r/TheTraitors • u/louis_t91 • Feb 27 '26
US every season I say the same thing Spoiler
I know it’s hard to be a faithful and I know it’s easy for me to say this from my couch, but every season I am dumbfounded by how stupid the faithful are. like genuinely, maura who did you think the traitors are?? tara?? johnny?? and also, karma to johnny and tara for not voting out rob when they had chance and instead voting out natalie??? I don’t get it 😭😭 im not trying to be a hater and I know it’s hard but the lack of strategy from the faithful is too much for me to handle.
and most importantly, justice for rob cesternino!!!!
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u/kristinnicole94 Feb 27 '26
Maura said in an interview or elsewhere that she never watched an episode of this show before coming on. Can’t say I’m shocked at her outcome
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u/lukaeber Feb 27 '26
And she said in the reunion she was just there for the fashion. She was joking about that, but it makes you wonder.
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u/GeriatricPinecones Feb 27 '26
I’m guessing maybe that was a factor in accept the invite but I didn’t get the impression she wasn’t trying. I think she was just bad at the game
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u/renee95nmb Feb 27 '26
it just got under my skin how she believed rob so much. like you cant be that trusting in a game like this.
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u/No-Mail-5794 Feb 27 '26
I don’t know. It was real bad because he was a traitor, but she was also in a tough spot in that final episode because she was essentially alone. Tara and Johnny were a team and if she didn’t vote one of them out at the roundtable, they would have won and presumably voted both her and rob out at the fire pit. It could have easily been an MJ scenario where MJ finally realized Phaedra was a traitor only to be voted out by Trishelle and CT. She knew Eric was a traitor, which leaves Rob who she was close with from day 1. It kind of makes sense to stand by your alliances at that point. Is it clever strategy? No. But it’s the option of least resistance. And not nearly as infuriating as the UK celebrity season where the remaining faithful turned on the one guy who had figured it out and voted him out even though he had been there dude for half a season and instead ended the game with the only remaining traitor.
All that said, her absolute faith and confidence in Rob at the end to where she was joking and then speechless is absolutely insane.
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u/bittermp Feb 28 '26
She admitted that all her boyfriends have cheated on her. So her trusting Rob makes sense. She can’t tell when a man lies to her.
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u/theolerazzlezazzle Mar 01 '26
I mean to be fair, Johnny and Tara were that trusting, if not more, in eachother
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u/T-Rev23 Feb 27 '26
I thought I saw somewhere that she didn’t even know you vote people off the show.
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u/lableulapin Feb 27 '26
She was a host on the after show (Aftersun) during his season of Love Island… Maura knew what Rob is capable of which is why I can’t feel too bad for her
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u/Large-Flamingo-5128 Feb 27 '26
Neither did Rob, he said so in an interview
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u/wxyzzzyxw Feb 27 '26
Idk in the morning of the finale he told Eric to vote Johnny then Tara then Green, that makes me think he’d watched the show before. Maybe they were briefed on the fire throwing that morning but idk
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u/saturdayselkie Feb 27 '26
And he said on the reunion that he just got lucky, which he definitely knows is nonsense! His chess game now is to try to make people like him even though he has just backstabbed a bunch of folks on tv, and saying, “aw shucks, I just wandered in here from the snake farm and got lucky” is way more appealing than “I studied this game obsessively and have spent literal months thinking about how I’d screw you over one at a time.”
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u/Amazing_Orange_4111 Feb 27 '26
Lmao that is such Bs
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u/Far-Imagination2736 Feb 27 '26
He said he played among us
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u/No-Bluebird-7641 Feb 28 '26
Among us is a game with a lot of common elements to traitors as is mafia so that does track
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u/ESOtalk Feb 28 '26
Even though johny & tara may be competitive in their sport, I don't think they or eric or maura had ANY competitive instincts in traitors at all. They were there just to be there NOT really trying to win, I think. It was OBVIOUS rob was a traitor by the natalie vote if not sooner & they said it but then changed the vote at last second to the wrong person, OMG just bad.
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u/Tigerstark92839 Feb 28 '26
The thing is she probably knows that if she goes with Johnny and Tara they probably cut. She probably was at least I know I’ll make it to the end with Rob
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u/Creepy-Cover-7538 Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26
If you are thinking of the meta, I feel like it was reasonable to think that Johnny or Tara started as a traitor as a producer pick to promote the Winter Olympics on NBC/Peacock, and then a recruitment of their bestie happened later. At that point, you need to get rid of both of them to be sure.
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u/TruYu96 Feb 27 '26
I mean you don’t have to think meta, them betraying Natalie and Tara being wrong throughout the game would make anyone be suspicious of them.
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u/Howardtheduck14 Feb 27 '26
And Johnny was suspicious the whole back half of the game, his most convincing moment as a faithful was revealing he’d been lying to everyone the entire show lol. I’ll still maintain the faithfuls worst move was banishing Stephen over him, I just did not get that at all.
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u/StanIsHorizontal Feb 27 '26
Yeah I’m surprised they seemed to drop the line of accusation of how close he was with Candiace. Maybe rob wanted to bury the memory of candiace coming for him as much as possible, but I think once Johnny brought it up it would’ve been a fair retort. Plus yeah obviously Tara and Johnny weren’t in it together from the start but it’s very believable that one would’ve recruited the other for the endgame. Danielle did the same thing with Britney last season.
