The Traitors is, reputationally, one of the best shows on television at dishing out a genuinely good reckoning. Think of skilled Traitor Phaedra Parks in season two, cornered in the final stretch by a cast that adored her and dramatically uttering that she was “very exhausted” before gliding out of the castle in the defeat. Or season three’s Boston Rob turning on his own turretmate Bob The Drag Queen—the way the camera, positioned just behind the drag pro, caught the exact moment Rob’s head swiveled toward the kill. The audience was Bob at that moment, and Rob’s cutting glare landed like a knife to the chest. These were extraordinary turns that stick with viewers to this day, and they justified every bit of their fanfare while proving that a dynamic enough debate at a roundtable can make for absolutely cinematic television. What’s more, there were clearly communicated paths and storylines that led to those banishments, so they were equipped to serve as satisfying conclusions.
“The Sun, The Moon, And The Truth” had every opportunity to join that company. It catches a Traitor. The title itself, based on a Buddhist proverb, promises a similar reckoning. Yet, the roundtable, meant to deliver an epic clash of titans teased across two episodes, is not only wildly short, it’s also too dull to justify the wait. It is one of the rare occasions where this franchise actually catches a Traitor and the moment, devoid of serious context, lands like soggy bread. And the rest of the episode, save for one necessary turning point, is barely remarkable enough to make the hour worthwhile.
We’re dropped off at the start of the roundtable where, once again, alternating shots between determined Faithful Victor and affable castle favorite (and Traitor) Joe appear to set up an inevitable showdown. It’s Kriste, however, who kicks things off by putting Wyatt in the hotseat. Her main reasoning: he’s smart, fallen Faithful Abby L. had him in her sights, and, most prominently, “I think there’s somebody young in the turret.” Shane steps in to question why she didn’t trade cups during the poisoned chalice game. While Kriste’s case against Wyatt may be fairly weak (and bless Ben for calling out her odd trust in Abby L.’s judgment after voting for her for banishment), her self-defense is pretty strong: Not only would her being a Traitor have rendered her immune during the chalice game, making trade a non-issue, her being the only person to vote for Abby L. would have made murdering her that very night extra suspicious. She then calls out the boys club forming between Victor, Shane, and Wyatt, which is its own reckoning of sorts. The imbalance between banished players, most of which have been women aside from Michael Foote, has been a recurring yet barely fleshed out topic, likely exacerbated by the fact that the only other time they tried to banish a man was blocked by another man.
Wyatt intervenes, turning the spotlight briefly back on Kriste and then on Joe, who he claims is being “too nice” to be fully genuine. Victor, of course, piggybacks not with any new evidence, but rather with different variations of “I’ve got you pegged, bro,” which we have seen ad nauseum across multiple episodes now, and general suspicion around Joe and Jay’s friendship. Joe shuts down the argument with practiced ease by pointing out Victor’s lack of new evidence, and everyone seems to be on board with that, including Kriste, who vocally backs him up.
But the votes don’t really line up with the general temperature of the discussion. Jay’s vote for Joe is especially baffling, made more so by his overwhelming display of emotion (which could have been sincere, but the rest of the castle later labeling it as theatrics says otherwise). Abbey B. votes Joe, which at least feels earned, given her suspicions in the previous episode. Clyde and Ben land the final blows and vote for Joe, which arrives without any delineating reasoning. One by one, the people who spent the entire roundtable nodding along to Joe’s airtight defense write his name down anyway, and the show offers no real bridge between the two. When Joe is revealed as a Traitor, the banishment should feel like a triumph. Instead, it plays like a magic trick missing its middle, a reveal with none of the critical work that earns it. A good, meaty roundtable shows you the moment a room changes its mind. This one just cuts to the verdict and expects us to applaud. And look, I want to be happy for Victor, the boy who cried Traitor twice and finally got everyone aligned. But what was once a great hook has been stretched so thin that even a right defense feels like being clobbered over the head repeatedly with the same argument for four episodes straight. We’re almost at the finish line and yet, with Victor commanding so much of the very little time we have each week, it is tough to ignore how many people in this castle still haven’t registered as formidable characters at all.
