@lizburrito Published Feb. 19, 2026, 10:00 p.m. ET PEACOCK Where to Stream: The Traitors Powered by Reelgood More On: Recaps ‘Love Story’ Episode 3 Recap: Jackie’s Strength ‘Tell Me Lies’ Season 3 Episode 8 Recap: Like Puzzle Pieces From The Grave (Series Finale) ‘A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms’ Episode 5 Recap: Dunk Contest ‘Industry’ Season 4 Episode 6 Recap: I’ve Seen Footage If only Tara Lipinski had just gone with her gut. On this week’s episode of The Traitors, Tara was finally on the right track when it came to identifying an actual Traitor in the castle when she realized that the one person no one has yet suspected was Rob Rausch and it turns out, that guy’s a little sus.
Tara, who has been second-guessing her strategy all season long starts to go full Usual Suspects, piecing together all the evidence that suggests he’s been hiding in plain sight. Candiace Dillard Bassett‘s two trowaway votes (sorry, but that’s how we spell it now tanks to Maura) for him at the round table, the cool as a cucumber presence he has cultivated. All signs are pointing to him. Early on in the episode, Tara confides these thoughts to Natalie Anderson about how the Traitor must be Rob (and, in fact, telling Natalie she was certain that “it’s not you,” earning Natalie’s trust). Natalie is fully onboard with banishing Rob, and it seems like the two women might be able to lobby the rest of the Faithfuls into voting him out, too, but it all falls apart in the end when Tara veers away from this plan and leaves Natalie high and dry. Before we get to the banishment though, let’s dive in to the previous night’s murder.
At breakfast, as the competitors wait to see which of them will not be returning, the mood seems deflated. The weight of being a Traitor is clearly weighing on Rob, who is especially quiet, and everyone else’s emotions can best be described as exhausted and defeated. When Natalie walks in the door and they learn that it was Kristen Kish who was murdered, there’s no excitement when they see Natalie; instead they all seem disappointed that Kristen was the latest victim. Kristen herself is also disappointed; when she learns she was murdered, she calmly explains that she was “the most faithful of the Faithfuls, I don’t think many people doubted that and I think the Traitors knew that.” Kristen’s observant eye and chill demeanor will be missed, because, with the exception of Mark Ballas, everyone else will be running on pure emotion from here on out this week.
After breakfast, they head out to their mission at a fairground, where Alan Cumming reveals they’ll have to spin around on a carousel and, once dizzy, they have to run around to locate and rip apart stuffed animal carnival prizes to find money hidden inside. Then, they’ll have to return with that money to the carousel where a seat or two will be removed, musical chairs-style. Only one competitor will remain by the end, and that person will win a shield. (Tara and Eric Nam are excused from the dizzy spinning portion for “medical reasons” that are none of my business but now I really need to know more. They are replaced on the carousel by Tara and Eric doppelganger dummies, but are able to participate in the money-grabbing portion of the game.)
In the very first round, Rob is the last to find any money and there’s no seat for him on the carousel. His reaction is very un-Rob-like; he immediately lashes out at Mark for only finding a stuffed animal worth $750, while Rob found one worth $2500 but now finds himself eliminated from the game and out of contention for the shield. “He is proper pissed off,” Maura states. He is! It’s weird! But while some of the contestants (Natalie) seem suspicious and suggest that he’s acting, I’m inclined to think he’s reaching an emotional breaking point in this game. (Mark also realizes after this interaction that maybe Rob is not the ally he once thought he was.) In the end, Eric gets the final shield, the best-case scenario for the Traitors, because now they can murder anyone.
On the ride home from the mission, Natalie is completely on board to vote Rob out, but Tara starts to give the sense that she’s not so sure what to do, despite Rob being her idea. Natalie makes a great point that they should vote for Rob now because “the sad thing is, one of us could be dead tomorrow.” (She is very correct, even if she doesn’t realize it yet.) They have a more people and better numbers tonight. Which is why what happens at the round table makes so little sense.
When they get back to the house, it’s clear that Rob, Eric, and Maura have plans to vote out Natalie, and since Rob has the dagger – which he does decide to use – his vote will count twice. Which means that Tara, Natalie, Johnny and Mark will all need to band together to vote out Rob, or at least force a tiebreak vote. But prior to the round table, Johnny plants a seed of doubt in Tara’s mind, reminding Tara that Natalie is a professional gamer and has more experience lying. Tara reveals that now she’s just not sure if she’s still on Team Banish Rob, so for now, she plans to withhold her opinions at the round table. The last thing Tara wants at this stage of the game is for the group to go full Ron Funches on her, dragging her for persuading them to vote out a Faithful. And so, despite the fact that she was so intent of voting Rob out for the entire episode, she suddenly abandons her gut feeling and seems to want to follow the crowd.
At the round table, Rob puts Natalie’s name out there, and Natalie then turns it on Rob and targets him. But when she sees Tara not coming to her aid, she starts to think Tara played her, Natalie is completely an island unto herself in this situation. “Can I be a little bit honest? I do feel a little bit blitzed… I listened to people in this game today and I was told something else by some people and now it’s very different.” Tara knows she’s the person Natalie is talking about but she doesn’t really offer a real defense for her actions. When it comes time to vote, Natalie switches her plan to vote for Rob and instead votes for Tara, but everyone else – including Tara – casts their vote to banish Natalie. When Eric flips his chalkboard over to reveal Natalie’s name, he apologizes profusely, and when it’s Johnny’s turn to reveal his vote, Natalie just tells him, “Don’t say sorry. When you put up your card, don’t fucking say sorry, I don’t want to hear it.”
Natalie clearly feels betrayed, rightfully so. It’s just a game, but most of these people are too pure for it, even those with gamer backgrounds. And Tara is so distraught after Natalie reveals that she’s a Faithful, she announces to the room, “I truthfully don’t want to play this game anymore. I feel like a fool, I have made mistakes. But seriously, I am okay with being murdered tonight.”
And for this week’s murder, whether it’s Tara or another Faithful, it will take place in front of everyone. After Eric and Rob selected the player they want to kill, the entire group is summoned outside the castle where an open coffin awaits. Alan explains that the victim will be “brutally murdered, right here, right now, in front of everyone!” It’s the Traitors’ final murder of the season, what with the finale coming up next week, but alas… we’re going to have to wait till next time for this victim’s body to be identified.
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.
