It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Alan Cumming is back in his castle, and murders are happening in the middle of the night. Season 3 of The Traitors is here! Peacock just dropped the first three episodes of the Emmy-award-winning competition show with a new batch of celebrities and a whole lot of treachery. We couldn’t be more thrilled.
Last season became a certified hit by bringing an all-celebrity cast into the castle. It birthed memes, they earned awards, and a year later, we’re still uttering to ourselves, “Lord, Not Ekin-Su.”
With that in mind, Season 3 has some big shoes to fill and they’re already delivering. The season kicked off with everything we expected to see: gamers, murder, Real Housewives, surprise players, and a whole lot of tartan. Let’s get into the action with a recap of The Traitors Season 3 premiere, Episodes 1-3.
Who is on the cast of The Traitors Season 3?
- “Boston” Rob Mariano — Survivor
- Dorinda Medley — The Real Housewives of New York
- Chrishell Stause — Selling Sunset
- Britney Haynes — Big Brother
- Danielle Reyes — Big Brother
- Bob the Drag Queen — RuPaul’s Drag Race
- Wells Adams —The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise
- Chanel Ayan — The Real Housewives of Dubai
- Gabby Windey — The Bachelorette
- Dylan Efron — Down to Earth with Zac Efron
- Tony Vlachos — Survivor
- Jeremy Collins — Survivor
- Dolores Catania — The Real Housewives of New Jersey
- Robyn Dixon — The Real Housewives of Potomac
- Bob Harper — The Biggest Loser
- Ciara Miller — Summer House
- Lord Ivar Mountbatten — British royal
- Carolyn Wiger —Survivor
- Sam Asghari — Model, actor, and Britney Spears’s ex-husband
- Tom Sandoval —Vanderpump Rules
- Nikki Garcia — Former professional Wrestler
The Traitors Season 3, Episode 1 Recap: “Let Battle Commence”
Season 3 of The Traitors kicked off with the same energy as Season 2. The cast members rolled up in their SUVs, eager for the adventure ahead. Immediately, the editors started teasing some pre-existing rivalries within the cast. For example, Danielle from Big Brother said that she really didn’t want to see Britney, who just so happened to be in another car on the way to the same castle. It’s like the Parvati and Sandra feud all over again.
When the celebs arrived at the castle, they all started making their little first impressions. Dorinda was stoked to see other Real Housewives. Carolyn felt starstruck by her fellow Survivor castaways. Meanwhile, Dylan felt like the underdog since his main selling point was, “Hi! I’m Zac Efron’s brother.”
Once the celebrities finished their intros, Alan made his grand entrance, along with an army full of creepy dudes in gold masks and black robes. It’s the high level of camp that we love about this show, but then Alan revealed that it was already time to make their “first tough decision.”
One of the cloaked men stepped forward, and like a scene from The Masked Singer, Alan took off the mask to reveal none other than Boston Rob. Alan told the players that anyone could invite Rob into the game, but then they’d have to choose someone to banish. That’s a big choice for a game that has barely even started!
Carolyn felt tempted, but no one took the offer. Alan sent Rob on his merry way, and they really wanted us to think that he had been banished for good. We know they didn’t fly him all the way to Scotland just for two seconds of TV time. He’ll be back. He always comes back.
The Traitors Season 3, Episode 1: Meet the Traitors
Up next was the moment we were all waiting for — the selection of this season’s Traitors. At the roundtable, Alan dramatically paced around the room to make his decisions about who would be bestowed with the great honor of being a Traitor. His first selection? Danielle from Big Brother, and she couldn’t have been more pleased.
“I’ve never been so happy to be so bad,” Danielle said in her confessional.
Next up was Carolyn. She practically begged Alan for it in her interview before the roundtable, so she could hardly contain her excitement when she felt Alan’s hand touch her shoulder.
Last, but certainly not least, the final Traitor selected (for now) was Bob the Drag Queen. Bob teased in his confessional that he was ready to be “employee of the month.” Now, we’re off to the races.
