Every twist The Traitors US has used, from shields to the Secret Traitor

The basic loop of The Traitors is so good it barely needs help: build the pot, murder at night, banish by day, repeat until someone blinks. But producers are not in the business of letting a formula get comfortable, and the American version has spent four seasons layering on twists that make the paranoia worse. Here is every major one from seasons one to four, in the order they arrived.

Shields

The shield is the oldest trick in the castle. Hold one and you cannot be murdered that night. It does nothing at the Round Table, which is the whole joke: a shield can save you from the Traitors and then paint a target on you for the Faithful, who start wondering why you wanted one so badly.

Season 1 held them back until episode 6, when Life Shields turned up in the armoury, and Arie Luyendyk Jr. won all three that were offered. Season 2 hid them inside missions and delivered the first real save, when the Traitors targeted Bergie and a secret shield stopped the murder. Season 3 went shield happy, handing them out a dozen at a time without ever blocking a kill. Season 4 turned it inside out: in one round the group completed a mission without taking a shield at all, and that choice meant nobody was murdered that night.

Recruitment, polite and otherwise

Recruitment comes in two flavours. The ordinary offer lets a Faithful say no. Arie said yes in season 1, and Parvati Shallow said yes in the very first episode of season 2. Later that season the Traitors offered the role to Peter Weber instead of murdering anyone, and he turned it down.

Then there is the ultimatum, which Peacock calls join or die. The last Traitor standing sits down with a Faithful face to face: become a Traitor, or be murdered. Phaedra Parks used it on Kate Chastain in season 2, Danielle Reyes on Britney Haynes in season 3, and Rob Rausch on Eric Nam in season 4. Every time, the answer was yes. It turns out very few people choose death.

Murder in plain sight

Normally a murder happens off camera overnight. Murder in plain sight makes the Traitors do it during the day, in front of everyone, without being spotted. In season 2, Parvati got Ekin-Su to drink from a poisoned chalice, and the victim was revealed at a funeral the next episode. Season 4 brought a card-burning version, where the Traitors had to toss a Faithful's card into the breakfast-room fire.

Shortlists and coffins

A recurring cruelty is the shortlist, where a handful of players learn they are in danger before anyone dies. Season 1 put three players on trial in an episode called On Trial, and one of them was murdered the next night. Season 3 had the Traitors write three names on a scroll and seal it in a coffin in the wine cellar, and the murdered player was then nailed into a coffin on the castle steps. Season 4 used a cage mission to shortlist five, and later handed four players a jack-in-the-box each. Whoever got the Traitor inside theirs was the one murdered.

Late arrivals

Season 2 dropped Kate Chastain in during episode 5, safe from both the vote and the murder that night. Season 3 got theatrical: the group was offered Rob Mariano if they would exile one of their own, refused, and watched him leave. He came back in episode 2 anyway, this time as a Traitor, alongside two new Faithful. He was banished in episode 7.

The Seer

Season 3's episode 10 introduced the Seer. Whoever banked the most gold and survived the next banishment could make one player reveal their true role to them, face to face. It went to Britney Haynes, by then a recruited Traitor, who chose Gabby Windey and learned exactly what she already suspected. That round had no murder at all.

Round Table ties

Season 3 also produced the first tie in US history, between Ivar Mountbatten and Danielle Reyes. NBC Insider explains the rule: the tied players plead their case again and everyone else revotes between them. If that ties too, sudden death is settled by chance. That last step has never been needed. Danielle lost the revote 3 to 1.

The Secret Traitor

Season 4's big swing was a Traitor hidden even from the other Traitors. Donna Kelce was secretly chosen in episode 1. She drew up the murder shortlists, and the known Traitors could only kill from her list without knowing who wrote it. The twist lasted as long as she did: Donna was banished in episode 3, before the other Traitors ever met her.

The cursed amulet

Episode 7 of season 4, titled The Black Banquet, gave Lisa Rinna an amulet to wear. The first Faithful to touch it was cursed. The table could hand out two antidotes, and they went to other people, so the cursed player, Yam Yam, was murdered anyway. Lisa was banished at the same banquet, which is the most Traitors sentence ever written.

The Dagger

Also in season 4, Rob Rausch won the Dagger, which let his vote count twice at one Round Table of his choosing within the next four. He used it in episode 10 to help banish Natalie Anderson. A Traitor holding an extra vote is about as bad as it gets for the Faithful.

The end game

The endgame is where seasons are won and lost. Around a fire, the finalists vote either to end the game or to banish again. Every US season so far has required a unanimous vote to end; one dissenter and the group banishes again.

• Season 1 revealed roles on the way out. Arie took himself out and confessed, and Cirie Fields won alone.
• Season 2 used coloured pouches. A three-way split vote was redone, the last banishment removed a Faithful, and two Faithful split the pot.
• Season 3 changed the rule so players banished in the final no longer revealed their role. Britney Haynes left without a reveal and four Faithful ended it in one round.
• Season 4 ran the no-reveal rule from the final five. The group kept banishing until Rob Rausch and Maura Higgins were the last two, and Rob took the pot alone.

That no-reveal rule is the most important change of the lot. Without a role reveal, the Faithful cannot confirm they caught the last Traitor, so ending the game becomes an act of faith. Read what the winners did with it.

Why twists matter for fantasy

Every twist here moves points in this league. Shields, recruitment offers, murders and the end game all have their own scoring categories, and the site's scoring rules list every one. When a new twist lands this season, expect it to reward the players who stay flexible. Brush up on the vocabulary in the glossary first.