Y’all. We’ve lost the plot. For real, for real.
After an absolutely stellar season of television last season, no matter how you felt about The Challenge vets CT Tamburello and Trishelle Cannatella winning, The Traitors was undeniably top-tier reality competition television.
Season 3 of the Peacock series has a lot to live up to. And ultimately, it has been solidly entertaining television. Yes, the boot order is kind of non-ideal, and we may be amid some of the most illogical-thinking faithfuls that have ever been on the U.S. series, but nothing about the season itself is inherently bad. And while The Traitors (all of them, not just one) have had objectively messy gameplay this season, again—it hasn’t been bad or unwatchable. In fact, it continues to be must-see television week after week.
However, what is beginning to sour the season is the fan reaction to the performance and gameplay of one traitor in particular, which is being fueled in part by racism and misogynoir but also by fellow cast members’ exit interviews, in which they seem to not understand the game they played in and signed up for.
Danielle Reyes is one of the original four traitors of the season, along with Bob the Drag Queen, Carolyn Wiger, and Rob “Boston Rob” Mariano. If you are a Big Brother fan, you know that Danielle Reyes is one of the legends of the show. First appearing on Season 3, where she was runner-up, she also appeared in Big Brother 7, as well as the recent spinoff Big Brother: Reindeer Games. Reyes is actually so legendary that they had to change the format of the game because of her. Reyes essentially curb-stomped all of her competition in Season 3 and had the house in the palm of her hands. However, she was very cocky in her confessionals—and rightfully so—but it left a bad taste in the eliminated houseguests’ mouths—so much so that they didn’t choose Reyes to win. After this season, the houseguests in the jury phase of the competition were sequestered so they would not be able to review the season—and in turn, would not be able to see what people were saying in their confessionals, so it would not factor into their jury votes.
Because of all of this, Reyes is considered to be the best Big Brother player to never win the game. As Bob the Drag Queen told People, “Danielle is an absolute icon in the world of reality TV. I don’t think y’all reading at home know how much Danielle Reyes has changed the game of reality TV. You literally don’t know. They do reality differently because of her impact.”
Now, let’s get back to The Traitors season at hand. Looking at the situation without bias, Reyes has played a messy game, and for viewers, it is surprising that she has made it so far—at least from our vantage point. There have been times when it seems like the faithfuls should have been able to clock that she’s a traitor, especially the moment when she was not going to use a shield on herself, which should have signaled to the others that she knew she would be safe. But still, she’s been able to continue through the competition. Regardless, as viewers, we’re only seeing what production is choosing to show us. We are not in the minds of the faithfuls. We can also clearly see this through the lens of an edited show. So, it may seem like Danielle has been a walking red flag in season 3—but that’s just to us. We are not in the castle. And clearly, whatever Reyes has been doing this season is working.
There’s also the criticism that has been levied against her character this season—someone who is overly emotional, crying at the drop of a hat, and overall just looking and acting very frazzled. This is something that Reyes has said is the persona she chose to portray going into the season so that it would be a stark contrast to her boisterous and composed Big Brother persona.
“That’s all performance and crazy acting,” Reyes said in an interview with People. “I am a non-emotional person in my normal life to the point people think I’m heartless and cold. I’ve been told that. So I decided to cry. I thought I’d be more emotional. I would get emotional at stupid stuff. It’s so cringey. I laugh at myself because it is funny.”
She continued, “I mean, it’d be so boring if I wasn’t doing what I was doing. You don’t want traitors hugging and singing Kumbaya. You want to see the chaos, and that’s what we’re giving you guys.”
While you may not agree with the way Reyes is acting on the season—you may even find it annoying—again, clearly, she’s doing something right because she is now the traitor who has survived the most roundtables. And what may be her magnum opus of the season, the Danielle we know from Big Brother showed up to The Traitors Season 3 as Reyes, from start to finish in last week’s episode, effectively burying Wiger in a roundtable tour de force. But just like many fans have acted about Reyes’ showing on the season so far, they are unwilling to give her credit for how well she has done.
Many fans are taking issue with Reyes’ overemotional antics as well as lies that she allegedly told to the competitors, as well as allegedly swearing on her grandchildren. Lies and swearing? In a game called The Traitors. Wow, what a concept! This aspect of the discourse is being driven by comments being made by the eliminated contestants.
Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause said on the Off The Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe podcast, “Here’s a little tidbit that hasn’t got a lot of airtime because they cut it from the show… they cut out the fact that Danielle swore on her grandkids. And so there’s a lot of players… this is going to come out at the reunion. She knew it was going to be aired on the show. She said it multiple times while filming.”
Similarly, Summer House star Ciara Miller has used multiple interviews to diss Danielle’s game as well. “I was kind of disgusted that she was a traitor,” she told US Weekly. “I just didn’t respect her game-playing. There were some off-camera swearing on kids, grandkids or whatever, and I just didn’t feel like the stakes were that high.”
It is not lost on me that most of the critiques coming from the contestants are coming from cast members of reality television soaps—where the main point of contention on their shows is to stir drama, and both shows have seen their stars (not necessarily the ones that are on The Traitors this season) hurl insults and have vile rumors circulate? Bravo stars have been to jail and fought… so why is there suddenly a limit on what someone will do to win $200,000…. when their objective in being on the show is to win. Don’t get me wrong, I am the biggest Bravo fan as anyone else, but come on y’all.
There are also these unfounded notions that Reyes has gone below the belt and insinuated things about Wiger’s mental capacity and struggles. Wiger, a fan favorite on both Survivor and this season of The Traitors, has been open about her journey and overcoming personal struggles. However, in the context of this game, Reyes hasn’t said anything out of pocket. A Forrest Gump comment made by Reyes at the recent roundtable, to talk about Wiger’s quirky personality and aloofness—something that Wiger spoke about herself in confessionals to use to her advantage—has been weaponized by fans to go as far as to call Reyes an ableist.
Even Wiger posted a video on social media seeming to critique Reyes, which ultimately appeared to be in good fun, and Reyes even responded and laughed it off. However, many fans thought that this was just egging the audience on to continue dogpiling Reyes, regardless of whether it was harmless shade or not.
Some fans have called Reyes a terrible person and said they aren’t watching the show as long as shes’s on there. Y’all. Not only iis this inaccurate. It’s also not that serious.
All of this is not to say that fans can’t critique Reyes’ game. But why wasn’t this same critique given to Boston Rob and Wiger? The Danielle criticism is also reminiscent of how people thought that Bob the Drag Queen was doing too much during his episodes in the season. If a white contestant did the things that Danielle and Bob have done, would they have received the same backlash? I think we all know the answer to that.
Here’s hoping that these conversations don’t ruin a season that shouldn’t have caused this sort of discourse to begin with.
.
