This week on the The Traitors Season 3 finale, Danielle was finally eliminated, and the long death march to the Fire of Truth concluded. Were you happy with the results? I was happy with the results. Although…what a strange potpourri of winners, huh? But first…
As the episode begins, we pick up where we left off, with Danielle on the chopping block of banishment. With only Britney’s vote standing between her and an untimely ousting from the show, Britney flips her chalkboard to reveal Danielle’s name, stunning her and Danielle more than anyone. Britney was clearly crushed, realizing she cast the deciding vote for Danielle, and though she explained that she cast that vote because it would only have been a matter of time before Danielle was found out (I mean, there’s only one episode left so maybe Danielle would have made it through to the end? Seems like flimsy logic), but it remains unclear whether she would have voted for Ivar but got confused by whatever she was reading into Dolores’s body language. This is definitely something I need addressed on the reunion. No matter what though, Britney seems stunned by her own actions and devastated that the fragile relationship she and Danielle were on their way to repairing has been crushed like a grape under the foot of that lady who fell while crushing grapes with her feet.
Danielle, in her post-banishment confessional, is pretty hurt and angry at Britney, stating that she never thought Britney would hammer the final nail in her coffin. (Again, this is going to be a tense, uncomfortable moment at the reunion, I’m just sure of it.) I appreciate that when Danielle revealed she was a Traitor in the Circle of Truth she, for once, seemed not to take things too seriously (it was the hair toss that did it), but you can also tell Danielle holds a grudge, even a fabricated reality TV grudge, for life.
Danielle’s big tell though, the last clue she left for the Faithfuls, was her send-off to each remaining contestant. After offering Dylan, Ivar, Gabby and Dolores kind words, she simply said, “Britney… wow.” It’s clearly a show of disappointment, and one Dylan immediately connects to Britney and Danielle being co-Traitors. I know I have had a season-long grudge against Danielle’s game-play, but Dylan’s not wrong here, she absolutely hung Britney out to dry by doing that and it’s one final betrayal between Traitors. Boston Rob has literally been the only Traitor that the Faithfuls have banished by their own suspicions, every other Traitor was put on blast by a fellow Traitor, and it really sucks the fun out of the game.
Britney, in addition to being the last Traitor standing, is also revealed to be the Seer, a privilege earned after last week’s challenge, and allows her the chance to find out the true identity of any remaining contestant of her choosing. Britney chooses Gabby, who obviously reveals that she’s a Faithful. Now, Britney has a choice, as the Seer (and Traitor): she can tell the truth or lie, and tell the rest of the gang that Gabby’s a Traitor to try and turn them against her. It’s something a Traitor would do (it’s totally what Danielle would do), but Britney doesn’t. She declares Gabby a Faithful, and this makes everyone confused, because being honest is totally Faithful behavior, so now they’re like, Britney what’s your deal?
This week, there’s one final challenge that’s fairly straightforward, it’s a series of clues that lead the players to various locations, and ultimately back to a pot of prize money. It’s fairly unremarkable in its design, other than the one question asking the players to multiply the number of total players by the number of banished Traitors. “Twenty three times four, that’s 92,” Britney says correctly.
“Twenty three times four? Britney just knows, I guess, her periodic table?” Gabby comments.
They successfully complete the challenge, bringing ten bags of gold back to the castle, after which, Alan tells them they can double the money if they go up in a helicopter, hover over a ring of fire, and manage to drop the bags inside said ring. While dangling by a rope from the helicopter. Dolores and Britney unhappily go first, in a challenge that feels like it was ripped straight from Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test. (“Me and Britney are basically shitting our pants,” Dolores says.)
The task sounded simple enough, but watching it go down it seems near impossible. Dylan and Ivar manage to land three bags in the ring of fire, bringing the total amount of prize money at stake to just over $200,000. Sometimes I forget there’s actually a cash prize in this game.
As the Round Table approaches, Britney is hell-bent on getting Dylan banished, while Dylan is trying to convince his peers to get rid of Britney. At this stage of the game, anyone can be lying, which makes it that much harder to trust anyone (and Dolores could literally throw the whole game off by voting for Mickey Mouse), but in the end, the Faithfuls unanimously vote Britney off. She goes full Danielle, weeping as it happens, but there is no Circle of Truth moment for her, at this stage the banished player can’t reveal their Traitor status, and so everyone else has to proceed to the Fire of Truth to finish the game. We all remember how infuriating the Fire of Truth was last year with two Faithfuls, CT and Trishelle, turning on fellow Faithful MJ just to take the prize together (MJ, I still have your back, girl). And the fact is, Britney laid out a very good case against Dylan, and he’s definitely worried that he’ll be banished.
At the Fire of Truth, the players have two choices: vote to end the game now, or vote to banish another one of their own again. Gabby, Dylan and Ivar all vote to end the game, making honorable claims that they believe they’re surrounded by Faithfuls and the only reason to banish anyone else would be out of greed (cough, CT and Trishelle). The editing, which keeps cutting back to Dolores’s shifty, darty eyes, would lead us to believe that she might once again cast a contrarian vote, but when Alan casts her vote into the fire, it glows green, the signal to end the game.
One by one, Gabby, Dolores, Ivar and Dylan all reveal that they’re Faithful and they’re ecstatic to learn their gamble to end the game paid off for all of them. In a somewhat anticlimactic moment, Alan then reveals that Britney was in fact a Traitor (a fact I wish she delivered herself, I would have loved for her to give a great Circle of Truth speech to reveal that).
“I wouldn’t have wanted to end with anybody else,” Dolores says. While I feel a pang of sadness that a few Faithfuls weren’t able to make it to the end and reap the reward (I honestly kinda miss Tom?), it seems only right that the winners were a cross-section of all the show’s various archetypes: a Bravolebrity, a member of Bachelor Nation, and, in a bit of a surprise, the two biggest randos who were cast because they’re the relatives of more famous people. And the last player to get ousted, in a bit of TV karma, was the last gamer standing.
As this season concludes, let me be the first to suggest this: Next season, Carolyn should be back to reclaim what’s hers.
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.
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