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Pod Meets World

Pod Meets Twirl'd: The Traitors 402

16 Jan 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What insights do Will and Rider share about The Traitors Season 4 Episode 2?

1.027 - 33.564 Will Friedle

Welcome to Pod Meets Twirled, a podcast from two guys who had never seen an episode of Dancing with the Stars, but took it on and walked away experts. So now we turn to Traitors, another show I've never seen, but Will is convinced that he could win. We are Wilfred L. and Ryder Strong, two best friends. One, a TV expert. One, a TV skeptic. Both, dance scholars.

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34.165 - 42.737 Will Friedle

Join us as we step into a castle full of lies, alliances, and over-the-top wardrobe choices. This is Podmeet's Twirled Trading Places.

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43.057 - 46.141 Ryder Strong

Yes. Yes. Yes, episode two.

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46.521 - 55.55 Unknown

At least put your hoodie up. At least put your hoodie up. Well, no, I had the whole thing going. I had it going, but eventually, you know, I'm at work.

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56.291 - 57.933 Ryder Strong

I need a new one.

60.355 - 65.2 Will Friedle

Well, when I go on the show, I'll get my own. I want one of those gold face masks.

65.861 - 72.327 Ryder Strong

I can get you one of those. I can get you one of those five minutes. I got a gold face mask guy. That's easy. That's cake.

72.745 - 74.187 Will Friedle

Yeah, it's very Squid Games, actually.

74.647 - 87.022 Ryder Strong

Squid Game, a little of that, and a little, what's the Tom Cruise sex movie? Yeah, Eyes Wide Shut. Yes, a little Eyes Wide Shut. Oh, my God. I've gone turtle. I trapped myself. Hang on. All right, there we go. Okay, we're good.

Chapter 2: How do the contestants' strategies evolve after the first murder?

156.215 - 167.366 Ryder Strong

There was a potato dish. There was some good eggs that were up there. Clearly juices from all around the world. Worth the price of admission right there at the castle, in my opinion.

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167.887 - 187.988 Ryder Strong

the traitor breakfast and then uh is it dorinda that walked in and got applause yeah because she was kicked off first to the last episode and she's like kind of again never seen a housewives in my life but she's very likable so i don't know if she was a good like a good housewife if she was a good witch or a bad witch um but i think they liked her on the housewives i have no idea

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187.968 - 213.891 Ryder Strong

yeah i thought it was sweet that they like gave her this moment and she started crying it was like okay well you made it one night well she flew all the way to scotland the last time it was there like eight hours and it's like hey thanks that's the other question is if you're if you do get murdered or are kicked off the show they have to make sure that you're you don't tell anybody so i imagine you're essentially sequestered for the next two weeks or however long are you kidding me you have a vacation in scotland to do nothing but hang out no no

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213.871 - 225.489 Ryder Strong

No, they probably will not let you leave the hotel because then someone will take a picture of you and they'll know that you were kicked off the show. So you're probably in a hotel room not being able to leave for like 10 days.

225.91 - 242.343 Will Friedle

Yeah. All right. The choices to be murdered were Ian, who is a smart gamer. Mark... which seemed kind of random to me. Yeah, agreed. Because he hadn't really spoken up or made a name for himself in any way.

242.363 - 243.427 Ryder Strong

No. And he can Foxtrot.

243.447 - 259.854 Will Friedle

And then Eric, the singer, he can Foxtrot. And then Eric, the singer, who I don't know who he is, but he also seemed very low-key. Yeah. And I didn't understand why. I didn't know who to pick. I guess my only thought was Ian because he seems like he's a gamer.

260.014 - 267.368 Ryder Strong

That's what I would think because, again, at this point, you're kind of throwing darts, right? I mean, you don't really know any of these people. Nobody's formed any real alliances. Right.

Chapter 3: What role does breakfast play in revealing the contestants' dynamics?

342.917 - 348.725 Ryder Strong

Yeah, they're just going to vote you off whether they think you're faithful or not at some point. They're going to be like, we don't really care. Yeah.

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348.985 - 349.286 Will Friedle

Yeah.

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349.526 - 350.628 Ryder Strong

Agreed.

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350.828 - 358.666 Will Friedle

And then Alan Cummings showed up in his very shiny outfit. This is fabulous.

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358.927 - 363.853 Ryder Strong

Again, it's perfect. Yeah, it's perfect. Wait, I have a question. I have a question for you first.

