‘The Traitors’ season 2 episode 1 recap: Who are the traitors? Who are the faithfuls? [LIVE BLOG]

It’s finally time to open up the castle doors for Season 2 of “The Traitors.” Just like last year, the new cast members will be randomly divided into villainous Traitors (those who lie, cheat and steal) and heroic Faithfuls (those who try to uncover the truth). So which contestants failed to survive the premiere episode and — more importantly — which Traitor looked the best in their cloak?

Below, read our minute-by-minute “The Traitors” Season 2, Episode 1 recap/live blog of “Betrayers, Fakes and Fraudsters” to find out what happened Friday, January 12, 2024. Then be sure to sound off in the comments section about your favorite contestants on Peacock’s reality TV show, who annoys you the most and who you think will ultimately take home a cash prize of up to $250,000. Alan Cumming once again hosts and produces the program in the Scottish Highlands.

Here are the current cast members:

Carsten “Bergie” Bergersen (“Love Island USA”)
Chris “C.T.” Tamburello (“The Challenge”)
Dan Gheesling (“Big Brother”)
Deontay Wilder (Boxer)
Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu (“Love Island UK”)
Janelle Pierzina (“Big Brother”)
Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio (“The Challenge”)
John Bercow (UK Parliament)
Kevin Kreider (“Bling Empire”)
Larsa Pippen (“The Real Housewives of Miami”)
Marcus Jordan (Basketball Player)
Maksim Chmerkovskiy (“Dancing with the Stars”)
Mercedes “MJ” Javid (“Shahs of Sunset”)
Parvati Shallow (“Survivor”)
Peppermint (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”)
Peter Weber (“The Bachelor”)
Phaedra Parks (“The Real Housewives of Atlanta”)
Sandra Diaz-Twine (“Survivor”)
Shereé Whitfield (“The Real Housewives of Atlanta”)
Tamra Judge (“The Real Housewives of Orange County”)
Trishelle Cannatella (“The Real World: Las Vegas”)

Keep refreshing/reloading this “The Traitors” live blog for the most recent updates.

’00: “Previously on ‘The Traitors’!” In last season’s finale, “Survivor” legend Cirie Fields, a Traitor, won the grand prize after outsmarting Andie Vanacore and Quentin Jiles, both Faithfuls. Other Traitors throughout that first season were Arie Luyendyk Jr. of “The Bachelorette” fame, veteran Christian de la Torre and “Big Brother” star Cody Calafiore. But enough about last year — let’s get started with Season 2!

’02: If you kept up with “The Traitors” before then you know just how important car rides are for strategic purposes. The first opportunity the players got to use this time to their advantage was with their arrival to the castle. Peppermint admitted to “fan girling” over getting to share a ride with Sandra, Shereé and Peter while Parvati told Sandra that seeing Sandra on the cast would not be her favorite thing. At the welcome reception after the car ride, CT and Bananas caught each other for the first time and swapped a high five over their longstanding friendship on “The Challenge together” and Dan reacted excitedly to seeing Janelle again for the first time since evicting her from “Big Brother” 10 years ago.

’09: Upon entering the castle for the first time, the three “Challenge” vets went straight to the bar, bringing CT and Trishelle together again for the first time since leaving that show “not on the best of terms.” In a confessional, Trishelle said she “does not trust CT.” Elsewhere, Peppermint was able to bring Parvati and Sandra together to (hopefully) get them on the same page of forgiveness under the platitude that “the enemy you know is better than the enemy you don’t move.” Together, the three of them made a promise to keep each other alive as long as they can, but privately Sandra said that she’ll keep her word until it’s time to “take care of her once and for all.” Other topics that came up in this period was coming from shows about money (Kevin according to Phaedra and CT) and about competition (Janelle to Kevin). First order of business for dating couple Larsa and Marcus was to dispel the natural thought that they’d be playing together. They each told Tamra that they’re willing to murder each other in the game “if push comes to shove.”

’14: Before bringing the cast to the Round Table for the first time for his selection of the traitors, Alan met with each of them to get an idea of their strategies going into the game. Peter told him he doesn’t want to be “the loudest voice,” Deontay felt “very confident” because it’s in “the same business as boxing,” CT said he’d be good at finding traitors, Dan said being a traitor is the only reason he came, and Sandra dared Alan to make her a traitor.

’17: At the Round Table, Alan had everyone put a blindfold on so that he could make a few trips around the circle in order to secretly tap the shoulders of the players he’s selected to be traitors. In that waltz around the table, Alan selected only two people: Dan and Phaedra, much to the glee of each. Their first test as traitors was to remove their blindfolds along with everyone else and hide the fact that they had just been selected as the killers. Dan was sure to look around the table to appear that he’s trying to find hints of a traitor. Before releasing the group from their silence, Alan warned them that the traitors would make their first victim that night as well as executing the extra task of completing their group by enlisting one more member.

