explain in the morning why there was no murder. Arie, of course, won the shield. I can’t believe they didn’t say, “Oh, I had the shield; they must have tried to murder me and missed.†That way, we know he is a faithful because otherwise, the traitors wouldn’t have tried to murder him. Instead, they don’t do this, and Christian, because he has the subtle gameplay of a monster-truck driver, tells everyone that he was recruited by the traitors and said no. He thinks this will make him look like a faithful, but before the sentence is even out of his mouth, Stephenie throws down her stale scone and shouts, “J’accuse! traitor!†Well, not really, but just about.
Cirie is also pissed because, once again, Christian is doing the most, and it will blow up her game. I hope Cirie realizes that, in the end, she wants to be the only traitor standing. It’s just a question of when she should cut Christian loose, and it seems like she is sharpening her scissors.
After breakfast, Quentin comes after Rachel so hard you think he and Kate swapped bodies like this is Freaky Friday but in Scotland. Cirie does the same thing that she did with Kyle; she goes to Rachel, tells her that everyone is talking her up, and then lets Rachel destroy herself. Rachel starts going to everyone, asking how she can prove she’s a faithful, which just makes her look more suspicious. It’s genius when Cirie gets to look like she’s a friend, gathering trust, but she is just leading faithfuls right out the door.
We have the scary bug cabin challenge, which Cirie says is the worst day of her life. Here is a woman who has starved herself on a desert island multiple times, and this is worse? Damn, she must really hate those bugs. Both groups get out and win $35,000 for the prize pot. In the car back to the castle, Stephenie says that Christian has been a traitor all along. Duh! Brandi has been saying that since day one. Same with Kate, who then forgot about it because she wanted to set everything in Rachel’s suitcase on fire. Christian says that Rachel and Stephenie are onto him, so he needs Rachel to get banished, and then they can murder Stephenie.
At the round table, everyone goes in on Rachel, especially Kate, of course. She says that Rachel lied and deceived on Big Brother, and she’s doing it again here. Also, when Cody calls her “cutthroat†right before his elimination, she thinks that means that they were both traitors and that Cody said that because she was cutting loose one of her own. I mean, as good a theory as any, really, here on Idiot Mole.
That Rachel has said multiple times that it’s just a game and doesn’t take it personally convinces some others it has to be her. The irony is that no one has taken it as personally as Rachel, pleading for her life even as each vote is cast. Sister, your death warrant has been signed, and you’re already dressed like Ms. Frizzle. Don’t make yourself look even worse as you go to the circle and tell everyone you’re Faithful.
Kate is shocked that she has been wrong this whole time, but, as she said in her speech, she doesn’t really care because she finds Rachel offensive. Give her all the reality television awards possible because I love Kate, I love that we are torturing her for our amusement, and I love that she might win! After Rachel is gone, everyone seems to have a moment of clarity. Kate, Stephenie, and Andie all conclude that it has to be Christian. As Christian and Arie are headed up to bed, he says, “The traitors are going to bed.†He wants it to look like a joke, but Cirie is increasingly concerned that he will ruin what she has worked hard for. I have a feeling she has just tied the noose for her teammate. But the real question is, who will Kate be mean to now that Rachel is gone?