Traitors Turmoil: Peter's Plot Sets Up One of Most Incredible Reality TV Confrontations Ever

Could a Bachelor contestant outplay a Big Brother legend (Dan Gheesling), a Survivor legend (Parvati Shallow), and a lawyer (Real Housewives of Atlanta's Phaedra Parks)? He certainly took a big swing by leaking false information about who had a Shield last week.

The move helped set the stage for what will surely go down as one of the most epic and incredible moments in reality television history at the Round Table toward the end of this episode.

Peter dropped his intel on his Traitor suspects, which included Dan, Parvati and The Challenge beast Chris "CT" Tamburello. What he told them was that he and Big Brother challenge most Janelle Pierzina had scored Shields last week when in actuality it was Love Island's Carsten "Bergie" Bergersen and The Challenge's Trishelle Cannatella.

His hope was that the lie would cause the Traitors to shy away from targeting himself or Janelle and instead try to take on Bergie or Trishelle. In particular, Bergie had been gunning for Dan pretty hard at the Round Table, so that table was certainly well set.

Janelle didn't survive that Round Table, becoming the fifth Faithful booted from the game by their own in as many episodes. But Dan absolutely took the bait, underestimating Peter's deviousness. Parvati was on to him, but Dan was desperate, so his fellow Traitors let him take the shot at Bergie...

...and miss.

For the first time this season, it was an absolute disaster for the Traitors as they took their shot at Bergie, and then he walked in last at breakfast, thanks to his shield. Everyone survived, which told Peter that one of the people he'd leaked the Shield lie to must have been a Traitor.

He then watched reactions and behaviors as breakfast as Bergie walked in and narrowed it down to Parvati and Dan, convincing himself that they were both actually Traitors. He said that as CT seemed to have no notable reaction, he was probably not one.

It created absolute chaos in the House as Peter immediately revealed what his plan had been and how it had all played out exactly as he'd hoped. Now, he felt certain that at least one of his three targets with the lie was a Traitor, if not more than one.

Dan, who was a master strategist and manipulator on Big Brother, suddenly had his back against the wall more than he has all season. We were a little disappointed that Parvati hadn't fought him harder, but we'll never underestimate her prowess in these types of situations.

Obviously, the target landed much bigger on Dan after the failed Murder because the target had already been on him. He scored the second-most votes after Janelle at last week's Round Table, after all. The Faithful are already sniffing around him, and none more than Peter.

We have to say, having watched Dan's previous performances where he  came in first and second after two masterful seasons, he did not seem quite as in control this time around. It probably didn't help he was competing with some of the best gamers around.

At the same time, it's tough to change people's minds when they're set, and Peter has basically built a posse of Faithfuls around him. We'll have to give credit to his instincts, though, as all five of his not-alliance members are in fact Faithfuls.

The problem is that this group, which included Bergie, Trishelle, Bling Empire's Kevin Kreider, and former Member of Parliament John Bercow, also started to get a little too cocky and confident with themselves. Yes, they're pretty much onto the Traitors, but this is also a game with Murder every night.

They started meeting behind closed doors, even booting Parvati from the room at one point so they could talk about their suspicions of her. That level of confidence -- which was admittedly earned after Peter's plot worked -- can easily be turned against you.

Once again, the deceitful twists and turns are what sets this game apart from others, and is always the most deliciously delightful part of the proceedings. We were enjoying every moment of Peter's delight, as well as Dan and Parvati scrambling to try and shake him off, and then it all ground to a screeching halt with the weekly competition.

It's an interesting problem because there are real stakes with these competitions. After all, they're the only way that the prize pool can grow. But as returning contestant Kate Chastain (Below Deck) proved last season, the players have to care.

Don't get us wrong, we loved how much she didn't care when she became disillusioned and convinced the hapless Faithful were never going to win. And she was right, as Survivor legend Cirie Fields Traitored her way to a solo victory. But it exposed a flaw in the format.

The only redeeming quality of these in a game of backstabbing and betrayal is that Shields can be on the line. A Shield is the only way to ensure you won't be Murdered in the night. Their proper use can also expose some truth, as Peter deftly showed this week.

As such, Shields become the only truly interesting and compelling part of these competitions. We're not really sure how to address or resolve the problem on a show level, but thankfully the producers seem to realize that things drag here as the competition took up less than half the episode.

This week, it was about dragging pieces to a catapult to the top of a hill and then firing said catapult. That also set up the Shield competition. Five players picked up Shield Boxes along the way and so those five were allowed to compete for just one Shield.

