Peter and Phaedra are Fighting For Their Lives On ‘The Traitors’ — But Somehow Trishelle Managed To Make This Week’s Episode All About Her

With only two more episodes left in the second season of The Traitors, tensions are at an all-time high between the Traitors and the Faithfuls. With Traitors Dan Gheesling and Parvati Shallow banished, it was up to Phaedra Parks to recruit a new Traitor this week and she correctly picked Kate Chastain to join her in the turret. Kate had no choice, because she was served an ultimatum, join or die, but let’s face it, Kate was born to be a Traitor, so this was neither a debate, nor an unpleasantry for her. (“I do love a dramatic cloak. And I do love a VIP club. And I do love knowing secrets,” she said when revealing her decision. This episode was PEAK one-liners for not just Kate, but for Phaedra, who told Kate upon her acceptance into the Traitors, “I think you’ll make a crazy cool killer with me,” and later compared Dan’s presence as “dry toast with no jam, no butter.”)

But this was also a very tactical move for Phaedra; she needs a strong ally these days now that she’s the prime suspect among Peter Weber, Trishelle Cannatella (who rescued at least one of Parvati’s headbands from banishment!), and John Bercow’s core group of Faithfuls. (Kevin Krieder also suspected Phaedra, but alas, beautiful blank Kevin was murdered this week, R.I.P.) Peter and his gang spent the episode lobbying the others to get Phaedra out, while Phaedra did the same thing with regard to Peter, who is ironically both the most devout Faithful, and also the most suspicious. (“Peter puts the dick in dictator,” Kate says aloud, presumably so that someone in the world can slap that slogan on a t-shirt in the next 24 hours so I can wear it by the weekend.) Peter’s just become too meddlesome and strategic for his own good. It’s a little too late for this now, but at a certain point, Peter should have taken a cue from Shereé Whitfield or MJ Javid and laid low for a while just enjoying this for the free trip to Scotland that it is. “Just enjoy brunch, Peter!” I wish someone would have said to him. But no, all of the backdoor deals he attempted to negotiate with the likes of Parvati and Dan have backfired, and now Phaedra’s using them as ammo against him to sow seeds of doubt among her “Bravo girls” who she needs to vote for his banishment.

So with all of this pressure on both Peter and Phaedra, why then was entirely too much of this episode all about Trishelle, who thinks she deserves every immunity shield ever? I do think that Trishelle has become a savvy player; I don’t love her but I think this game is better with her in it, however, the whining. Whinin’ and cryin’ for three weeks straight. I think it started when CT didn’t light her torch, it continued last week when she and her notebook tried to convince everyone at the round table of Phaedra’s guilt, which led to another Phaedra gem, when she told Trishelle, who accused her of never seeming nervous, “I don’t know what you want me to do to be nervous. I’m not frantic like you.” Frantic is definitely the word for it.

This week during their challenge, in which the contestants had to take turns shooting arrows at stained glass windows with the players’ names on them and the last name left unbroken would win immunity, Phaedra decided to train her arrow on Trishelle’s window after a long series of missed shots at CT’s. Now, mere moments before, Phaedra shot out Kate’s and Peter’s windows, but no one made a stink about this. Phaedra actually missed her shot though, and it was Kate who shot out Trishelle’s window. In the end, CT’s window was the only one remaining, and he won immunity. However, it turned into The Trishelle Show when she declared that Phaedra “completely screwed up the game and screwed everyone else in the process out of money just to purposefully keep me from getting the shield.” I mean, look, I understand the disappointment, but we saw this entire scenario play out two weeks ago when CT chose not to light her torch and save her from banishment. In that case, she held a grudge against her Challenge friend for the entire rest of the episode, never once taking into account that some people might be operating on a strategy that is not simply “Save Trishelle.”

Trishelle used this “sabotage” as she called it, to get everyone – specifically the Bravo crowd – to consider voting Phaedra, and not Peter, out at the round table. Trishelle was even so bold as to say to Kate, MJ, Shereé, and Sandra, “Phaedra has four people that will never see evidence. It’s like y’all have blind loyalty to her.”

MJ was the one to jump in and correct Trishelle” here, saying that she most certainly does not have blind loyalty to anyone, and “if any of us do that, we’re all going to lose.”

And whether it was just genius editing or the luck of the draw, as it turns out, all of Trishelle’s lobbying may have paid off because this week’s vote was evenly split down the middle, 4 votes for Peter and 4 for Phaedra, and MJs vote served as the tiebreaker. We won’t know who she voted for until next week, though – and I do love that MJ finally has a big moment – but no matter who she votes for, I’m more worried about the Trishelle of it and how she’s going to make it about her. Unless her vote is for Trishelle?!