363.894 - 363.994

Yeah.

365.054 - 387.703 Ryder Strong

You said at the beginning of the last episode or throughout the beginning of the first episode, the woman from Survivor that you liked. Natalie. Natalie was one of your favorites and so was Mark. Starting episode two, what you saw with episode one, has that changed at all? Are they still kind of your favorites or has anything changed for you between two and one?

389.472 - 415.203 Will Friedle

I guess I was starting to think that Jam Jam really had a good shot at this point because he was playing a good social game. He seemed like he had people liking him and he was working hard. By the end of episode two, I did not feel the same way. But at this point I was like, oh, Jam Jam's got a good shot. If he had one survivor, which I didn't realize, he's a very likable person. Yeah.

415.863 - 428.555 Will Friedle

He seemed like he was making a lot of friends at this point and like building the kinds of reputation you want, you know? But I mean, now having seen all three episodes, I'm much more like it's better to fly under the radar.

Chapter 4: How does the secret traitor concept affect gameplay and alliances?

510.281 - 517.033 Will Friedle

Because I was like, this poor woman is not a reality star. Exactly. She's just like...

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517.013 - 542.127 Will Friedle

everyone's like she's so low-key she's not like super talkative so at this point i was like these like reality actory types performative people just can't handle the fact that this woman isn't as like you know performative as them isn't like playing hard or trying to get out she was just kind of just chill you know like a normal human being and i was like why are they picking

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542.107 - 560.05 Ryder Strong

picking on her because she, you're coming into a thing where it's a game. You imagine that it moves very quickly. So I shoot over a week or 10 days, whatever it is, the entire season. And if you're there, you're quiet the whole time. You're not talking strategy at all. You're not making any friends. You just, you stand out.

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560.39 - 569.542 Will Friedle

You just do. And, and, but she also already stands out because she's older than everybody. Yeah. She's just, I don't know. I was just, I felt so sorry for her when they turned on her.

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569.662 - 588.12 Ryder Strong

I knew it was going to happen. Man, Well, because again, she's the first one I would have picked to have been a secret traitor. Very first one I would have picked would have been her. Yeah. Because. It's amazing. She's perfect. No one wants to vote for her. I know. Because of the Swifties. Everyone loves her. She's the mom. She's probably the nicest person in the world.

588.14 - 589.041 Ryder Strong

That's the first person I would have picked.

589.061 - 593.665 Will Friedle

You were thinking of it exactly right. And I would have just stuck my foot in it.

593.905 - 614.089 Ryder Strong

Here's the other thing I think, though, about this game. This game to me is like Jeopardy. in that I'll bet you everyone's graded it in their house. And then the second you get there, you're like, I suck at this. I don't know. I think you would thrive. I don't know. I don't know if I would. I think it would be one of those things where I think I'd be a lot better than I actually would.

614.309 - 618.754 Ryder Strong

I feel the same way with Jeopardy. I win Jeopardy every night. I bet you I'd stand there with a buzzer in my hand and not get one right.

Chapter 5: What are the reactions to the cliffhanger ending of the episode?

657.667 - 663.216 Will Friedle

Says, you know, we killed Ian last night or however she put it. And it's like, that's weird.

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663.717 - 672.351 Ryder Strong

I that this is when I started to go like, oh, maybe it isn't Donna because she did. Right. This Porsche screwed up so badly a couple of times that it's got to be her.

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672.732 - 672.952 Will Friedle

Yeah.

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673.252 - 688.615 Ryder Strong

Yeah. So it that wasn't that wasn't good. And then we as then I start to then I started to flip flop because I was like, maybe this Maybe she's just not that good at this. I mean, she just misspoke because she's just bad at this.

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688.875 - 690.278 Will Friedle

Yeah. Turns out that's the case.

690.398 - 690.719 Ryder Strong

Yeah.

690.739 - 692.061 Will Friedle

I mean, yes, that's what it is.

692.121 - 692.442 Ryder Strong

I know.

692.642 - 715.423 Will Friedle

But I was like, I can't believe this person would actually be that bad. Right. They were. Yeah. Yeah. No, I've been surprised with everything so far. I'm a really bad player of this game. On the mission. players on thrones. This was cool. This is where I just fell in love with the atmosphere. Um, and you know, I just, I was like, I'm so into this.

Chapter 6: How do social skills influence strategy in The Traitors?

