RECAP: The Traitors (U.S.) Season 4 Episodes 4-5
I know people are losing their minds over this season — in a bad way, for different reasons — but I’m loving it. I think it’s been the most enjoyable season of the show, and I think most of the players are doing their jobs well, both Traitors and Faithfuls. Things got a bit darker in these episodes, and the internet is whipped into a frenzy with lots of speculation around intentions both personally and game-related. So let’s break it all down, shall we? SPOILERS AHEAD
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The Traitors
I continue to think that this season’s Traitors are doing a great job. Obviously we don’t see everything due to the edit, but Rob and Candiace especially do not appear to be on anyone’s radars, and I though those two both turned in top-tier Traitor performances at the Round Tables. They engaged in the conversations in a way that made them seem like active Faithful without pulling any aggro to themselves. That’s a difficult needle to thread, and I think they’re both doing it fabulously. Bonus points for Rob’s hilarious correction of Rapaport’s vocabulary during the latter’s unhinged Colton rant.
Rinna is trickier. I still think she’s doing a great job — that scene in the woods where they murdered Caroline Stanbury face to face in the woods was pure soap-villain camp. Rinna was living her best life in that moment and that is why she is a soap MPV for LIFE. It is ironic that what appears to be getting her in trouble this game is how little she is speaking. That became a plot point in late Episode 5, when Colton was desperately looking for a new target (more on that in a second), and people who know Rinna as a person agree that she is normally way more vocal than she has been. Rinna is very much in danger right now, and I think she may be the next Traitor out.
The Murdered
I find it interesting that after Stanbury was murdered, someone made the comment that she was always talking. We barely saw her utter more than 20 words this season. It’s a reminder that they edit SO much out of this show, and we really have no idea what either the Traitors or Faithfuls are really doing/how they’re playing. I think Stanbury was a smart strategic kill to throw off suspicion from the Housewives. And it seems to have worked.
Monet X Change was our other victim this batch, and that breaks my heart. I think Monet was playing a good game — certainly better than Bob the Drag Queen’s last season, which was never sustainable. Monet was even on the right track on sussing out Rinna. I believe that had Monet lasted longer, she would have been very troublesome for the Traitors. So this was another smart kill from the turret.
I’ll just say this again: just because the “gamers” are all being pushed out early does not mean the Traitors are not being strategic. I think it’s actually evidence of just how strategic they are. I was lectured over and over again by “Big Brother” fans last year that I needed to respect Danielle’s game, even though it was batshit nonsense and self-destructive. Y’all need to respect these Traitors’ game now.
The Banished
The crux of these two episodes were the round tables, which got ugly — both of them. I have seen a lot of people post a LOT of thoughts on how racist and misogynist the attacks were on “Big Brother” vet Tiffany Mitchell. Here’s the thing: I can’t tell anyone how to feel. Life experiences inform a great deal of someone’s response to things, and I can see how some people may have felt that the language used against Tiffany was microaggressive at best, and flat-out bullying at worse.
I personally did not interpret it as such. First of all, Tiffay was giving just as good as she was getting. She blatantly called Colton stupid, which I guess is fair game (and I would agree it is, at the round table), but apparently Colton asking her how to spell her name in response was interpreted as an insult. It was a direct response to her telling him he was dumb. I don’t think there was any more to it than that, but again, your mileage may vary.
Additionally, Tiffany was hacking and slashing at Yam Yam pretty intensely, dismissing his own gamer experience (the dude actually won “Survivor,” whereas Tiffany wasn’t even a finalist on her season of a much less challenging reality show) and shutting him down.
If they were brigading Tiffany, she was at last going down swinging. And I respect that, I do. I liked Tiffany and I was sad to see her go, but I think the laugh info brought in pop star Eric Nam — which was WRONG! — was the real culprit here. Not anything Colton or Yam Yam said.
And then we have Michael Rapaport, one of the main topics of discussion for this season. I was chagrined at Rapaport’s casting. I begrudgingly admit he gave us several quintessential moments in his episodes. But he takes things too personally to play this game, and boy did he shoot himself in the foot at that round table when he made a comment that could be interpreted as an attack on Colton’s sexuality and the way he came out. I’m curious how that whole scenario would have played out with a cast that wasn’t significantly LGBTQ. They reacted the same way I did: intense rejection at the concept that a gay man is inherently untrustworthy because of the circumstances around his coming out. Johnny Weir had the response of the night, “I don’t care what you are; I just want you out of my castle.” Oof.
