Rob Rausch Has Been Training Long and Hard for Murrrder on The Traitors

rob rausch has become one of the season’s most talked-about players as The Traitors wraps its fourth season this week, with viewers and fellow contestants alike drawn to his mix of charm and strategy. His rise matters now because he enters the finale as a poised contender to claim the game’s prize and a place among the show’s most memorable winners.

Rob Rausch’s steady ascent: snake‑wrangler, strategist, internet darling

He arrived at the castle with a resume that reads offbeat: the 27-year-old Alabamian is a former Love Island contestant who wrangles snakes, plays chess, and quotes Mark Twain. He quickly wrapped both the people in the castle—and those following along online—around his finger, earning attention that even produced a headline calling him the "Hot Snake Guy. " Teammates and rivals have alternately joked that his looks disarm opponents and credited his calm, even-keeled personality and strategic instincts for his success; some players have half-jokingly suggested people simply don’t look at him long enough to size him up.

The Traitors format and the Scottish castle setting

The series stages the party game Mafia across the Scottish highlands inside a lavish castle, where players indulge in treachery, deception, and betrayal while host Alan Cumming watches on in outfits described as flamboyant enough to make Mary, Queen of Scots seethe. The show began as an international format in the Netherlands in 2021 and was adapted in the U. K. in 2022 with Claudia Winkleman hosting there; both the U. K. and U. S. editions shoot in the now‑iconic Scottish castle, while more than two dozen other international versions use their own locales.

Alliances fray: turret conspirators, Traitor‑on‑Traitor violence, and the finale lineup

Rausch began the game aligned with Real Housewives alums Lisa Rinna and Candiace Dillard Bassett inside the Traitors’ turret, a trio that at one point looked formidable. He has outlasted both Rinna and Dillard Bassett, though not without committing and enduring some Traitor‑on‑Traitor violence along the way. Heading into the season finale he stands poised to win alongside a newly inducted fellow Traitor, musician Eric Nam, unless a group of Faithfuls — Johnny Weir, Tara Lipinski, Mark Ballas, and Maura Higgins — finally wise up to his play.

Preparation off camera: farm breaks, Love Island lessons, and hard‑boiled eggs

Rausch took a break from working on his farm in Alabama to talk to us about his approach. He credits lessons learned on Love Island for helping him stay mentally grounded during the show and says he kept physically energized with a simple regimen that included lots of hard‑boiled eggs. He also singled out a lighter, ongoing challenge: dressing to impress a castle full of fashion lovers while playing a game in which appearance can be weaponized.

Why his game reads differently and what could stop him at the finale

Part of rob rausch’s edge is the mismatch between expectation and performance: a dating‑show background and an affable public persona that masked a disciplined, chess‑like approach to the game. The U. S. edition, which premiered in 2023 and leans on a roster of reality stars and celebrities, has grown in popularity across multiple seasons, and this fourth season’s arc has turned Rausch into a potential archetype of the modern Traitor. Still, the finale hinges on whether the Faithfuls named can pivot quickly enough to turn his momentum into a banishment before the prize is awarded.