Maura Higgins’ late-game choice and what The Traitors Season 4 finale means for fans after a shocking betrayal
Spoiler warning. For viewers invested in alliances and surprise turns, Maura Higgins’ run to the final five feels like the moment that reshaped the finale’s outcome: her decision-making and trust questions landed squarely between a betrayal and the final prize split. Fans of the show and of Love Island will feel the immediate impact of that choice, and the series’ outcome changes how this season will be remembered.
Maura Higgins’ decision — why viewers and fellow contestants felt it first
Maura Higgins, who had urged players to find at least one person to trust, found that trust tested at the end. She reached the final five after Dancing With The Stars performer Mark Ballas was shown as the final player to be "murdered" in front of the group. During the decisive roundtable Maura listened to both sides and trusted her gut; whether that read was correct became the hinge for the closing sequence. Here’s the part that matters for fans: the move she made directly set up the late banishing votes that handed the game to the Traitors.
How the finale voting and the fire-of-truth rounds unfolded
At the start of the final sequence, six contestants remained: Traitors Rob Rausch and Eric Nam and Faithfuls Maura Higgins, Tara Lipinski, Mark Ballas and Johnny Weir. A challenge before the roundtable could add money to the pot, with winners able to add up to $220, 800.
During the roundtable phase, suspicion centered on Eric, Tara and Johnny. The voting breakdown at one roundtable read: Eric voted Johnny; Johnny voted Eric; Rob voted Johnny; Tara voted Eric; Maura voted Johnny. That vote resulted in Johnny Weir being banished in a 3-2 tally. Later, in the fire-of-truth sequence, Maura, Eric, Rob and Tara all chose the red pouch to continue playing because they believed a Traitor was still in the game. Following that, Eric, Rob and Maura voted to banish Tara while Tara voted to banish Eric; Tara was then banished in a 3-1 result.
After those moves — Johnny out 3-2, Tara out 3-1 — the remaining Traitors, Rob and Eric, had effectively steered the game to a Traitor advantage. Even then, the game did not end until another banishment left a single Traitor standing.
Outcome, the winner and the prize calculations
Rob Rausch emerged as the sole winner of The Traitors Season 4, taking the total prize pot of over $200, 000 as the last remaining Traitor. With only three players left, Maura and Rob voted to banish Eric, which left Rob with the entire pot. This result marked the first time a Traitor won the U. S. edition since Cirie Fields’ Season 1 victory; the two most recent seasons prior had ended with multiple Faithful winners.
Cast moves, past turns and the season’s twists
Rob Rausch is identified in the context as a 27-year-old professional snake wrangler and reality TV personality from Alabama. Before this run, he rose to wider attention as a Casa Amor bombshell in Season 5 and later returned as a primary star in Season 6, where he had romances with contestants Leah Kateb and Andrea Carmona. In Season 4 gameplay Rob was the only original Traitor (OG Traitor) remaining after he turned on fellow Traitors Lisa Rinna and Candiace Dillard Bassett; after their banishments Rausch recruited Eric Nam to be a fellow Traitor, a player who otherwise stayed low-key through most of the season.
The roster of recognizable names in Season 4 also included former reality and celebrity figures: a former Real Housewives of Potomac star, a Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum, and celebrity parent Donna Kelce — noted as the mother of Jason and Travis Kelce — who served as the season’s first "secret traitor, " a role whose identity viewers were not privy to until the end of Episode 3.
Questions viewers are likely asking now — a brief Q&A
Q: Who exactly was murdered in front of the group before Maura reached the final five?
One account in the provided context names Mark Ballas as the final player to be murdered in front of the group; another separate note in the same context names Alan Cumming as the final Faithful murdered — unclear in the provided context.
Q: How did Rob and Eric position themselves at the end?
After earlier banishments Rob remained the sole original Traitor and brought Eric into a late partnership; the pair navigated votes so that Traitors gained the endgame advantage.
Q: What else changed because of this season?
The show’s Scottish setting and the season’s premiere helped drive audience interest tied to travel: the premiere coincided with a 15% rise in vacation rentals in Scotland tracked by rental data, and the season name-checked rental-friendly castles such as a 16th-century Lomond castle situated along a river and Carnell Estates, a walled-garden property dating back to 1435.
It’s easy to overlook, but the finale’s structure — multiple banishments after the Traitors had gained the upper hand — is what turned an expected Faithful comeback into a Traitor win. The real question now is whether future players will change tactics in response to how quickly trust was weaponized late in the game.
Writer’s aside: What’s easy to miss is how much the late-round psychology mattered more than challenge performance; that pattern often decides winners in social deduction formats.