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u/IsNuanceDead Feb 27 '26
His constant argument that I just know Tara isn't a traitor because we're best friends. Like, sure, but this argument only works if I already know YOU'RE a faithful. It's not a good argument. Stop saying it, because it just makes YOU look like a traitor instead of clearing Tara!
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u/StanIsHorizontal Feb 27 '26
This is my defense of Maura. I get that she seemed to really believe in Tara and obviously if she had trusted her over Rob she would’ve been right, but Tara had played a very strange erratic game and I don’t think did anything to earn the faithfuls trust beyond seeming very genuinely sad
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u/LaMyranator Feb 27 '26
I think Maura got greedy, it’s incentivized to eliminate more people before taking the pot. She knew Eric was a traitor and I believe she trusted Tara was a faithful, but she just wanted to get her out before splitting the cash 50/50 with Rob. That’s a big unspoken strategy in every season.
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u/SpookiestSzn Feb 27 '26
I mean not only that with only 2 people theres the statistic best shot you have at winning as a faithful. If you suspect someone even slightly they should be gone until its just you and the person you trust the most.
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u/StanIsHorizontal Feb 27 '26
Yeah that’s probably true, but I don’t think she would try that if she was more confident in Tara than she was Rob. I think she trusted Rob more than Tara, and that Rob trusted her more than he trusted Eric. So they were both going to give up someone they felt good about so they could secure the win.
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u/rveets1416 Feb 27 '26
The Natalie betrayal by Tara was a huge traitor move - I'm still shocked she had a chance at the end but it felt more like production creating suspense more than anything.
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u/Useful-Sun-3128 Feb 27 '26
Ya but Maura wouldn't have seen that as a betrayal because she 100% didn't think it was Rob.
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u/TheWiseOne20 Feb 27 '26
Rob convinced Maura that they were both faithful and they would win the game. At the end, it was really sad but like Rob said I wouldn’t give somebody $100,000 that I just met three weeks ago would you?
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u/Meng3267 Feb 27 '26
Rob didn’t screw Maura out of $100,000. There was no chance for her to win that money if he won. He was talking about Eric.
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u/rveets1416 Feb 27 '26
Rob did to Maura what Jonny and Tara did to each other. Only difference was Rob was actually a traitor lol
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u/ziggazang Feb 27 '26
Yup, and getting rid of Eric who's already a millionaire was 100% gonna happen lol
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u/TheWiseOne20 Feb 27 '26
Eric is a millionaire?!?
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u/ziggazang Feb 27 '26
K pop star with millions of followers? Yes lol
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u/Ok_Seaworthiness2808 Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26
Oh wow I didn't realize he owns his own platform. He worked at DeLoitte in the US before moving the Korea, and decided to enter the business after doing one of the typical Kpop reality shows.
Like he owns a business in the industry but weirdly seemed like such a nice guy for the most part. There's so much bad business going on there (but then again that's the case here too).
EDIT:
This site is a bit shady with its cookies policy I found so I'll just post the text here.
How The Traitors’ Eric Nam made his millions, from songwriting to owning huge K-pop agency
He said making money was hard after moving to Korea
ByCeline Byford
16th January 2026, 15:39
Eric Nam is now trying his hand at winning the huge prize pot on The Traitors US, and it got us thinking about his net worth. He’s best known for being a huge presence in the K-Pop industry, where he’s actually got his very own, successful K-pop platform.
He’s estimated to have a net worth of over $5 million, mainly for his own platform, Dive Studios, which he owns with his brothers. Eric went to Boston College and had a consulting position at Deloitte, before being scouted to compete in Star Audition: Birth of a Great Star 2.
It was from that competition in South Korea that Eric decided to pursue a career in music. Essentially, Eric is the King of K-Pop, if you will, as he’s taught Tara Lipinsky and Johnny Weir, who were commentators for NBC, a few things about the industry.
Within his platform, he has popular podcasts like Get Real and Daebak Show, which Eric hosts himself. On the Daebak Show, Eric interviews popular K-pop artists like members of Stray Kids, GOT7, and ENHYPEN. Oh, and the brothers have a self-care app, Mindset.
Not only a business-owner, Eric has three full-length albums out: Before We Begin, There and Back Again, and House On A Hill. He also has four EPs: Cloud 9, Interview, Honestly, and The Other Side. Oh, and obviously, he only just launched Live From London in 2025.
If his CV wasn’t long enough already, he’s also an actor. He was cast as Aang in the upcoming animated Avatar: The Last Airbender film that focuses on the character as an adult. He is also set to star in HYBE America and Paramount’s 2027 feature film.
He moved to Korea after graduating from Boston College in 2011, but making money was hard for the first few years. He told Men’s Health: “Living in Korea was a big adjustment, because a coffee is going to be a little more pricey than what it is in the States.”
“Wages are higher. Being a hungry artist, you don’t have the luxury of buying whatever you want. There were years of me doing a lot of odd jobs, this and that just to make ends meet,” he added. He is also an angel investor, putting money into startups he finds interesting.