Looking back on the last season of the show, you can see how these picks are extremely similar to last season’s. You’ve got a Survivor castaway, a Big Brother houseguest, and a non-gamer with a huge personality. Has Alan found a formula?
The first mission called for major sacrifices
With the Traitors selected, the group embarked on their first mission. Alan took them to a giant lake. However, we have to call it a loch because, you know, they’re in Scotland.
For the first mission, they had to work together to paddle a giant, dragon-shaped boat. Throughout the loch, there were five pontoons with barrels of gasoline and money. The group needed to paddle their way to the platforms, grab the gas and as much cash as possible, and then return to shore to light a giant ring of fire.
Curiously, Alan mentioned that anyone inside the ring of fire at the end would win a shield. That should have raised some eyebrows for the players. Wouldn’t that mean that everyone could get a shield? Well, that’s the twist.
Once they got to the pontoons, they learned that with each step, they’d need to sacrifice two players, and “shackle” them there for the duration of the mission. You can’t stand in the ring of fire and win a shield if you’re shackled to a raft in the loch.
At the first checkpoint, Robyn volunteered to sacrifice herself. She said it was because she’s a “selfless person,” which we’ve learned from watching her relationship with Juan Dixon. Then, fellow housewife Ayan followed Robyn and sacrificed herself, too.
The paddling continued, and at the next platform, Dorinda and Dolores chose to sacrifice themselves. If you’re rooting for The Real Housewives on this show, this is when you probably started getting worried. Why are they putting themselves up for slaughter?
At the next checkpoint, Bob the Drag Queen started screaming because none of the men wanted to sacrifice themselves. He and Danielle eventually volunteered. Hilariously, the two of them had no idea they both had the same traitorous intentions.
Second thoughts about the sacrifices
Bob from The Biggest Loser and Sam sacrificed themselves at the fourth checkpoint, but then the group decided to call it quits. They went back to the shore without grabbing the final money cache. That meant that instead of 10 people at risk for elimination, there were only eight.
That math wasn’t promising, and when the sacrificed players learned their team didn’t hit all of the pontoons, all hell broke loose. In particular, Dorinda was super frustrated, and she said in her confessional that she was starting to feel “Housewife-y.” Let’s say it together, everyone. She’s startin’.
At the castle, Dorinda made it known that she was not happy about how things shook out in the mission. In front of the whole group, she asked, “Why didn’t you go for the fifth boat?”
Dylan and Jeremy tried to defend themselves, but they clearly had never seen Real Housewives of New York. They had no idea that you can’t just go back and forth with Dorinda without losing a limb. Ivar was the one who really pushed it by accusing Dorinda of being a Traitor.
“I didn’t even see you move, Ivar! You didn’t even remotely move,” Dorinda said with a grin that RHONY fans know all too well.
“I put myself out to be murdered tonight,” she continued. “If I do make it tonight, things change. I pray to God.”
The Traitors Season 3, Episode 2 Recap: “Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold”
While Dorinda ripped Lord Ivar a new one, Alan was deep in the forest up to no good, accompanied by a person in a cloak. What could this possibly be?
When the group banished Boston Rob, Alan warned that every decision would have a consequence. With that in mind, Alan went to unmask the person who we assumed would be Boston Rob. Nope! Alan hit us with the first plot twist of the season.
Alan removed the mask, revealing a surprise player: Wes Bergmann! His knees were still dirty from begging for the win on House of Villains. Then, another player appeared. Surprise! It’s Derrick Levasseur from Big Brother. Alan tells them that they’ll both play as Faithfuls, and we’re over here wondering how in the hell they kept this casting a secret.
Finally, Alan revealed Boston Rob again, and he got the golden ticket to enter the game as a Traitor. That means we have four Traitors this season and a whole lot of heavy hitters from the gaming world. Buckle up.
Who was the first kill of The Traitors Season 3?
Dorinda from The Real Housewives of New York was the first person murdered on Season 3 of The Traitors.
