Kirby vs Rhys : I'm loving the queer chaos heading into The Traitors Australia final

One episode of The Traitors Australia remains, and no one can be trusted. With Traitors Kirby Bentley and Rhys Nicholson divided, could the Faithfuls win out?

This article contains spoilers for the penultimate episode of The Traitors Australia. You have been warned.

For the past five weeks, we’ve watched a new season of The Traitors Australia take hold of Australia’s attention span, episode by episode.

The team behind the Channel Ten reality series have done an excellent job of constructing the ultimate game of cat and mouse. And as we head towards the final episode, I don’t know how anyone can trust anyone else in the manor.

If you don’t know how it works, the series assigns each player a role of ‘Faithful’ or ‘Traitor’. Each night, a member of the group is slowly (but kindly) murdered. Not for real; players are picked off one by one as they fulfil challenges to fill their pot of prize money.

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The Faithful must find and banish the Traitor (or Traitors) through a daily round table vote. If, by the end of the game, any Traitors are left amongst them, that person takes all the prize money.

As each day continues, paranoia and suspicion grow.

When former AFLW player and Australian Survivor ‘Black Mumba’ Kirby was picked to be a Traitor, we knew we were in for a ride.

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The seduction of Rhys Nicholson

Kirby plays the game so well, and some suspected her from the very beginning. But the way she has been able to deflect that or play on the rest of the group’s paranoia has been masterful.

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But as the wind shifted and her fellow Traitors, MasterChef Australia’s Alvin Quah and The Bachelor’s Alex Nation, were suddenly eliminated, everything changed. And suspicion was falling on her.

Kirby had to seduce a Faithful to the dark side, and she (wisely) chose comedian Rhys Nicholson, but not without her ultimate endgame in sight. Until that point, Rhys had been very honest about who they were and how they felt in the manor. This often made them a target for suspicion. And just as the group acknowledged they’d been on the wrong path and trusted them, the tables turned.

For Rhys, it was truly a trial by fire to play a new game and not get caught as we barrel towards the final. But one of the joys of Rhys in the role of a Traitor is their natural comedic demeanour. It keeps the game moving, sets everyone at ease, and makes for brilliant confessionals to camera.

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While Rhys has been deferring to their Traitor ‘Boss’ Kirby, they’ve also kept their eye on the prize. They were brought in because Kirby had to seduce someone or risk the entire game ending, and they know they could be turned into a scapegoat at any time.

And that time has come.

The Faithfuls who remain

As the group gets smaller and smaller, suspicion of Kirby being a Traitor has returned, and she has needed to deflect attention away from her.

Of course, she has planted the seed that Rhys could be the Traitor. With Faithful and Real Housewife of Sydney Krissy Marsh looking dead at her, she had no choice.

But will it pay off? If we look at who is left in the competition, I would never have thought this would be the combination of contestants heading towards the final ep. But that’s what makes the franchise so delicious.

Honestly, boss bitch Krissy would be amazing in the lead in Murder She Wrote; her instincts have been on point. The way she’s played the game has been brilliant. She’s been direct, suspicious of everyone and has openly spoken her truth. She also knows how to make great TV.

In the first few episodes, I thought that Keira Maguire from The Bachelor/I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!/Bachelor in Paradise had a target on her back.

She is always thinking and doesn’t rush to judgment, and could have been sucked into petty drama with other contestants at the start. But she wasn’t having a bar of it.

Everyone (rightfully) trusts her, which is a brilliant and dangerous place to be.

And then there is Josh Packham from Love Island and The Block. He has been a part of leading the charge against both the banished Traitors. When his twin was eliminated, he was sure he knew who the last Traitor was. But you can’t catch them all.

He has led the group astray too many times now. All that has done is make him question himself and put a cloud of suspicion directly above him.

The Traitors Australia
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Is it every Traitor for themselves?

In Tuesday night’s penultimate episode, while playing for money and the dagger, Rhys smartly used the challenge to find out whether Kirby was trying to take them down.

It was a brilliant thing to do in front of everyone. And shows just how smart they are.

But so is Kirby. She is a master of the game. But is her mask slipping? With everyone gunning for Rhys, if you don’t vote for them, she will be suspect number one.

Heading into the round table, Keira has the dagger and gets two votes. Krissy comes for Rhys right out of the gate, but Rhys turns the tables using her powerful energy against her.

Keira comes at Josh, who is looking at Kirby while they argue. This is why I love this game. You cannot trust anyone, and the simplest thing puts everyone under the microscope.

Kirby is beautiful in this moment; she deflects heat away from Rhys and puts her trust squarely on Keira. As Josh and Krissy start going at it, Keira asks her who she thinks, and she gestures to Rhys. The drama is everything.

When it’s time to reveal who you wish to banish, Krissy votes for Rhys, and they vote for her.

When it’s Kirby, she looks to Keira and says, “We cannot get this wrong, or else the game’s done”. It’s a brilliant moment where she is still playing her for the final, and she reveals she voted for Rhys.

You can tell Rhys knew it would happen. Will it be their game now?

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Josh votes for Krissy, and it all comes down to ‘chaos’ Keira.

“I feel like you just outed yourself,” Keira says, revealing she voted for Josh. With the most votes, he is banished from the game.

There’s one more episode to go

“I wouldn’t say seeing my name hurt; I would say I was amazed by the gall,” Rhys says of Kirby in their confessional.

“She said to me, flat to my face, they’re coming for you. In a way that made it seem like she hadn’t made them come for me. But I’m pretty sure she made them come for me.”

While Kirby, who was told everyone is voting for Rhys, went with that, everything changed. As the only one who wrote Rhys’ name down, she now looks like a liar.

Did Kirby blow up her own game? Will our Traitors take each other down and save the Faithfuls the trouble?

It’s a great way to head towards the final, with two Traitors and two Faithfuls after the money.

But Rhys is sure they’re a sitting duck. Do they still have a chance? Kirby and Rhys are sure Kiera and Krissy won’t write each other’s names down, so will they both be taken out?

Is the game all over?