Does Kate Break Bad? Can Phaedra Escape? Can Peter Survive?

Last time, it was Parvati who decided to try and recruit Peter, only for the former Bachelor to deny the offer. In fact, Phaedra has avoided all decisions in the turret to this point, leaving Dan Gheesling (Big Brother) and Parvati to live and ultimately die by their decisions.

That all changed as with no more allies, Phaedra put all her eggs in the hope that Kate would go with the offer. The fact that the alternative was to be Murdered did make it a little more enticing to turn to the dark side, so it was no surprise that Kate agreed.

“I mean, she’s not really giving me a choice here,” Kate said. “But I do love a dramatic cloak, and I do love a VIP club, and I do love knowing secrets, so I guess I’m a Traitor now. It might be fun.”

What she didn’t anticipate was how difficult it would be to suddenly shift allegiances. She worried about lying to her friends, saying she’s a terrible liar. Impressively, and almost immediately, MJ (Shahs of Sunset) sensed the change the next morning at breakfast.

“Are you good? There’s, like, something amiss,” she asked her fellow Bravo-lebrity. Kate tried to play it off, but MJ wasn’t sure, “because the light in Kate’s face is not totally there.” We haven’t seen MJ push any agenda this season — dominated as it’s been by the Peter Pals — but she’s got good intuition.

Kate was just an absolute mess that morning, trying to be a Traitor and act like a Faithful, way too into her head about it. “If I were still a Faithful, would I be eating this salmon? I don’t know,” she mused. Ultimately, she decided to play like she was still a Faithful, convinced Peter is a Traitor.

The night before, Kate was hilarious in the turret when Phaedra tried to force her to make the decision, considering she was brand new at this whole Traitor thing, but we finally got to see just how much Peter is in Phaedra’s head. She was nervous enough about him having a shieid, she decided to target his friends instead, narrowing it down to Kevin Kreider (Bling Empire) and Trishelle Cannatella (The Challenge).

She had no idea how precarious this choice was as it was Trishelle who had the Shield, with Peter telling her to keep it a secret. Ultimately, though, the Traitors chose right, sending Kevin out of the Castle … and painting an even bigger target on Phaedra as he was the one who called out her eye twitch “tell” the previous night.

One huge advantage for Phaedra was perhaps Peter’s biggest blunder to date, which was when he tried to recruit and work with Parvati, knowing she was a Traitor. When she got Banished from the game last night/week, well that was it for CT.

“She turned out to be a Traitor,” he said at breakfast. “I think your credibility just went out the window at that point.” Adding a little fuel to the fire, albeit perhaps inadvertently, when Sandra Diaz-Twine (Survivor) asked if Trishelle had a Shield, she replied, “I did. But only a few people know that I did, which is interesting.”

Way to stoke a little doubt in one of your closest allies, though we suspect they’re all at least a little suspicious of one another … except that everyone seems positive that former Parliamentary member John Bercow is a Faithful. How he pulled that off remains a mystery.

As for Kate, we don’t think she has anything to worry about. In the short bits we saw throughout the episode, she’s doing a great job of socializing and keeping everyone comfortable around her, joking with Peter and CT.

In the castle, she casually asked Peter — who she is openly needing to get rid of now — about The Bachelor. When he said he liked this show better, she shot back, “Really? This is better than having 25 women beg for your affection?”

After the Mission, on the ride back home, Kate joked to CT that she missed his target on purpose. “You do like me,” he shot back with a smile. That’s how you throw people off your scent. She’s better at this than she thinks.

Normally, the missions are throwaway when it comes to what is compelling about this game, but the disastrous performance at this week’s money-making game proved very telling. The same thing happens on shows like Survivor when there are challenges that allow you to target other players.

However, things may have shifted a bit from that with this one to a strategy of sheer desperation … at least for most of the players. That’s because with every missed crossbow shot, they lost $250 from the pot they were playing for.

And they were missing a lot!

The targets were modestly-sized stained-glass panes with each of their names on them. The game only ends when all but one pane is shattered. By the time the players finally ended the game, they’d lost nearly $10,000. That’s a lot of missed shots.

The trick of this game is that it can expose who you’re targeting, which is why eyebrows went up when Sandra suggested shifting strategies, and Phaedra quickly took her up on it.

Trying to hit anyone was a tough task at first, but they quickly learned that small adjustments were easier for getting the aim down right. It was Phaedra who came up with this plan because it would allow for a quick targeting of Peter, who she did ultimately take out.

Things got awkward, though, as they were struggling to hit anyone on the top row. Only Trishelle’s tile was still on the bottom row, so when Phaedra abruptly swiveled the crossbow all the way down to try and take her out, people grew even more suspicious. Kate actually got the killshot, but no eyes are on her yet (except maybe MJ, just a little).

Considering Kevin, Trishelle and Peter had all voted for Phaedra last week, it was their belief that she was trying to take them all out. By switching to Trishelle and trying to block her from getting a Shield, Trishelle believed that Phaedra confirmed she was a Traitor. She’s not entirely wrong, either.

She brought this argument to that night’s Round Table after CT proved the last tile standing. He came to this same conclusion, but it was CT who included Sandra in the theory because she’d suggested it. He and Trishelle opted to target the easier one tonight, as no one has considered Sandra before this so it would be harder to rally the votes.

Meanwhile, Phaedra and Kate were continuing to enhance suspicions on Peter for his aggressive and erratic gameplay to this point. The best evidence they had was him trying to work with Parvati last week. With the Peter Pals down to just three, the Bachelor no longer had the numbers.

At the Round Table, John promptly targeted the Peter Pals’ main target. “I do believe, Phaedra, although you’re a magnificent person, you’re a Traitor,” he said, before laying out all of his arguments, which included the fact that both Dan and Parvati had voted for her on their way out the door.

CT and Trishelle jumped in with their explanation from the Mission that day, with Phaedra shifting targets, but Phaedra barely had time for that. She had her back against the wall more than even last week, when more focus on was on Parvati, but fought valiantly.

A little earlier, Trishelle had tried to rally the Bravo ladies to at least consider Phaedra as a Traitor. “Phaedra has four people that will never see evidence. It’s like y’all have blind loyalty,” she told them, though she was off by one (there are four Bravo-lebrities, including Phaedra).

There is a lot of loyalty among those women, but Trishelle clearly didn’t now that Kate had switched sides, so Kate was doing her part to break apart the arguments even before the Round Table. We’re telling you, she’s pretty good at this.

With CT on board the idea of taking out Phaedra and Sandra fully in support of the notion that Peter is a Traitor, the stage was set for an epic near-tie at the Round Table, and that’s exactly what happened.

Now we know why MJ was the one we saw replying to Trishelle believing the Bravo-lebrities will stay loyal, saying, “That’s not true. I didn’t come to this castle to win a personality test with these ladies. And if any of us do that, we’re all gonna lose.”

In the end, it came down to MJ’s vote. Phaedra, Kate, Sandra, and Shereé Whitfield (RHOA) all voted for Peter, while Peter, John, Trishelle, and CT all went Phaedra. Sounds like the perfect spot for a cliffhanger ending.

How dramatic.

The Traitors drops every Thursday at 9pm ET on Peacock.