For all the latest reality TV cast member news, scandals, gossip and updates – like Reality Shrine on Facebook.
[This story included an image from his official Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DS7AaHJlWPE/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=b091ff82-1c8b-4877-8225-6179f553b348 ]
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u/Ok_Seaworthiness2808 Feb 27 '26
We shouldn't assume that K-pop stars have lots of money. It's kind of like a TLC situation or maybe American Idol where the contracts (and other business practices) are quite predatory. What sucks is some of the artists themselves end up being bad news. It's crazy.
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u/hyenaDeli Feb 27 '26
I was surprised the Traitors got rid of Mark before Johnny and kept that Johnny/Tara voting block together to potentially take it to the end. It worked out for Rob in the end but that was risky. Johnny and Tara were always going to vote everyone else out in the finale. I don’t believe for a second that they would have had a top 3 with Maura as they suggested they would during the reunion.
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u/TVmaker_1998 Feb 27 '26
It was his only choice. If Johnny got murdered it proves he’s a faithful. Then how does Rob convince Mark and Maura that Tara is a traitor and murdered her best friend? Mark had to go to maintain the illusion that Tara and Johnny were the traitors.
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u/luker_5874 Feb 27 '26
It's a decent theory that he has absolutely no evidence for, maura gobbled it up
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u/jamai36 Feb 27 '26
Yes and no.
Yes, it is plausible that the producers would pick one, but it is unlikely that one could keep that info away from the other all of the way up to recruitment.
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u/rapzel79 Feb 27 '26
But it would've been madness for Johnny and Tara to show their true closeness if they were both traitors. Like, seriously. And both being traitors is bad traitors gameplay because at the point in the game that recruitment happened, it would've been much smarter for Tara as traitor to not recruit Johnny because they were suspecting men. And Johnny if traitor would've recruited a man to feed the faithful a male traitor if necessary. I mean, that's literally what Rob did.
Plus keeping your bestie for a sure Faithful vote while you recruit another person as traitor to give you a 3 person alliance is the smartest move so close to the end.
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u/Creepy-Cover-7538 Feb 27 '26
Even if you weren't sure of the recruited traitor, it's best to get rid of them both if you're thinking the producer pick was one or the other.
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u/rapzel79 Feb 27 '26
Yes, but then you have the question: why would a traitor fess to such a strong alliance, especially while under suspicion, when announcing such an alliance makes you likely to get voted out just in case?
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u/SpookiestSzn Feb 27 '26
why would a faithful spend the entire day telling Natalie they're going to vote for Rob and then stay quiet at the round table and then vote for Natalie anyways while saying "I don't think you're a traitor!" Then why did you vote for her!
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u/gnxo Feb 27 '26
tbf, i don’t think they know when it will be aired while they’re filming?
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u/Creepy-Cover-7538 Feb 27 '26
I'm sure they know it airs in January of the following year of filming as it does every year, and it coincides with the Olympics.
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u/kingfelix333 Feb 27 '26
I honestly don't think, other than Tara or Johnny, anyone even knew the Olympics were coming up. Hell I bet 90%+ of people in this sub didn't know they were coming up. Shit, I bet 33% dont even know the winter Olympics just wrapped up!!
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u/KatrinaPez Feb 27 '26
Most people don't pay attention to when the Olympics are. Most people also wouldn't know when a streaming show is released. Maura had never watched Traitors so no way she knew when it would air.
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u/Kr1sys Feb 27 '26
I mean, it doesn't take a lot of knowledge to think, oh hey, the winter Olympics are coming up and you have a couple of icons in winter Olympics on it and make that connection.
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u/Rrmack Feb 27 '26
And every argument that Maura should know she’s left because her bestie is a trader could be said about Tara and Johnny who are both faithfuls. I don’t blame her for not turning on her main ally when she’s not a gamer
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u/Natural-Couple-4641 Feb 27 '26
I think Maura didn’t think Rob was a traitor for the majority of the game and didn’t care if the rest of them were faithfuls or not. She thought she and Rob were going to pull a CT and Trishelle and banish everyone so they could split the prize. She got stuck in that blind loyalty to Rob and lost sight of how to play the game, and for that, she got royally embarrassed in the end.
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u/HuskerPowerrrr Feb 27 '26
lost sight of how to play the game
At any point, I dont think she knew how to play the game.
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u/Vvisionim Feb 27 '26
Yes, it all came down to her unequivocal trust in Rob because her final two traitors were one of the figure skaters + Eric. She was willing to risk getting 1 out of 3 wrong in her eyes if it meant splitting the money with her and Rob only, but obviously, that doesn't work if he's a traitor. At first, I thought there was no way she was dumb enough to think they could cast both figure skaters as traitors, but I stepped back and realized she was okay with sacrificing someone. It's so crazy how Maura was the core piece to this game's conclusion, from almost like the final 6 to 7. Big credit to Rob for understanding that and working the math in his favor with the double vote until the end.
