Review: The Traitors, “Let the Cards Fall As They Will” | Season 4, Episode 1

Welcome back to Episodic Medium's coverage of The Traitors. This first review is free for all, while subsequent reviews—beginning with Ben's take on the second and third episodes released this week in your inbox tomorrow—will be exclusively for paid subscribers. $45 gets you a year of our weekly coverage until 1/16.

Every viewer comes to The Traitors with a different level of background knowledge—about the individual cast members, yes, but also about the franchise itself. As someone who has watched every season of the U.S., U.K. (including celebrity), Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian versions of this series (less a brag than a confession), I’ve lost count of the different permutations of the same basic game. The format can get formulaic, that’s for certain, but I haven’t quite gotten sick of it yet.

Still, I think it’s safe to say that The Traitors could use some change, something to stave off the inevitable point when people do start losing interest in its pretty static structure. And very early on, season four makes it clear it intends to provide that change on multiple fronts. It’s impossible to talk about this premiere without addressing the big twist: this time, in addition to the standard trio of traitors, there’s one Secret Traitor who will provide the shortlists for murder each night.

“Let the Cards Fall As They Will” still feels like a somewhat standard Traitors premiere, but the twist actually has pretty big implications for the game. Typically, the audience shares a point of view with the traitors; like them, we have access to all the information about which players are traitors and which are faithfuls. This time, we’re still in the same camp as those three, with a key difference: neither them nor us know the identity of the Secret Traitor. That moves the show slightly into The Mole territory, with viewers puzzling out the player’s identity alongside the players themselves.

Will the main traitors try to throw the secret one under the bus if they discover their identity, or would they welcome them into the fold? (Maybe they’ll be divided on that choice.) What if the Secret Traitor gets banished before they have the chance to figure it out themselves? There are so many potential ways this could go, and that makes it a fruitful twist for the time being.

The show’s willingness to shift extends to the actual choice of traitors, none of whom are gamers this time (aside for perhaps the Secret Traitor). Now, your mileage will vary on this choice; I originally came to this show primarily for the Survivor and Big Brother alumni, who tend to fit naturally in the traitors’ turret whether they perform well or not. Over the past three seasons, though, it has become too easy to predict the selection, which pretty much always includes at least two contestants from competition reality shows. Letting two Housewives share the turret this year—plus another unlikely pick in the form of hot weirdo Love Island USA breakout Rob Rausch, who might occupy an under-edited himbo faithful role in a prior season—is a smart, interesting choice. It also helps keep the show unpredictable going forward.

Does the show risk displeasing the segment of fans who tuned in with the hopes of seeing Rob Cesternino and Tiffany Mitchell scheming in the turret right now? Sure. But that’s always the risk in a game like this. And I generally have faith in The Traitors’ ability to invest its audience in characters unfamiliar to them, if in fact they make good TV; I didn’t know Phaedra Parks before season two or Gabby Windey before season three, but grew to really like them and root for them to win.

The premiere already gets a lot of mileage out of its new traitors, who take the natural main character roles as usual. I wasn’t familiar with Candiace Dillard Bassett before, but she’s a fun, chaotic traitor, easily slipping into the villain role by talking herself into sticky situations very early on. The bulk of this episode’s memorable one-liners belong to her, from “I feel like I just won Miss United States!” (I see what she did there) to the suggestion that “Lisa would run her grandmother down.” I also expect Lisa Rinna herself to provide good TV; her signature twitchy excitement comes out in full force even before she gets the traitor role.

It’s harder for me to tell how Rob Rausch might land for non-Love Island viewers, but he actually might be the most promising pick yet. He has a quiet confidence and a certain je ne sais quoi we rarely see in the turret, and he has an immediate, unusual chemistry with the two women (one 12 years older than him, one 35) opposite him. He’s straightforward and plain-spoken—just a guy from Alabama who catches snakes and posts videos on the internet—but also hard to read. Those qualities make for a new sort of traitor, someone who exists outside the archetypes we know.