In a devastating blow for Bravo fans, Bob, Carolyn, and Danielle set their sights on the Housewives during their first meeting in the turret. They wanted to split up the foursome, and the fact that they all sacrificed themselves in the first mission made it even easier. Brilliant job, Housewives.
For various reasons, The Traitors narrowed down the list to Dolores, Robyn, or Dorinda. Seriously, this felt like a nightmare scenario for those of us rooting for the Bravolebs, and ultimately, they settled on Dorinda. Her fight with Ivar seemed to seal the deal. She couldn’t make it nice, and she had to pay the price.
The next morning at breakfast, the celebs slowly realized that it was Dorinda who got the axe. Most people were shocked, but when Robyn walked in, she was like, “Oh, wow. They murdered Dorinda? I’m not surprised.”
Robyn’s reaction was drier than the English muffin she started scarfing down while everyone else mourned the loss of Dorinda. If you watch The Real Housewives of Potomac, then you know this is just how Robyn rolls. If you don’t know her, then this behavior would look pretty suspicious, and like clockwork, some of the Faithfuls began questioning her position.
Release the beasts
For the second mission, Alan brought the celebs back into the forest where Derrick, Wes, and Rob were suspended in cages, each of them with a shield to give away. For the mission, the active players had to untangle bags of coins and deposit them into a box. Each deposit lowered the new player down into the game, little by little.
Let’s be honest. This whole scene felt less like a real mission and more like a creative way to introduce the new players into the game. There were no actual stakes here, but it did allow the new players to get introduced to the current players. Hilariously, Wes said that he mainly recognized the people from Survivor and assumed that everyone else had to be Housewives. Wishful thinking, Wes.
With Wes, Derrick, and Rob officially in the game, Alan revealed that they’d be “soft-launched,” meaning that they wouldn’t be able to vote or be voted out of the game this week. Plus, they got to hang onto their shields until after the first banishment. That way, they could be extra strategic (or sneaky) when choosing who to protect.
Who got banished in The Traitors Season 3, Episode 2?
Wells was the first player banished from the game thanks to a messy showdown at the roundtable.
With three new players in the game, the players assembled at the roundtable to discuss the first banishment. Immediately, Bob the Drag Queen made a conscious decision to take control of the room. He was like, “I’m ready to cause some chaos,” and he did just that. He went after Wells, claiming that he had been showing suspicious behavior.
While in the hot seat, Wells put the spotlight on Robyn, claiming that she was suspicious of how she reacted to Dorinda’s murder. A few people agreed, but Robyn seemed completely unbothered.
When it was finally time to vote, everyone was all over the place with their decisions. Some people wanted to target the Housewives, resulting in Dolores and Ayan getting votes. Sandoval randomly got a vote.
Ivar got a handful of votes few from people thinking he killed Dorinda out of retaliation. Ultimately, it all came down to Wells and Robyn. It’s no wonder he was trashing the Housewives in interviews promoting the show.
Interestingly, the final vote came down to Carolyn, a Traitor. She voted for Wells, and Robyn has never looked more pleased. Wells became the first person of Season 3 to get banished, and the room lit up with disappointment when he revealed himself to be a Faithful. Better luck next time, Faithfuls.
As if that wasn’t enough drama for one episode, the three newbies still had to hand out their shields. Derrick gifted his shield to Dylan, and Rob gave his shield to Tony. When Wes gave his shield to Jeremy, he noted how it seemed like the Survivor players were all in lockstep. Alliances are forming, or at least it seems that way.
The Traitors Season 3, Episode 3 Recap: “Nail in the Coffin”
The final episode of this three-part premiere had literally everything you’d want in an episode of The Traitors. There were clowns, there was a murder, and the celebs delivered another shocking banishment.
First, the original three Traitors met up in the turret and welcomed their surprise new member, Boston Rob. He knows he was made for this role, but the reactions in the turret were mixed. Carolyn wasn’t pleased, but Danielle felt relieved to have the Survivor icon on her side.
