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Let’s rewind to the moment the cast for The Traitors Season 4 was unveiled. Picture this: I’m in my apartment, staring at the screen with disbelief and mouthing, “Who on earth is Rob Rausch?”
**Spoilers ahead for The Traitors Season 4 Episode 7, now available on Peacock**
Rob, the unassuming Alabama native whom everyone hails as the embodiment of a Faithful leader, entered the competition with the aura of both a Love Island heartthrob and a shy recluse. Fast forward to the mid-season of The Traitors Season 4, and he’s stealthily outmaneuvering the entire ensemble. (Yes, the pun is intentional.)
Having followed four seasons of the show, I’ve witnessed every conceivable tactic employed by the Traitors. I’ve seen the quiet strategists recruited, the bold and flamboyant players embrace the dark green mantle, and alliances rise and crumble. I’ve observed Traitors turn against each other solely for the chaos it incites. Yet, what stands out this season is Rob’s decisive and unparalleled dominance over his fellow contestants.
In hindsight, perhaps I shouldn’t be shocked. Rob, more than anyone, entered the game with a point to prove. Coming from Love Island, he likely felt compelled to showcase his strategic acumen. Initially, if you’d asked me, I would have predicted his game plan was to coast on his low profile. My reaction during the first episodes was essentially, “Go on, king, play it cool,” but it’s now apparent why this understated approach could be his ticket to victory.
Since those first few episodes, Rob has started to play chess, literally and metaphorically. Last season, Boston Rob told me that the hardest part of the game is how many different parts you have to play and how much management you have to do. You’re a Faithful around the other Faithfuls, you’re a Traitor with the Traitors, you have to win money but also think about the implications of grabbing a shield, etc. It’s the kind of conundrum that would leave even the best of game players reeling. Somehow, though, Rob has made it seem easy and even made it look fun.
Perhaps it’s because no one believes him capable of doing such a thing or perhaps it’s because he’s now filled the role of a Faithful leading the charge against the Traitors — a position he’s taken in no small part due to him strategically flipping on Lisa Rinna — but he is absolutely killing it as a Traitor. He’s gone past thinking like a Faithful and moved into a whole new territory of playing as a Faithful 99 percent of the time.
In Episode 7, as he and his fellow Traitors are attempting to pull off a murder in plain sight, he fully washes his hands of the whole ordeal, saying that he wanted to be just as surprised and have the “plausible deniability” of not knowing how it all went down. Is this getting dangerously close to method acting being a Faithful? Maybe. But as Daniel Day-Lewis can attest, you do what it takes to win.
It wasn’t until I watched him team up with Colton Underwood at the challenge and then nail without a beat of doubt the challenge to figure out which of his co-stars had the dagger, that
I realized we might be looking at an all-star level player here. The level of discernment that Rob has displayed in these seven episodes alone has been nothing short of shocking. Not because he’s the dumb Alabamian that some have wrongly pegged him as, but because he’s playing the way that Survivor and Big Brother alums often think they are playing.
We can’t also forget that Rob all but copped to being a Traitor to Ron Funches in one of their final conversations, fishing for information about if people have been saying his name, but that his decision to play the game earnestly and defend a vulnerable player saved him from getting tossed under the bus. So much so that Funches, who played the game as a Faithful, told DECIDER during a one-on-one that he’s actually rooting for the other team to win. “I’m rooting for Rob. That’s it. I’m rooting for Rob. If Rob’s a Traitor, I’m rooting for the Traitors. If he was a Faithful, I’d be rooting for the Faithful. But since he is a Traitor, death to the faithful, I guess,” Funches shared.
While others might see it as poor taste for Rob to turn on his fellow Traitors in the most recent episodes, I only see it as a Traitor with his eyes on the prize. He is singularly focused in his vision of the finish line, and he’s not getting bogged down by petty grievances. That is my winner right there. And even if he doesn’t make it to the end, we know he’ll be back someday.
The first seven episodes of The Traitors Season 4 are now streaming on Peacock. New episodes release on Thursdays at 6 p.m. PT.
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