So, with Joe gone, we are left with lone Traitor Katie, who, ironically, has outlasted her fallen brethren thanks to the very social nature that made them choose her in the first place. She now gets to recruit a new Traitor. The chosen Faithful doesn’t get much of a choice—either join or die—and her viable options are pretty slim: either Victor, who now has some serious vindication after successfully pinning down two Traitors, or Shane, a respected, highly trusted Faithful who is part of the “boy band” clique along with Victor and Wyatt. Shane offers enough social cachet to be a prime recruit, so she calls him to the gallows and makes the offer, which he gleefully accepts. Understandable choice—why enlist someone who is already too bewitched by you to go against you when you can secure another influential, theoretically guaranteed ally? Shane is all too ready to get to his winnings by any means so if there’s any hesitance to move over to the dark side, he doesn’t show it.
Shane fans might feel inclined to mourn him early and that’s totally understandable. Late recruits have usually served as guilt-free fodder for more treacherous Traitors. But Katie appears, at first blush, truly ready to work with Shane until the end, and her penchant for teamwork and constant cloud of guilt seems to support that notion. Also, if Traitors Australia season one winner Alex Duggan is proof of anything, it’s that you shouldn’t count a late starter out before it’s time. Thankfully, Shane immediately has some intel to prove that he’s Team Traitors. Prior to the recruitment, Victor shared with Shane that he had the shield. He immediately followed that by planting the possibility of Shane having the shield in a discussion with Kriste, who he thinks is a Traitor, and Abbey B. He claims it was a move to protect Shane, but anyone who’s spent five minutes in this castle knows that any whiff of someone possibly holding a shield in secret is usually met with a very specific, banish-y type of ire, so who’s really protecting whom?
For now, though, Shane is able to let Katie know that Victor is protected (not that she was about to toss out her awkward not-at-all-secret admirer anyway), so the axe has to fall on Ben, Abbey B., or Clyde.
Breakfast the next morning is tense, quiet, decidedly not delicious, and just…a bad vibe. It’s also mercifully swift, with the numbers dwindling. The most recently murdered turns out to be Ben, a tragedy that lands the morning after he finally, timidly lets Katie know he suspects her. She and Shane justify the decision as a necessary chop, as he was starting to bring negative attention Katie’s way. Katie is willing to attempt a double bluff and given the group’s inherent love for her, she might be in the best position to pull it off.
A mission finally arrives in the form of a very clunky puzzle. The players must dig through troughs containing large puzzle pieces designed to form a shield for each competitor. Those who are able to solve their puzzle are eligible for protection from the night’s murder. Once time runs out, they must put on a blindfold while the Traitors sneakily sabotage the players who they don’t want to have a shield while also putting together a separate puzzle worth $26,000 for the winning pot. Whoever has an intact puzzle at the end of multiple rounds will win a shield of their own. However, the mission takes place in a creaky shack, and Shane is not able to navigate the noisy floorboards nearly as quietly as Katie. Every creak of wood adds a zip of stress to the proceedings, and the noise does manage to bring some unwanted attention to Shane, who earns the reluctant suspicions of Clyde. It may not feel as if the episode should end here, on a fairly mild hypothetical, but it does. I’d call it a cliffhanger, but that’s giving the rather abrupt ending a little too much credit.
We are now a week out from the two-part season finale, and the doubleheader promises a lot: a big-ticket mission, a critical roundtable, some last-ditch paranoia, and, finally, a winner (or winners). Usually, the thought of an end to such a wild ride is met with some regret. Right now, it feels like the right time to close this very shaky chapter in Traitors history. While it won’t be enough to fix a whole season, there’s still potential to go out on a favorable note. Will Katie and Shane make it to the end without turning on each other? Will Clyde crack the case and pull the Faithfuls across the finish line? Will Victor finally retire from talking about fruit? Meet me here next week and let’s find out together.
Stray observations
- • Castle Twin sighting: Seen burying shield puzzle pieces ahead of the mission. I’d ask how much they’re being paid to just kind of signal the next scene’s activities, but I think the answer would depress me.
- • Two bops for the Ominous Pop Playlist: Bill Withers’s “Ain’t No Sunshine” (pronouns changed to “when he’s gone” in order to send Joe off, it seems) and a choral version of “Ready Or Not” by the Fugees, fit for a nice Victorian-era haunting.
- • Ben’s last warning to Katie while wearing a giant fur coat: “I will haunt you.” He also mentions The Dolls alliance and not gonna lie, I totally forgot that was a thing.
- • Alan’s lilac ensemble at breakfast gets the appropriate amount of recognition from Wyatt. That gathered blazer nearly made up for the icy meal.
- • Jay celebrating so jubilantly after the group banished Joe, seemingly forgetting that he was blubbering over his closest ally mere seconds prior, either further condemns the editing or, unfortunately, makes him the funniest man in this castle.
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