There have been cliques and alliances between contestants all season on The Traitors. The Bravo people would eat breakfast with the Bravo people. The Challenge people would high five The Challenge people. Larsa and Marcus were loyal to each other right up until his murder. But no alliance has been as strong as the kinda random grouping of Kevin Kreider, John Bercow, Bergie, and Trishelle Cannatella, and their de facto leader, Peter Weber. On this week’s episode, the group even went so far as to close a door in Parvati Shallow‘s face when they wanted to have a private discussion about who they were considering voting for at the round table. This prompted Parvati to call Peter out in a confessional, saying he considers himself the “most faithful of the faithfuls,” which is ironic, considering that Peter now has the opportunity to become a traitor.
After traitor Dan Gheesling’s banishment this week – the end result of a crusade that Peter himself had led – host Alan Cumming revealed to remaining traitors Parvati and Phaedra Parks, that they were now free to recruit (or, “seduce,” in his words) a new faithful into their traitor trio. Prior to this, the two women has been plotting Peter’s murder, but with the opportunity now to bring him into the turret, they saw a chance to shake things up.
“It would be so fun to recruit him and turn the most blue-blood faithful detective against his own posse… and watch him murder his friends,” a sinister Parvati tells Phaedra in an effort to convince her they need Peter.
“JE-SUS,” was Phaedra’s initial response to Parvati’s bloodlust, but she added, “You wanna recruit the crazy Bachelor pilot?” and agreed to extending the invitation, nay, seduction, to Peter.
Peter has been playing the game as a faithful in earnest up until now, having earned the trust of many, both in and out of his inner circle. But having him convert to traitorism is not just good TV, it’s an incredible way to change up the game. “This is the smartest move for the traitors to do right now,” he says after reading his invitation. “There’s no way that anyone would suspect me being one right now. Everything about me is like, win this game, win this game, and if I don’t take this, like, I don’t see how they don’t murder me.” If you need a diagram, it goes: Rock – Peter – Hard Place.
On the one hand, Bergie, Kevin, Trishelle, John, they all seem to adore Peter, part of their strategy seems to hinge on their ability to trust him. On the other hand, it’s right there in the name of the game isn’t it? He could have been a traitor this whole time and they never realized it. Ultimately, The Traitors is a game of every person for themself. No alliance can ever be trusted. And with Peter now having to choose between joining the traitors or leaving himself vulnerable to murder, it seems like there’s one clear choice to make. He might not be thrilled about it, but as a viewer, I sure am.
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.