’22: Janelle was seated next to John and in earshot of Sandra, Peter and Maks, questioned John about a “breathing problem” she heard coming from him when Alan was making his way around for the selection. Larsa was more public about what she heard – speaking up to the entire room that she’s a great listener and could hear Alan lifting his jacket when he passed Parvati next to her. Parvati countered that her casting doubt on her is “so shady” and a “great strategy” that a traitor would employ to deflect.

’24: Larsa committed to her doubt on Parvati in the time after the selection, telling Dan, Tamra, Ekin-su and Trishelle that Parvati’s defensiveness was even more of a red flag. Larsa’s antics were music to Dan’s ears who quickly realized that he doesn’t have to do much work with her going around making accusations. He considered that she might be a good first recruit because she’ll make herself a target and he could throw her under the bus for his own gain.

’25: Janelle told Phaedra and Peter how strongly she felt about John’s breathing during the selection and warned them that if she’s killed first he must be a traitor. The conversation was Phaedra’s first opportunity to employ what would be her strategy as a traitor: “listen, take notes and agree, but not actually participate in those conversations.” She said the key to the game is to “do just enough, but not too much.”

’26: Ekin-su confronted Bergie about his sweating and fast-talking post-selection and then Larsa added by commenting on how red his cheeks were. He insisted that it would be impossible for him to be a traitor and then in a confessional said his personal goal is to prove that he “can’t be manipulated” since that was one of his chief characteristics during his time on “Love Island USA.”

’28: Ahead of their first mission, Alan disclosed that because she was taken ill, Tamra would not be participating alongside them. In the challenge, they’d have to collect floating puzzle pieces from the lake to rearrange them in the correct order that matches an image hidden somewhere on the shoreline. They’d have 40 minutes to complete the puzzle and set off a detonator in order to add $30,000 to the prize pot in an all-or-nothing mission. Scattered on the course are also three shield necklaces that would offer the players to claim them immunity at the next kill.

’31: Over the course of the challenge, Janelle was among the first players to untie herself from the post they started on and darted straight for the one shield placed on the shore. Her selfish act was noticed by many people who were concerned by her decision to not help untie other people first. As players familiar with group challenges such as this, Bananas and CT took a lead in strategizing getting guys in the row boats in order to go out on the lake to bring the puzzle pieces back. While out in the boats, CT and Deontay each ditched their boat with Marcus and Maks in order to claim the two shields in the water for themselves.

’35: On land, Bergie was the very last player to untie themselves and many of the female players were searching the shore for the clue. In a field of bottles stuffed with mostly blank papers, Shereé finally found the clue that depicted the puzzle as a replica of the shield emblem. With more than half of their time expired, it was a race to get all the pieces back to the main dock in order to assemble them, but having both CT, Peppermint and Marcus barking out orders from different directions it became a struggle to get on the same page about how to make it work. In the end, they managed to connect all the floating pieces in the correct way, get everyone back on shore, and hit the detonator with literally one second to spare.

’45: On the all important car rides back to the castle, Bananas called Janelle, CT and Deontay’s behavior “unusual” and Shereé called it shady in another car. The concern was that their selfish moves cost the rest of the team crucial time. The car with Ekin-su, Dan, Peter and Bananas questioned what strategy the traitors would use to recruit: pick someone that helps out a lot or very little?

’47: Over the course of dinner time, Phaedra began to consider CT, who she admitted to having a crush on, as someone she might potentially want to recruit. Separately, Dan was eyeing the people he knew from past experience would not hold back from being ruthless in the game. On his list of possible recruits were Janelle, Parvati and Sandra. In his conversations with those people, Dan and Janelle committed to working together as an alliance and he voiced his respect for how great of a player Sandra is.

’51: As night fell for the first time, Alan had Phaedra and Dan speak the oath of the traitors before officially initiating each of them as traitors and taking them to the turret to introduce them to one another. Catching a first glance at each other in the turret, Dan and Phaedra each sent their heads back in devious howls of laughter. They thought they were the perfect pair and each was shocked at how well the other had played their status through the first day because they didn’t suspect the other at all. Together, the names that they through out as recruitment options were Sandra because she’s a great player, Parvati as a “good shield” for them, Janelle because she’s “tough and loyal,” and Larsa in an attempt to break up her couple with Marcus. They nixed immediately the idea of bringing over John or Ekin-su.

’57: By the end of the episode we were not privy to the decision that Dan and Phaedra made in their recruitment and were cut short from hearing their second deliberation about who to kill first. Alan did clarify for them that the recruitment request would be issued to their pick that night, but that they wouldn’t know who recruited them until they join them in the turret the following night.

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