So the money portion of it, which raised their game total by $20,000 to a solid $95,500, was kind of a dud. But at least there was some tension in the Shield competition as Peter was one of those going for one. He was up against two-time Parvati, Trishelle, Survivor winner Sandra Diaz-Twine, and Real Housewives of Atlanta star Shereé Whitfield.

They even showed us Peter's shot last to ratchet up the tension -- as he knew he was on the Traitor's hit list after semi-exposing them with the Bergie feint. Unfortunately, his shot was terrible and it was Shereé who took home safety ... someone who was in absolutely no danger of getting Murdered unless the Traitors went with chaos.

Big Brother fans know that Dan is perhaps most famous for "Dan's Funeral," where he concocted a convoluted story and threw one of his closest allies under the bus. That move saved his game, but it was also developed after 24 hours in isolation (as a punishment).

This time, he didn't have that kind of time, but he did try to set up this murderer's row of reality stars to hear him out and give him a chance at the Round Table. He refused to say who he was going to target, but promised that he'd been watching someone since Day One.

It was another classic Dan move as he revealed in a confessional that he would be turning the tables on one of his fellow Traitors. We'll give him props for throwing us for a loop by not going with the obvious choice of targeting Parvati, who was already under suspicions by most of the group.

Instead, he built a case against Phaedra. She and Parvati both sat shell-shocked as he built a long and complex case as to why he'd been suspiciuos of her since Day One. What he perhaps forgot was that she's more than just a Housewife, but also a lawyer.

So she schooled him, with a response to every accusation he made, even if it was to imply that he was out of his mind. Honestly, his case wasn't really holding up much water. He'd have been smarter to try and build a case against a non-Traitor than one of his own.

One huge problem here is that there was still the chance that both he and Phaedra could survive the night. If so, how on earth would they move forward as co-Traitors after that move? She'd be gunning for him for sure. We remember her reaction when Parvati threw slight suspicion at the Real Housewives among them early on.

While Dan was floundering a bit, flop-sweating all over his arguments, Parvati played it much cooler under fire, and Peter was actually quite impressive, making sure to keep two targets firing. He was feeling pretty certain he'd get murdered after not scoring a Shield, but he was trying to make sure the Faithful kept their eyes on both Dan and Parvati.

Ultimately, it was a near-unanimous vote. Dan threw the sole vote at Phaedra, while Peter voted for Parvati. He explained that he was feeling confident Dan would get the votes to be Banished, so he wanted to vote for Parvati to remind everyone she's also a probably Traitor.

Honestly, who knew that Pilot Pete, of all people, would be so good at a game of deception like this. His reads of people have been incredible and almost flawless. He was even able to eliminate CT as a suspect based on his breakfast reaction.

The only one he's not picking up on is Phaedra, who's perhaps been playing the best game of hide-and-hide as a Traitor. She's let Parvati and Dan make most of the decisions in the turret, but they're also taking all the heat in the house.

Ultimately, Dan was sent packing, revealing that he had been a Traitor after all. After five missed shots, the Faithful finally got one. After Peter's smooth move, another Faithful to keep an eye on is another member of his non-alliance, Trishelle. She quickly suspected Dan may have been trying to feed them an actual Traitor, and suddenly Phaedra is a possible suspect.

She was right, too. After all, if Dan had been able to convince them to vote Phaedra out and she'd revealed that she was a Traitor, that may have been enough to take the scent off of him. It would have taken a bit of the wind out of Peter, who didn't suspect Phaedra, too. Of course, that all backfired against Phaedra's Round Table rebuttal.

As for Peter, he needs to be careful his ego doesn't get too big to fit through those doors, too. His closed-door meeting of the five during the after-Banishment celebrations was a bit obtuse in a game where you don't want to stand out too much.

After all, there is benefit in Traitors taking one another out, as well. As Cirie showed last season, if you're the last one standing, you get to pocket all the loot. Of course, you don't want to expose yourself while exposing your allies, and you definitely don't want to be alone in the turret as a Traitor, because then you're really vulnerable.

Host Alan Cumming had a special treat for the remaining Traitors that night as they deliberated their next victim. He offered them a choice. The could kill as usual, dwindling the numbers of the Faithful (who now outnumbered them 10-2), or they could bolster their ranks by trying to recruit someone.

The risk, of course, was that the person they tried to recruit could always say no and remain a Faithful. And if that were too happen, there would be no Murder for the second night in a row, after Dan's Bergie Shield mishap.

Parvati and Phaedra had been contemplating who to murder, with Parvati thinking that killing Peter might be too obvious, and would only make the target on her even bigger. With Dan gone, she's the next one everyone is looking at.