My read on the Rapaport situation was that he absolutely did mean to weaponize Colton’s past, but he didn’t count on how intensely the other cast members would react. This was giving me flashbacks to Zeke being outed as a trans man on “Survivor,” and the rest of the cast banding together to rebuke and banish the offender, whose name I won’t even deign to repeat. Rapaport tried weakly to backpedal, but he was done. He already had everyone on the edge with his boorish behavior (the shot of him shoveling food directly into his mouth from the bowl was DIABOLICAL) and loud complaining about everything. As more than one person said, he was a bad-faith Faithful, and it was impossible to do their job of finding Traitors with him carrying on and making everything about himself.
Part of me feels sorry for Rapaport, as he wants so desperately to be liked/included, and is getting the shit kicked out of him online. But then I remember some of the truly appalling things he’s said about women, specifically women of color, in the past. And then I see the absolutely batshit things he says on social media now. And I am glad he’s off this show. Please never cast another version of that character again, show.
Notable Faithful
I won’t go over all the rest of the players, but the following have made an impression on me, one way or another:
Colton Underwood: Colton has become the story of the season, and I suspect it’s more than he bargained for. He’s getting it from all ends — gay joke not intended — as unsavory elements of his past are being scrutinized publicly, and his actions on the show are being viewed through very specific lenses that, in my opinion, are not always fair or valid. I’ve seen a lot of people assume that Colton was being deliberately deceptive and even malicious going on “The Bachelor” and leading those women along — we have no idea what was going through Colton’s head at that time. Only Colton knows that. I can certainly see a point of view where he was terrified and saw that as a way to continue living the life he was “supposed” to live. I can imagine that whole thing put terrific strain on his mental and emotional wellbeing. Maybe that’s a completely incorrect read. I don’t know. YOU don’t know. But I’m seeing pitchforks and torches a lot on social media, and I’m not sure that’s all warranted. As for his GAME on “Traitors,” after the incorrect Tiffany vote he pushed for, you would think he would try to lower his threat level in the castle. But no, he’s doubling down trying to find a new target. That is bold, and I suspect, game ending. He’s now pushing for Rinna, but he’s also attracting attention from other players (Kristen). His position in the game is precarious right now.
Dorinda Medley: Last week I bemoaned how quiet Dorinda has been, and this week we got at least something from her. Ron Funches was convinced that she and Rapaport are the Traitors, and he came after her pretty hard at the round table. (Again, I didn’t see anyone questioning the appropriateness of that, so I’m so interested at why only certain people seem to held accountable for their aggressive playstyle, while it’s fine for others.) I thought Dorinda held her ground well, and surprisingly did not lose her shit. She also seemed to clue in to her good friend Rinna being suspiciously quiet. Curious where she goes.
Ron Funches: I love Ron, and I love how hard he is playing this game. But he’s so bad at it. He is like the spokesperson for the R/ConfidentlyWrong sub on Reddit. He convinces himself of facts and then goes all in, with nothing but vibes. That is…an approach! The Traitors are certainly going to keep him around as long as they can, because he is doing their job for them.
Kristen Kish: My girl crush on Kish continues to grow. Her defiant response to the face-to-face Traitors moment took me places. She’s also becoming increasingly more activated — or they are showing more of her — and she’s on Colton’s tail in a big way.
Yam-Yam Arocho: Yam Yam is kind of mess? But I love him? Like, crying over being in the non-safe group? Come on, man. It is so interesting to me that even though he is a “Survivor” winner, he is not considered a “gamer.” He appears to be playing a solely reactive game at this point instead of a proactive one, which is frankly what won him “Survivor,” so…
NEXT: Will there be a murder? Did someone take a shield during the challenge? Will Colton succeed in ferreting out Rinna, or will Kristen shift the suspicion onto Colton?
What do you think of “The Traitors” Season 4 so far? Tell us in the comments. THE FLOOR IS YOURS!
