Maura Higgins at the Final Table and Rob Rausch on His Farm
maura higgins sat across the round table in the season finale of The Traitors when Rob Rausch told her he had been a traitor. The confrontation capped a run in which Rausch emerged as the last-standing Traitor after double-crossing Eric Nam.
Maura Higgins' stunned reaction at table
On Thursday night in the season finale, two former Love Island contestants locked eyes across the round table. Maura Higgins looked as if, for the first time, she could imagine what winning would be like; she glanced at Rob Rausch and believed they might have done it together. She joked, "I'm sorry, " pausing for emphasis, "I'm a faithful. " Rausch answered, "Oh fuck, " then told her he had lied to her for weeks. He said, "Maura, I am and I always have been... a traitor. " The light fell from her eyes; her mouth hung open as she waited, hoping he was joking. He was not.
The reveal at the round table
The exchange left Maura stunned and viewers aware that she had been misled. The Traitors format gives the traitors outsized power: there are only two ways to leave the castle, banishment at the round table—where a traitor can try to control the votes—or murder, where the traitors have full decision-making power over the Faithfuls. In this finale, Rausch used the traitors' control to steer play and to recruit and then double-cross Eric Nam, the Traitor he had promised allyship to.
Rob Rausch on the farm
A few days before the much-anticipated finale of The Traitors airs on NBC, Rob Rausch was shown around his childhood land in Florence, Alabama, where he spends hours out in near-freezing temperatures on 200 acres of his family’s property. He protected a visitor from an "army of cows" while feeding them; the herd gathered en masse at the gate and mooed incessantly at Rausch, and he moos back even louder. Pointing out the only spotted cow in the mix, he said, "That one's my favorite, " and added, "Her name's Darlin', because she's a darlin'. " Darlin' is the only cow that doesn't tip her horns forward and rush at the visitor when Rausch opens the gate. He carried a hefty bag of feed over one shoulder and wore a cowboy hat tipped over his brow.
How Rausch played the game
Rausch, a 27-year-old reality star and snake wrangler, was described as strategic, sneaking around and generally cutthroat on his way to a duplicitous win. He stood by the move that secured his victory: double-crossing Eric Nam. He said, "Can you imagine if I let a Traitor that was there for three days beat me in the game and win the whole thing?" and added, "Hell no, I'm not taking that chance. I'm getting out of here with the money. " His win produced mixed feelings: "It was so weird, in that moment, " he admitted. "I did it, I won the game, it's over…but at the same time, it was very bittersweet. It wasn't like, Hooray! It wasn't happy feelings straight away. I was like, Oh, gosh. " He also claims he's still "super tight" with both Nam and maura higgins.
Rules and rare traitor dominance
The author of a season recap put Rausch among the most dominant traitors: it is rare to see a traitor dominate from beginning to end without slipping up. Amateur data cited in that commentary noted that of 78 seasons that have aired, the traitors have won 44. The commentator said they have seen almost 20 seasons and would have guessed traitors win a little more than half the time. The commentator also wrote that only once—in the 2024 U. K. season's Harry Clark—had they seen a traitor comparable to Rob Rausch. The writer recalled knowing Rausch from Love Island, where he once hid under a water feature in a pool so cameras could not see him while he sobbed. Rausch was described as tall and gorgeous, with a thick Alabama accent, a snake wrangler by trade, and someone who frequently wears overalls with nothing under them on reality shows.
Rausch's life beyond the castle
At home on the farm, Rausch's trademark denim overalls, made famous or infamous from his stint on Love Island USA season six, were absent; he instead wore a sturdy canvas jacket, light-wash jeans, and worn-in cowboy boots. He said, "I used to wear overalls in the summer every day, but now I can't even wear them. It's like a fuckin' Halloween costume. " The family land has been in his family for generations and contains a wooden table he handcrafted and a vintage red Ford F150 his grandfather bought in 1993. Bullet shells litter the outside of the trailer on the property, where he and his sister run their clothing
Viewers and commentators saw in Rausch a player who controlled more of the castle than most Traitors ever do, leaving one fellow contestant—maura higgins—stunned at the table when the full betrayal landed.
Unclear in the provided context: what happened immediately after the reveal at the table and the final breakup of votes at the round table.
