There WILL be spoilers
The Third Traitor
Off of a cliffhanger, we have Joe and Tomica revealing themselves to Xavier and Katie, both of whom are shocked because they had no idea Joe or Tomica were traitors. I know it’s still early, and we’re only three, four episodes in, but I wonder how this will come into play later. Like will one of them crack? Are we going to have a duo traitor win for the first time in Traitors US history? Or will their united front crumble over time?
They ended up sending Xavier home and choosing Katie, even though Xavier admitted to floating Katie’s name. I feel like Xavier was a stronger choice to keep as a traitor, but at the same time, Xavier, in his final confessional, was saying that he was gonna take the whole thing home, so I don’t know…maybe that was a good choice. Xavier was clearly going to play hard; he did already commit traitor on traitor crime. I know that she wasn’t technically a traitor yet, but it did show he would throw someone under the bus to save his own ass and as a traitor, that’s something you want to root out as soon as possible. Buuutt…with the way Xavier seemed to be playing, I think they would’ve been able to use him as a shield, moreso than Katie.
Ultimately, I get why they eliminated Xavier. I don’t think Xavier would’ve been as easy to control or manipulate as Katie has seemed to be in these episodes.
Episode 3 Traitor Theories Pre-Challenge
Joe is very unserious for pitching that maybe the traitor is a fit guy who is taking out other fit people so that they’re needed in every mission. Like…sir?? Hilarious. And it’s also the fact Michael went along with it, even if it was just for the bit. It was just a funny conversation.
Abby L. says she’s making a list of who is capable of being a traitor, to Katie, who is a traitor. Abby L. doesn’t think Katie can be a traitor because she “wears her heart on her sleeve,” doesn’t think Joe is a traitor, but is scared of Tomica because “she’s a sneaky person” and believes that Victor is sneaky too.
Logan remembers Xavier called out Katie, saying her energy shifted and it comes up again at the roundtable, though nothing comes out of that in the moment.
The Ram Challenge
As a group, they have to lug a ram to each of the three crypts, ram down the door, and then only two people at a time are allowed to enter.
Arisa and Morgan go in, and they find $5,000 dollars.
Arisa says she looked quickly, didn’t see a shield, and walked out which Abby L finds suspicious because she “left too quickly.”
Tomica and Clyde go in and see an option for $10,000 and an option for $5,000 and a shield.
Tomica said long-term she was thinking about having faithfuls on her side, so she wanted to build that with Clyde by giving him the shield. In the edit, she put no effort into fighting for the shield though, and I would think that would be suspicious, yet Clyde didn’t say anything about it.
Ben and Michael find out that last night two people battled in plain sight to become a traitor, trading $5,000 dollars instead of $15,000 for that information.
Adding the twist where people can find out something about what the traitors are doing is such a good idea. One of the faults of The Traitors that is always talked about it is how there is nothing to go off of as a faithful. I make fun of their ridiculous reasons for why someone has to be a traitor, but there isn’t much to go off of in the beginning, so giving a little information, even as vague as this one, does actually make a difference. Before, the faithful knew absolutely nothing except there were traitors. Now they know there has been a recruitment.
Also, the way it was revealed, where getting that information was an option, for the same amount of money as it would cost to get a traitor out, and where only two people could tangibly see that information, opened up the show to a bunch of scenarios, and it keeps the traitors on their toes, because what if other challenges have clues like this?
Tomica telling the truth about the shield the moment they left was genius, especially since she knew people were speculating, and people seemed to believe her desire to be honest and “play a clean game.” Clyde also seemed to laugh it off, saying maybe Tomica doesn’t get the game in his confessional.
Kriste’s Theory
Kriste wondered if Xavier got murrrdered because he didn’t end up getting recruited which was very smart for her to put together, and I think if she didn’t throw away her credibility in the first banishment, it might’ve carried more weight. If I was a traitor, I would be keeping my eye on her.
Jay mentions that Xavier threw out Katie’s name, and Logan backs that up, but no one else at the roundtable really speaks up or corroborates that theory, at least in the edit. Tomica and Joe are both vocal about focusing on who could’ve been recruited, and while it didn’t matter then, I don’t see Katie making it that far in this game and I do wonder if their loyalty and decisions to lead the group conversations will come back to bite them later, even though they both remained relatively objective in trying to figure out if Katie was a traitor or not.
Arisa’s Banishment
Justice for Arisa man, because she got heat on her for just being her Black witchy self.
