‘The Traitors: New Blood’ Ep. 9 Recap: Spirits, High and Low
A Highland Feast lifts the castle’s spirits, but old suspicions creep back in as the players return to the haunted cabin.
Spoiler Alert: This recap reveals events from Episode 9 of The Traitors: New Blood.
At the end of last week’s episode, the castle is in high spirits. The Faithful have finally pulled their heads out of the sand, and Tomica has become the first Traitor banished this season. Is it a coincidence that all it took was the murder of Abby L? I guess we’ll never know. But this is The Traitors, and peace never lasts long within these walls.
Alan hosts a Highland Feast, and the players take turns sharing why they chose to play. Abby B and Kriste bond as mothers, and Ben admits that he’s never felt so accepted by a group of straight men before. Personally, I’m here for the lying and the backstabbing, but I suppose a feel-good segment every so often isn’t going to kill anybody. Or is it?
Right after dinner, the players are shuffled outside, where a chalice filled with an unknown liquid awaits each of them. After Tomica’s departure, Katie and Joe picked one player’s chalice to poison. Whoever drinks from it is out of the game. But before they drink, the players can talk about which chalice might be poisoned and swap with another contestant. Considering where the game currently stands, this is such a broken and pointless challenge.
Victor obviously assumes the poison is in his chalice and asks if Joe or any Faithful will switch with him. No one agrees, and Victor believes he’s doomed. Shane and Joe swap chalices as a performative gesture, and Kriste catches a little heat for her nonchalant attitude.
The next morning, Morgan turns out to be the Traitors’ victim, and I found myself scratching my head and wondering if this challenge could have had any interesting outcome. We could have had a regular murder and gotten the same result, with time for a roundtable at the end of the episode. But what do I know? Maybe there was a sale on glass goblets.
At breakfast, Abby B finally starts making sense. She notices that Joe began the game defending Tomica but quickly threw her under the bus when it looked like she might be banished. Don’t let Joe hear that, Abby! We’ve had poisoned fruit and poisoned chalices. That bagel you have every morning might be next.
Jay is still on the Victor train, citing Victor’s unbridled confidence as proof he’s a Traitor, and Ben starts pointing fingers at Kriste. The working theory is that the Traitors recruited her after her heated first roundtable because they saw her as expendable. Morgan’s murder frustrates the group because it tells them absolutely nothing. This is obviously great for the Traitors, but even better for viewers at home. Morgan’s smug attitude and that uninflected late-millennial voice belong on a financial literacy podcast for unhappy thirty-somethings, not The Traitors.
Joe starts to play smart and plants seeds of doubt about Kriste by pointing out how openly she defended Tomica. Meanwhile, Kriste blames Wyatt for Abby L’s murder. Why would Wyatt target the one person who was saying his name? There isn’t really a logical answer. But Kriste has never been a friend to logic in this game. Katie and Joe get a little flirty outside, and I can only hope this is part of Katie’s strategy, because girl, you can do so much better than him.
For this week’s mission, we’re back at the haunted cabin, site of the iconic Haunted Doll mission from The Traitors season three. The production design team really did their big one this week. As the players retrieve items for lost spirits, the cabin truly feels haunted. Plates shoot off the walls, bloody hands knock against the windows, and bugs fall from the ceiling. After season four’s flop of a haunted cabin challenge, I was glad to see redemption for this classic mission.
In the first round, the players have to find a spicy liquid among a litter of bottles. I’m not sure what’s worse — chugging unknown substances from unmarked bottles or wondering if that tickle on the back of your neck was the wind or an NBCUniversal prop cockroach.
For round two, the players have to find a particular wedding dress, which seems like a fool’s errand given how little they have to go on. They pick the wrong dress, and Jay pays the price by getting banished from the rest of the challenge. Abby B, on a Faithful hot streak, is the hero of the final round. She dives headfirst into a putrid toilet to recover the final spirit’s necklace, earning $18,000 for the pot. But cash isn’t the only prize. Victor stealthily finds a hidden shield that protects him from murder later that night.
After the mission, the players wonder if anyone found the shield and, if so, why they’d keep it to themselves. I think Victor keeping his find a secret is the perfect move. The Traitors will learn later that Victor is protected. If either of them lets that slip to a Faithful, it’ll totally blow up their spot.
He might be annoying, but Victor is on track to be one of the best Faithful to ever play the game.
The Traitors: New Blood airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and streams the next day on Peacock. Visit peacocktv.com.
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