Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of The Traitors.
After the penultimate episode of The Traitors Season 3 ended on a cliffhanger that left viewers wondering whether newly-indoctrinated traitor Britney Haynes had flipped on fellow traitor and Big Brother alum Danielle Reyes, the opening minutes of the finale revealed the result of the round table tiebreaker vote.
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This was the first time there was ever a draw at the round table in the American version of The Traitors and, with just six players remaining in the game, it came at a moment when the stakes couldn’t have been higher. During the initial vote, the ballots were split between Reyes and extended British royal family member Lord Ivar Mountbatten, with Dylan Efron (brother of Zac) and former Bachelorette Gabby Windey joining Mountbatten in voting for Reyes, while Reyes, Haynes, and Real Housewife Dolores Catania went after Mountbatten. This led to the tiebreaker vote, from which Reyes and Mountbatten were excluded.
Haynes ended up being the only one to flip-flop and was the deciding vote in banishing Reyes, leaving Haynes as the only remaining traitor in the game. Considering how polarizing Reyes was this season, it was a big moment for those rooting against her. But while Reyes caught flak from some fans for her over-the-top acting and seemingly questionable gameplay, she was also the only original traitor to make it close to the end. So, whether viewers liked it or not, whatever she was doing was working for most of the show. As Catania put it following Reyes’ banishment, “I even said to her, ‘Danielle, if you’re a traitor you need to get an Oscar. The way you carried on and convulsed on the floor after they voted Carolyn [Wiger] out.’”
It was then time for the final five to play it out to the finish. Since host Alan Cumming already explained in the premiere that, unlike in past seasons, those who made it to the final would no longer reveal whether or not they were a traitor on the way out, the faithfuls had a stressful task ahead of them. And as the cherry on top of the mess, Haynes was revealed as the player who had secured the Power of the Seer advantage in the previous episode, meaning she would have the chance to select one player who would have no choice but to tell her their honest faithful or traitor status.
Haynes chose to use the advantage on Windey and truthfully reported back to the rest of the group that Windey was indeed a faithful, reasoning that if she tried to lie and say she was a traitor, it would make Haynes herself look even more suspicious. Still, Efron was already on to her game and, following one last group mission that brought the prize pot winnings to $204,300, he and Haynes were at each other’s throats at the final round table. Despite a compelling counterargument from Haynes, everyone ultimately sided with faithful of all faithfuls Efron, and she was banished.
The four remaining faithfuls had successfully removed every traitor from the game. But did they trust each other enough to believe they were all telling the truth about their own faithfulness? In short, yes. Despite the show’s attempts to ramp up the tension of the “Banish Again” or “End Game” vote, the drama was pretty much wrapped up by that point. All four faithfuls ultimately opted to finish the game together and split the prize money, resulting in the highest number of faithfuls to ever come out on top.
Depending on what you were hoping would happen, it was either a triumph of truth and honor, or a somewhat boring outcome. Either way, it also means Survivor Queen Cirie Fields, the sole winner of Season 1, is still the only traitor to ever scheme and deceive her way to victory on American Traitors. Here’s hoping we get some traitors who are more willing to work together to cast out the faithfuls (rather than each other) in Season 4.
