Aug 23
Bob the Drag Queen Promises 'Manipulation, Lies, Gaslighting' and More on the Third Season of 'The Traitors'
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
"RuPaul's Drag Race" champion Bob the Drag Queen, who won the eighth season of the long-running competition reality show and went on to star in HBO's "We're Here," will be on another hit program: The upcoming, and very queer, season of "The Traitors."
The drag entertainer explained during an appearance "on the Sloppy Seconds podcast to Big Dipper and drag queen Meatball" why she's ready for the program's famous format of deception and betrayal, Pink News relayed.
Bob the Drag Queen reportedly cited podcast co-host Monét X Change as having been key to preparing her for the show's third season, which will, she promised, be replete with the show's signature elements: "The manipulation, the lies, the gaslighting, the coercion, the collusion."
The show's premise is simple but vicious: A small band of conspirators called "Traitors" work to turn everyone else against each other while preserving their own status, all in pursuit of gain for themselves. Meanwhile, attrition in the form of nightly "murders," in which non-Traitors – called "Faithful" – are dismissed, whittles down the number of the good guys even further.
The upcoming season of the Alan Cumming-hosted American edition of the British hit show is the queerest one yet. Cumming told the press earlier this year that he had pressed to make the show more inclusive after Season Two saw another drag star contestant, Peppermint, kicked off the show in the second episode. She was the first to be eliminated.
For Season 3, Bob the Drag Queen "will be rubbing shoulders with other queer icons like 'Selling Sunset''s Chrishell Stause and, randomly, King Charles' openly gay family member Lord Ivar Mountbatten," Pink News noted.
In the show's Season Two reunion episode, Peppermint called out the "biases" she said were instrumental in her being falsely accused as a Traitor and axed from the show.
"People have to rely on the biases that they bring into the game, which end up targeting whoever's the most different from the group," Peppermint said. "And in those situations, people like me don't really fare that well."
Bob the Drag Queen indicated that she's keeping Peppermint's fate front of mind in the new season.
"Justice for Pep, by the way," she declared, according to Pink News. And by justice, it sounded like she might have meant revenge.
"You know I'm a messy bitch who likes to fight," Bob the Drag Queen went on to say. "I'm a messy bitch who likes drama."
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
