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The Accidental Traitors Episode

• Niq & Jess • Episode 19

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We explore the international phenomenon of the reality show "Traitors," discussing what makes this psychological competition so compelling and emotionally complex.

• Significant differences between how regular people and reality TV stars handle the emotional manipulation of the game
• Why casting all reality stars makes more sense, as professionals understand "what happens on TV is TV"
• Alan Cumming's dramatic hosting style and outfits that create an additional entertainment layer for the US version
• Critique of gameplay strategies from various contestants across seasons and international versions 
• The unexpected psychological revelation that most people are fundamentally good, as even traitors struggle with lying to people they've grown to care about
• Analysis of different contestants' gameplay, including Boston Rob, Danielle, Carolyn, and Tom's unique approaches
• The surprising ways certain players like Tom reach correct conclusions through bizarre reasoning

Let's keep talking about Traitors once the current season concludes – this show clearly deserves more discussion!


Contact Niq & Jess

Niq:

We both started watching Traitors and now I'm hopping around from continent to continent. We're Traitors. Yes, I'm so disappointed in season three I'm so disappointed in season three I honestly think I feel like, honestly, they need to work on the casting a bit. Season one was casted excellently, perfect, and I did like the mix of regular people and I'm going to tell you why.

Niq:

I know we're getting off topic. I have no one to talk about this with. I'm going to tell you why they switched from regular people to just all reality TV stars. Those regular people in season one got emotionally trampled. They were they. You cannot have gamers or professional TV people with regular people because they they are too emotional. They were so emotionally vulnerable. I feel like some of those people ended up in therapy.

Jess:

And the most definitely. And he was definitely and definitely. But but I said that I'm like, well, not I don't know Cause, I think Quentin is probably Quentin probably did well, like I know he got hurt but I think he's fine. Andy should have never been on that show, like she was not or they were not at a place where they can handle that.

Niq:

Right, because I think that, like the, even, even the, even though the reality tv people are not gamers. They understand what tv is and what tv is not right. You know what I mean. And so they understand that you can have relationships and meet people and enjoy them. But what happens on tv is tv and what happens in the real world is in the real world and those new people. They were not prepared for the, whatever the emotional damage that this show actually is. Like this show I. It reminds me of the mole, but it's more sinister to me than the mole is, because your goal is literally to have everybody love you while you lie and prey on them, and so it's anyway.

Niq:

I understand why they moved it to all reality TV people and I think that season two was honestly cast it well. Also, season three to me was it's poorly, it's poorly cast, it's really it's poorly cast it and so it's not as enjoyable. And I would love the US specifically to have two versions of Traders. I would love for them to do a regular version with regular people, because I'm watching the regular people seasons in other countries and I like watching regular people play this game, but I also enjoy watching the professional people, because the game is different.

Niq:

That it's it's. It's when you see people doing what they're good at it's it's, it's enjoyable, and so I understand why they went with the reality people, because they know how to create a story, they know how to entertain, they know how to backstab and it be okay, it's so entertaining. But I would still love to watch the regular people because it's a different game, right? And so I feel like the US specifically needs two versions of Traitors. Okay, okay, I can see that I love Alan Cummings and I live for his outfits the outfits, girl, the outfits.

Jess:

Yeah, I don't think that they could have picked a better person to host his bridal outfits girl that bridal outfit no other host.

Niq:

He had the bangs on the outside of the head and I'm like you know what is it? None of the other hosts are like that. They're wearing like regular nobody's else is that dramatical?

Niq:

none like they wear regular clothes. It's like the show is just not. It does not have the sparkle of the US show in the UK show filmed in the same place that the UK of the US show. The UK show is filmed in the same place that the UK and the US show are filmed in the same castle. Oh wow, it is at least for the seasons that I've seen so far. It's filmed in the same castle. It is a different show. The host is just like this girl, this woman, who she's probably famous in their country. She's like a woman. She's got on like jeans and a shirt and a jacket. But you know, we are a dramatic country, we are, we're theatrical as a country.

Niq:

We love the spectacle of it and the entertainment his hosting is by far my. It's a layer to the show it is. It is the way that the people dress in the US show like is over the top to the other people that wear regular clothes in season 2, mj, that are from the Shadows of Sunset her outfit.

Jess:

I'm like just give me the whole wardrobe, just give me everything that she put on in Her outfit. I'm like just give me the whole wardrobe, just give me everything that she put on in my closet, and I'm good.

