Stephen Colletti on His Traitors Downfall: “Total Betrayal at the Highest Level”

Stephen Colletti: Faithful from the start. I was going a little bit outside my comfort zone going into the competition reality, so it was already a big leap for me, and I felt like I didn't want to go through just lying to everybody right away. I was like, ‘Look, I want to let the game come to me, be a man of the people,’ and the Faithfuls, I think that's the position to do it, so I wanted to be a Faithful from the jump, but I also was very interested in being recruited much later in the game.

I think if I was recruited later, I would have been really good at it because I got a good handle of the game later on. Now, we're all looking like idiots at times. Our decision-making is poor. We get these leads and these gut instincts, and then you're completely wrong, as you saw with how I thought Johnny was a Traitor and I kind of sat back and was ready to get him Banished and it bit me in the butt.

So, I do think that being able to, at that point, do some of the maneuvering around the castle, play a few steps ahead — as you're seeing Rob execute very well up to this point — once I got into the game and a few days in, I got a good handle on it. Now watching it as well, I'm like, "Oh, like, it would have been really fun to be a Traitor," and I think I would have handled it pretty well.

Ooh. Surprise. I mean, I got to say. I am with the rest of the Faithfuls, just eating out of his hand at this point, going, "I mean, you're a great Faithful, Rob like, you're so Faithful like, what a great Faithful up to this point," so you know, what's funny is, I was curious about why he voted for me. I did not suspect him in that moment.

He was playing a really good, quiet game…relatively quiet. You can say I was relatively quiet. You could say that Tara was relatively quiet. You could say that Mark, Kristen, you're starting to hear us more as of course the numbers have dwindled, but up to this point, not being the loudest voice in the room has really helped a lot of the Faithfuls because you're there. You're being very strategic. And you're not really jumping on people and attacking people because when it's wrong, it puts the heat on you.

I mean, even Colton, who was a great Faithful in the way that he wanted to lead the charge for us, but it also — I wouldn't say that it bit him in the butt, because he obviously didn't get Banished, but a lot of people were starting to question him. I think that Rob is playing a laid-back game, speaking up at very strategic points and really excelling in the missions, and I think for that everyone's believing him as a Faithful.

Yeah, and you call it a quieter game because it's ultimately what's in the show, but I did not sit back and just not talk to anybody and not game with everybody. I really was a man of the people going around to everyone, trying to engage in different conversations, let people know what I was thinking and who I was on. Some of the right people that I have a lot of faith in, you're just not seeing those conversations, but there's a lot of folks that are the louder voices in the room that really want to take on that role, and I knew from the beginning that I was not going to be one of those people and I just wanted to sit back and let the game come to me. When the missions were on, that's where I had an opportunity to really open up and be a louder voice in the room.

I am not one of those folks that did not know exactly who they were. When I stepped out of the car on Day 1, I walked right over to them and I was like, "Oh my God. I love you guys. You're so great during the Olympics. Did you guys know that you're going to be on the show together?" and they were like, "Oh, well, you know, it's an Olympic year and, we might've known." I was like, "Huh, all right. Well, good for you guys." Like, that's a massive advantage to be able to go into the show, having a best friend that you can have a pact and a trust with and be able to trust 100%...That's like a cheat code.

The two of them got to work together. They knew they were going to be on the show together. I was like, "that's so unfair," but then once you take a step back and realize that you went down to a couple of Olympians, and of course it being Tara and Johnny, and the chemistry that we all see and enjoy watching when we see the Olympics to see that play out, have a front row seat to them not only back each other up, but then win at this Roundtable at my expense, you got to just got to tip your cap to them and say, "You know what? That's a pretty bad-ass way to go down." I still had to tell Natalie she blew it though, you know?

There was different levels of betrayal that I felt. Natalie was a big one, because she tried to go after me after The Black Banquet where she felt like me serving her food was really going to be her demise, and she fought Tara so hard to drink that antidote because I served her and a bunch of other people food so her paranoia there...She tried to gain more of my trust from it, and I did gain some trust back with her and we had some good conversations. So to see her not approach me and just go with this terrible gut instinct of me, that was total betrayal on the highest level. I was a little frustrated with some of the other Faithfuls because I could tell that they knew the tide was turning a little bit, and I wasn't really getting any heads-up.

I felt like there was a little bit more betrayal also from the folks that didn't really stand up for me at the Roundtable. I had some good trust with Maura, with Mark, with Kristen. Look. I get it. At that point, there's a strong case being made. People are being convinced that Johnny's not a Traitor. Natalie has gone full send on me being a Traitor so it's putting some doubts in their minds and at this point of the game, if they try to stick up for me, and ultimately, I am a Traitor because there was something that they could go off of. Then it really would have been the end of them as well so yeah that was frustrating and that was tough to see at the end of it all.

But I will say this. I did know as soon as the votes were revealed, and it showed that Eric had voted for me, I was like, "Okay, he's a Traitor." I understood what Johnny and Tara were doing. I thought maybe Johnny was still a Traitor, but…I knew Natalie was not a Traitor, even though I told her I got to look at her now, but I was just scrambling in that moment.

Then Rob, I was like, ‘Okay, Rob, all right, fair play,’ you probably just wanted me out of the game, because you saw me as competition. 

I was already onto Eric before that, which is funny. Just some of his demeanor to me I thought that he would make a really great Traitor. He wasn't making any big swings. He was saying a few things here and there, but he was wrong quite a bit you know? Which we learned so that caused some suspicion on him, but especially when we started to see, okay, maybe there is a case for Johnny being a Faithful and then Tara, we really were convinced that Tara's a Faithful as well. I didn't see anything specific that he did. It was really just overall, all of his decisions up to that point in the game, looking back on some of his votes where you were suspicious of him.

I think I find James Lafferty to be very intelligent. I think that he would be a good person to be able to sit down and analyze what's going on. He's a great observer. He's a stoic guy, and I think that he'd be able to pick up some things that I wasn't necessarily, so I think it'd be really fun to see him play that game.