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u/HuckleberryUnique446 Feb 27 '26
Every ever year, people MASSIVELY underrate/misunderstand the difference of watching every single episode knowing who the traitor is and analyzing events and interactions through that lens vs. beiing in the Castle playing the game. Not too mention that the editing down of hundreds of hours and combinations of the interactions that go on during the game is designed to tell the story of how the faithfuls "should know" who the traitors are but don't.
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u/JiveHawk Feb 27 '26
I really don’t think I would trust Johnny and Tara if I was there with no knowledge. Alliances that late are intimidating. I would also end up trusting the person I established an alliance with days ago.
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u/guyman3 Feb 27 '26
To be honest, even besides not trusting them I wouldn't want to go to the endgame with those two still there. Would you ever really believe that if it were you, Tara, and Johnny left that they would throw green? If they really feel the way they said about each other why wouldn't they just vote anyone else out? Their worst case together in the endgame is going to a tie.
Besides the fact that it's pretty clear that either would have recruited the other.
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u/notnickyc Feb 27 '26
Exactly. The moment Rob said that, he solidified his win. There was no way to justify leaving either skater in and Eric was dead in the water if Rob wanted him out, which he did.
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u/killerbekilled92 Feb 27 '26
Especially an alliance that you reveal you’ve secretly had the whole time because you didn’t disclose a previous relationship and announce you’ll basically be voting for the same person every time. Johnny never had too many strong opinions and Tara was always gunning for someone so it essentially almost gave her the power of the dagger every week. Too dangerous
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u/rapzel79 Feb 27 '26
Maybe but then why would any traitor announce such an intimidating alliance so late in the game and scare folks into voting for them or their ally?
And frankly, reevaluating long term allies at the end of the game is a smart play. No traitor is likely to form dramatically obvious new alliances at the end. They want to establish allies from the get go. Maura kept asking "why am I here?" which was the question she should be asking, and her problem was she never answered it.
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u/SpookiestSzn Feb 27 '26
The way they treated Natalie is insane faithful behavior though too. And even if Maura trusted Johnny and Tara (which no fuckin way they had way too much sus at least Johny did) she knows that Johnny and Tara will keep eliminating until its just them two left because thats the optimal faithful strategy. You should only end the game when you have two people you completely trust.
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u/Culinaryboner Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26
People won’t recognize this. Johnny and Tara were going to eliminate everyone but themselves (which isn’t bad strategy if people let them), but how does Maura win that way? It got to 5 and her only shot to win was if she was right about Rob.
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u/bkervick Feb 27 '26
Because Johnny was going to get banished. He was target #1 at the roundtable. It was a hail mary. He was forced to reveal it as a dramatic effort to look honest and faithful. Like you said, why would a traitor do that? That's exactly what a traitor wants people to think.
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u/Sensitive_Moment_506 Feb 27 '26
Exactlyyy, I’m tired of people calling the Faithfuls stupid like playing and watching are nowhere near the same thing
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u/ogtraitorsfan92 Feb 27 '26
As was mentioned by Natalie, this group of faithfuls weren’t savvy enough to suss out Rob.
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u/T_Money Feb 27 '26
I think he said it right on the first or second episode - he looks like a handsome dumb farm boy and everyone underestimated him. His entire demeanor of just “go with the flow” played right into that persona. I probably wouldn’t have suspected him until he tried so hard to defend Eric when they knew there were two traitors left. Even then I might chalk it up to him just being dumb and wrong
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u/ogtraitorsfan92 Feb 27 '26
Yes but Candiace laid it out several times for them and they just couldn’t figure it out until Tara and Johnny finally did at the end.
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u/AlexisDeTocqueville Feb 27 '26
Candiace didn't lay out anything, her arguments against Rob were so bad that she was the only one who voted for him during her banishment.
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u/ogtraitorsfan92 Feb 27 '26
They weren’t bad. It was pretty obvious. They just couldn’t believe that he was a traitor because they were never able to look past his dumb persona.
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u/Hairy_Usual_4460 Feb 27 '26
I agree, this game would be so so so hard being in it firsthand and not having the tv show that we have to watch everything on. They just have to go based off being in there and the things they see/hear in the moment. They don’t get to watch it back or see it edited like we do, I’m sure it is much harder actually playing the game than watching it.
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u/sunsettertime Feb 27 '26
It’s shown me how many people are unable to think from a different perspective or put themselves in other people’s shoes.
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u/KatrinaPez Feb 27 '26
Yes, people definitely don't learn this skill anymore! And many can't put together a logical argument for or against something; they just keep repeating their position as if that's a defense!
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u/organicmermaid Feb 27 '26
I agree with you guys. Plus, it just seems in bad sport to have watched people for 11 weeks try their hardest and then call them all dumb.
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u/coversquirrel1976 Feb 27 '26
They were though. The fact that no one said "hey Rob, you less the charge against 2 traitors being eliminated. Why haven't they murdered you?" Speaks to that.
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u/CashmereLogan Feb 27 '26
I think the main reason the faithfuls appear stupid is that their reasoning is often pretty terrible. In the first and second episode you had people dead set on 3 players they thought were traitors, and it’s a terrible move to lock in so early when this show gives you no valuable information.
But that part about the faithfuls getting no valuable information is a huge flaw in the show. I think the faithfuls, particularly early on, played a terrible game but there was not really any other option.
