‘The Traitors’ season 3 premiere: Confusion and chaos is the name of the game

We’re back! A new batch of Traitors and Faithfuls have returned to Scotland for a new season on Peacock. The Traitors Season 3 picks up from the high momentum of the second season for another turn of reality player vs. reality player mayhem. This casting change was one of the best updates that The Traitors made; keeping with that decision for the third season was the right call. Seasoned reality TV stars are unafraid to play the game and work the cameras to their benefit. This move was just one of many great things The Traitors kept around, and based on the Season 3 premiere, we’re in store for plenty of drama and messy gameplay.

A game full of lies

The first three episodes of The Traitors Season 3 followed the typical pattern of getting our feet wet. We had the introductions to our cast, the selection of the Traitors, a surprising twist, and cutthroat eliminations — all on the first episode (“Let Battle Commence”)! The pacing allowed the players to suss out the competition and put their intuitions to the twist, but it also allowed us at home to watch how these players compete under paranoia. The Traitors isn’t like a Survivor or Big Brother game, which is highly competitive as well. This game is all about reading people and debating your case in a short amount of time. Plus, it’s teeming with paranoia because you don’t know if the person you’re talking to is one of the Traitors.

Speaking of the players, The Traitors Season 3 compiled a strong group of reality TV personalities and competitors. You have reality TV legends, like Danielle Reyes & Derrick Levasseur (Big Brother), a selection of Bravoverse stars, like Dorina Medley, Robyn Dixon & Chanel Ayan (The Real Housewives), and a few stars and outside shows thrown in to add some unpredictable spice. Some of the competitors are even players who are still on our screens today, like Wes Bergmann (Real World/The Challenge), Chrishell Stause (Selling Sunset), and “Boston Rob” Mariano (Survivor). It’s a good group to make up a season, but compared to The Traitors overall, the second season still had the best cast.

The killers behind the cloaks

The selection of the Traitors was surprising. All four Traitors fell into the unofficial “gameplayers” category (e.g., players from a competitive reality TV show who think about strategy and act accordingly). Sure, Bob the Drag Queen comes from RuPaul’s Drag Race, which is more of a talent show, but the competition element is still there. Even if Bob isn’t as strategic, we still have Danielle, Boston Rob, and Carolyn Wiger (Survivor) making up the remainder of the group. All three come from heavily strategic shows; their styles and experience were already seeping out during the Traitors’ meetings.

It would have been interesting had a non-competition reality TV show player been selected. We’ve witnessed in past iterations how these players can thrive or implode under the weight of new gameplay. Just imagine if Gabby (The Bachelorette) needed to lie against The Bambis’ alliance. Or Tom Sandoval (Vanderpump Rules) had to go against his reputation to convince everyone he could be trusted … when he was lying again? Part of this could be due to the cast being made mostly of the same shows; this season is heavily skewing in competition shows. Don’t get me wrong, I love a competition reality show! However, the joy of The Traitors is seeing how reality stars perform in a different element. Hopefully for The Traitors Season 4, the casting will expand to other shows outside of the juggernauts, like Love Island, Love is Blind, The Mole, The Anonymous, and The Circle.

An early misstep

Based on the three episodes so far, Bob’s and Danielle’s performances as Traitors have hit huge hurdles. “Nail in a Coffin” was almost true to its name because both Bob and Danielle were making blunders that worked against them. Firstly, Danielle’s crying tactic goes against her gameplay style – she’s not an emotional player from her days on Big Brother, and the other competitors (like Jeremy Collins) can sniff through that act. But her more detrimental move is how much she’s talking in the game. Boston Rob was right; she might bury herself because she keeps implicating herself in situations or connecting herself to theories about her fellow Traitors.

Bob is in a similar boat because he’s putting himself out as the most vocal in the group. He’s throwing out big theories, but more specifically, he’s willing to fight against any theories laid against him. The “Nail in a Coffin” roundtable was an explosive vote that made him look guiltier than innocent; he wanted to shame Dylan for even throwing out his name. Don’t get me wrong, you should always defend yourself against suspicion on The Traitors because it can spiral into an elimination. The problem is that Bob did it in such a way that the energy level to which Dylan had been throwing Bob’s name under the bus didn’t match. It felt very reminiscent of someone being defensive for being caught in the act or trying to hide something they had done. It won’t be long until someone susses him out.

