Donna Kelce made her reality television debut on Peacock’s The Traitors, with Thursday’s premiere including the first three episodes of the fourth season.
“People think I’m this sweet little old lady,” Kelce said to start the first episode. “They’re not going to know what’s coming.”
If you’ve never seen the show, which features reality stars, actors, comedians, and other celebrities, here’s our write-up of the rules and background. And here’s a recap of each episode from Week 1 …
Episode 1
On the way to Alan Cumming’s famous Scottish castle, Survivor’s Rob Cesternino asked Kelce what her two sons, Travis and Jason, thought of her being on the show.
“They’re so excited,” Kelce said. “They’re huge fans. Jason is the one that got me involved. We just literally, one weekend, during playoffs, we binged it. It was great.”
Immediately, her fellow contestants were worried about the potential for “murdering” — or eliminating — Kelce, “America’s mom.”
“No one’s going to murder her. The Swifties will kill you,” The Real Housewives of New York City’s Dorinda Medley said.
The show’s first twist was to name a secret Traitor, a position that comes with a certain set of extra powers. In the first episode, Cumming asked each contestant to come up and take a look inside a box with their name on it. One box had a card in it, and the person who got that box was the secret Traitor, identified in plain sight, kept secret from the other Traitors. The secret Traitor then wrote a shortlist of people from which the other three Traitors could choose a murder victim. That secret Traitor was Kelce — but you don’t find that out until the third episode.
Episode 2
During the first challenge, the contestants had to collect coffins to add money to the prize pot and determine who earned a shield, or immunity, and who was eligible for murder.
Contestants on one of the boats debated whether to put a coffin in Kelce’s casket and put her up for murder. Most of the Faithfuls, or non-Traitors, didn’t want to, but Traitor Candiace Dillard Bassett urged the group to do so. “I think it would shake this castle if we murdered Donna,” Dillard Bassett said.
“I know I’m going to see you tomorrow, because nobody would do that,” Big Brother’s Tiffany Mitchell said.
However, Kelce was not on the secret Traitor’s shortlist and was not murder-eligible — because she wrote the list. One person who was on it? Traitor Rob Rausch, who immediately put his sights on finding out who the secret Traitor was.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Kelce quickly drew suspicion from others across the castle due to her behavior.
“Only someone who feels safe doesn’t feel like they need to make connections,” Mitchell said.
This is a bit unfair. Most of the contestants have some previous knowledge of one another or even active friendships from previous shows. Kelce is not a reality star and only knew Ron Funches, who she said worked with Travis on a show before. Of course she was quiet!
“Looking around the breakfast table, I have so many suspicions, but also I am fangirling right now. It is so amazing to be in a situation with all these celebrities. I’m so happy to be here. Any extra day in the castle is bonus,” Kelce said.
Ultimately, the first murder victim was Big Brother‘s Ian Terry — he didn’t even make it to the first breakfast.
After the challenge, Kelce roused up more suspicion from Monét X Change after she didn’t have a person to name as a potential Traitor. She suspected The Real Housewives of Atlanta‘s Porsha Williams with Funches earlier. Kelce said she wanted to keep her strategy close to the chest, but on a show like this with so many big personalities, that just draws suspicion.
At the first Roundtable, where contestants vote to eliminate another player, Survivor’s Natalie Anderson tossed Kelce’ name out first, and Donna defended herself by saying she’s alone so of course she’s more quiet. Ron laid out the case for Williams, but Dillard Bassett, who knew her from Housewives, defended her, and threw the heat back on Kelce, saying she’d make a great Traitor. Kelce replied that Dillard Bassett would also make a great Traitor, because she’s put together and articulate.
Actor Michael Rapaport got so worked up about a shield issue from earlier, that he used “we” when referring to the previous night’s murder. His use of “we” immediately turned the conversation to him being a potential Traitor. Most of the table seemed pretty confident he was not actually a Traitor, but they found him so annoying and distracting — Anderson called him a “bad Faithful” — that they considered voting for him anyway, which would absolutely have been the right call in this situation for the viewers at home, who would no longer have to listen to him speak.
Episode 3
Kelce narrowly survived the first Roundtable, with Williams receiving the most votes and being eliminated. But Williams confirmed that she was a Faithful in the truth circle, so Kelce was not out of the woods.
She clearly learned from her mistakes, because she said in a confessional she needed to put herself out there more, and made an effort to talk to everyone afterward and at breakfast and share her ideas.
It was too little too late though, because immediately after the next murder in the morning before the challenge — this time it was Cesternino — the contestants went back to the Roundtable. And with minimal new evidence to draw from, Kelce was the obvious candidate. Kelce tried to pin the evidence back on Rapaport, who everyone already didn’t like, by saying that “92% of the time” the Traitors try to go for shields, to provide a convenient excuse for why they haven’t been murdered.
But ultimately, Kelce was doomed from the end of the last Roundtable, received the most votes, and was sent home midway through the third episode.
“I know that I’m the sacrificial lamb, and I know that I had a blast meeting every single one of you,” Kelce said in the circle of truth. “On that note, I think I’m going to go, but you got yourself a Traitor!”
Honestly, she was set up to fail. The secret Traitor was an interesting idea to mix up the game, but the other Traitors were annoyed by the concept of a secret Traitor who had control over their decisions, and Rausch actively wanted to identify and eliminate that person. Dillard Bassett and Rausch were both very vocal at the Roundtable against Kelce, but if they’d all four been Traitors together from the start, there likely would have been more teamwork.