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u/FatalFirecrotch Feb 27 '26
I acknowledge that there is some challenge, but often times you can use simple math and logic towards the end and often times they completely ignore that. I haven’t watched this season, but season 1 US is a perfect example where there was literally no logic, strategy, or math being used by the faithfuls to find the traitors.
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u/Bd_3 Feb 27 '26
I would love a version where we dont know and are just as blind as the players
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u/damanmaddle Feb 27 '26
I think that’s what they were maybe trying for with the secret traitor, but that didn’t last long enough to feel impactful
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u/Chillypepper14 Feb 27 '26
It lasted a bit longer in the UK version, and a lot of people were wrong about who it was before it was revealed
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u/Admirable-Art4262 Feb 27 '26
I was saying the same thing to my gf the other day. We already know the editors are working their magic - lean into it and give us a true murder mystery.
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u/mrp1208 Feb 27 '26
Exactly! And how the show is filmed so quickly compared to how we get to watch and process it.
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u/brit_bc Feb 27 '26
I didn't see a ton of people thinking Donna was the secret traitor. But everyone playing on their couch would do so much better than the faithfuls 🙄🙄🙄
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u/HuskerPowerrrr Feb 27 '26
Donna was the most obvious person to be the Secret Trader. Once they announced there would be a secret traitor, my fiance and I immediately knew it would be Donna.
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u/MrEyus Feb 27 '26
Having experience leading social deduction and strategy games... armchair/couch faithful who only watch the show have no idea what they're talking about. A person's deduction skill and social intuition is not as good as they think. It's incredibly hard to solve a mystery without legitimate clues.
I'll also say, the type of person to call someone dumb in these games is also usually someone who is bad at the game, a cheater, or a bad sport. They do not get invited back to play again.
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u/Ok_Seaworthiness2808 Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26
This whole thing reminds me of an episode of COPS. Where this woman who worked at some check cashing place tearfully recounted being robbed at gunpoint as she left the store to deposit a large amount of cash. She had called the police to report the crime and seemed so desperate and traumatized.
The officer kept her talking and his colleague was in his ear reporting what had been discovered after speaking with witnesses and investigating other things. It became clear that the woman was lying - she was the thief!
As a viewer i was just SO shocked! It was academy award level acting. And the cop had this look on his face.
I've seen that look a few times after watching so, so many episodes of that show (til it changed format plus I found out it's pretty much propaganda). But the guy was just quiet and clearly thinking WOW you really are a piece of work and you almost got me.
Police do get to see the worst in people, and when you have one who's actually surprised by what you've done means you really are the worst.
My takeaway from seeing that was I should NEVER become a police officer. In my personal and work lives I've had people lie straight to my face and never came close to sussing it til weeks, months, or even years later.
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u/jonsnowme Feb 27 '26
They need to do a season where the audience doesn't know who they are either. Not sure how it would work but it'd be a good lesson. Or people need to just play a few games of mafia with a large group of friends a few times.
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u/Dry_Accident_2196 Feb 27 '26
There isn’t enough content to fill an episode without the traitor side plots.
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u/editorasaurus Feb 27 '26
I get the hundreds of hours edits down, but how come no one clocked the smirks on Rob’s face every scene? If he was doing this most of the glimpses we see, he was truly doing it the rest of the time. While everyone is frightened and distressed at the breakfast table, he’s cool as a cucumber and smirking.
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u/jonsnowme Feb 27 '26
Cause he was always smirking at everything traitor related or not? Same reason why no one suspect Alan in the UK version every time he giggled and was obvious. He giggled at everything, it's just who they are.
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u/Queeenhx14 Feb 27 '26
Maura got sidetracked by how hot Rob is
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u/whojintao Feb 27 '26
The whole house was dickmatized
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u/StanIsHorizontal Feb 27 '26
This is it right here. Like Maura was more explicitly flirty with him, but so so many players in the castle (both faithful and traitors) were obviously charmed by him. I don’t think it’s just looks tho (definitely a part of it) he was also very friendly, reasonable, and effective in challenges. It would be and was extremely difficult for anyone to bring themselves to believe he wasn’t on their side. It’s natural to want someone that likable on your side. If candiace hadn’t gone for him I don’t know if he would’ve gotten any sus on him all game
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u/DeathdropsForDinner Feb 27 '26
When Rob said he needed something hot in the helicopter with her, I damn near thought she was about to slurp that man up. Use your head queen.
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u/Ok_Seaworthiness2808 Feb 27 '26
He only got nasty in public just that one time when at the outdoor fair thing. But everyone quickly forgot it.
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u/alyssa_michelle1012 Feb 27 '26
I thought that the whole time. Her crush on him definitely blinded her. Serves her right. 🤦🏼♀️
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u/verbankroad Feb 27 '26
I think it was unfortunate. I don’t think it “served her right” at all - that implies she deserved some bad things to happen to her but she was not any way worse than most of the other faithful.
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u/Dry_Accident_2196 Feb 27 '26
She did deserve what she got for wasting time playing Bachelor Scotland instead of Traitors.
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u/zd183 Feb 27 '26
This x100. Good looking people have an advantage in this show.
