My Thoughts - The Traitors, Season 2
My wife and I enjoyed the first season of The Traitors enough to give the second season a try and, after finishing it in record time, here are some of my thoughts:
I am just not a fan of the whole reality star thing. For one, I think there is an assumption everyone watching this show watches a lot of other reality shows and I certainly don't fall in that category. As a result, it felt as though I was expected to know who the contestants were in advance.
On top of it, the fact they divided into fractions based on their show/network did kind of ruin this season for me a bit and made me question if their established friendships/working relationships also meant they were revealing their identity as a Faithful/Traitor off camera.
At minimum, there were quite a few put on the hot seat because of what they did on other shows. That felt like an unnecessary cheat, especially when one of the guesses based almost solely on that was correct. On the flip side, there were too many not on the hot seat because their friends didn't want to believe they'd lie to them, as though that isn't the whole point of the game.
That said, this season took a step backwards from the first season because it was a bad batch of traitors. Dan Gheesling was easily the worst of the original three. He was pegged as a Traitor almost from the first episode, did very little to convince people otherwise and walked into a trap that was so clear and obvious, Peter Weber might as well have told him it was a trap and given him instructions about what not to do (more on that in a bit).
The other two, Phaedra Parks and Parvati Shallow weren't any better at the game, choosing to let Dan walk into the trap even though they were smart enough to see it for what it was and being way too quick to turn on each other. Even attempts to bail them out went bad because of poor decisions. Why in the world would they think attempting to recruit Peter was even remotely a good idea? All that did was make it even more obvious he was on the right track.
So, about that trap. Here's how I would have played it - even without the benefit of knowing who really had the shields and couldn't be killed. I would have rolled the dice and chosen to "murder" Peter.
Best case scenario - he doesn't have the shield like he said (which he didn't) and the most influential Faithful is eliminated. Worst case scenario, he does have the shield and survives. Either way, he and/or his followers no longer have a leg to stand on when it comes to proving I'm a traitor because, unlike Dan and company, I wasn't dumb enough to go after the guy he was practically telling me to kill.
I liked Kate Chastain this season, but she was the wrong choice as a late-add Traitor. Phaedra would have been better off taking a risk and attempting to recruit what I'll call Peter's posse instead. Peter, obviously, turned down the request when Phaedra and Parvati made it earlier but a "join me or die" ultimatum would have a whole lot more sway when money is on the line. At minimum, pursue someone who has established themselves as a Faithful rather than someone who most people still can't get a read on.
On the subject of Kate, she never stood a chance. Look, she did herself no favors by voting the end the game when there was clearly (based on the fact there was a murder the night before) still at least one Traitor in the group, painting a target on her back in the process. However, the fact she was required to commit that murder meant she had no chance of winning in the first place because they were going to keep voting until they found the person who did it.
One rule change I would recommend based on that is for the Traitors to have the choice not to commit a murder. At minimum, on the final night, to raise some questions about if there are any remaining and maybe one time during the season, to raise suspicions about someone being recruited.
Oh, and I'm just going to say it, that C. T. Tamburello and Trishelle Cannatella thing was just wrong. My wife agreed with me when I said those two were WAY closer than two married (to other people) friends should be, to the point I was comparing some of their screentime to scenes from Hallmark movies, including their third act disagreement. I mean, I know it's reality TV and I shouldn't take everything at face value, but it still gave me a case of the icks.
For the record however, Trishelle would have been my choice for the join-me-or-die pitch. Full disclosure, I don't remember if she happened to have the shield at that time or not and I'm not going to look it up because my reasoning still stands. As an ally, she'd already have C. T. in the palm of her hand and after spearheading the Traitor hunt with Peter, would be more convincing as a Faithful than Kate and more likely to get the others off my scent. If she said no, it would mean the game's second strongest and most influential person would be gone but, as I said before, I don't think she would say no when her only other option is not to win the money.
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Here are some similar entries:
Final Thoughts From The Pretty Little Liars Episode "Choose or Lose"
Final Thoughts From the Pretty Little Liars Series Finale
Final Thoughts from the Doctor Who Episode "Twice Upon a Time"
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