Boston Rob Mariano talks about being caught in a “Traitors” 's‑‑‑show'

Boston Rob Mariano has dealt with reality TV team dysfunction plenty of times before from his days on Survivor. But that was merely basic training for what he experienced this season on The Traitors. Boson Rob, and fellow Traitors Danielle Reyes, and Carolyn Wiger seemingly could not agree on anything in the turret. Meanwhile, Danielle was coming for Carolyn, Carolyn was coming for Danielle, and Rob was coming for the medicine cabinet to find some Advil.

The Robfather was on borrowed time due to his reality TV reputation, and after he came hard at Bob the Drag Queen for floating his name, the scrutiny only intensified. He managed to just squeak by during the episode 6 Roundtable, but after he murdered Derrick Levasseur, who was on to him, the evidence was simply too damning and Rob was finally banished by the group… including Carolyn and Danielle.

What does Boston Rob make of all that Traitors dysfunction? Does he feel coming into the game late helped do him in? And how does he respond to Tony Vlachos calling him a sellout? We asked the Robfather all that and more.

Related: Derrick Levasseur responds to being called a 'dirty scumbag liar' on The Traitors

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You’ve been on some dysfunctional tribes before on Survivor, so how did what was happening in the turret compare to that?

BOSTON ROB MARIANO: Yeah, I mean I kind of caused it right from the outset, but it was difficult. This game is supposed to be the Traitors against the Faithful, and for me this season it was Rob against the Faithful and the Traitors. It felt like there was no trust with anyone, and I kind of set off that chain of events by doing what I did against Bob the Drag Queen. I stand by it. I feel like it was the right decision. Didn't necessarily have to happen as quickly as it did, but once he called me out, I was so aware of it and I acted so quickly to kind of spread that around the castle that once I did, I couldn't put the lid back on that jar and I had to go at 'em.

Take me into the turret in terms of the dynamics, because Carolyn's yelling at Danielle, Danielle's been voting for you, all this stuff going on.

Look at it from the beginning, right? The way the game started, they didn't let me in. They didn't want me. I get it, I'm me. I wasn't aware of the twist before I got there. Once they tried to do that, I was like, “Eh…” They're like, “We got another way.” I was like, “What's that?” They're like, “We're not telling you.”

Then, once I saw the three cages I was like, “Oh, this is not good.” Now, they already said no, and now you're forcing me on 'em. Then, all of a sudden I show up in the turret. It's only one day they've been together, but in that one day, that bonding already happened. It's like you are the new guys now, and that social dynamic of that alone — it's like they want to put you to the side, but now I'm in a position where I can't.

So initially my plan is just lay low and let them drive a little bit and let me ride a little bit. I even went along with it. I let 'em kill Jeremy. I didn't want them to kill Jeremy, but I didn't stop them. I just let it go because that was all Danielle and I was like, “Oh no, this was a bad spot.” And then once I get Bob the Drag Queen banished, now there's no trust at all. Danielle is wary of me, Carolyn's wary of me. I said it's a s---show and that's what it was.

Related: Boston Rob did not ask Parvati for any Traitors advice before playing

You mentioned the cages, and the three people in the cages are already all out of the game. Do you think you all were at a disadvantage starting the game late in that fashion?

It's so hard. I'm not going to sit here and cry about it. I've been doing this long enough that you got to kind of have to put me at a little bit of a disadvantage just to make it fair for everyone else. It's hard, but I'm not crying about it. I actually feel like I do better when the pressure's on. It might not help me win, but it's going to push me to make a better show because I'm going to act more aggressively and play more aggressively despite what's on my back.

It seemed like with your reputation and coming into the game late with the cages the way you did that it was only going to be a matter of time for you, and you could only hold off the villagers with the torches for so long. Did it feel that way to you as things started to snowball?

I mean, it was hard. I did feel like I was drawn dead from the jump, but I held out hope that I would be able to work with Carolyn. I could tell right away that Danielle wasn't going to work with me. I think the one strength I have more than anything else is my self-awareness. And I could tell once I got rid of Bob the Drag Queen that she absolutely didn't want any part of it and I don't know why. I mean I have ideas, but we were never on the same page ever.

