‘The Traitors’ Season 3 Episode 2 Recap: Gut Feelings

You’ve gotta love a reality show that makes two of its contestants – whose identities haven’t even been revealed – spend the night locked in a cage in the woods. (I mean, yeah, I assume they didn’t really sleep in these cages, but oh, the theatrics of it all!) That’s how episode one of The Traitors‘ third season ended, with host Alan Cumming not only inviting Boston Rob Mariano into the game as a Traitor, but revealing that two new, secret competitors will be added to the bunch, but not before giving them the full birdcage treatment.

Episode two didn’t make us wait long for those two players’ identities to be revealed. They are Wes Bergmann from The Challenge, and Derrick Levasseur from Big Brother. If we learned anything from last season, it’s that “gamers,” i.e. competitors from cutthroat competition shows, as opposed to regular old reality TV, approach this game in a way that involves less heart and more strategy, and as a result, they can be brutal, cunning foes. The addition of three gamers all at once will likely not win friends but it will certainly influence people.

Back in the turret – because remember, no one has even been murdered yet! – Traitors Bob the Drag Queen, Danielle Reyes, and Carolyn Wiger, are sowing seeds of treachery as they plan their first kill. It’s immediately clear that Danielle and Carolyn are both alphas who want the last word, and there’s immediate friction. As they debate who to murder, Danielle wants to think 20 steps ahead and consider all the repercussions of their choices, while Carolyn is less chess and more checkers. They decide that a Real Housewife will be their target, but which one? Carolyn makes the solid case that Dorinda Medley is worth keeping around, if only to take heat off of them since she’s so outspoken and there’s already speculation that she’s a Traitor, but these three yurret-dwellers can’t seem to agree on whether the murder should be her, Dolores Catania or Robyn Dixon.

The next morning at breakfast, the victim is revealed: Dorinda. “Well that’s disappointing,” Dorinda says when she reads the letter ordering her murder. It really is! This show, wonderful as it is, definitely has a hard time protecting its bigger personalities from getting booted. (Peppermint, we hardly knew ye… and now Dorinda?) When Alan Cumming arrives, his yellow tartan suit can’t brighten the gray pall over the room. The reality of the first murder is hitting everyone hard. Tom Sandoval is sweating through his oversized tee shirt, Bob the Drag Queen – who is responsible for the killing – can’t stop crying. Robyn Dixon keeps on eating breakfast like nothing happened. It’s pure chaos mood.

Obviously, the speculation between cast members about who could have done this is rampant, and what makes it so entertaining are all the people who claim to have incredibly accurate gut feelings and just how wrong they all are. But there’s hardly time to dwell in the castle or mourn for dear departed Dorinda, because the gang is whisked into the woods where they learn that the three men who have been locked in birdcages all night will be joining the game, and each of them is holding an immunity shield that they can give to another player. This episode’s challenge is for the, er, cage-free contestants to sift through a maze of pouches in the woods, some of which contain gold coins. Each of the three new players has a container in front of them where the coins to be deposited and once theirs is full, their cage will be lowered and unlocked.

As the contestants fill the containers, they all attempt to curry favor with Rob, Wes and Derrick, complimenting them and introducing themselves, all in hopes of getting an immunity shield. (Except for Bob the Drag Queen, who straight up tells Boston Rob, “Rob, if I lower you down, throw that hat away. That is a fashion crime.” Bless!) The men seem unmoved by the compliments (or insults), though.

Once the containers are filled and the men are finally lowered, Alan explains that these new players will not be eligible for murder or banishment today, nor will they be allowed to vote for anyone else’s. At the round table, Bob The Traitor Drag Queen is the first to speak, and offers up Wells as a potential Traitor. The round table conversations are always so riveting as a viewer, because to us, it’s clear Bob is trying to create confusion, but the competitors all try to have a sound debate about who might be a Traitor and how certain actions are suspicious, and they hold fast to their convictions so much that it makes you start to question reality. People really do see and believe what they want to, which can turn into a witch hunt. That’s fine when it’s within the confines of Alan Cumming’s Scottish castle, but depressing when you realize how easily this behavior spills out into the real world. But I digress. After Bob points the finger at Wells, who is faithful, while Wells turns on Robyn and Sam Asghari, also Faithful.

All of this rampant speculation and finger-pointing pays off for the real Traitors, because after voting gets under way, it’s a three way tie for banishment between Robyn, Wells, and Lord Ivar Mountbatten, second cousin to the King of England. Carolyn, who has somehow not come under suspicion as a Traitor despite the fact that her poker face is non existent, is the one who casts the tie-breaking vote.

She votes for Wells, poor Faithful Wells, who ends up banished. Wells sarcastically claps for his fellow competitors while he stands in the Circle of Truth and tells everyone, “My final words to you guys will be this. Playing a smart game isn’t always the smartest. I am a Faithful. Good job, guys,” he says as he leaves. Listen, as the first one banished and a real Faithful, I appreciate how heavy he’s pouring on the sarcasm that makes no attempt to mask his disappointment. I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same.

Meanwhile, real Traitor Danielle is weeping at his departure, and between her tears and the fact that she constantly reminds everyone that she thinks “a Housewife” (any Housewife, she can’t say which!) is a Traitor, I’m concerned for her. She’s doing the most, but not in the good, Phaedra way, and it will totally lead to suspicion. That’s not to say that her fellow Traitors aren’t also doing the most. Bob’s finger-pointing at Wells and Carolyn’s own weepy tears all feel a little over the top, but in this game, nothing is ever taken at face value, so I don’t even know what people think of them.

After the round table, the three newest players, Rob, Wes and Derrick, covertly hand out their immunity shields while everyone else continues to speculate on who the real Traitors are. Rob gives a shield to Tony from Survivor, Derrick gives his to Zac’s Brother Dylan Efron, and Wes gives his to Jeremy from Survivor. All of this is done in secret so that it won’t affect the Traitors’ selection of who they can murder. But also, I feel icky seeing how all the survivalist bros are sticking together and saving each other, especially after all the women (and the Bobs) were the only ones to volunteer themselves and give up immunity in the lake challenge in episode one. Coool. Men gonna men!

Dylan, meanwhile, is the first person to label Bob as a potential Traitor, for being the one who named Wells as suspicious. Is Dylan the new Peter?? At this point, it seems like he’s got the keenest of all the gut feelings in a sea of misguided guts; if he gets too smart for his own good, he’ll become an easy target. But at least this week he’s immune.

As the three original Traitors gather in the turret to decide who to murder, a knock at the door surprises them. They initially assume it’s Alan, and are shocked when Boston Rob takes off his hood to reveal his identity, backwards cap still very much intact. “Fancy seein’ you here,” he laughs. And while, yes, he’s one of the most manipulative and cunning competitors in all of reality TV and he’ll certainly make things interesting this season, I can’t help but be mad at him for not even trying to dress up for this role of a lifetime.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.