The ‘Traitors’ Season 4 Power Rankings: Episode 10

It’s semifinals week, and suddenly the casting of two Winter Olympics commentators is starting to look serendipitous

The best running reality show on TV, The Traitors, hath returned. To commemorate this momentous event—and keep tabs on this absurd cast of characters—each week, we will be evaluating the power dynamics of the Traitors castle, determining who’s running the show, who’s playing the best game, and who’s avoiding the ire of the murder-happy Traitors and, even more importantly, the paranoia-driven Faithfuls. We’ll also be holding ceremonies for the players we lose along the way. Here’s where everything in the castle stands after Episode 10. 

In Memoriam

Kristen Kish (Murdered)

Hands up—I was wrong. After last episode, I wrote that Kristen’s public accusation of Eric would be enough to shield her from murder. Surely Eric would be too afraid of the resulting heat of such a decision. Surely he’d be able to sway his fellow Traitor, Rob, to look in a different direction. In retrospect, I can see what a stupid assumption that was on my part.  

Natalie Anderson (Banished)

I’ll say I’ve been more right about Natalie, at least. All season long, we’ve documented the way that she abandons all reason whenever her survival is in jeopardy. There was the maniacal hunting of shields during challenges and the obvious bitterness whenever someone else acquired one. And how could one forget how she acted during the banquet, ripping an antidote out of Tara’s hand because she was so convinced that she was going to be murdered? Natalie is a smart game player. She understands strategy; she had a sound vision for how to make it to the end of this game. But there have been some—frankly very strange—moments when all of that goes out the window.

Natalie goes into her final roundtable aligned with Tara and Johnny in their suspicion of Rob—though, and this is pretty important, neither Tara nor Johnny fully committed to voting against Rob. Tara even openly wondered whether now was the right time to do it. (To her point, this gambit was probably doomed from the start: Rob had two votes because of the dagger, and Maura and Eric in his pocket. Even if Natalie, Tara, and Johnny were able to sway Mark to their side, they would’ve been at a standstill at best.) Still, even as Rob comes for Natalie at the roundtable, the campaign against him is going pretty well—Rob’s arguments and defenses are relatively uncompelling and notably emotional, he’s cursing a lot, and Mark is echoing Natalie’s thoughts—but when Tara wavers just a little bit, Natalie sees red. She drops her case against Rob entirely and starts bickering with Tara for not sticking to a plan that Tara never fully wanted to do. Rob basically gets to sit back and watch the entire roundtable devolve into a muddy mess. 

In the end, the entire table votes to banish Natalie, and Natalie doesn’t even vote against Rob. 

You genuinely hate to see it! Natalie could’ve won! But ultimately you can’t even empathize with her when she indignantly tells the remaining Faithfuls “good job” on her way out. Because, like, bro—you really did this to yourself. 

Tracking Season 4 of ‘The Traitors’

Tracking Season 4 of ‘The Traitors’

The Traitors Power Rankings

Power, at this point in the season, is simply a measure of who has the best shot at winning the game.

1. Tara Lipinski (Faithful, Last Week: 7)

2. Johnny Weir (Faithful, LW: 8)

Not a typo. Yes, those are Tara Lipinski’s and Johnny Weir’s names next to the numbers one and two. As we near the end of the figure skating programs at the 2026 Winter Olympics, these two American treasures have survived and advanced to the Traitors final and are now in a position to win the whole thing. For the most part, they’ve taken the Lord Ivar Mountbatten path to victory, but you gotta hand it to Tara for putting some belt to ass in this episode. Not only is she the first cast member outside of Candiace to name Rob as a potential Traitor, but she also has the sense to consider holstering that suspicion for a moment when it might be wielded more effectively (a move that, unfortunately, Natalie does not make). After the Natalie confrontation, Tara is a puddle, openly begging the Traitors to murder her next—but she’s doing a lot better than she realizes.