Niq:

Phaedra also dressed cute. There were a lot of like the outfits were really, really good. Now none of them can touch Alan, but they're also Now. I did enjoy season three, like the wedding episode, like the outfits that they wore. I did enjoy season three, like the wedding episode like the outfits that they wore.

Jess:

I did like that.

Niq:

The funeral episodes, the outfits that they wore at the funeral Both of those like I really enjoyed, Like a lot of the women, they did snap, they did, they did snap. But when I'm watching I was watching like the UK and like Australia and I'm like these hosts are like Michael C, like Ryan Seacrest, like just write what people do, like Alan Cummings is coming in on a horse exactly a horse in a bridal gown or something.

Jess:

He definitely adds a layer. He is a character in and of itself in the show. He adds an extra layer and they reference him as such. They do. What is Alan going to do to?

Niq:

us next. I love it. Yeah, I love Alan Cumming. And I am going to apologize now that we have gotten so far off topic.

Jess:

That's okay. Yes, back to the resort. I'm sorry.

Niq:

I don't know how we got there, but I've been. I think I just needed to get that off my chest because I have nobody to talk to about how obsessed I am with traitors.

Jess:

Yeah, and for me, a person who doesn't do reality TV, I got into it really deep.

Niq:

Okay, Last question before we pivot back to being on topic On the show. If you could choose, would you choose to be a traitor or a faithful? Traitor, I always go for the traitors, me too, traitor, I always go for the traitors me too even when I don't like the traitors as individuals. It's something about. What did Kate say? I like to be part of an exclusive club.

Jess:

I like a VIP experience but you get so much more control of the game. Absolutely it's a duck if you're a faithful. When y'all got me like rooting for Boston Rob and I cannot stand Boston Rob, absolutely I cannot stand Boston Rob. But Danielle, I think, pissed me off so bad as being so bad as a traitor At least to where I'm at so far, because I haven't finished all the episodes that are out. She's so bad at it. I'm like please don't make me agree with Boston.

Niq:

Rob, and that's the thing. Like the traitors in previous seasons were better. Even Christian who in season one, his energy and his it annoyed me and I'm like can we please get rid of him?

Jess:

He was still a better traitor than he was, and I hate to say that out loud.

Niq:

Yes, he was Like like she, for someone who came in was like I'm that, that's one of the best people on big brother to ever do it. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I'm like this is not big brother and everybody's like her acting is so bad.

Jess:

The crying is over the top, it's too much. Pull it back, then, like I think the thing that annoys me with traders more than anything is when they talk too much and say stuff they don't need to. And I've got her and Bob the drag queen do that, and that was driving me crazy. It was driving me crazy because I'm like there is no reason for you to say the things you're saying. You set the thing up and you let the rumors fly on their own. You don't have to be in there driving the narrative that hard.

Niq:

The funny thing is, honestly, I feel like Bob the Drag Queen would have been a better traitor and would have lasted longer in the show if he showed up as his real self and not his persona, because I feel like he was just being so extra Because I'm like it's not that they're two completely different people, but I just think like he was just being so extra because I'm like he's not it's not that they're two completely different people, but I just think that he was doing entirely too much and I think he was being like if he would have just been him, just himself, and not like, almost like his drag persona, even when he wasn't in drag, I think he would have lasted longer, because I I think that's where all that extra mess, that extra talking, that too much, all of that came from, like that's his. To me, that's like his drag persona instead of just being him his actual self, because I feel like he was actually really smart. Yeah.

Jess:

That's why I was surprised that he wasn't good at this, because I do see him as a person who's incredibly smart.

Niq:

He's incredibly intelligent, he's incredibly likable and he has a lot of leadership characteristics qualities. He was fighting for the women, all of these things, right.

Jess:

I liked him calling the men out. I'm like, regardless of the game, the fact that he called the men out so hard, because I was like, yeah, I'm like they kept sacrificing the women and they probably do, you know, all the time. Yeah.

Niq:

It was the extraness that you see a lot of times in drag that he was doing. That was his downfall. If he would have just dialed it back some you know what I mean he would have won the game. And I mean he would have won the game. I don't know who's going to win now, but I feel like he could have lasted to the end, because when people were bringing him up, they're like no, not Bob, Not Bob.

Jess:

If you just like, you don't have to like. You know the reason why you got rid of this person and you know the thing that you're trying to set up. You don't have to explicitly say that, because when you explicitly say that, then they like, then they look at you Absolutely. And then the thing he said about Boston Rob. I'm like, oh well, he didn't say about Boston Rob, but he was like it's got to be one of the three and I'm like what is wrong with you?