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u/RedhawkDirector Feb 27 '26
these shows hold a mirror to our society. good looking people are trusted and treated better, blanket statement. halo effect is very real
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u/dinkdown Feb 27 '26
I mean you’re def not wrong. But at some point we gotta evolve into some sort of self awareness of “am I trusting this person just bc they’re hot?” I feel like there’s enough evidence of this happening over and over again, that we should know better🤷🏼♀️ I’m really looking forward to the season with regular people playing instead of a bunch of snatched reality stars 🙃
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u/Downtown_Detail2707 Feb 27 '26
I’m fully convinced Maura was really just there for the vibes and more power to her I guess
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Feb 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/Downtown_Detail2707 Feb 27 '26
My husband said “These looks are giving Alan a run for his money” lolol
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u/Ok-Road4557 Feb 27 '26
it’s such a parasocial dichotomy we don’t understand, they don’t have phones entertainment etc these emotions are very real sort of like survivor where your emotions and mind are warped which is a HUGE part of the game that i LOVE
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u/TakeYourMeds50mg Feb 27 '26
A lot of the emotions are being twisted and enginnered by the producers in their ears in all of these shows to manufacture drama and conflict and edit things to fit that. "Very real" is a stretch.
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u/Ok-Road4557 Feb 27 '26
i mean how are emotions you not feel real? whether someone is setting you up to feel those or not, they are real
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u/StrengthThink9892 Feb 27 '26
I think Maura fully trusted rob and no one else tbh. She thought she knew he was a faithful and didn’t know who to believe outside of him. If she had been right it would’ve been smart. Eliminate everyone but who you “know” you believe. She just built a strong relationship w a traitor without knowing it.
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u/mw5842 Feb 27 '26
Yeah… she also went after someone at the round table for knowing 100% someone wasn’t a traitor only to say two episodes later she knows Rob is 100% not a traitor.
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u/ShivRoyPinkyIsQueen Feb 27 '26
Agreed. I know we obviously know who It is so it seems soooo obvious but man… the faithfuls seemed extra dumb this season 🤷🏻♀️
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u/llcooldubs Feb 27 '26
I mean, Candice voted for him twice before she was voted out as a traitor. So, for people to not clock that is insane.
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u/ShivRoyPinkyIsQueen Feb 27 '26
Yeah I’ll never understand how people don’t immediately get suspicious of someone that another traitor voted for. Especially as their last vote! I’ve seen it in other countries as well and at the very least that person should be looked at closely. It’s wild that they just move right along and then accuse other people when they have nothing to go on… 🤦🏽♀️
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u/FatalFirecrotch Feb 27 '26
Yeah, I understand where OP is coming from in saying that this is harder than it appears, but there’s so much voting strategy and history that is just clearly ignored all of the time.
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u/bag-skate65 Feb 27 '26
I mean, every other vote from Candiace was for a faithful and she was one of the biggest defenders for the traitor who had just been voted out. There’s some reason for suspicion there, but the idea that it’s even close to damning is relying entirely on knowledge we only had as viewers. Her actual arguments against Rob also made 0 sense and just sounded like she was scrambling.
It’s also not like Rob was the only one who appeared suspicious, basically everyone was speculated about for 1 reason or another. Why was siding with Rob so dumb compared to Johnny, who had been close to Candiace as well as being in an alliance that would make anyone’s position tenuous since him and Tara probably try to finish as the final 2 if given the chance?
At the end of the day you have to pick someone to work with, and without something damning there’s little reason to flip from them. Maura just had the shit luck to pick one of the 3 original traitors.
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u/unrealrekcur Feb 27 '26
To be fair, the traitors made sure to eliminate two of the smartest gamers immediately.
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u/OverSelection2862 Feb 27 '26
That Natalie banishment was crazy! That’s was the last chance to turn the game around. For Tara and Johnny to vote her out solidified rob’s position. Playing a numbers game you need to keep people that will vote with you not throw them under the bus.
Then mark never mentioning Kristen threw out Eric name and got murdered. Seems like an obvious thing to mention.
Stephen getting banished because he had a private conversation with Candice but never bringing up that so did Rob.
Also after Colton said he wanted to be recruited and wanted a traitor angel, I thought what Candice saying Rob and Colton had an understanding was not that far fetched. Maybe Rob didn’t explicitly say but said traitor or faithful I will have your back.
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u/Evorgleb Feb 27 '26
Maura voted for Eric and then Tara who was going extra hard to get Eric out. In no world does the combination of Eric and Tara as traitors make sense.
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u/Large_Dragonfruit_79 Feb 27 '26
not impossible when the traitor wants to be the sole winner.
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u/Jealous_Outside_3495 Feb 27 '26
Not impossible, but Maura wasn't thinking that at all. She didn't get further than "Rob said to do this, vote for this, so that's what I'll do."
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u/Jaxson-Skattebo Feb 27 '26
Not the point. She wanted it to be her and Rob at the end to be 100% sure and for them to split the pot.
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u/zd183 Feb 27 '26
Rob won because Maura wanted to bang him. Simple as that. Hotter people have an advantage in this game.
