Review: The Traitors, "The Day of Reckoning is Upon Us" | Season 3, Episode 11
Am I the problem if I was rooting for the less interesting finale out of self-interest?
The cliffhanger in this season’s penultimate episode of The Traitors was not necessarily surprising, but I can see why people would find it frustrating. The truth is the result will dramatically set the tone for where the finale will take us. If Danielle remains in the game, it becomes a tense showdown to see whether the game’s lone original traitor can get to the end having vanquished the fellow traitors who she determined were a thorn in her side. If Danielle is eliminated, the core narrative of the season is resolved, and no matter what side you were on the show gets to move forward into a lower stakes scenario where no one result will trigger the broader conflicts of the season.
And look, as someone who was rooting for Carolyn and who found Danielle’s play as a traitor to be wildly incoherent, I’m not mad that Britney decides the best path for her game is to vote out Danielle on the revote, leaving her the last traitor standing. I’m satisfied to see Danielle forced to channel all her energy into a sassy kiss-off in the circle of truth, as opposed to smugly standing at the end with her gameplay validated. I’m happy that I can just take a breath and let the mostly innocuous players work their way to a conclusion that won’t make me angry.
But I’m not going to come to you pretending that this is the most interesting way to end the season. Having all of the season-long arcs tied up in a bow means that we’re left with short-term stories with almost no context behind them. Last season was similar in this regard, admittedly, but at least there was the history between CT and Trishelle that gave it a sense of pathos. That dynamic died with Britney’s betrayal of Danielle, leaving behind two faithful with zero narrative value (Ivar and Dolores), one faithful who’s been better with one-liners than gameplay (Gabby), a traitor who became a traitor a week ago (Britney), and then one faithful who would be a satisfying winner insofar as he’s been proactively engaged in the game (Dylan). It’s just an extremely inert collection of players, amiable and pleasant but without any real meaning behind it.