Jess:

You didn't need to say that. No, everybody was already thinking it.

Niq:

Or if you were going, you would have said it in a small private, you know, to a couple of people, and definitely not in front of those three guys.

Jess:

I'm like Boston, rob. I'm like he's coming at this point. He's coming for you. He's scared to me.

Niq:

I have theories that I'm talking to the offline, but like it's just the yeah, he, I, he made me feel so uncomfortable, him and Wes. I'm sorry, I want to stop.

Jess:

I never need to be in a room with.

Niq:

I want to stop talking about traitors, but let me just say this, let me just say this last thing, thank you. So Danielle's like I need to get rid of Boston Rob. So the way that I'm going to get rid of Boston Rob, so the way that I'm going to get rid of Boston Rob, is I'm going to turn on Carolyn, get her voted off, get a new traitor, and then the two of us can team up together to get rid of Boston Rob.

Jess:

Let me know that she's one of the stupidest people who has ever been on TV the crazy thing is like if she had not gone after Carolyn, they were already going after Boston. Rob and I'm like you just sit back and then you don't even have to vote for him If you just let certain stuff happen. You know what I mean and stop being so heavy handed with everything, because I'm like they could have did it and even when she voted for him, she didn't have to vote for him. I would have hedged my bets and still voted for Wes, just in case they didn't have the numbers.

Niq:

The funny thing is she didn't have to, because Carolyn had voted for her. That time she could have voted for Carolyn, because Carolyn was not in danger of leaving and just said well, you voted for me, so I'm going to vote for you.

Jess:

Right, that time. Yeah, that time too. Both times that the vote was up for Rob, I'm like I wouldn't have voted for him, even though I know I wanted him out, right, because just to hedge your bets, come on, the way she's playing this game is stressful to me. It is.

Niq:

It is. I promise you, I swear I wish they would have picked Brittany in the beginning and not Danielle as a traitor, because I they would have picked Brittany in the beginning and not Danielle as a traitor, because I like them, because they have like that frenemy thing. I like them being on opposite sides. I would have, I feel like one of them needed to be a traitor. But I'm now questioning. I'm like man, I wish Brittany would have been a traitor from the beginning. And so, first of all, alan Cumming is going to make a Black woman a traitor Okay, he is going to make a Black woman a traitor.

Jess:

Okay, he is going to make a Black woman a traitor, which I'm not mad at because I'm going to root for the traitors, and so it's going to give me somebody to root for and I just can't root for Danielle. I just can't, which is hard, like even. I'm still like I don't know if she gets, because I'm like I think I'm on episode he just got voted out, so I'm like I don't know if she lasts a few more episodes. I'm like part of me wants you to win, but I'm not excited about it.

Niq:

Right, and the funny thing is out of everybody, including Boston Rob, this season Carolyn has been the best traitor, and it's just because she is such a weirdo.

Jess:

Nobody pays her any attention.

Niq:

And I don't understand. I don't know her from whatever show she did before, but I can't figure out. I'm not trying to be funny. Why does she sound like that and why does she move like that?

Jess:

And I don't know that because I don't know that woman, allegedly I'm like I don't know what else makes you look like that.

Niq:

What part of the country is she from? I've never heard anybody talk like that Tokifornia, I don't know. She talks like Kermit the Frog is trying to jump out of her house.

Jess:

Kermit is. Frog is trying to jump out of her house. Kermit is stuck in her throat.

Niq:

Okay.

Jess:

That man is swinging from her uvula.

Niq:

I'm listening to her and I'm like what is? Is it a? Because I don't want to make fun of somebody. I'm like is it a condition? Oh God, I hope it's not a condition. What? You know what? Because she also moves, like her body and her voice, like she moves her body, the way her voice sounds.

Jess:

She is very animated, much like a Muppet in herself. She looks animatronic in the way that she moves.

Niq:

But also in her voice it's like no one talks, like what is wrong, and so it's honestly like it's.

Jess:

Sometimes it's hard to watch her it is, it is, and so nobody says she flies under the radar all the time like her and tom I think that man's name is tom right the same character, like the person that everybody dismisses because he'd be having eight million, oh my gosh.

Niq:

No, okay, okay, we're doing this, tom, okay. So what I've learned is the reason why a lot of the women don't like him is because he cheated on his girlfriend, right, and so they have this hatred of him. But he doesn't do himself any favors because I can't tell if he is playing dumb or if he actually is dumb. But playing dumb is dumb and he every once in a while he has a good idea and he has like an insight, but it's always coming like, it's coming from like the weirdest, strangest way where you can.