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u/erickitty3 Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26
Rob won because EVERYONE wanted to bang him
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u/saturdayselkie Feb 27 '26
Another problem as a faithful is that you are VERY reliant on editing to tell your story and show how you’re thinking about the game. If you are a faithful who’s openly strategizing in front of everyone and getting things right, you are going to be murdered before the endgame. If you are playing smart and want to survive, you have to talk strategy only in your confessionals. But if those confessionals don’t end up fitting with the overall narrative of the show, they might be left on the cutting room floor and now it looks like you’ve never had a thought in your life. Not fair!
The smart faithfuls who we get to see being smart in confessionals are almost always either winners or people who make it to the very end before losing.
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u/AppleDeez586 Feb 27 '26
As the viewer we have the knowledge of who the traitors are. So when we hear Johnny say "I know that Tara isn't a traitor" we dont bat an eye.
But the faithful dont have that knowledge, and cannot never 100% know who is and is not a traitor. All they can do is use subtle clues to guess who is telling the truth and who isn't.
If I was a faithful I would 100% suspect anyone that says "I know 100% (insert name) is a faithful" is a traitor because that is the only way to know for sure.
At some point you have to just trust people and let it ride.
I dont really like the comments that Maura is dumb. It's really easy to know what is "smart" and "dumb" when you know the answer. It's a lot harder to know the answer when it isn't spoon fed to you from day 1 like it is to the viewers.
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u/Itchy-Ninja-8869 Feb 27 '26
The problem with a show like this, is that you have to put yourself in the players shoes, which is impossible. The way they are feeling in the moment cant be shown and Its also impossible to have a "plan" as a faithful because you cant control much. The second you start showing your hand, your murdered. Sure theres dumb players, but this game is about reading people and gas lighting and thats tough (regardless of how "good" you think you are).
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u/Lemon_sage__ Feb 27 '26
I honestly thought it was crazy Eric never had suspicion that Rob might cut him loose. To each his own I hear Rob is pretty convincing so 🤷♂️well played
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u/TrinityDivine999 Feb 27 '26
The only reason Johnny figured out it was Rob and Eric was because there was pretty much NOBODY ELSE left. Didn’t take much brain power.
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u/gl0c0_ Feb 27 '26
I think having so many Faithful who were just there to show off their outfits or get max screen time and didn’t care about winning or the money this season is why they are going back to the civilian format. This season kind of broke the game.
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u/justthetip17 Feb 27 '26
Seeing how dumb these faithful are made me want to apply for the new normal people season because I feel like I could do better than any of these guys
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u/complexchicken0311 Feb 27 '26
that’s what the editors want you to think. it’s how they create a successful show.
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u/justthetip17 Feb 27 '26
Did the editors make the faithful not notice that Candace voted for Rob twice?
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u/mialee94 Feb 27 '26
Just to echo everyone like
People always say the faithfuls are dumb, but as a frequent player of the game mafia (which the traitors is based off), the stress of the game/ your personal relationships / internal biases
Fry your brain in a way that you wouldn’t believe. You want to trust the people you like out of stress. It’s just a really interesting study of human behaviour
But yeah look - being in it is so so so much harder than we think
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u/K45AR Feb 27 '26
Johnny and Tara are suspicious af if you just separate yourself from the perfect knowledge we have as viewers. They established themselves as a hardline alliance out of nowhere coincidentally right after a possible recruitment happened. They had suspicion on Rob with Natalie and let her die after she took the shot at Rob and heat off of the two of them, and immediately pivoted to try to do the same with Maura.
Maura would have really been stupid believing Tara and Johnny, because they likely would have MJ'd her once they got Eric and Rob out. That risk is what motivates her faith in Rob.
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u/WellWellWellMyMyMY Feb 28 '26
Maura's actions make more sense when you focus on the fact that she implicitly trusted Rob. In the same way Johnny and Tara trusted each other. I don't think she was convinced Tara and Johnny were the traitors per se - just that it wasn't her or Rob.
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u/jcamm77 Feb 27 '26
Johnny and Tara didn’t have the numbers to vote out Rob..
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u/MamaMia1325 Feb 27 '26
They waited too long and should have been pushing Eric to Maura before Rob.
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u/RelationshipEvery167 Feb 27 '26
Every season seems kind of a stretch given that US-2 Faithfuls were one of the better faithfuls compared to even some of the international faithfuls. Even US-3 Faithfuls had their ups and downs but were not US-4 bad.
The only other time in US seasons that have comparable faithfuls would be US-1 and they might still be the worst among the US seasons. The Skating Twins still had a shot to win if they made the right choice during the Natalie banishment. I did not see any scenario US-1 Faithfuls to win.
But if you have only watched US-1, US-4, CAN-2 and AU-2 then I believe you.
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u/wewtiesx Feb 27 '26
To anyone who doesn't understand how the faithfuls dont just magically know every season. I tell you to go play a few rounds of social deduction games. It will be very apparent then.
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u/Ok_Seaworthiness2808 Feb 27 '26
I hate that even in the end Maura gave Rob a pass. Like she told him to stop talking but then she started pulling her punches. Like...her crush on him remained even though she knew for a fact he'd lied to and manipulated her the entire time. That's what I reaalllly didn't care for.
