In the second episode of The Traitors Season 3, we said goodbye to Real Housewives of New York star Dorinda Medley (murdered by the Traitors) and Bachelor in Paradise‘s Wells Adams (banished by his peers), but said hello to Big Brother‘s Derrick Levasseur and The Challenge‘s Wes Bergmann, who joined the game in a surprise twist from host Alan Cumming. When we left off, Traitors Bob The Drag Queen, Carolyn Wiger, and Danielle Reyes were preparing to meet their fourth partner in crime, Rob Mariano, before committing their second murder. And by the end of the third hour, a Survivor-on-Survivor betrayal resulted in one player calling another a “sellout.”
Read on for our break down of The Traitors Season 3, Episode 3, titled “Nail in a Coffin,” which streamed on Peacock on Thursday, Jan. 9. The 21 celebrities still alive at the start of the episode were: Bob Harper, Bob The Drag Queen, Britney Haynes, Carolyn Wiger, Chanel Ayan, Chrishell Stause, Ciara Miller, Danielle Reyes, Derrick Levasseur, Dolores Catania, Dylan Efron, Gabby Windey, Jeremy Collins, Lord Ivar Mountbatten, Nikki Garcia, Rob Mariano, Robyn Dixon, Sam Asghari, Tom Sandoval, Tony Vlachos, and Wes Bergmann.
When the established Traitors realized that it was Rob joining their ranks, they were complimentary to his face, but each individually was not thrilled that he was a part of their group. Danielle and Carolyn were both well-aware of how cunning of a gamer Rob can be while Bob D.Q. was mostly concerned with convincing Rob to ditch the backwards baseball cap on his head. Little did they know that Rob was equally unimpressed with whom he’d be working alongside, recognizing that the three of them were already not playing as smartly as he hoped and that Bob D.Q. was wielding way too much influence over Danielle and Carolyn.
To help get everyone on the same page, Rob posed the question of thinking about whether they “want more chaos” or a “direct and unified front.” The next morning, it was revealed at the breakfast buffet that Bob D.Q.’s influence still held court in the turret because he got his way of murdering another one of the Housewives. Their decision to murder Ayan had the desired ripple effect of adding chaos among the Faithfuls who were confused at why such a low level threat would be taken out so early.
In the time that the players had to digest the murder and prepare for their next mission, the Survivor players did what they do best and began navigating the murky waters of person-to-person dynamics. Jeremy was getting a funny feeling about Danielle’s gameplay and warned Carolyn to keep a close eye on her. Tony heard from Wes that the Housewives were becoming suspicious of him, raising his personal concern that people were using “judging a book by its cover” because of his two wins playing Survivor. Meanwhile, Rob was keeping his cards close to his chest and was audience to Dylan’s pitch to a group of players that Bob D.Q. and Robyn were the most instrumental in getting Wells banished by throwing out his name and then backing off. Dylan’s argument showed Rob that he needs to do anything to get the heat off of his partner Bob D.Q. because he felt it was too early for him to turn on other Traitors.
Later at the mission, Tony’s reputation came under fire once again when Bob H. called him out directly for not volunteering to miss out on a shield. Bob H. was very vocal about his wish that “Tony would step up” to sacrifice his position in the mission so that others could succeed. Ultimately Tony and his partner Nikki did take the first run through the fun house of murderous clowns, but by that point the chink was already placed in Tony’s armor. Because none of the other pairs could get through the fun house unscathed, no one earned shields and the group added no more cash to their prize fund.
In the cars back from the mission, Jeremy made the mistake of throwing Danielle under the bus in front of Bob D.Q. who immediately went to inform his closest ally. Later, Bob D.Q. heard that Dylan was preparing to come for him which meant that Rob might have to execute a plan to take the heat off of Bob D.Q. and place it on someone else. At the Round Table, Dylan made his case Bob D.Q. and Robyn were the “most vocal that Wells was a Traitor,” but most players thought he was “barking up the wrong tree” with that accusation.
Gabby turned the conversation toward Tony who she claimed was throwing out names of other people like Chrishelle and Bob H. with no evidence. Bob H. jumped on the opportunity to call out his own red flags for Tony because he’s been “so quiet” and “pulled back” in the days since the Traitors were picked. When Tony struggled to defend himself in a way that made sense, Jeremy stepped in to say that he doesn’t believe he’s a Traitor, but Rob saw blood in the water and added fuel to Tony’s fire by calling him out for taking the shield from him the previous night and then not having a single conversation with him after.
Rob’s indirect endorsement of a vote for Tony quietly rallied all of Derrick, Tom, Chrishelle, Robyn, Britney, Ciara, Carolyn, Nikki, Sam, Bob H., Dolores, Danielle, and Gabby to banish him from the game. Tony’s final words to Rob sent shockwaves through the Survivor fandom: “You’re a sellout, bro.” Did Tony go over the line by making things personal, or was he right to call out Rob publicly? Sound off in our reality TV forums.
Instead of the Traitors murdering a Faithful in cold blood from the turret, Alan challenged them to meet secretly in plain sight among the others to create a shortlist of three players that would be publicly laid in coffins. Overnight, they would meet again to hammer a nail into the coffin of the shortlisted player that they want eliminated from the game.
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