WARNING: This article contains some major spoilers. Don’t vote us off of your roundtable.
Faithful fans gathered to watch the season finale of “The Traitors” on Thursday evening to see which of their favorite reality-TV stars took home the gold.
The show, which streams on Peacock, brought together 22 contestants from different genres of reality television to compete for up to $250,000 in a Scottish castle.
The contestants are secretly assigned “faithful” or “traitor” titles. Faithfuls are tasked with banishing all traitors in order to get to split the prize money at the end. Any traitors left in the game by the end split the cash among themselves. (NBC News and Peacock are both units of NBCUniversal.)
While the show has already seen success overseas — it has U.K. and Australia versions — in the U.S., it was this second season that became a must-watch after picking up viral praise. The show spawned numerous memes and united fandoms of popular reality-TV shows. Many online have described “Traitors” as their latest camp obsession, homing in on their favorite cast members and the eccentric outfits sported by host Alan Cumming.
Executive producer Mike Cotton described the final episode as “really dramatic” and “heartstopping” in an interview with Today.com, saying there are moments where he believes fans will “scream at the TV.”
Indeed, the final episode brought a lot of drama and surprises. Here’s a roundup of the biggest moments from the finale — and the explosive reunion that aired right after.
One final ‘kill’
Every night in the “Traitors” castle holds the opportunity for “murder,” meaning traitors discreetly “kill off” faithfuls to advance in the game. By the end of the season, there was only one traitor left: Kate Chastain from “Below Deck.”
Five other cast members also remained: Shereé Whitfield from “The Real Housewives of Atlanta”; Chris “C.T.” Tamburello and Trishelle Cannatella from “The Challenge”; MJ Javid from “Shahs of Sunset”; and Sandra Diaz-Twine from “Survivor.”
Chastain had aroused some suspicion among her remaining cast mates after helping them banish her fellow traitor and “RHOA” star Phaedra Parks. In order to divert attention from her, she used her final kill to eliminate Whitfield, another “RHOA” star.
“Below Deck” and “RHOA” are both aired on the Bravo Network. Cast members from Bravo shows typically stayed loyal to each other throughout the season. (NBC News and Bravo are both units of NBCUniversal.)
Some fans thought Whitfield was going to “accidentally” win, so some were shocked when she was kicked off early in the episode.
A traitor in the hot seat
In order for the faithfuls to win the game, they needed to successfully vote out Chastain.
Chastain was still the top suspect among the remaining faithfuls. Tamburello, Cannatella and Diaz-Twine agreed to vote Chastain out at the final roundtable, where contestants vote to banish an individual they think is a traitor. Meanwhile, Chastain and Javid had decided to vote out Diaz-Twine.
Right before the banishment, Chastain convinced Tamburello that Diaz-Twine was a traitor and got him to flip his vote at the roundtable. This caused Cannatella to flip her vote to go along with the rest of the group, but also made her suspicious of Tamburello.
During a heated round of accusations, Diaz-Twine expressed frustration that Chastain had “sowed the seeds of distrust within the group that I was working with.” Diaz-Twine was ultimately banished — but revealed she was indeed a faithful.
Diaz-Twine was a favorite among fans, with some creating edits in anticipation of her win. Her banishment was met with disappointment, as people felt that she was “done dirty.”
‘Fire of Truth’ reveals winner
After the final roundtable, the remaining four contestants were brought to a fire pit, dubbed the “Fire of Truth,” where they decided to banish again or end the game.
The majority of the group decided to banish someone again, and cast another vote for who they believed was a traitor. Tamburello, Cannatella and Javid voted Chastain out, ridding the game of its last traitor.
But the game did not end there. Tamburello and Cannatella both expressed their doubts that the group had successfully banished all of the remaining traitors. This caused another vote among the final three contestants.
The vote resulted in a deadlock after each player received one vote for banishment. In a surprising turn of events, Cannatella unsuccessfully voted to oust her ally Tamburello.
Tamburello and Cannatella had a tumultuous relationship throughout the season, wavering in their trust for each other at times. They had also entered the castle with a complicated history after experiencing highs and lows throughout their various bouts on reality TV together. Although Tamburello said he “never doubted” Cannatella, she had doubts about him.
After the deadlock, the players had to vote again to break the tie. Tamburello and Cannatella turned on Javid, which she called “heartbreaking.”
“It shouldn’t have ended this way,” Javid said. “That’s a plot twist of a lifetime.”
Tamburello and Cannatella won the show and split the prize money, which ended up being a total of $208,100.
While Tamburello was a fan favorite, Cannatella was divisive among viewers. Some online speculated that the two of them banished Javid knowing that she was a faithful.
Tensions rise at Andy Cohen-hosted reunion
Lingering hostility was addressed during the reunion episode, which was released at the same time as the finale.
Host Cohen kicked off the episode by revealing who won the game. The final four players subsequently joined the previously eliminated contestants. Javid appeared to be disgruntled over Tamburello and Cannatella’s decision to vote her out, saying the players had “grifter energy.”
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” alum Peppermint, who was the first player to be banished this season, also shared her disappointment in getting eliminated early in the game. Her elimination was led by winner Cannatella, who later expressed remorse for casting out the faithful. Peppermint, who is trans, previously shared that she went on the show to represent the transgender community during a time when trans rights are under attack.
“It was upsetting to be suddenly sort of cast out instantly,” she said in the reunion. “I know that somebody needs to be the first to go on a show like this. But with no proof, people have to rely on the biases that they bring into the game, which end up targeting whoever’s the most different from the group. And in those situations, people like me don’t really fare very well.”
Two traitors address their beef
Perhaps the most anticipated reunion was the one between Parks and Dan Gheesling, who was also a traitor. During a heated discussion, Parks called Gheesling a “piece of s---” for compromising her gameplay in an attempt to save himself from elimination.
“Survivor” star Diaz-Twine said “a lot of us weren’t on to Phaedra until he spoke up.”
Gheesling was the first traitor to be banished this season. During the roundtable discussion where he was voted out, he accused Parks of being a traitor in order to get the contestants to vote for her instead.
Gheesling said he believed that “I can’t win this game with Phaedra in it” and added that his gameplay “wasn’t personal.” Parks said she was still angry with him for trying to strategize against her.
Some fans online also said they remained upset with Gheesling for making Parks vulnerable because they wanted her to win.
The winners weigh in
At the end of the reunion, Javid continued to express her frustration over Tamburello and Cannatella’s betrayal. She said she believed the end “wasn’t about the money, it was about loyalty.”
Her remarks kicked off a discussion about how stars from competition shows viewed the game versus those from other reality shows.
“If it came off insensitive, I’m sorry,” Tamburello told Javid during the reunion. “Coming from someone who’s done this for so long, I’m a bit numb to this kind of stuff like a lot of us are, and this is your first real competition show.”
Host Cohen agreed that there was a “cultural difference between people who come from the gaming shows and people who come from the other shows.”
The reunion concluded with a message from host Cumming, who told viewers: “The traitors will return.”