Outside the turret, it’s worth noting that this is probably the most “random” cast of characters in a U.S. Traitors season yet, an inevitability as the show burns through some of the biggest reality stars early on. There are still preexisting friendships and assumed alliances based on franchise—after Michael Rapaport’s rant about gamers and Housewives, both contingents agree to stick together—but fewer rivalries or even rivalries-turned-friendships (like Parvati Shallow and Sandra Diaz-Twine, or Danielle Reyes and Britney Haynes). It’s mostly mutual respect and polite curiosity all around, give or take a loose cannon like Rapaport, and that somewhat limits the potential for deeply hurt feelings born out of history and betrayal.

But there’s still an infectious energy in “Let the Cards Fall As They Will” common to most Traitors premieres. Where else would you get to see Drag Race’s Monét X Change and Survivor 44’s Yam Yam Arocho speculate about Donna Kelce being a dangerous player, or Rob Rausch ask figure skating icon Johnny Weir if he also “knows” Tara Lipinski? The Secret Traitor selection ritual also allows the whole cast a chance to observe faces and gossip in the background about each individual player, though a number of them get shortchanged in this opening episode. That’s just the reality of a 23-person cast.

Because of the structure of a Traitors premiere, there’s no murder or banishment in this episode; instead, most of the second half belongs to the season’s first mission. We all know that challenges in The Traitors are the dullest part, especially when most lost money can be recouped by the end of the game. But at least there’s more of an effort to bake some drama into the challenge design now. This time, each team is forced to choose candidates for murder, and some people are … quite unhappy with the choices.

Look, I’m not a fan of Rapaport’s casting, given the man’s extensive history of foul, racist comments. I do hope he’s banished swiftly from the castle. But I’ll admit that he works as an early “bad faithful” pawn for me here, his belligerence stoking real conflict in the aftermath of the mission. (“Those miserable fucks!”) Someone like Rapaport needs characters like Tiffany around to call him “either a terrible Faithful or a terrible Traitor.” He’s always the loudest person in the room, which could get old fast, but for now that quality plays nicely against Candiace and an indignant Porsha, all three caught in a web of miscommunication and lies.

In a way, Traitors premieres are easy to pull off. It’s delightful just to watch reality TV icons bounce off each other and offer their first impressions, especially if you’re familiar with much of the cast. When it comes to the show’s larger efforts to change, though, the road ahead is more unclear. The Secret Traitor twist holds some appeal now, but its success or failure will largely depend on the quality of the murders, banishments, and interpersonal drama that follows.

Stray observations

• Good to see Alan Cumming again, dressed like a coffin during the mission. Is it just me, or is he laughing more and toning down the campy character as the show goes on? As a fan of Claudia Winkleman’s more gregarious host on U.K. Traitors, I don’t mind that choice at all.
• Rob: “It’s weird to be wearing clothes. I haven’t made out with anybody yet.”
• “No one’s gonna murder her. The Swifties will kill you.” I’m so, so glad Dorinda got a chance to come back.
• “Are you ready to play?” “So fucking hard.” This moment, from Rob Cesternino, also hyped me up.
• Another good Cesternino quote, this one calling back to last season: “Dorinda, if they didn’t save dinner for you this time…” “I know, right?”
• “America’s mom might need to die.” Yeah, Candiace is a star.
• I’m also a Maura Higgins fan, and I like what I’ve seen of her so far here.
• Not a ton from Natalie Anderson yet, but she says she wants to play an “aggressive faithful game,” which tracks. Fun to see her immediately turn her strategy brain on and make alliances during the mission.
• U.K. Corner: I’ve watched the first three episodes of the new U.K. season, and I’m similarly enjoying how the Secret Traitor twist is playing out so far, though it works quite differently in an all-civilians cast. Also, there’s a key difference: in U.K., the Secret Traitor knows the identities of all the other traitors, making them the most powerful and informed person in the game. In U.S., the Secret Traitor might unknowingly put one of the traitors up for murder (as we see here with Rob).