‘The Traitors’ Season 4 Episode 3 Recap: “Show Me Your Faces”

Well, it looks like my plan to slowly deduce who the Secret Traitor is by keeping a running tally of the contestants who made it on to their nightly murder shortlist was all for nothing. Just three episodes into the new season of The Traitors, the season’s big twist, that a Secret Traitor whose identity was concealed from everyone including the audience, has already been figured out. (If you haven’t seen episode 3, SPOILERS AHEAD!)

At breakfast on the second day of the competition, after the contestants learned that Survivor‘s Rob C. was the murdered Faithful (murdered in plain sight, a fact he alone figured out on account of a very suspicious Conga line), Alan Cumming throws the gang the biggest curveball yet – an opportunity to banish someone immediately, before they set out for the day’s challenge.

It’s a wild move, but one that seems to motivate almost everyone on the show to engage their hive mind. Everyone starts coming for Donna Kelce, America’s Mother (okay, Jason and Travis’s mother) and really the only competitor with no connections to anyone else in the cast. (Everyone except for Michael Rapaport, who has it out for Yam Yam in a big way, goading Yam Yam and trying to get him to clap along when Michael starts singing, “If you’re a Traitor and you know it, clap your hands.” I know Michael is a Faithful but can we banish him on the grounds that he’s doing too much?)

The charge against Donna is being led mainly by Colton Underwood (and his Princess Di-inspired black sheep jacket!), but it’s shocking to me how many others are on board with it. In her own defense, Donna made a fairly convincing attempt to deflect attention on to Michael, but in the end, it was the closest thing to a unanimous vote as I’ve ever seen on this show, with all but two votes cast to banish Donna.

Maybe it’s just because I’m so used to the Faithfuls getting it wrong, but I genuinely couldn’t believe that there was this much solidarity amongst the group, nor could I believe when it turned out they get it RIGHT. Sweet Miss Donna, upon entering the Circle of Truth, seemed genuinely crestfallen at having to leave the game, until she deliciously tells her fellow competitors, “You got yourself a Traitor!”

Further proof that I would be terrible at this game, because I really didn’t think the group made the right call, but it sure made for a thrilling and satisfying moment of TV. I’d like to assume that even the other Traitors, who all voted for Donna and were cheering at her banishment, were reacting genuinely since they had no idea about her identity and probably felt a hint of satisfaction that their own trio would be undisturbed and able to kill without having to defer to the Secret Traitor from here on out.

For the players’ challenge, they must first pair up with the one person they trust the most in the group. While most of the pairings seem to make sense, the fact that Tiffany Mitchell and Michael Rapaport immediately team up raises a few eyebrows. For Tiffany, this is pure strategy, she admits she’s playing a “keep your enemies close” game, later admitting to the group that she’s suspicious of Michael, Ron Funches and Yam Yam.

Unfortunately Ron is the odd man out with no partner (he assumes he’s still got a target on him for putting Porsha up for banishment), and this puts him at an immediate disadvantage because of the nature of the challenge. The teams of two are led into the woods where one teammate is placed in a locked cage, and the other is tasked with finding ten animal skulls hidden in a watery marsh. The skulls must then be stacked perfectly so they don’t fall, after which point the cage will unlock. Not only will the group earn $5,000 for every cage that’s successfully unlocked, but both partners will be shielded from that night’s murder. Anyone inside a cage when the challenge ends will be on the shortlist to be killed. This is where the trust comes in, because those stuck inside the cage are the most vulnerable. Because Ron has no partner to let him out, he is automatically on the murder shortlist, a disadvantage that seems cruel and random, like being picked last in gym class and also getting put up for murder.

If I can throw a conspiracy theory out there, I’m genuinely curious if this episode was supposed to include the early banishment followed by the challenge, or if there were production complications that forced them to change the order (maybe Donna has mother-of-the-groom wedding duties to attend to? I’m speculating!) because it’s not sitting well with me that Ron was immediately shortlisted. (Why not give the odd man out the chance to flip a coin to secure their immunity or not?) Traitors challenges don’t usually put specific players at this much of a disadvantage, so it all feels a little off.

The challenge seems like one of the most basic ones they’ve had to play, and yet the tension was real as most of them tried and failed many times to successfully stack their skulls. And pokey lil’ puppy Johnny Weir never even made it out of the swamp to start stacking, so his caged partner, Eric Nam, was shortlisted for murder, along with Caroline Stanbury, Kristen Kish, Lisa, and Ron.

Not only are these folks shortlisted, but they also much suffer the indignity of being tied to a tree for the rest of the night (“That is messed up,” Eric says), awaiting their fate, because on this night, they’ll be killed by the Traitors face to face. But we won’t find out who’s killed until next time.

I like that Lisa and Candiace were open to killing Caroline when discussing who should get murdered in the turret, because one of the issues I have with the show is the unwavering trust and loyalty between Housewives. I’m happy that they’re not so precious about that. But I also dread seeing any of these shortlisted victims go, mainly because I think we haven’t seen Kristen or Eric do anything yet, and Ron was a sacrificial lamb, given no real choice in this challenge but to get in the cage and deal with it. Alas, that’s just how the game goes sometimes.

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.