As she pointed out to Phaedra, she's pretty good at surviving. Her track record on Survivor speaks for itself. But then, she considered her own bold move. What if they were to still not murder Peter, but actually recruit the Bachelor start to their side.

Knowing that Parvati's head is the one being lowered in the guillotine while the target on her remained relatively small, Phaedra let her fellow Traitor make the final decision (she's still laying low in these turret decisions). Ultimately, Parvati opted to recruit, but would Peter take it?

Well, as he noted while looking at the message, his own back was kind of against the wall. When he failed to secure a Shield, he knew the Traitors would be gunning for him. His goal is to win the game. Can he do it with the Traitor gunning for him like this?

He has proven himself a "bloodhound," as they dubbed him, successfully sniffing out Traitors. But he can only Banish them one at a time. We've said since the first season that this game is stacked against the Faithful from the start.

Yes, they have the numbers, but the Traitors have so much more power. Just by knowing who's who, they can Murder real threats under the cover of darkness and then manipulate people and conversations throughout the day and at the Round Table. A smart player can dominate in that role.

Of course, as we just saw with Dan, a smart player who gets a little too smart for their own good can quickly blow up their own game ... and threaten the games of their fellow Traitors.

So will Peter join the ranks of the Traitors? With his alliance of five, it would certainly flip the tables something fierce against the Faithful. But if he decides to challenge himself and stay Faithful, he'll have half the House on his side, meaning he's close to being able to Banish whomever he wants. He just has to be right.

We'll have to wait until next week to see what his decision was. The setup is that he'll probably go for it, but was it a fakeout?

