It’s been a considerable time since a television episode has left me as thoroughly enraged as *The Traitors* Season 3, Episode 4, “I Will Bury You Under the Sand.”
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The episode unfolds like any typical segment of *The Traitors*. A murder occurs (RIP to *Survivor*’s Jeremy Collins), the Faithfuls plan for the upcoming roundtable expulsion, and the cast faces a punishing physical challenge. However, everything shifts dramatically when *Survivor* icon Rob Mariano, known as Boston Rob, betrays his fellow Traitor, *RuPaul’s Drag Race* Season 8 champion Bob the Drag Queen. (This maneuver mirrors *Big Brother*’s Dan Gheesling’s unsuccessful attempt to eliminate *The Real Housewives of Atlanta*’s Phaedra Parks in Season 2.) What’s the outcome? Bob becomes the first Traitor to be expelled, while Boston Rob is hailed as a hero among the Faithful.
At first glance, Rob’s action appears to be a masterstroke of strategy and reality television theatrics. Following the challenge of the episode, Bob had suggested that any of the three new entrants to the game—Boston Rob, *The Challenge*’s Wes Bergmann, and *Big Brother*’s Derrick Levasseur—could be Traitors, inadvertently placing a target on Rob’s back. Bob had also made some dubious moves throughout the series, raising suspicions among others, particularly Dylan Efron (*Down to Earth with Zac Efron*), who led the charge against him. By orchestrating Bob’s expulsion, Rob secures Dylan’s trust and endears himself to the Faithful who believe Dylan’s claims. It’s a “legendary” move, as the contestants label it. Yet for me, it was maddening—and not in a fun manner.
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### Why Bob the Drag Queen’s *Traitors* Exit Feels So Wrong
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I understand: *The Traitors* is a campy, exaggerated reality show focused on betrayal and trickery. It may seem trivial to feel upset over a staged banishment, especially when Bob himself remarks in his exit interview, “That was just gameplay, baby.” Even host Alan Cumming reminds everyone that it’s merely a game.
Nevertheless, after witnessing *RuPaul’s Drag Race* Season 9 runner-up Peppermint getting ousted first in Season 2 (despite being a Faithful), it’s difficult to overlook a concerning trend regarding how drag queens fare on the show. As a *Drag Race* enthusiast first and a *Traitors* follower second—and someone less acquainted with other reality franchises like *The Challenge* and *Big Brother*—I’ll confess I was cheering for Bob from the outset. When Alan Cumming designated him as a Traitor, it felt like a moment of affirmation, signaling that Bob was a significant contributor to the narrative. It was a relief following Peppermint’s early exit, which seemed tinted with implicit bias against a Black trans woman and drag performer.
Unlike Peppermint, Bob was indeed a Traitor, and he contributed some of the season’s most memorable moments. His excited exclamation of “We are *eating*!” before eliminating Jeremy was the height of *Traitors* entertainment. (Though in retrospect, it appears as arrogance before the downfall.) Bob also had ample time to establish himself in the castle, gaining loyal allies to such an extent that some contestants refused to vote against him. During the roundtable, everyone consistently highlighted how much they appreciated him—so why did his ousting feel so harsh?
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### The Sting of Traitor-on-Traitor Betrayal
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The explanation lies in the treachery between Bob and Rob. Right from the beginning, the show set up their dynamic as confrontational, with Bob calling out Rob’s backward cap and blazer combination as a “fashion crime” (he’s not incorrect). As Bob incited chaos in the turret, the friction between them intensified. Yet that doesn’t lessen the heart-wrenching look on Bob’s face when Rob points him out. It’s exacerbated by Bob’s desperate, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempts to defend himself.
Rob, to his credit, has never shunned the role of the villain (he fully embraced it in *Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains*). But one line from his whisper campaign haunts me: when he tells Dylan, “We’re going to take out the drag queen tonight.” The refusal to utter Bob’s name felt dehumanizing and hauntingly reminiscent of Peppermint’s ousting in Season 2. While gameplay errors endangered both Peppermint and Bob,