And now that both Tara and Johnny have made it to (nearly) the end, they are a real threat. Should they both survive the Traitors’ last murder (and it seems like they will, since Rob and Eric have a much more urgent need to off Mark or Maura) and one more banishment (at which point it’ll be their two votes against the field), they’ll find themselves in the same spot that CT and Trishelle were in Season 2, when they sent home everyone else at the firepit and split the grand prize. Anyone not named Tara or Johnny should now be as motivated to send one of them home as they are to catch a Traitor, because if Tara and Johnny make it to the firepit, they’re not leaving it until they’re the only ones standing. It’s just remarkable that that’s an actual possibility. 

3. Rob Rausch (Traitor, LW: 1)

There seem to be three possible outcomes now:

1. Tara and Johnny win.
2. Tara or Johnny goes home, and a small assortment of Faithfuls wins.
3. Rob wins.

And despite Rob’s stellar performance all season long, outcome three feels like it now has the longest odds. 

I started this season by remarking upon how incredible it was that the snake guy who crashed out and hid in a pool on Love Island USA was playing such a smart, calm game. And finally, the old version of him started to come out in this episode. When he loses in the challenge, he starts moping, throwing stuff on the ground, and flipping out on Mark—a guy who played no role in his loss. He’s not shaving. He’s dropping his cool-bro veneer and just straight up telling Maura, person by person, his plans for sending everyone else home. Everyone seems to be looking at each other like, “Who is this guy, and what did he do with the dude we all had massive crushes on?”

And while he may have survived another roundtable by simply letting everyone else burn it to the ground, the rope is getting perilously short. Tara and Johnny’s pursuit will only get hotter, and after Natalie revealed herself to be a Faithful, chances are Mark will join their cause. Part of me even wonders whether Maura knows that he’s a Traitor and is merely letting him carry her to the end 

Where Rob and Eric (but let’s be honest, just Rob) go with this final murder is crucial. Had this episode not happened, Tara or Johnny would be the easy choice for Rob—but now it basically has to be Maura or Mark, his biggest allies, to take the scent off of him. Mark might not be enough; Rob’s only hope might be murdering the Irish woman he so clearly loves. And even then, it might not be enough. 

It just goes to show you: You can play the greatest Traitor game in the history of The Traitors (U.S. version), and it’s still extremely hard to win the whole thing.

4. Maura Higgins (Faithful, LW: 4)

How much does Maura know?

This is the question I find myself asking every episode. 

On the one hand: She seems to be clocking Rob’s changing demeanor. (She also, as the host of the Love Island USA aftershow, is the only one who has prior knowledge of his crash-out tendencies.) And it would be ever so brilliant to let a fuckboy/Traitor think he has a shot and let him take you to the end of the game—only to then turn on him and take the money for yourself, blissfully single. 

On the other hand: Anytime anyone implicated Rob at the roundtable, Maura jumped down their throats like an overprotective girlfriend. 

Either way, we’ll find out early next episode if Rob chose a shot at the prize money over a shot at a fulfilling relationship with Maura. 

5. Mark Ballas (Faithful, LW: 3)

Every week, I take notes player by player. And every week, I have literally zero notes on Mark. It’s not like he’s not doing anything. He’s just very … there.

I think he’s gonna get murdered. Once a fuckboy, always a fuckboy, and I’m just struggling to see Rob go against Maura. But even if Mark does survive, he’ll be an island up against the Rob-Eric and Tara-Johnny partnerships. He can ally with the latter briefly to take out the former, but like I said earlier, what reason would Tara and Johnny have for ending the game with him still alive?

6. Eric Nam (Traitor, LW: 5)

Live shot of Eric playing the game:

Peacock

Last week, everyone’s feedback for Eric was that he was too damn quiet. So he took it to heart this week, and when the roundtable came around, he … didn’t say a single word. 

My guy! Look alive! They’re gonna send your ass home!