The Traitors Season 4's Finale Was Predictable - But Calling It Boring Is Wrong

Don't vote to banish anyone from the castle if you haven't watched the season 4 finale of "The Traitors." Spoilers ahead!

The fourth season of "The Traitors" — the American version, that is — just wrapped up and crowned its sole winner ... and if you know anything about how the gameplay works on this show, you know that a singular winner indicates that a Traitor won. That's exactly what happened, and that Traitor's name? Rob Rausch. Was this a predictable outcome? Yes. Was it glorious to watch? Yes.

If you've ever played a kid's game dubbed "Mafia" in a large group, you understand basically how "The Traitors" works. As each season begins, host Alan Cumming — who might draw MCU holdouts back to the cinematic universe with his upcoming turn in "Avengers: Doomday" and who's always adorned in a truly fabulous outfit — chooses a handful of Traitors, who will "murder" (eliminate) other non-Traitor players (known as Faithfuls) each night. By day, the whole group — Faithfuls and Traitors alike — compete to add money to the prize pot, building it up as much as possible ... and then, they all head to a beautifully campy "roundtable" discussion where the group votes to "banish" (eliminate) someone they think might be a Traitor. Why? If even one Traitor remains at the very end of the game, they'll steal the entire prize pot from any Faithfuls who might be along for the ride.

Well, that's exactly what happened during the season 4 finale of "The Traitors." So how did Rob — to steal from "Survivor," which produces plenty of contestants for "The Traitors" — "outwit, outlast, and outplay" his competitors to win over $220,000? More to the point, why was Rob's game so fiendishly delightful to watch from beginning to end? Let me explain.

Rob Rausch, known for his back-to-back appearances on "Love Island USA," was one of Alan Cumming's original three Traitors. After outlasting his fellow Traitors, Candiace Dillard Bassett ("The Real Housewives of Potomac") and Lisa Rinna (an actress who also had a great run on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills"), he recruited K-Pop star Eric Nam to be a new Traitor ... and betrayed him too. During the final moments of the game, players can choose to "banish again" or end the game. Rob played a truly great game throughout this entire season, using his effortless charm and undeniable good looks to absolutely snow everyone to the point where, roughly once an episode, a random Faithful would blurt out, "Rob can't possibly be a Traitor!" 

His gambit during that final vote, though, was even better. With just Rob, Eric, and Faithful Maura Higgins left, the "Love Islanders" agreed to banish again, sending Eric packing. As a clearly (and quite prematurely) thrilled Maura beamed, Eric was sent packing ... only for Rob to tell his old "Love Island" buddy that he was a Traitor the whole time, and she was heading home with no money to show for her "effort." (Maura played a bad game. She literally never knew what was going on. It was endearing, but bad.)

On the social media platform X, some people complained about the outcome. TV critic Joanna Robinson simply wrote, "'Traitors' finale thanks I hated it." The Daily Beast writer Kevin Fallon agreed, writing, "'The Traitors' finale unfolded exactly as I predicted after last week's episode, which means it wasn't very exciting ... An entire finale hinging on Maura maybe wasn't the most promising." I'm sorry, guys, but you're wrong! This was so fun!

Honestly, Rob winning by booting the only other standing Traitor to take home $220,800 isn't just great, but brings the series full circle ... specifically, back to its first American season, where "Survivor" great and "Big Brother" player Cirie Fields won in almost the exact same way. Outside of the spectacular Scottish castle that serves as the setting for "The Traitors" that Alan Cumming always pretends is his (it's not), Cirie, who's currently appearing on the genuinely delightful 50th season of "Survivor," made it through the game — comprised of both reality TV stars and "normies" — as a Traitor who never attracted even a whiff of suspicion. During that final stage, Cirie managed to edge out her only fellow remaining Traitor, "The Bachelorette's" Arie Luyendyk Jr., and then made normies Andie Vanacore and Quentin Jiles cry when she admitted her true nature. Sorry, but it was awesome.

Rob's betrayal was just as triumphant, and with further apologies to Maura, it was also incredibly fun to witness. When he voted to keep banishing and eliminated Olympian Tara Lipinski just before booting Eric — a move he only made to stay tight with Maura — I started to worry about his gameplay before grinning like a lunatic as he voted to banish for a second time, clearly gunning for Eric. 

Yes, this sucks for Maura, who thought she was getting $110,400 alongside her fellow "Love Island" contestant and apparent friend — though, according to the reunion, she's getting an Hermés Birkin bag from Rob as a consolation prize — but anyone who wants to pretend that this wasn't extremely fun to witness is either wrong, lying, or both. Rob deserved to win "The Traitors" — and this was a great finale.