Our time with this season’s untenably chaotic band of traitors has come to an end, and not a moment too soon. Britney Haynes actually broke her sacred bond of sisterhood and ousted fellow Big Brother player Danielle Reyes, leaving her as the sole traitor left prowling around the castle. Despite some genuinely impressive scheming on her part, she was rewarded for her efforts with a banishment of her own at the final roundtable, ensuring a faithful victory. (By the laws of the castle, if even one traitor is left standing at the end, they take home all the bacon.)
But how many faithfuls would be left to split the $204,300 prize pot? The final four survivors—Bachelorette Gabby Windey, Real Housewife Dolores Catania, requisite British royal Lord Ivar Mountbatten, and Dylan Efron, Zac’s brother—were given the choice to either end the game then or banish one of their own if they suspected that a traitor was still in their midst. The moment was given all the pomp and circumstance it deserved—Alan Cumming wore a chic bedazzled tunic to reveal each players’ decision via color-changing fire, etc.—but in the end, the players chose to trust their comrades and end it there.
That means The Traitors had four winners this year—the highest number in the American version’s history. Season one saw the series’ still-sole traitor victor in Survivor‘s Cirie Fields, and last season had only two faithful winners in The Challenge‘s CT Tamburello and The Real World‘s Trishelle Cannatella.
When Alan Cumming asked why Dylan chose to end the game, he answered, “Just like life, things are better with company, and I want to win with people I trust. I think that’s so much more fun than winning alone.” Well, he got his wish, and $51,075 to boot. (Before taxes, of course.) But the sweetest moment in the episode—and perhaps the whole season—came just before the fateful “fire of truth,” when Cumming interviewed all four contestants to get their thoughts on the season as a whole. Gabby answered that the idea of winning made her emotional because she knew her girlfriend, comedian Robby Hoffman, would be “so proud,” and they could use the money to get married. The couple did just that on January 11, as they announced in a pair of sweet Instagram posts earlier this week. Who knew a show about murder and betrayal could end up being so wholesome?