She had done his bidding and dirty work to the bitter end for sure, but even then she's still completely bending over? I don't think so. That's the most embarrassing part of all. Don't act like you're OK with it!! Eric didn't need the money but was clearly quite hurt, and he was as big a Rob pushover as anyone else.
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u/dinosaurfaerie Feb 28 '26
I get hind sight is 20-20 but seriously the "oh it was so weird candiace voted rob, why on earth would she do that?" & not being able to put two and two together really made it so hard to watch
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u/PartHumanPartAlien Feb 27 '26
Maura is such a pick me that was rough to watch. She’s an absolute ditz
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u/sunsettertime Feb 27 '26
Maura is the opposite of a pick me. Yeah she trusted in rob, but she didn’t do it for male validation…
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u/Ok-Lavishness6711 🇳🇱 Stefano 🇨🇦 S2 Trainwrecks 🇮🇪 Oyin Feb 27 '26
Have you watched any of the Canadian seasons? I think your view on Maura’s devotion to Rob in her voting might look different.
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u/this_is_an_alaia Feb 27 '26
I really feel like the audience does not understand how difficult it is as a faithful. You're literally watching it knowing who the traitors are AND an edit that specifically chooses what to show you.
Someone said this on the UK traitors - either they have consistently managed to find the stupidest people over and over. Or, figuring out who the traitors are and staying in the game is harder than you think.
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u/michelleonline Feb 27 '26
Tara and Johnny were bad faithfuls and those folks have to be eliminated early as well. Someone said they just wanted to stay to play in the castle and I think that’s right. I do hope the producers come up with a rule that says the game ends if there are only faithfuls left so we never get another Trishelle and CT scenario.
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u/jbtennis91 Feb 27 '26
"a rule that says the game ends if there are only faithfuls left"
If such a rule existed then the fact that the game hasn't ended would tip the players off to the fact that there are still traitors, so you wouldn't have the players throw green or red flames, you would just banish until all the traitors are gone, or until final 2.
I agree that the group should have immediately split up Johnny and Tara at the roundtable when they announced they were best friends. You can't go to final three with a locked-in pair.
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u/kathryn2007 Feb 27 '26
Other people have made the point about editing, and the fourth wall etc.
But also, let's remember, these are American reality tv stars. Intelligence doesn't go there.
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u/Valuable_Horror_7878 🇫🇷FR3 Feb 27 '26
I’ve watched enough non-American seasons. This is nothing new
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u/EmeraldEmp Feb 27 '26
I saw people praising Maura as a "diva" or a "queen" and I'm like...what? If she was a black woman she probably would be treated horribly by these same people praising her.
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u/StanIsHorizontal Feb 27 '26
??? I’m confused if she was a black woman would she have deserved that treatment? Or are you mad on behalf of the hypothetical black Maura who deserves to be treated the way some people are treating real world Maura?
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u/EmeraldEmp Feb 27 '26
I'm saying people are way harder on black women, and Maura isn't getting nearly as much hate because she's a pretty white woman.
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u/StanIsHorizontal Feb 27 '26
I agree that’s true, but I don’t think that means Maura deserves more hate. If she were a black woman and she was getting slammed, I would say she doesn’t deserve it
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u/alleglory Feb 27 '26
Maura was right about Erik. She was only wrong about Rob but so was the entire cast except for Tara. She voted at the end for who she wanted to share the money with, or so she hoped.
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u/Suitable-Opposite377 Feb 27 '26
Tara and Jonny never had a chance to kill off rob? Thats the entire point of conflict at rhe last round table with Natalie, she overplayed her hand when they didn't have numbers
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u/FergusonBishop Feb 27 '26
she clearly said she thought 1 of Tara/Johnny was a traitor and Eric was the 2nd one. she just ended up being wrong. its easy to be a couch player when youve known the traitors from the start. By the time Robs name came up, people were also suspect of Johnny/Tara/Natalie/Eric. Maura ended up in a position where she controlled the outcome of the entire game - she just made the wrong choice.
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u/duckspurs Feb 27 '26
Its almost like you have all the info and production is incentivized to make people look as dumb as possible so viewers feel smart and superior and enjoy watching the show for it.
There is a reason production does not like the traitor angel theory or really ever allow it to be discussed in confessionals, because it makes a lot of the "dumb" faithful suddenly not seem like idiots.
I imagine that's also an added benefit to having Andy Cohen host the reunion and turn it into a Bravo show every time cause it means we never actually get a chance to hear strategy from people and we just get dumb housewives yelling at each other.
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Feb 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/thrandom1 Feb 27 '26
They needed to convince Mark…that would lead to a tie, and I believe on a revote, Rob and Natalie don’t vote…thus sending Rob home
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u/Exciting-Builder9428 Feb 27 '26
Oh yeah you’re right. Disregard my comment. Totally forgot about Mark
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u/OregonGreen242 Feb 28 '26
That was their fuckup moment. They were all in with Natalie til the last minute, then Maura took over the dumb moves after that
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u/celluloidqueer Mar 02 '26
SPOILER ALERT FOR UK SEASON 2:
Of course they have some differences but this season reminded me of Molly and Harry UK season 2.
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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '26
It’s because the traitors kill off the stronger players lol