Peacock's Emmy-winning reality competition series The Traitors is back for Season 4 — and host Alan Cumming wasted no time shaking things up with his picks for traitors. Last season had the first RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant to play as a traitor with Bob the Drag Queen. However, the rest of the traitors were from Survivor and Big Brother. Season 4 has a very different turret with Rob Rausch from Love Island USA Seasons 5 and 6 playing as a traitor — and I would argue that the Islander developed a special set of skills that make him perfect for the role.
Rob Rausch honed his persuasion skills as a Casa Amor Guy
To appear on Love Island, Islanders have to fit a certain beauty standard on the show — but that means nothing if they’re not charismatic. Rob isn’t a man of many words, but his deadpan humor is a big part of his personality. He was one of the Casa Amor guys in Season 5, tasked with convincing one of the women leave their partner and couple up with him instead. Casa Amor guys, like Rob, have a much shorter time to establish a connection, so they need to be convincing. There is also a question of whether Casa Amor men are there for a real connection, or if they’re just trying to get into the Villa (and therefore grab more screentime).
“The boys in the villa don’t know it yet, but I am their worst nightmare,” Rob said in his intro for Casa Amor, in 2023. Kassandra "Kassy" Castillo immediately noticed his green eyes. Her partner back at the villa was Leonardo Dionicio, and she was honest about that relationship with Rob. “He’s over there right now,” the snake wrangler told her. “Alright, we’re not going to worry about it.” Instead, she should focus on her new options in Casa Amor.
Kassy called Rob “awkward,” in a cute way. She’s not the only one. Already on The Traitors, Monét X Change and Yam Yam Arocho joked they wanted Rob to throw them around. Episode 2 showed Natalie Anderson giggling with the former Islander around the time of the murder in plain sight. Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir joked about recreating the Dirty Dancing iconic lift with him.
Being a man of very few words, Rob frequently leaves other people wanting more. He noticed his fellow Traitors, who are Bravo Housewives, don’t navigate reality TV the same way. The first episode showed him saying Candiace Dillard Bassett of Real Housewives of Potomac “talked too much.” Porsha Williams caught Candiace lying, telling her Michael Rapaport was openly gunning for the housewives. “And as a traitor, we've got to be flying under the radar while we can,” Rob told the camera.
Rob turned his minor role on Love Island into a main one
The Love Island producers and audience liked Rob in his short stint on Season 5, and he returned as an original Islander for Season 6. This hardly happens since new hot people are typically cast. Sometimes a favorite Islander returns as a bombshell, usually midway into a new season. Rob had something special for the show to make an exception for him, which foreshadows his groundbreaking traitor role.
Season 6 started with him coupling up with Leah Kateb. He later wanted to get to know bombshell, Andrea Carmona, which led to an argument with Leah. He cried afterward, took off his clothes, jumped into the pool, and hid from cameras under a bridge. The snake wrangler had more emotional moments, which helped the season become iconic.
We might get similar moments from Rob on Traitors if he gets in a tough spot. Rob had to stand in his grave in Episode 2, but wasn’t worried about being targeted. "It was kind of great 'cause I get to play the victim and I was like, 'I'm so scared, guys. I don't want to go home,'" he told Candiace and Lisa Rinna. The faithfuls banished the secret traitor, Donna Kelce, the player who put Rob on the list for murder. So one of the people who wanted him gone was removed, and he might be able to fly under the radar again.
Rob stayed in the villa long after he ran out of romantic connections in Season 6. However, he maintained a close friendship with fellow Islander Aaron Evans. Aaron was a winner of The Traitors UK season 1. He was a faithful along with Hannah Byczkowski and Meryl Williams. It’s hard to imagine he didn’t turn to his friend for any advice before the season, or at least watch how Aaron played.
Rob has many things going for him as a traitor based on his previous show. He’s charismatic, doesn’t talk too much, and people like to flirt with him. He'll have to watch for getting too emotional during conflict. But we’ve seen on Love Island USA that he’s able to stick around even after breaking down. If Rob leads these traitors to victory — or just manages to keep them from imploding like last season's traitors — future faithfuls might see Islanders as a threat for once instead of the gamers.
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