Dan Gheesling of the Traitors plays it too safe

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for season 2 of the U.S. version of The Traitors through episode 5.]

The traitors Season 2 was a joy in every way except one: Dan Gheesling, a Big Brother Legend that looks like it’s about to be played out by Pilot Pete The bachelor.

The traitors is a murder mystery game similar to Werewolf, Mafia and Among us, where a secret group of players known as “traitors” choose someone to “assassinate” in each episode. Along the way, the traitors must avoid the suspicion of the “believers,” who vote to banish one player from the game each round. The goal is to banish only traitors, because if a single traitor makes it to the finals, they will receive the entire grand prize, which has a potential pot of $250,000.

As in Big Brother (and honestly even housewives) social gameplay and manipulation are key to survival. That’s why I was thrilled when Dan and former Real Housewife of Atlanta Phaedra Parks were the first two traitors recruited before joining them Survivorsis the dreaded black widow Parvati Shallow. Aside from Phaedra – who I knew would thrive in this cutthroat, dishonest environment – Dan was the one who saw the other players completely circling. I was most happy. But for five episodes in a row his strategy seems to be: “Go girl, don’t give us anything“, despite the balloon target on his back.

This is a shock for Big Brother Fans who credit Dan with the best moment in the history of the CBS show: Dan’s funeral. In season 14, Dan faced elimination along with his life-threatening ally Danielle Murphree. He devised an outlandish, multi-stage plan to stay that included staging a fake funeral for himself. During the “funeral,” he brought several houseguests to tears with his kind farewell words – and blindsided Danielle when he went after her for cheating on him. The fact is that Danielle had been nothing but loyal to Dan; This was all part of his master plan to protect them both. When a crying Danielle later asked Dan if he could at least let her know the next time he planned to “humiliate” her publicly, Dan replied with a cheeky grin on his face: “No, because then you wouldn’t cry.”

It was vicious, brilliant, cruel, exquisite – in short, perfect reality TV. This was the Dan I expected The traitors – not someone who sits back and refuses to suspect potential traitors, but someone who takes bold steps and uses his closest allies as fuel for his own success and safety. And whether Dan has a chance of survival The traitors One more week – or to regain my respect – he needs to reconnect with his inner Judas.

In the fifth episode, several believers literally beg Dan to share a name or a theory – anything to show he’s playing the game with them – and yet he refuses, claiming he has a suspect in mind, but he waits until he is 100% sure you are a traitor firing his shot. This ongoing attempt to remain inconspicuous backfires so horribly that almost everyone at the banishment roundtable has Dan’s name on everyone’s lips. He barely manages to get to the point of elimination (only survives by helping him throw). Big Brother buddy Janelle under the bus) and ends the evening with the promise of finally naming a name the next day. But even that might be too little, too late to save his skin unless he’s willing to take some really drastic measures.

Before the final banishment, Peter lied to his main suspects as traitors – Dan, Parvati and The challenge‘s CT – claims he and Janelle had shields to protect her from the murder. Parvati immediately thinks this is a trap, but Dan ignores Peter’s ability to strategize. Instead, he persists in murdering Love IslandThis is Bergie, who openly shot at Dan and is one of the two players to do so Strictly speaking has a shield.

Dan already faced an uphill battle next week convincing players that he’s a believer, and if he really does fall into Peter’s trap and carry out a failed assassination attempt on Bergie (which he really seems to be doing), it’ll be about a He looks much worse. The best way for Dan to save himself at this point is to give the believers a suspect with indisputable evidence against them – evidence that the believers cannot deny because it is them TRUE. What I mean is that he needs to throw Parvati or Phaedra to the wolves.

Image: Peacock

Producing a theory about why a single player is behind the (somewhat incomprehensible) series of murders is much more difficult when working purely on the basis of fiction. But like Dan said oncethe best way to package a lie is to surround it with truth, and the best way to convince believers that someone is a traitor is to accuse someone who actually is.

In last week’s episode, Dan and Parvati discussed the possibility of sacrificing Phaedra if they needed to upset people. And Parvati aroused suspicions about the housewives Love Island‘s Ekin-Su was murdered, resulting in a iconic battle in the tower between the three traitors. At this point, Dan’s next move seems to be to accuse Phaedra of being a traitor at the next round table in order to solidify his survival. (Although Parvati would probably make a better choice.)

I’m not even 100% sure this strategy would work, nor am I sure I even want it to. But honestly, if it meant seeing the Dan I know Big Brother Back in all its reckless glory, I would be overjoyed. And even if he goes down, he would at least go down with a flourish and not sit on the sideline. This is what his legacy deserves.