Traitors New Blood recap: bad evidence

The most strategic and diabolical move Thursday night was not on NBC, it was at CBS. They cancelled Friday’s episode of Big Brother 28 and doubled up Thursday’s episode, so BB28 would face off directly against the two hours of The Traitors: New Blood.

Why try to murder The Traitors? Because its premiere ratings were brutal: it lost a quarter of its audience—about 500,000 viewers—between the first and second episodes, and only earned a 0.3 among young viewers 18 to 49. In Joe Adalian’s words, it “got murdered,” as Big Brother had more than twice that.

Meanwhile, two days earlier, Dancing with the Stars had a “massive” 1.48 rating for young viewers.

Of course, many people may watch The Traitors: New Blood on Peacock Fridays (it wasn’t available Thursday) or on DVR. But the head-to-head match-up and CBS’s decision to counter-program The Traitors suggests New Blood may bleed out soon.

NBC is skipping next Thursday by airing a repeat against Big Brother’s finale, so we’ll have to wait two weeks to see the episode four cliffhanger resolve—and then the show moves to 10 p.m. Thursdays. I hope it hold on until then.

The Traitors New Blood episode 3 recap: ‘Traitors Are Watching’

Tomica and Joe’s made their biggest decision as traitors to murder Xavier and recruit Katie. When Tomica said she was 50/50, I appreciate that: Xavier is already trying to get another traitor out of the game, so he’s an internal threat, but since he already flagged Katie to other players, that’s a problem, too.

They are a fun group. “We are gooing to do very very bad things together!” Tiny Traitor Katie said, and Joe asked, “Are we too jovial for a group that’s supposed to murder?”

And thus began an episode of alternately smart and hilariously bad Traitors game play. Logan fixed on Xavier pointing out how nervous and anxious Katie was, but decided to sit back and be quiet.

Also being quiet: Morgan. “I don’t want to come across as too quiet, because that’s suspicious, too,” she said. Literally no idea who she is, and ditto for a bunch of other players who might as well be PAs wandering around the castle.

Mustache Jay started the day with his new strategy: annoy the ever-loving shit out of everyone. “I’m going to say two names at the end of the day,” he said, and then added, “there’s a reason why I’m doing it because I don’t want anything to be suspicious.” Good plan. That’s like walking into a bank wearing a trench coat, sunglasses, and a Party City wig, walking up to the counter, and sliding a note to the teller saying out loud, I didn’t want to be suspicious!

On the other hand, Joe and Tomika were doing pretty well protecting themselves. Joe, comparing the game to “being chased through the jungle by a cheetah,” argued the traitors are targeting alphas, thus trying to divert attention from himself.

Tomika was even smarter. After the mission, during which she let Clyde retrieve a shield, she revealed that Clyde had it—and then when she realized what she’d done, told everyone, “I am vulnerable now!”

“I worry she might not understand parts of the game, if that’s okay to say,” Clyde told us, while Tomica told us, “I can’t believe they actually believed me.” Brilliant!

Both challenges in this two-hour block had strategic components, connecting them to the game rather than leaving them as Traitors recess.

At each of three stops, just two players went in to retrieve money. “Ben and Michael, bounding into my third crypt like two gay Lara Crofts,” as Alan Cumming said, left them with a choice of $15,000 or $5,000 for the pot and information about the traitors.

Love this: it makes everyone’s game harder. The clue: “Last night two players battled in plain sight to become a traitor.”

Unfortunately, it was read by someone who immediately forgot what it actually said. Michael declared to the other players, “Traitors, we’re coming for your wigs, and we’ll snatch them!”

But what he told his van—and others, later—is that Arisa shaking hands with Victor was “exactly what the clue said happened.”

“They like held hands and did this ritual ceremony,” he said. “she was anointed a traitor in that moment.” Where did it say anything about a ritual or being anointed or even recruited?!

Michael thought he had “some real concrete evidence,” but like Kriste, based that on a complete misunderstanding. At the roundtable, he said that “could be something that was a potential recruitment.” The clue didn’t say recruitment!

But, in a big surprise, Kriste got one right: wondering if Xavier was competing to be a traitor and lost.

And that’s when Joe and Tomika may have created a problem for themselves. Joe interrupted to say, “I got something”—and asked if anyone “had beef” with Xavier. The player who explicitly identified your newest traitor to multiple people?!

Then mustache Jay declared, “I’m a body language expert,” and Joe asked him directly who he suspected. And the answer came after the episode break…

Traitors New Blood episode 4 recap: ‘The Death Parade’

After making his expertise known, Jay made his big reveal: “So, um, I’ve been taking a beat today because it’s been a lot for me.” Oh, has it? Why don’t you have a juice box and sit over there in the corner and think about HOW TO PLAY THIS GAME.

But that was the least frustrating thing Jay did.

That part of my recap is coming in an hour or two! But first I have to go to community acupuncture to calm my mind so I can write about his game play and not just pound the keyboard.

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