Niyyah thought it was weird that she held Victor’s hands to sense it’s a traitor. Clyde, Michael, and Mark are in the car too and someone says it was like a ceremony, which leads to Michael outing his clue and saying that was connected to the clue he got about a recruitment in plain sight.
This comes up at the roundtable and Victor agrees that it was weird Arisa did this. I’m like man you guys don’t have any spiritual and witchy girlies in your lives, and I feel bad for you. Niyyah does call Victor out for throwing Arisa under the bus, like he did with Madeline, and Michael agrees that Victor has been at the center of multiple issues, so I don’t know how they managed not to vote Victor out, again. Or maybe I do know…
Then, you get Abby L. saying she thinks Arisa got a shield and that she saw a chain leave the box and put into her pocket. But even if she got a shield, how does that make her a traitor? Why would a traitor lie about getting a shield? Like what does it matter if she got a shield?
At the roundtable, Abby L. interrogates Arisa in a way that she didn’t do with Morgan, who was also there. She questions why she would volunteer to go into the crypt if she didn’t want a shield, and again…I’m confused on why we’re talking about shields so much. Shields protect you from traitors; everyone should want a shield. This isn’t a Victor situation, where she abandoned the group mission to be self-interested.
Arisa was one of the two chosen people to go in, and if she got a shield, she got a shield. If she didn’t, she didn’t. I understand the challenge naturally creates distrust, but my problem with Abby L. is that she hyperfixated on this shield situation and only applied it to one of the people (the Black woman) inside the crypt and not the other. Abby L. automatically believes Morgan, and not Arisa, and that is because of her unconscious biases, to me.
Traitors Next Murrrder
The traitors in the turret are having open and honest conversations and I can’t remember if in previous seasons the conversations have been this upfront, but I just get the feeling they won’t stay this loyal the whole. Like this has to be a smoke screen for someone’s true intentions (of winning the game alone), but we’ll see…
They come up with three names for who to eliminate, Logan, Abby L., and Mark, but Tomica doesn’t say a name. Joe says they’ve been ruthless, they need to stay ruthless, and then says they should let the “teeny traitor” (Katie) decide on who to eliminate.
What I’m really confused about is why Katie would allow them to murder Logan. Logan was floating her name, not enough that it was suspicious, but enough that it was known by multiple people that Logan was suspicious of Katie. Joe brought up the concern of there being heat on her. She brought it up herself and still allowed Tomica and Joe to convince her that it wouldn’t be a big deal. They played her like a fiddle…
Shane also made a good point. Xavier mentioned Katie, Xavier is gone. Logan mentioned Katie, now Logan is gone. So, she’s either being set up, or she is a traitor.
And then in the challenge, both Joe and Tomica sacrificed themselves for a potential “murder” to solidify them more as a faithful and I think it worked.
Not Too Much on Tomica
There’s an elephant in the room on this show that occurs on a lot of reality tv competition shows: All Black people are the first to get eliminated. I have a podcast episode talking about experiencing reality tv as a Black person, and I think it’s a conversation that needs to be had. Arisa’s elimination was littered with unconscious biases from other people, or just people finding her weird because she’s different, and that should be challenged.
And at the same time, I need us to hold some nuance and not place all the blame on Tomica, when it was a group decision.
It’s completely possible that unconsciously, Tomica is getting rid of other Black people to further align herself as a traitor. However, I will argue that there were strategic reasons for both Xavier’s and Kim’s eliminations. Xavier’s loyalty was fair to question, (he played too hard too fast) and Kim had motion on the first day. We don’t know what was left on the editing floor, and from what we see that made the edit, Tomica seems more like a backseat driver, speaking up and giving her opinion, when necessary, to push someone in a certain direction, but otherwise letting the other person, typically Joe, drive.
If you want to whack Tomica for not protecting other Black people on the show this early in the game, do you, but just don’t do toooo much on her, especially after Arisa’s elimination when she didn’t even vote Arisa out. I get the optics, and it should be talked about, but I also think the strategies involved in some of the eliminations are equally as important.
The Cookout on Big Brother existed to right a wrong. No Black person won the game in twenty-three years because of people’s biases and racism. The game was designed against Black players, always casting Black and non-white people in low numbers where they couldn’t meaningfully impact the game
The Traitor’s US has already had their first Black winner. Let Black people play their own game.
If anyone should be getting smoke for the eliminations, it’s Joe, but of course, all the blame goes to the Black woman.
What do you think?