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With Lisa Rinna’s departure from the castle, tensions are rising between the remaining Traitors. As the latest episode of The Traitors unfolds, Rob Rausch and Candiace Dillard Bassett have their first meeting since the dramatic Round Table where Rob voted to banish Lisa. In a twist of events, Candiace had cast a spiteful “throwaway” vote against Rob, a decision that threatens to unravel her game strategy.
Candiace had positioned herself as a consistent player among the Faithful, targeting Ron Funches repeatedly in her quest to maintain a steady approach. However, her impulsive vote against Rob raised eyebrows at breakfast the following day. Dressed festively, Candiace feigned shock when Colton Underwood failed to join the morning gathering. The night before, she and Rob had been faced with a choice: murder a Faithful or convert one into a Traitor. Both were wary of introducing a new dynamic into their alliance, and ultimately, they chose murder.
Understanding Candiace’s frustration, Rob allowed her to decide the night’s victim. Names like Stephen Coletti, Natalie Anderson, and Colton were considered. Despite Rob’s hesitation to eliminate his closest ally, he deferred to Candiace’s decision to target Colton. Candiace believed that removing Colton would weaken Rob’s alliances, though the move could paradoxically make Rob appear more trustworthy now that his confidant was gone. In this complex game of deception, logic often takes a backseat to strategy.
When Alan Cumming arrived at breakfast, he quipped about Colton’s absence with a nod to The Bachelor. He then revealed the day’s challenge. Mark Ballas, Kristen Kish, and Rob were chosen to accompany Alan to an art gallery, while the other eight players remained at the castle. Among the artwork, an immunity shield was hidden, offering a significant advantage for whoever found it. Kristen successfully located the shield, though its impact on the game was minimal.
The mission required the remaining players to split into two teams and recreate descriptions of paintings in tableau form. They captured their interpretations in photos and sent them to the art gallery team, who then had to identify the corresponding paintings. The task echoed the quirky charm of the Living Classics Pageant from Arrested Development, adding a layer of creativity to the intense competition.
Team Dorinda/Maura/Tara/Natalie is incredible to watch, they are eating up the challenge and they know it. “We are absolutely amazing at this,” Dorinda deadpans. “We are very expressive, the characters are well-placed, and we’re all very good-looking. All those things matter when taking a photograph.”
Team Candiace/Stephen/Eric/Johnny does less well, despite their own impressive attempts to mimic a swaddled baby, or was it a decapitated pig’s head?
After the mission, things get even more messy between Rob and Candiace. Even though Rob extended a tiny olive branch when he gave Candiace the opportunity to kill Colton, there’s still no trust between them, and when they find a moment to themselves, she probes him about why, exactly, everyone is now suspecting her. The tension is real, and she starts digging for answers about who has been saying her name and for how long, realizing that Rob was witholding this information from her. When Rob reminds her that this is all just a game, she replies, “This is a game. And you are a snake. I see what you’re doing and I want you to know that if I get banished tonight, your name is going to come up.” “I feel like that’s bad sportsmanship,” Rob replies.
The tension between the two then spills over into the Round Table, when Candiace’s name is brought up first because of her random vote for Rob the night before. Candiace then accuses Rob of being Colton’s “beard” and using Colton to spread Lisa’s name around among the rest of the players. It’s Traitor on Traitor violence, and it feels like they’re both doing a disservice to the Traitor name if this keeps up. But ultimately, a majority votes Candiace out. As she bids farewell, she does not call out Rob as she said she would, but she does say in her confessional, “I’m confident they’re gonna look at Rob. And in the event that they don’t, joke is on them. Good luck to you all.”
The funny thing is, once Candiace is banished, literally no one is looking at Rob. Some think that Johnny is their next suspect because of how close he was to Candiace, but no one is even thinking of Rob. (“There’s no way. That sweet, sweet man,” Kristen tells Eric.)
But now that Rob is the last Traitor standing, there’s only one thing for him to do: recruit someone else to join him. (I so love a seduction, and if it were me, I would have seduced Maura because even though their Love Island connection is obvious, it goes to my thinking that if something seems too obvious on this show, people won’t actually take it seriously, but alas, no one asked me.) In the end, Rob recruits Eric, who is so flustered at receiving a letter from the Traitors that he sits on it. When he finally reads it, he immediately declares that he knows the handwriting of the Traitor who wrote his name. “Johnny.” Between his perfect ears and his handwriting analysis, Eric is 0 for 2. “I’m almost there. I just want to be left alone. This is what happens when you’re nice,” Eric says, disappointed that he now has to choose treachery over honesty. While Eric is reluctant to become a Traitor in theory, he also knows it’s the only way to stay alive in the game.
But when Rob pulls off his hood to reveal himself to Eric, I’m kind of worried the shock of learning Rob is under there might just have killed him.
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.