Jess:

You have to dismiss it because it don't right. And then he says so much stuff that don't make no sense. He'll be like you know what.

Niq:

I was staring at this, like purple coat, and I was walking down the hallway and it made me think carolyn and danielle, they're probably traitors and you're like right place, how did you get there? There's a woman in the UK trader show that I'm watching Exact same thing. She, from the very beginning, has figured out who a trader was and she will not let it go. But because the way she got there and because she's got like these crazy theories, no one believes her and she's not a hundred percent right like she thinks. It's like she swears that these two people are traitors and one of them actually is.

Niq:

Because she was like when he voted for this other person, he had a panic attack and he was crying it was traitor on traitor crime. It was not, but the guy is and she's like literally been begging people to vote this guy out, to vote him out, to vote him out and he's a traitor. He's a traitor and they can't hear. They won't do it because she's like she'll be at the table and someone will say fidgety, fidget. You know how they say. She's like I think you're a traitor because you said fidgety, fidgety and they're like girl, stop with your crazy rabbit hole theories, but she's right.

Niq:

And it drives the traitor crazy because he's like oh, oh, she's right, but she got there in such a crazy way and so she has been on his neck and so what he did was he ended up like giving up another traitor, and so once he gave up the other traitor, everybody like jumped down her throat. You kept saying it was him and and it wasn't him. And look, he found a traitor. He found a traitor. And I'm just like yeah, but she also, the way that she talks, she, she, she, she's very much a tom like. When she talks, she sounds like a, an idiot. She sounds like an idiot, but she's like an idiot, but she's right. And then she came out and told everybody that she was an actress. And so now everybody's like I think she's a traitor because she didn't tell us she was an actress, and like so now, because they can't kill her, because she keeps that she's been naming a traitor, so if they kill her, that's going to leave Credence, so they can't get rid of her and she won't stop talking about this traitor. It is so entertaining because I'm just like the Scooby Doo of it all. It's like you got the answer, but the where you do jinkies, where did you Jinkies? How did you get there? How did you get there? But it is so entertaining because they kind of treat her bad, like will you stop with your conspiracy thing. And the funny thing is they had two people come in in the middle of the show and they immediately believed her and they immediately believed her and they were on her side and that's why the traitor ended up having to give up the other traitor because she had actually like, she was like, let's just try it, guys, come on, let's just try it, let's just try it, let's vote him out in that she was so close to getting so close, she was so close to getting him. It's.

Niq:

I am thoroughly enjoying the show. I I am and like you, um, I have I've not really been into like reality competitions like when we were really really young I watched like survivor. I used to watch right stuff like that and so like. But lately, other than like the mole, which is very similar in premise, I haven't really been watching, like and enjoying reality competitions. And so to find this show and love this show because it's like, it's so interesting, because it kind of shows at at their core. Yeah, most people are good, because even the people who are traitors, and they have to lie about it as they're getting closer and closer to the other people in the show, harder for them and you know what I mean.

Niq:

Like you think you wouldn't really believe that it would affect someone that emotionally, because it's a game, right it. Kind of shows, like you know, when you don't know someone it's easy to take advantage of. Kind of shows, like you know, when you don't know someone, it's easy to take advantage of them. But the more you know someone, the closer you get. It's hard to lie. You know what I mean and so it it. It makes me soften a little to humans in general and so I, you know, I I like the show and I like the mystery element of it, the smooth thing, and I like how in the beginning they're just slaughtering faithfuls for the silliest and dumbest stuff, because it's just like when you don't know what to do.

Jess:

You like people are like looking, they're like, well, you didn't eat toast at breakfast and the faithful eat toast girl, and that's the thing is that those theories at the beginning be so wild, and I'm like but yeah, everybody sound like Tom for the first two episodes.

Niq:

Right, but Tom is always Tom, but Tom is called Tom the whole time. Oh my gosh, have you seen the episode where they were like singing, having to sing the songs from the dolls? No, okay, not yet. I can't wait for you. It's a Tom centered episode and you.

Jess:

I think I'm ready for a Tom centered episode it is so entertaining.

Niq:

Please call me after you watch that episode. Okay, I most definitely will do that. I would love. When the season of Traders is over, let's have another talk, clearly, we need to have episodes. Absolutely, we need to talk about the season in general Once it hits a conclusion. So great Okay.