The four Traitors began debating who they’d kill off next, and once again, it came down to some of our iconic Bravolebs. They wanted to kill either Ayan, Dolores, or Sandoval. Which kill would cause the most chaos and confusion?
The Traitors Season 3, Episode 3: Who did the Traitors murder?
The next morning at breakfast, we learn that the Traitors murdered Ayan.
It’s another blow for the Housewives fans, and the remaining ladies of Bravo were not pleased. Dolores described the state of the game as “Housewives Hunters,” and Robyn said that the rest of the players had a “hard-on for the Housewives.” All of those comments sound like terms that should never be entered into a search engine at work.
Ayan marked another kill for the Traitors, but unfortunately, they weren’t great at hiding their excitement. Danielle thought she was giving an Oscar-winning performance at breakfast, but it was too much. She started raising suspicions because of her theatrics.
Similarly, Dylan felt like Bob the Drag Queen did way too much at the roundtable. He assembled a group of people and started spit balling his theories. It’s wild how correct he was. The only issue was that he told the theory to Boston Rob, another Traitor. Whoops!
The funhouse that flopped
If you’re afraid of clowns, this mission must have been a nightmare to watch. Alan brought the players to a “funhouse” for their third mission, which was packed with killer clowns holding sharp objects. The whole thing turned into a huge disaster, but you could tell Alan loved every minute of it.
On paper, this sounded like a cute challenge. The players got grouped into pairs, and they had to carry a giant gold balloon through different doors of a funhouse. Some of those doors had terrifying clowns waiting behind them, ready to pop the balloon.
Alan teased that the first team to make it through the funhouse would win shields, and every team that gets their balloon across would add $2,000. None that mattered because not a single group made it through the funhouse. They banked a whopping zero dollars. The killer clowns popped all of their balloons, and glitter went flying everywhere.
“My funhouse was not a barrel of laughs for you,” Alan teased the players.
The real fun of this episode happened after the mission. On the car ride home, Jeremy started telling everyone in his car that he felt convinced that Danielle was a Traitor. He’s right on the money, but he didn’t know that Bob the Drag Queen, another Traitor, was right there. Bob immediately ran back to the castle to warn Danielle.
Did anyone get banished in The Traitors Season 3, Episode 3?
In a shocking turn of events, Tony became the second player banished from the game.
He didn’t see it coming, and neither did we.
The players sealed Tony’s fate during a heated exchange at the roundtable, but first, Dylan tried to get everyone on board with his Bob the Drag Queen theory. That didn’t end well for Dylan because Bob dragged him in front of everyone.
Bob said, “You’re misguided. That should be your drag name — Miss Guided.”
With the Bob theory shut down, all of the attention went towards Tony. The poor guy still had glitter on his face, when Gabby kicked off the conversation about how he seemed suspicious. It turned out, a lot of players agreed.
Then, Boston Rob delivered Tony’s final blow. He told the entire roundtable that he gave Tony his shield but hadn’t heard from him since. He said it felt “sus” how Tony acted after getting the shield. Yikes!
When the votes rolled in, the overwhelming majority of players chose to send Tony packing. He was emotional, and the only person he seemed to blame was Boston Rob. On the way out the door, he looked at Rob and said, “You’re a sell-out, bro.”
Episode 3 ended with yet another surprise from Alan. He doesn’t stop! This time, he quietly instructed the Traitors players to create a shortlist of three players to murder. Instead of doing their plotting in the turret, they’ll have to deliberate right in plain sight. And it turned messy, quickly.
The Traitors Season 3 continues Thursdays on Peacock at 9/8c.
TELL US – WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE FIRST THREE EPISODES OF THE TRAITORS? WERE YOU SURPRISED BY THE ELIMINATIONS AND MURDERS? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON WES AND DERRICK JOINING THE COMPETITION?
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from Reality Tea https://www.realitytea.com/2025/01/09/the-traitors-season-3-premiere-recap-episodes-1-3/
