7 things The Traitors US reunion delivered

“So my dears, we meet again,” Alan Cumming said at the start of The Traitors US season one’s reunion, from a set with a fireplace designed to look like the castle. Oh, how great to have Alan Cumming back again!

Alas, after an outfit reveal, he quickly handed the episode over to a host whose charm and fabulousness pales in comparison. (Alan returned later to tease season two, but not give any actual information.)

“There’s only one man I trust to stir this treacherous plot and find out what really went down in my treacherous castle,” Alan said, and then a person in a Traitors robe came out and revealed himself: Andy Cohen.

The contrast between their styles and talents was, um, very apparent, but also played for laughs, which I appreciated. Andy asked for advice, and Alan said, “Don’t ask any of them to spell ‘Geraldine.’ Don’t mention community theatre. And make liberal use of the words ‘mur-der’ and ‘dollars’.”

When Andy tried to start the reunion as he normally does, Alan said, “That’s a bit too much Andy. Just play it down, play it down.” Did I say how much I love Alan Cumming?

While The Traitors broke the reality TV competition mold in all the best ways, the reunion did not; it was very much in the Bravo style, and not just because Andy Cohen and his bloodshot eyes read reader questions from a stack of cards.

A lot of what came up has already been answered on social media or in post-show interviews like my conversation with Rachel.

However, the reunion did have a handful of great moments and answered some lingering questions. Here’s where I think the reunion really delivered:

Babies, and one relationship

We learned how fertile The Traitors cast is:

• Andie’s wife had their baby
• Quentin’s wife had their baby
• Kate is pregnant
• Ryan Lochte’s wife is pregnant with their third kid

We also learned that while Christian had a crush on Shelbe, he’s now dating Geraldine. Kate yelled, “Oh my god, the first Traitor baby!” but that’s some really wishful thinking right now unless Christian gets his condoms where he got his acting lessons.

I say that not just because Christian described their relationship as “having fun” and Geraldine said “we’re getting to know each other.”

Also, when Christian said he was dating her, Geraldine’s response was, “I need a shot of tequila right now, please,” perhaps because their relationship in such early stages that Christian still cannot spell her name.

Two absences, one notable

Reza Farahan and Brandi Glanville were both no-shows at the reunion, which filmed Feb. 17 in New York City. “Reza and Brandi are unfortunately not able to join us tonight,” Andy Cohen said, and they were never mentioned again.

Reza Farahan was not there because his father died early this month; Entertainment Tonight said he was staying in L.A. with friends and family. Also, to be fair, Reza’s time was so short there would not have been much for him to add.

Brandi, however, was filming Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip season 4 in January, when she was removed from the show for kissing Caroline Manzo repeatedly without consent.

Producers on that Peacock show waited until the next day to remove Brandi, but not until the next day, according to People. Bravo told People:

“The safety and security of cast and crew while shooting is extremely important and we take all reports seriously. In this situation, production immediately launched a comprehensive review and is taking appropriate action.”

Does that appropriate action include keeping her off The Traitors reunion? I would not be surprised.

Actual shade from Andy Cohen

In the years since he hosted BravoTV.com aftershow specials, Andy Cohen has gotten better at this, but is still more like a broken traffic light at a busy intersection. However, he managed some actual shade.

I don’t mean shade he read off cards, though major props to “Susie from California” for asking Quentin, “You were wrong about almost every person you thought was a Traitor. Did this have any impact on your career as a political analyst?” (Quentin said no.)

Instead, I refer to a moment that came sometime after Christian revealed himself to be “an actor” and “just a content creator,” and said he relished being selected a Traitor because “what better option [than] to be a villain in a show.”

“Imagine my surprise when I found out you are an actor,” Andy Cohen told Christian and his navel.

Yes, Christian wore his cowboy hat and a vest, but not a shirt, leading to even more shade: “That’s the look you went with,” Andy said to him.

That was the sickest fashion burn of the reunion; even when Kate was invited to insult Rachel, she could only call it “subtle” and say, “you look like Gone with the Wind fabulousness off-Broadway.”

Later, Andy continued to shade Christian—probably the only cast member he knew wouldn’t fire something sharper right back—by asking him, “How do you spell [Geraldine’s] name? I’m going to give you a clue: It starts with a G.”

Christian, as I mentioned earlier, got it wrong: “G-E-R-A-L-D-E-A-N,” he said first, and then corrected himself by adding “-I-N-E.”

A lot of commercials and filler

The reunion was 48 minutes long. Its segments were organized around individuals: Cirie, Christian, Cody, Kate, Arie, and then the runners-up.

