Wowwww, wow wow. So as it turns out, Dan Gheesling did have a strategy on The Traitors, and that strategy was to sell out Phaedra Parks, the one traitor no one ever suspected.

I don’t even believe that Dan was playing a long game to oust Phaedra, I think that in an effort to save himself from banishment, Dan was grasping at straws up until the last second and decided that his only course of action was to turn on one of his fellow traitors. Ultimately it was a risk that didn’t pay off, and Dan was banished – to no one’s surprise.

So let’s go back to last week’s episode of The Traitors, when Janelle Pierzina was well into her own campaign against Dan. She was already on to him thanks to the fact that he was unusually quiet all the time, rarely offering feedback to the faithfuls about potential traitors. Janelle’s outspokenness got her banished, but it seemed to heighten Peter Weber and Bergie’s traitor-sniffing sense. Both of them latched on to Dan’s name this week, and they convinced their inner circle of faithfuls, which included John Bercow, Trishelle Cannatella, and Kevin Kreider that Dan couldn’t be trusted.

Before the round table vote, Dan promised Peter that he was 100% sure about the identity of one of the traitors lurking in their midst, and, while the obvious and most believable thing to do would have been to name Parvati, Dan did the unthinkable. He named Phaedra. Jaws dropped. Heads shook in disbelief. But Dan had his reasons.

First, Dan said, was the fact that Phaedra was one of the only contestants whose name has never been up for banishment. Then there was her vote for Ekin-Su, who ended up getting murdered (by Parvati) the very next day. And finally, there was her pattern of overly sympathetic reactions any time the group learned that someone was murdered. This scene might be one of the great moments in this show’s history, if only for the fact that after Dan reenacted Phaedra’s response when she thought Bergie was dead by saying he thought it was weird that she said “Oh, not my Bergalicious!” Kate Chastain then repeated it in a ton reminiscent of a therapist trying to coax out Dan’s inner trauma: “‘Not my Bergalicious’ was problematic for you?”

Continuing his accusations against Phaedra, Dan revealed that she is beloved by all, and for that reason alone, no one would ever suspect her. I mean, yes, he’s right. (Phaedra had a torrent of poetic retorts to Dan’s accusations, including her telling him, “I’m very extra baby. I do too much because you do too little,” and then, after voting for him, saying “Baby, you deflected on the wrong one and you’re gonna learn tonight.”) During the final vote, no one else voted for Phaedra. Ironically, most of them wouldn’t even entertain the idea that Dan’s accusation that she is a traitor could be true, even though, you know, it is true. (Parvati, the only other person who knows what’s real and what’s not in all of this, was clearly relishing the entire exchange, she was barely able to contain her smirky smile.)

When Dan bid his farewell to the group, he played it cool, as he has all season. Almost emotionless, he said, “I’ve been on Big Brother twice, and I think I’m pretty good at that game, no one’s ever written my name down once in two seasons. And a lot of people did here today. Unfortunately for me, I am a Traitor.” And then, so weird, he kind of flipped his emotion switch and jauntily waved goodbye to everyone, calling out, “Have fun!” before walking off the set.

Here’s the thing that’s confusing: Dan had to have known he was being voted off that day. He was the only traitor that multiple people were suspicious of. Why then, would he deflect attention off himself and on to the least suspicious traitor? Why not name, say, Sandra, Kevin, or Trishelle, and throw everyone completely off the scent? It’s yet another reason I think Dan wasn’t sure how to play the long game on this show (because now, it seems like Trishelle will be watching out for Phaedra), and it was a massive fumble.

That’s the thing about shows like The Traitors and House of Villains: it’s hard to know whether the best strategy is to make friends (even fake friends), or to embrace your inner villain and try and destroy everyone in your path. Dan never really tried either of those things, so whoever he threw under that bus would have been a risk. He said it best when he explained in his final confessional, “In this game, as a traitor, you cannot make one mistake. And I made a huge mistake tonight.”