On the other hand, Boston Rob and Carolyn are doing well so far. Boston Rob is sitting back and listening to his fellow players; he’s playing on the card of being late to the game, which masks any big decisions he’ll have to make. Carolyn is being authentically herself, which is more offbeat and spontaneous. No one suspects her; she can hide for a few rounds before someone throws her name out. If anything, I could see Bob or Danielle throwing Carolyn’s name out as a means to sacrifice her for their safety. We saw how terribly that worked in the past; it’s not out of the question based on the tension during “Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Cold”.

Left out to sea with anger & distrust

There were three-and-a-half-ish challenges during The Traitors Season 3 premiere. The opening vote was tedious. It’s a great standout moment for TV, but no one was ever going to accept it. The current player who accepts the deal would come across as sneaky, and the eliminated player who switched with Boston Rob would most likely return at some point. The Traitors loves a late-player introduction (as shown later in the season premiere). There was no way The Traitors/Peacock would invite THE Boston Rob to Scotland for only a chance of playing the game. The twist was too much of a risky vote.

The games of “Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Cold” and “Nail in a Coffin” were fun and strategic. The boat challenge showed exactly what these players prioritized and how they viewed the strengths of their fellow competitors. I felt irritated too that the men kept demanding that the women leave the boat since they needed “strength” to finish. The group could’ve easily finished with time to spare; it was just an excuse to keep the men on the boat. The outcasts were justified in every ounce of their anger. And the coin-collecting challenge was an easy collaborative game; a fun mini-game in the hopes of winning a shield.

But the best game had to be the Mystery Door Funhouse. Sure, it’s based on luck in choosing the correct door; however, their communication and description skills needed serious work. How could no one describe the doors well?! It was baffling and tragic – it was so much fun. Plus, when it’s paired against a rainy Scotland, you could feel how miserable the group was with each wrong answer. Congrats to host Alan Cumming for having the most fun! He flowed with the zingers and quips.

Someone has to go first

The four eliminations from The Traitors Season 3 premiere were interesting and baffling. Firstly, the double nightly murders of Dorinda and Chanel were bad choices. Dorinda called everyone out; with the group suspecting one of the Real Housewives, the Traitors could’ve easily hidden behind her as an easy vote. Chanel Ayan’s elimination didn’t cause the confusion that Bob wanted. People loved her, and it only reaffirmed that the Real Housewives couldn’t be one of the Traitors. Why would they pick off one of their numbers back-to-back? It makes no sense long-term. We missed out on two players who provided plenty of good TV drama.

Wells Adams (Bachelor in Paradise) seemed more like a scapegoat. Based on how split the entire group was, the first vote could’ve literally been anyone. Wells simply got unlucky by getting the most votes. Tony Vlachos (Survivor), on the other hand, was a strong Traitors suspect, but his game suffered from his past reputation more than anything. Even Sandra Diaz-Twine couldn’t fully shake her Survivor reputation from the previous Traitors season, but Tony didn’t have the social game that Sandra had.

If Tony had laid low for a while and built stronger connections with players outside of Survivor, he could’ve had a chance to prove deniability. All anyone saw was the two-time winner from Survivor; that’s a hard image to hide from. Though, I agree with his sentiment: if Boston Rob hadn’t betrayed him by lightly approving the theory, Tony could’ve had some wiggle room. Boston Rob tried to save Bob the Drag Queen, but that one move will have consequences someday.

The season 3 premiere of The Traitors kicked off a new exciting game of mystery and intrigue. The allure of The Traitors has us wrapped around its fingers and we can’t wait to see what happens next. The Faithfuls have already started planting targets everywhere, while the Traitors are starting on the wrong foot with some messy gameplay. Will this be a season of the Faithfuls correctly deducing the truth? Or will it be a game of the Traitors imploding from missteps? We’ll have to wait and see where the roundtables take us next.

The Traitors airs new episodes on Thursdays on Peacock.

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Images courtesy of Euan Cherry/Peacock