‘The Traitors’ Recap: Boston Rob Is Still the Riddler… But for How Long?

[Warning: The following post contains spoilers about The Traitors Season 3 Episode 3, “A Dysfunctional Family.”]

Boston Rob Mariano came into The Traitors like a wrecking ball and took out one of the original traitors, Bob the Drag Queen, for throwing bulk shade on all of the new guys. If Rob isn’t careful, the pendulum might swing right back at him — and soon, judging by certain players’ actions on Thursday’s (January 23) new episode. If that power move doesn’t come back to haunt him, though, he may have just changed the game forever … in a good way, too.

The episode started out with a quick round of clean-up on aisle turret, as both Carolyn Wiger and Danielle Reyes were gobsmacked by Rob’s move against Bob at the roundtable. They swam with the tide and helped him eliminate their cloaked brethren during the vote, of course, but neither of them were happy about it or convinced by Rob’s assurances that they weren’t next on his hit list.  

The trio narrowly agreed on another obligatory murder — taking out Robyn Dixon, who was the ultimate traitor-hunting faithful — but it’s clear neither of the girls is too happy with Rob right now. The problem for them? Instead of conspiring with one another to ambush Rob with a banishment blast, Danielle decided Carolyn wasn’t savvy enough to help her take Rob out. Instead, she vowed to banish Carolyn and get another traitor on board to help her oust Rob. 

After being a little too obvious at the riddle challenge by throwing the shields she earned at everyone but herself, Danielle made her first move against Carolyn by telling Dylan Efron, Wes Bergmann, Ivar Mountbatten, and Chrishell Stause that she had reason to suspect her as a traitor. Dylan, in turn, decided that was information Carolyn needed to know. Ruh roh.

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In essence, then, Rob did manage to target a traitor and turn the other two against one another right away, all while inspiring Danielle to make herself all too obvious by giving other people all the shields she earned in the daily. However, he also put a neon flashing light right above his own head for all the other faithfuls to see. 

None of Danielle’s shiftiness at the riddle challenge came to bear at the roundtable. Instead, some lingering suspicions from before about Nikki Garcia drove yet another elimination of a faithful. But Rob was hardly hailed as the conquering hero he was the night before. Instead, he was namechecked by Bob Harper for being overly confident in the accusation of Bob the Drag Queen — building on a theory he was gently guided to by Wes Bergmann, no less — who insisted it’d be the ultimate traitor move to come in and eliminate another on day one to “establish dominance.” 

Now it’s officially out there as a theory, and Derrick Lavasseur is ready to shout it from the rooftops. Meanwhile, the traitors are all in disarray and disunion. This doesn’t seem promising, even with tat tableside speech about all the behavior-based reasons Rob targeted Bob TDQ the last time.

The good news? Boston Rob’s move has potentially changed the dynamic for traitor circles, possibly forever. Whereas before, traitors protected one another by default on a vow of secrecy, now all bets are off … and the finger-pointing can happen to anyone.

So will Rob’s big move turn the house against him? Or will Danielle’s suspicious behavior at the daily challenge have people questioning her instead? Or will the players continue to target faithfuls, like Ciara Miller? Let us know your predictions in the comments below!

Traitors, Thursdays, 9/8c, Peacock

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