810.59 - 812.734 Will Friedle

I'm not keeping track really of what's going on.

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812.714 - 825.645 Ryder Strong

No, and I don't think you're supposed to. You run around, you try to find bags, you run back to whoever's on your team. It's very chaotic. There's no real rhyme or reason to any of their challenges. They just seem very frantic.

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826.106 - 830.537 Will Friedle

Although, this is when I started to realize that Colton is a really good player of this game. I know.

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830.517 - 832.34 Unknown

No, I couldn't believe it either.

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832.48 - 854.914 Will Friedle

Because he actually looked at the situation and explained it perfectly. He's like, you don't want to swap too early, so I'm not even going to look for tokens until the final stop, which was brilliant. And guess who found a token and was able to save himself? It was the smartest move. Because if he had gotten it earlier, he's one of the bigger guys, people would have swapped with him immediately.

855.174 - 859.101 Will Friedle

So he was like two steps ahead. And I was like, dude, Colton knows what's going on.

859.421 - 862.767 Ryder Strong

Strength and brains, the guys kind of got the whole package for this game.

862.867 - 869.579 Will Friedle

Because then later, we'll get into it, like his whole Donna thing, which I was like, dude, get off the Donna. Turned out to be exactly right.

869.599 - 875.61 Ryder Strong

Yes, this guy knows what he is. He's like the best player so far. He's a good, he's a really good player. Yeah, I agree.

Chapter 7: What evidence do contestants use to accuse each other?

965.71 - 966.812 Ryder Strong

You're right, we're right. My bad, my bad.

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966.832 - 969.838 Will Friedle

Right, so that's, he literally made it all about him without any reasoning.

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969.918 - 977.692 Ryder Strong

I'm sorry, what it was, he thought he was vulnerable because they went and put a, out of their way to put a coffin in his grave. Okay, but who cares?

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977.752 - 978.313 Unknown

Exactly.

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978.333 - 989.534 Ryder Strong

But he took it personally to where it's like, I'm totally, I'm vulnerable because of that. So we should have discussed it. Exactly. Exactly.

989.634 - 997.469 Will Friedle

It's so dumb. And like Jam Jam got the thing, like, you know, he got the token. So go with it, man. Like he can- Yeah.

997.489 - 1003.263 Unknown

You're also just putting a target on your back by being an ass. I know. It's like, what are you doing, dude?

1003.824 - 1023.788 Ryder Strong

What are you doing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I love they kept... It was so big at times that everyone else was discussing like, is he... like the best traitor in history because there's no way he can be a traitor because who the hell would play it like this? Or is he just a really bad faithful? Like they had no idea. I know. Because he's so out of it. You're right.

1023.909 - 1025.591 Ryder Strong

There hasn't been a round table yet. You're right.

Chapter 8: What predictions do Will and Rider make for future episodes?

1094.676 - 1102.169 Ryder Strong

That was, that was a weird confrontation. And even Alan Cumming was like, Hey, why this is something you could probably discuss at the round table.

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1102.189 - 1104.313 Will Friedle

We still got a show to do here. Yeah.

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1104.333 - 1122.337 Ryder Strong

Yeah. He's a great... Again, I'm going to give my flowers every week. Alan Cumming is a really engaging host. Yeah. He's very good at this. It's the fabulous thing and the kind of... I don't know, man. The subdued comedy. Oh, I think some of it's great.

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1122.457 - 1139.7 Will Friedle

I like it. I like it, but it's very scripted. It's very like... Delivering a thing. But that's what I love. That's what I love. But it's very different from like... There's not as much hosting skill going on. It's acting skill. It's just playing this funny, over-the-top character.

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1139.841 - 1142.865 Ryder Strong

Is Survivor scripted? Is the host like, oh, really?

1143.266 - 1145.469 Will Friedle

That's what's amazing. It's Jeff Probst?

1145.729 - 1146.09 Ryder Strong

Is that right?

1146.15 - 1167.981 Will Friedle

And he is a genius. He's one of the few hosts that when I watch it, I'm like, you deserve all the money and all the credit. And I'm sure he has an earpiece, but he is constantly... engaging with people and having real, he runs the tribal councils. And so he has to just roll with whatever they're giving him on an unscripted basis. And he is amazing.

1168.121 - 1170.444 Ryder Strong

He's done it for what, 40 seasons or whatever the hell.

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