The Traitors Season 4, Episode 10
"Do You Know the Enemy?"
Host: Alan Cumming
Cast: Natalie Anderson, Mark Ballas, Maura Higgins, Tara Lipinski, Eric Nam, Rob Rausch, Johnny Weir
It’s rather fitting that Rob Rausch has snake tattoos over his arms because this week, he managed to slither out of a predicament. In what looked to be a real shot across the bow at a Traitor, he ultimately only took a glancing blow, deflecting it back towards the gamer, Natalie Anderson (thanks in part to some nervous Faithfuls). While I do think Rob is playing an excellent game, part of the issue for the opposition is their failure to be confident in their strategic moves and vote as one.
We begin the episode with the people who were not on the shortlist arriving for breakfast. That is Maura Higgins, Rob, Eric Nam, and Mark Ballas. Eric is nervous. After last night’s roundtable, Kristen Kish called him out for being too quiet and Mark was in the room. He has to balance the fact that he needs to make a change in his behavior based on what Kristen said, while also knowing that if she doesn’t walk into the room for breakfast, he’s going to look suspicious.
Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir enter breakfast next. Both seem rather sure they are going to go home. In actuality, I feel like the longer they remain in the game as a pair, the more the others might wonder whether one of them is still a traitor. While the suspicion has died down on them a smidge since they were really in the hot seat, they seem far more worried about being killed in the night than they should be.
Finally, Natalie enters the room and it’s revealed that Kristen was eliminated in the night. I do think that while Rob and Eric have maneuvered most of the people most capable of clocking either of them out of the game, they were left with two players who both could do the job themselves. Kristen was onto Eric more noticeably and was eliminated, while Natalie is going to suddenly find some clues that will lead her in the direction of Rob.
Mark lays out his thoughts to Rob that Eric might be a traitor. Rob keep this information in his back pocket and wisely pivots Mark away from Eric. If he can get another Faithful out, it lines up Eric as fodder for the end game. Interestingly, the person he needs to direct attention to is Natalie, a player who has, up to this point, felt incredibly close to him. However, her mind is beginning to race as to why she’s still in the game.
She believes she has a Traitor angel. And she’s right. Rob has not gotten rid of her thus far. The biggest downside to the game that Rob has been playing thus far is that he essentially had many people who he could be a Traitor angel for. He has Maura, but he also had Dorinda Medley and Colton Underwood. Alas, Natalie is just one of the two remaining who actually is smart enough to realize that has been what’s happening.
There are 7 players left in the game, but there is also Rob's golden dagger, which will act as two votes. So, Natalie will have to rally at least three other people to vote for Rob if she wants to get him out. Her best bet is to start with Johnny and Tara, who seem to be receptive to the idea that Rob is a Traitor. Then she’d just need Mark. The biggest drawback of Natalie’s plan is Maura’s reluctance to believe that Rob could be a traitor.
The players arrive for a pretty simple challenge. It’s essentially musical chairs but on a carousel (though aptly named the CarousHell). The players are spun around, then go out and search for money. Players who make it back first kept to keep playing while the others are eliminated. The last player remaining wins a shield. Ultimately, the game fails to have any sort of teeth in terms of being believable as scary as the show wants it to seem, not to mention that neither Tara or Eric can actually ride the thing due to medical conditions.
Rob makes a bit of a show of it when he’s eliminated first from the game, which raises the eyebrows of Natalie. She’s not buying the act. Ultimately, it ends up being Eric who beats out Maura in the final round to earn a shield. The traitors will have full pick of the litter when they decide to kill tonight.
On the way back to the castle, Natalie makes her pitch to Tara and Johnny about who to vote for. It seems genuine and Tara thinks that it might be worth trying to vote out Rob. Even Mark seems somewhat bought into it as an idea.
However, once the players get to the roundtable, things go poorly for Natalie. Tara is worried about leading the group astray, so she prefers that others decide which player is banished tonight. As a result, Natalie feels like Tara set her up to fail. The former Survivor winner gets emotional, especially as it took a lot from her to raise Rob as a potential target, only for Tara to not really back her up. As a result, the momentum sways back to Natalie as the traitor in question, and she’s voted out 7-1. She votes for Tara on the way out.
She reveals herself to be a faithful, much to the chagrin of the remaining players (well, except Rob and Eric).
Rob tells Eric that he was too quiet again. Rob seems right in his assessment as several conversations around the castle seem to paint Eric as a potential next vote out. The problem for the remaining Faithfuls is that the role of the eliminated players won’t be revealed any more, so it’s going to be much harder to spot the patterns in the eliminated players and their gameplay.
While I think Rob and Eric could have gone either way in killing Natalie or Kristen, it seems to work out for them as by the end of the episode, both have been eliminated. For Rob, he seems to be in a much better position, with Maura wanting to have his back, Eric likely not making a move to go after him and Johnny and Tara potentially being seen as a more suspicious pair. Alas, next week is our finale where we’ll find out just how the rest of the pieces fall into place.
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