During that, there were five commercial breaks, often with “coming up” segments, even for people with commercial-free Peacock accounts.

And then there were the usual Bravo reunion-style recaps of the season we already watched, such as “Cirie’s journey from traitor to winner.” That’s called The Traitors season 1. The people who are watching the reunion watched that. Clips are fine to remind us of a moment, but those montages do nothing for me.

That said, I’m grateful that they didn’t pad the reunion so much to fill three hours, like they do for most Real Housewives seasons.

Some answers and some anger

Rachel asked Kate why she wrote the note that caused so much drama. “There are 19 other people here that I just met. I’m a visual learner,” Kate said, continuing to deliver the entertainment that she did during the season.

Michael—who identified himself as “a die-hard Survivor fan” and “more of an old-school fan” (me too, Michael!)—said he “would have blindly followed all three of those ladies [Cirie, Stephanie] to the moon and back.”

When asked who he blamed for his banishment, Michael said Cody, but it seemed less about the vote and more about what Cody did. Michael told Cody, “You knew that I was literally having an anxiety attack and struggling mentally in that moment, and you just pounced on it.”

“As a Traitor, that’s what you’re supposed to do,” Cody said, and then turned it back to Michael: “You’ve made it personal because you’ve made it all about yourself. The game isn’t about you, Michael. It’s about everybody trying to win the money.”

Michael said, “You definitely didn’t make it about me because I definitely was not one of your bros and I wasn’t one of the dumb girls that you typically work with—that’s your m.o.” Is he wrong?

Andy Cohen asked, “Did Cody disappoint you?” Michael said, “Cody lived up to my expectation.”

Candor about cash

“How has your life changed?” Andy Cohen asked Cirie about her well-deserved win.

Cirie said she has not yet done anything, but wants to build a house. She has not shared the prize with her fellow players, as she was asked about.

“In a perfect world, we would have all been able to split the money,” she said, but added, “if it was a million dollars, but it’s $250,000.”

Yes! Thank you for pointing that out, Cirie! I’m so tired of—and probably will eventually write more about—the way reality show producers ask their contestants to describe how winning their prize will change their lives.

Sure, $250,000 is a lot of cash, but after federal and possibly state taxes, it’s a lot less. The IRS’s supplemental income tax rate of 22% is probably the minimum, which drops the prize to $195,000. That’s enough for a down payment on a house, maybe.

Hurt feelings, resolved

Perhaps the biggest lingering question from the finale was how Andie, especially, dealt with the shock of learning that their entire-game ally Cirie betrayed them.

“I was sitting on the ground for 10 minutes, crying, trying to gather my thoughts,” Andie said. “It was visceral.”

Cirie said, “I couldn’t just come out and tell any of you that I’m a Traitor” Cirie to Quentin: “I didn’t feel like I’d done anything to you.”

What it seemed to come down to for both Andie and Quentin—and Arie—was what Cirie said standing by the fire, referencing that both of her allies had babies on the way.

“I wanted to see one of us to win,” Quentin said. “What I wasn’t okay was with you using my personal life to get Arie to quit.”

It turns out that Andie and Quentin actually thought Arie was “cutting down the pot” to allow three people to win—and they also missed Arie attempting to give them hints that there was still a Traitor among them.

Cirie said she decided to go after Arie “at the last minute” because, as she’s said, “Arie came in one murder out” and did not think it was “as fair to just give him half of the money.”

“I tried to throw in all the tips,” Arie said. “I could have said, I’m a Traitor and there’s still one here.” Andie and Quentin did not notice that; Quentin said “it moved incredibly fast.”

Andie said that if they were in Cirie’s position, “I don’t think I would have used people’s families … to persuade people that you’re a Faithful.”

Andie also said, “At the end of the day you had to trust somebody to continue to go forward to the game. Yeah, don’t trust anybody, but I really thought because of the relationship that we built—you knew that i was having a kid on the way, you knew that I wanted top surgery, like gender-affirming care. We talked about that stuff. It was for sure personal.”

Cirie told Andie that their connection was “100 percent authentic for me and you; it just so happened that it occurred during this game.”

Cirie added that “you can make real, authentic, life-long friends from playing some of these games.”

Cirie and Andie hugged, and Cirie said, “You know I love you for real. I’m sorry,” and Andie said, “I know.”

And thus The Traitors reunion ended, with friends reconnected. Will next season’s players open themselves up to such connection and such betrayal, too? Or will the way season-one’s players played change the game moving forward? We’ll see sometime—whenever Peacock lays that season two egg for us.