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They had a good run, but all contestants with ties to Oregon have been eliminated from the fourth season of The Traitors, Peacock’s take on the U.K. murder-mystery reality game show. Drag queen Monét X Change, who lived in Portland briefly while working with Portland Opera, was murdered in Episode 5. Ron Funches, who grew up in Salem and started his comedy career in Portland, was banished in Episode 6. And now Lisa Rinna, the queen of Medford, has been exposed as a Traitor and is out of the running for a prize pot of up to $250,000.
Rinna, dressed like a haunted Navy doll from my uncle’s collection, had to trick one of the Faithfuls into touching her cursed brooch/amulet at a banquet. Receiving no support from Rob Rausch or Candiace Dillard-Bassett, Rinna succeeds. Alan Cumming reveals the murder in plain sight, causing all the players to question among themselves what could have sealed their fates. He presents two antidotes (the cursed amulet is also poisoned?), and the Faithfuls must decide who gets to take them. After several minutes of tense arguing, Kristen Kish and Natalie Anderson secure the antidotes, with Anderson more or less strong-arming her way to hers. Both players were in Rinna’s sights, unbeknownst to them, but she murdered Yamil “Yam Yam” Arocho. He calls out Rinna’s name as he’s dragged from the table, blaming her even if he doesn’t understand why it’s her.
Anderson and Stephen Colletti believe the heat is on them the next morning over the banquet, as does Colton Underwood for his brazen banishment campaign against Tiffany Mitchell. Rinna catches Anderson in a vocabulary slip-up with Tara Lipinski. Anderson says she “murdered” someone instead of “banished” them, when describing how she eliminated other players in the game. Dillard-Bassett attempts to whip up votes against Anderson in an effort to save Rinna, which seems to take sway, but Rausch independently pushes for Rinna’s banishment, betraying his fellow Traitor yet again.
The main challenge of the episode sees the players trek uphill carrying rocks that they can pick up along the way. The top six players with the most rocks will have the chance to play for two votes at the roundtable. Rausch, as the top earner, faces off against Anderson, Underwood, Colletti, Mark Ballas and Eric Nam, allowing him the opportunity to steal the votes in a game of chance. After interrogating the other players, Rausch successfully guesses that Anderson held the votes, winning them from her. He convinces the other players not to reveal who won, endearing them to him as he pretends to be Faithful.
At the roundtable, Rinna, Lipinski and Dillard-Bassett build a convincing argument against Anderson that seems to sway several people, but Rausch ultimately makes a highly logical argument against Rinna. Noting that Arocho was the only player with no motive to lie on his way out of the game, Rausch successfully swings the vote back to Rinna. Only two people voted for Anderson in the end. Dillard-Bassett votes for Rausch in a move that could jeopardize both of their standings in the game (and further erode the trust between them), while Dorinda Medley votes for Maura Higgins out of personal spite.
Rinna can’t recover, but she’s got a busy schedule ahead of her as she leaves Ardross Castle. Rinna’s memoir You Better Believe I’m Gonna Talk About It comes out Feb. 24, while she will appear as herself in RuPaul’s new film, Stop! That! Train!, in May.