• "I'm really hoping that Bergie does not have a shield and let this murder come off without a hitch." --Parvati
• "If you want a huge reward, you gotta take some great risks and that's what I'm doing right now." --Dan
• "How does it feel to be back in the swing of things?" --Dan (to Kate)
• "So weird, and why did I do this? But you know, I thrive when I'm miserable. I think I'm gonna do well." --Kate
• "Walking into breakfast, I'm feeling frustrated. The choice to murder Bergie was not my decision. Dan wanted him gone because he's been hot on Dan's trail." --Phaedra
• "I am just hoping the trap to get a traitor works." --Peter
• "My theory was it's gonna be someone who voted for me 'cause that's an easy pin. Of course, I murdered them because they voted for me." --Dan (to Peter at breakfast)
• "Game on!" --Peter (shaking John's hand after Bergie walks in)
• "Someone gave me a death warrant last night. I have the Shield." --Bergie (walking in to breakfast)
• "Nice freaking job." --Bergie (to Peter at breakfast)
• "Checkmate." --Peter
• "I've been exposed and I fully and completely blame Dan." --Parvati
• "We leaked it to the people who we thought were the Traitors." --Bergie (to whole group at breakfast)
• "Well, you told me. You told me you had the shield." --CT
• "You told me in confidence. I kept it to myself. I didn't say a word." --Parvati
• "It was leaked to me. But, I'm not a Traitor." --Dan
• "I'm just here to say cryptic things and look absolutely spectacular." --Alan
• "He got me. I have to change up how I'm playing this game completely." --Dan
• "Dan and Parvati did not feel comfortable. Their face was saying it all … but CT did not react, so it's down to Dan and Parvati now. It's advantage Faithful." --Peter (about Bergie walking in alive)
• "I really feel bad for Dan and Parvati, but it's every Traitor for themselves." --Phaedra
• "You've been planting seeds this whole time, so how are you not a Traitor?" --Parvati (to Peter)
• "I've had my back against the wall before. This is not new to me, so let's see what I can pull off." --Dan
• "I want comfort and leisure. Why can't we hang out in the castle?" --Kate (about challenge)
• "I don't want to put the box on the hay. Fighting for a shield, it just feels so desperate." --Kate (opting out of putting Peter's box on the haystack)
• "Can I ask you guys something? Can the murder tonight be painless? I can kind of see the writing on the wall." --Peter (to Trishelle, Parvati, Dan)
• "Why are you asking me that?" --Parvati
• "Peter is going to single-handedly crush the Traitors and lead all the Faithful to safety. You know what? I don't like the game that Peter's playing." --Parvati
• "It's time for me to go after one of my own Traitors. At the round table it will be a big shock, but this is what I do." --Dan
• "I'll say this. Since Day One, I have been watching one person, and it's time for that to come out. You have to remember, I have been collecting information. So let's play a little game. I have one question for everyone: raise your hand if your name has been written down at least once on this chalkboard. Okay, I'm looking at the least suspicious people based on actions. So Bergie, your name has never been written down. Sheree, your name's never been written down. Phaedra's hasn't. Sandra, yours hasn't. And Parvati. That's not enough to convict someone, but that's where I start. Next, I look at voting patterns. Has anyone voted anything a little weird. Let's go with Sandra. Everyone of Sandra's votes has banished someone, but she's always explained herself. So she's out of the equation. Sheree had one weird vote for John, but she explained it, so she's out of the equation. Bergie, Bergie just kind of goes with the crowd. So that leaves Parvati and Phaedra. Parvati, your only vote outside of the norm was for Kevin, but you explained what that was about. You said you were suspect. So then that leaves one person, Phaedra. Phaedra's had one vote that hasn't been explained. She voted out Ekin-Su. No one's ever questioned her on it. And then the next day, Ekin-Su magically gets murdered. So we have someone who's not suspected and a weird vote. Okay, that's still not enough. The next thing, breakfast reactions. First time it stood out to me, Marcus gets murdered. Where was Phaedra? I don't know if she was sitting next to her but she walked around, went over to Larsa, 'Sweetie, it's okay, everything's okay.' Tamra gets voted out. Does anyone remember what she said? 'They're coming after the Housewives.' Today, Bergie, we thought you got murdered. 'Oh, not my Berg-alicious.' So there's another weird breakfast reaction. My point is, you will never get brought up because everyone likes you. And to me, that is the most suspect thing. Those are my reasons. And that's who I've been watching since Day One." --Dan (at round table)
• "The logic behind me is that it's always, like, a little bit extra." --Dan (to Kate about targeting Phaedra)
• "Have you seen her?" --Kate
• "I'm very extra. I do too much, 'cause you do too little. But tonight, you're doing way too much, 'cause you know you're getting ready to get banished. So you're trying to put the heat on me, which is a crock of b.s." --Phaedra (to Dan)
• "What's been going on today is that there's a really strong clique that's emerged. So, if you're not in Peter's group, then guess what? You're probably gonna get Murdered or you're gonna get Banished." --Parvati
• "The reason why I trusted Dan is because he and I started talking together on Day One. He is such a great game player and I may have trusted the wrong person." --Parvati
• "Please don't buy that." --Peter
• "It's obvious, tonight I will be voting for Dan. He's been dodging questions, dodging answers and going just right up under the radar. But baby, you deflected on the wrong one, 'cause you gonna learn tonight." --Phaedra
• "My vote is for Dan. I listened intently to you, Dan, tonight, and your deflection was on to Phaedra. That case was comprehensively rebutted. Treachery deserves to be punished by banishment. Banishment, my dear friend, should be your fate tonight. This guy is the silent slaughterer, and that's the sum of it." --John
• "Dan, I voted for you. Tonight, you met your match." --Trishelle (about Phaedra)
• "How dare you. You pull that shenanigans. He learned tonight. Oh, he learned." --Phaedra (after Dan's Banishment)
• "I've been on Big Brother twice and I think I'm pretty good at that game. No one's ever written my name down once in two seasons. And a lot of people did here today. Unfortunately for me, I am a Traitor. Have fun, have fun!" --Dan (to Round Table)
• "I think he knew that we needed to be fed a Traitor. I think Phaedra's a Traitor and no one's even suspecting it." --Trishelle (about Dan)
• "Imagine a secret alliance of the not-alliance. Surprise, surprise, look who is surrounding each other. Are you looking to control this game until the end of time? You're a real bloodhound, Peter." --Parvati (bringing the rest of the contestants into Peter's meeting of the five)
• "I'm trying to win!" --Peter
• "Those five have made it very clear that they're going to stick together, no matter what. But really, it's me versus Peter. And I'm gonna take that Bachelor down." --Parvati
• "Here's my idea. We seduce Peter, recruit him as a Traitor and we start turning the tables around his people who he's been working with." --Parvati (to Phaedra)
• "I thought it would be so fun to recruit him and turn loose a full-blood Faithful detective against his own posse, and watch him murder his friends." --Parvati (laughing)
• "Are you good with that, because you've had a tough day, too?" --Parvati (to Phaedra)
• "I've definitely had a tough day, but you are on your deathbed. I'm walking into the hospital, you're in the ICU, baby. You about to flatline, so do what you want to do." --Phaedra
• "Oh lord, this is gonna be a wild one." --Phaedra
• "If we've chosen the wrong person, this could be a death sentence for my game." --Parvati
• "This is the smartest move for the Traitors to do right now. There is no way that anyone would suspect me being one right now. Everything about me is win this game, win this game. And if I don't take this, I don't see how they don't murder me." --Peter

New episodes of The Traitors air Thursdays at 9pm ET on Peacock.