Did someone say murder?
Back for its third season and fresh off of two Emmy wins, The Traitors brings 21 new competitors from across the celebrisphere to a castle in the Scottish Highlands for the ultimate game of lies, deceit, and betrayal. Hosted once again by Alan Cumming, the players are divided into a majority group of “Faithfuls” that must work together to overcome an opposing minority group of “Traitors.” Over the course of 11 episodes, players will be banished by a group vote or murdered in secret until one side controls the game and splits the prize fund of up to $250,000.
Read on for our recap of The Traitors Season 3, Episode 1, titled “Let Battle Commence,” which streamed on Peacock on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. The celebrities competing to stay alive are: Bob Harper, Bob The Drag Queen, Britney Haynes, Carolyn Wiger, Chanel Ayan, Chrishell Stause, Ciara Miller, Danielle Reyes, Dolores Catania, Dorinda Medley, Dylan Efron, Gabby Windey, Jeremy Collins, Lord Ivar Mountbatten, Nikki Garcia, Rob Mariano, Robyn Dixon, Sam Asghari, Tom Sandoval, Tony Vlachos, and Wells Adams.
Among the cast this season are a number of players with prior connections. Jeremy and Tony played together on Survivor: Winners at War, where Tony emerged a two-time winner, but Jeremy was left feeling backstabbed by the champ. Both Britney and Danielle competed in Big Brother Reindeer Games in 2023, but while they began that game as close friends they ended it hurt by Britney’s move to eliminate Danielle. While not directly connected to anyone in a past series, both Tom (ex to Ariana Madix) and Sam (ex to Britney Spears) came to the game with the sort of public relationship baggage that meant no one was necessarily eager to play alongside. In fact, Chrishelle is friends with Ariana and suspects that Tom may have an incentive to get her out of the game quickly.
Reputations like these set the stage for Alan’s first major twist of the season: the opportunity to welcome Survivor and Deal or No Deal Island legend Rob Mariano into the game at the expense (or opportunity, depending on how you look at it) of someone else. Carolyn (also from Survivor) was most tempted by the chance to bring Rob aboard so that she could oust Tony immediately, but she ultimately kept a level head and joined everyone else in denying Boston Rob the chance to play. Alan had Rob escorted out of the game, leaving the players to assume he’d been permanently exiled from the game, but that night Alan brought him to the woods to reveal that their choice changed the course of the game by making Rob a Traitor. In addition to Rob joining the game on the second day, Alan brought in two other newcomers without revealing their identities and told Rob that he wouldn’t be joining the game alone.
For their first mission as a group, Alan gave the players 75 minutes to row a large boat through a course on the loch in order to collect fuel and sacks of money totaling up to $40,000. As a bonus, any player that finished the course and was in the middle of the flaming shield at the end would earn their own shield, protecting them from being murdered by the Traitors on night one. The twist was that along the course, the group would have to sacrifice people in order to claim the fuel and cash that they were seeking.
The first volunteers to step out were Robyn and Chanel, followed by Dolores and Dorinda at the second pontoon. At the third stop, Bob D.Q. made a strong case encouraging men to step off since four women already had. In that spirit, he sacrificed himself, but when no other man would, Danielle stepped off to join him. At the fourth pontoon, both Bob H. and Sam stepped off in order to even the gender playing field. On the way to the fifth pontoon, the remaining players opted to not go after the remaining $20,000 and instead turned back to complete the mission. Their decision gave 12 players the safety of shields and earned only $20,000 for the pot, leaving the eight stranded players with the sour realization that the pool of players to be murdered was smaller than they thought it would be when they sacrificed their own position in the game.
After each player met privately with him to pitch their case for the looming selection, Alan brought the group together for their first Round Table session to decide who among them would start the game as Traitors. With all 20 players blindfolded, Alan circled the room and hand-picked Danielle, Carolyn, and Bob D.Q. as the Traitors. Before excusing them all, Alan dropped the bomb that unlike in past seasons, the alignment of eliminated players will not be revealed upon their exit and instead the remaining players will have to “rely on instinct” to make their future judgments.
Later in the night following the mission, the three Traitors met face to face for the first time. Bob D.Q. and Danielle were floored to find out that they both sacrificed themselves on the same pontoon and were now Traitors together. When Carolyn joined them, they agreed that “no one will suspect” her. The group of three seemed genuinely excited at the selection Alan had made and that they were all escaping the first day with little to no suspicion on any of them.
The Traitors execute their first murder, while Rob and two mysterious others join the game.
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