‘The Traitors’ Just Flipped the Roundtable With Its Biggest Twist Yet
(Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Traitors Season 2, Episode 7.)
Parvati Shallow might be Survivor royalty, but she’s about to lose The Traitors—all thanks to a former Bachelor. For a minute there, things were looking dicey for our one-time rose lover and professional pilot, Peter Weber, but thanks to a treeeacherous new twist from host Alan Cumming, our earnest golden boy has been spared from elimination. With Pilot Pete back on the prowl, things are not looking good for Parvati—especially because her fellow Traitor, Real Housewives alum Phaedra Parks, seems ready to throw her under the bus.
For those who’ve never hung out with Cumming and company in Scotland, the goal of The Traitors is simple: Dozens of players gather for a chance to share a $250,o00 cash prize. While most of them are “Faithfuls,” a few players are “Traitors” who will keep all of the money for themselves if they make it through the final elimination ceremony. Each week, the players choose one suspected saboteur to “banish” before the Traitors meet in the castle’s turret to “murder” one of their own.
Last week, the Faithfuls finally banished their first actual Traitor, Big Brother legend Dan Gheesling. Given the choice between murdering a fellow player and recruiting someone to replenish their numbers, Parvati convinced Phaedra that they should try and seduce Peter. As we now know, however, Peter cannot be tempted; he chose to remain a Faithful.
Naturally, Parvati is ready to “kill that Bachelor” and wipe that “smug” little grin off his face, and for a moment, at least, it looked like she might succeed. Peter might be excellent at catching Traitors, but he’s also been playing a very cliquey game for weeks—and if there’s one thing folks in this castle do not tend to like, it’s walking into a room only to be asked to leave until the cool kids are done talking. Peter’s list of allies is substantial: He’s got former U.K. Member of Parliament John Bercow on his side, along with Real World: Las Vegas star Trishelle Cannatella and Bling Empire star Kevin Kreider. At the same time, the larger group is starting to resent his little club, and Sandra Diaz-Twine—aka the “Queen of Survivor”—has started to suspect that Peter’s actually the leader of the Traitors.
Peter decided not to share that the Traitors tried to recruit him with anyone outside his group, and Parvati is surely looking for a way to use that secrecy as ammo. In the meantime, however, Cumming summoned the players for the most grueling mission yet, requiring them to pair off and carry sacks of gold through the woods while answering a series of questions. If they answered right, they’d remain on the correct path; if they answered incorrectly, they’d fall prey to a cartoon-like trap. (The hidden mud puddles were my personal favorite, although it was also very fun to watch random reality stars get yanked into the sky inside giant nets.)
Parvati Shallow.
Only two pairs made it to the end—Parvati and John, and Sandra and Kevin—and because the latter two got there first, they won immunity from murder. Out of a possible $25,000, the group netted an underwhelming $8,000. Worst of all, Pilot Pete remained unprotected from Parvati and her eager fangs. I’ll admit, when Parvati and Phaedra got a roomful of former Housewives (and The Challenge alum Chris “C.T.” Tamburello) talking about taking Peter out, I was worried for my boy. But then, our host turned the game upside down.
In lieu of a banishing ceremony at the roundtable, we got an ally chain game like something out of Squid Game: The Challenge. Kevin and Sandra, who won this week’s “Shields,” had to light one player’s torch to spare them from the Traitors’ murderous wrath. That player would then save another player, and so on, until only five vulnerable players remained. When they picked Shereé Whitfield, I thought it was all over for poor Peter; after all, Shereé is in the crew that now wants to cut him and his allies out of the game. But then, she picked Phaedra—and Phaedra did something verrrry interesting. While Parvati assumed Phaedra would “save” her, Phaedra went with her friend C.T. instead. Once he was safe, C.T. went on to save John over his friend of 20 years, Trishelle, which left her in tears. The good news is, John made the right choice and protected Peter—thwarting any chance Parvati had to take him out this week.
But let’s go back to Phaedra’s decision to leave Parvati dangling in the wind. She could have left one more Faithful open to elimination by choosing Parvati, but clearly she has decided that declaring any kind of alliance with her would be unwise.
The cracks in Phaedra and Parvati’s alliance started to show weeks ago, when Parvati gave the poison chalice to Love Island winner Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu. We all remember Phaedra fanning herself while chanting, “Oh, my Lord, sweet baby Jesus, not Ekin-Su,” and for good reason! She had just written Ekin-Su’s name on her chalkboard—so Ekin-Su’s untimely demise made her look suspicious. Then, Parvati had the audacity, the temerity, the guts and the gumption to suggest that one of the Traitors was probably a Housewife. The two patched things up once Phaedra put her in her place, but as we all know, forgiving and forgetting are two very different things.
Phaedra Parks.
So far, Phaedra has played the smartest game as a Traitor; she likes to lie low and let the others make decisions, which keeps her hands clean. More importantly, she’s a very convincing performer at the breakfast table and beyond. When Peter came to her and Parvati this week to suggest that they work together, she sprang up to walk out of the room, playing the perfect angel as she insisted that she wanted no involvement in such “collusion.” Now, it looks like she’s ready to let Parvati sit in her own mess.
As soon as they took their hoods off in the castle tower this week, Phaedra scolded her fellow Traitor. “You’ve got to stop acting like an ice princess!” Parvati’s stank-faced reaction was priceless: “Okay, do I need to be nicer, or what?” Things only got funnier when Phaedra did her best impression of Parvati’s evil, squinty stare before telling her, “You’re just gonna have to be more lovable.” Predictably, this comment sparked yet another stink eye and the most dismissive “Okay” anyone has ever uttered in the history of the world. Parvati knows Phaedra’s loyalty is waning, but for now, they still need to murder someone.
But who will it be? Their options are slim this week, and they include a couple of Peter’s allies—Trishelle and Carsten “Bergie” Bergensen—as well as one of Phaedra’s fellow Bravolebrities, Mercedes “MJ” Javid of Shahs of Sunset. There’s also Season 1 alum Kate Chastain, who joined the group as a surprise two weeks ago, but there’s no real reason to murder her. My money is on either Trishelle or Bergie, but it’s a toss-up as to which might go home. If it’s Trishelle, however, her pal C.T. is going to have a lot of apologizing to do.
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