The Traitors Canada S01
So I finally watched the Canadian Traitors. First off, it's a hybrid cast of celebrities and normies (sigh), and the host's wardrobe design is a crime almost worse than murder. But! This is absolutely one of the better games so far, and it's worth seeking out if you can.
The first roundtable goes deep into the ethics of a hybrid cast, with bus driver Collin stating that he'd rather see a civilian win the money than an already rich celeb. This immediately casts suspicion on him, since Survivor champion Erika Casupanan was murdered the night before, in a presumed anti-millionaire hate crime. This theory is incorrect, of course, and poor Collin is the first Faithful to be sent home. Still, it is very refreshing to hear the players themselves voice their discomfort with the show's casting decisions, and openly discuss the economic elephant in the room. I feel vindicated!
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| I really wanted to like Erika, but she doesn't make it easy! |
Despite the discomfort, there's a lot to love about this season. Mike and Kuzie are a super smart, if unlikely, duo. Fierce is so watchable, and Kevin is so Canadian. I enjoyed Mai's frantic energy (though she definitely suffered some psychic damage in the castle); there's something very endearing about being known for "losing" MasterChef, and she turned out to be a strong Faithful. It's a shame this game punishes its most interesting players.
Episode 5 of The Traitors Canada brings a fresh twist to the series, with the most intentional Faithful-vs-Faithful offensive I have ever seen. The only other time I can remember players agreeing that someone is 100% Faithful and deciding to banish them anyway was in De Verraders S03, but that was mostly a self-preservation tactic the night before the finale. Here in Canada, there are still 13 players left, yet Big Brother star Kevin decides to get rid of drag queen Fierce simply because they're bad at the game. It might seem mean of him, but if you consider how many times an oblivious Faithful has ruined everyone else's chances of winning the prize money, it starts to make sense.
But it turns out Kevin doesn't even have to work to get his target eliminated, because everyone turns against Fierce independently. Chaos ensues; the Traitors are no longer allowed to murder that night, and must instead place contestants "on death row," i.e. designate a shortlist of potential murder victims for the next day. Dom, who I hadn't even noticed because he obviously got the purple edit, is booted from the game after brekkie (the leading theory is that he was caught either using a cellphone or smoking weed, lol). Kevin wins a shield in the mission, protecting him from seemingly inevitable murder (yes!)—but it all goes wrong at the roundtable. He gets singled out for wanting to banish Faithfuls he considers to be bad strategists, then everyone banishes for him for that exact same reason. And, yet again, a season of The Traitors loses its strongest player.
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| Girl, same. |
Following Kevin's exit, Mai gets more and more vocal until she's killed off too, and that's when the game gets kinda stale. To stir things up a bit, the cast is given the opportunity to choose between murder or banishment that night (the catch being that they will lose $10k if the banished player turns out to be a Faithful). This is the push Magic Mike needs to finally backstab Kuzie and become the last Traitor remaining, and berry farmer Gurleen is the star of the show from there on out. I won't spoil the ending for you, but I am happy to say that the final word of the game is a very Canadian "sorry."
I hope there are more players like Kevin in the future of this game, because watching someone so switched on is a genuine thrill. Maybe the producers will come up with some new mechanism to protect the Faithfuls that are most engaged and actively participating in the game from premature elimination. Either way, my dream is for CTV to cast Nardwuar in the next season. Doot doola doot doot, you're dead!