It's not like you have hours on an island where you can sit there and get in their head and figure it out. It's a different kind of show. It's very produced and it's very fast. I can tell you that in the last episode, from the time we get back to the challenge until the time we went to the Roundtable, I had less than 15 minutes. Their filming schedule is tight. You're doing a breakfast, you're doing some reality, you do the challenge, you come back, you do your reality, you do the Roundtable, and then you do the turret after that — all in one day. It's 6:00 AM until two, three o'clock in the morning. It's not a lot of time for sleep and everything else.

Related: Boston Rob says hardest thing about The Traitors is the sheer volume of players

Tony called you a sellout for piling on him at the Roundtable. What do you make of that?

Tony had his feelings hurt. I get it. Tony was gone before I even got there. That one day before I got there, it was already going in that direction. I didn't have much of a choice. I was going to keep my mouth shut. Bob Harper kind of pushed me. He was like, “Rob, what do you think?” And at that point I was like, “Man, what are my options here?” I was like, “Well it looks like he's going anyway.” So the path of least resistance is just pig pile on him. And I did. I don't think if I had said anything it was going to sway it back the other way apart from him. So I felt like that was the right thing to do.

Who impressed you the most as a game player in there? Maybe someone you didn't expect.

Initially? Dylan. He's pretty astute. He's watching. He's paying attention. He's wrong a little bit, but he pivots and actually surprisingly, he and I became pretty good friends since the show. There one thing about this show that I think I surprised myself with was meeting a lot of new people from different areas outside of the reality world. They didn't show it, but in the statute challenge, me and Chrishell and Nikki worked really well together. Obviously, last week with Ciara. So made some new friends, which is surprising.

Did you have any familiarity with any of those Bravo people at all?

Not only not the Bravo people, but really Jeremy and Tony are the only two that I've ever interacted with. Carolyn, I knew of. Britney, I knew of. Danielle, not really. So nobody else.

Related: Wes Bergmann reveals Boston Rob's unaired Roundtable argument that led to his threat on The Traitors

You said of Danielle, “She’s a bad Traitor, bad game player, just bad all around.” Tell me what you saw from her in the game.

Bad Traitor — I stand by it. Bad game player — I didn't really see her Big Brother game, so I kind of based it on the bad Traitor game. And bad all around — probably me being a little bitter in the moment. I don't think she's a bad person, I'll tell you that. But the game player and the Traitor part was worse than it even showed.

In the challenge where we had to do the riddles — and I can't for the life of me figure out why they edited this out — but she was really good at doing the riddles and getting 'em right, so she was continuously answering correctly. But at one point, her picture was on the wall and Derrick's picture was up there and she answered a question correctly. And once she got there, she picked Dolores' picture, and instead of putting Derrick’s picture down, she took her own picture and put it down, which is egregiously bad.

Why they didn't show that. I don't know. But yeah, and the overacting. I don't want to be too critical of it, but there was some bad plays despite the fact that she didn't really want to work with me, or it felt like she didn't want to work with me at all from the jump. And I think maybe just because of my reputation, sometimes it's good for them if they get me out. I was open to working with her, but I also understand from her point of view why she would be scared after I went after Bob the way I did. Because I don't think she really understood the implication of what Bob did. Even Carolyn since the show has admitted that she didn't realize but watching it back, she is like, “Oh my God, yes.”

Related: The Traitors star Tony Vlachos doubles down on Boston Rob as 'such a sellout'

What’s something else interesting that went down in the castle or one of the Roundtables that didn’t make it to air?

I think for the most part they edit the show the way it is. The back and forth with Bob and I was pretty intense and some stuff kind of got edited out there, but I mean at the end of the day what happened happened. I think they do a good job with showing what they show.

The level of player was so good. Bob the Drag Queen was so good. He really was. He's a really smart guy. Wes was really smart. Derrick was really smart. Of course Tony's a killer, Jeremy — all these guys and girls in the place. Carolyn impressed me. You're not playing with a bunch of sheep, so you got to kind of figure out who are the serious threats quickly and figure out how you can neutralize them as much as you can.

What’s next?

Deal with No Deal Island After Show is going on right now. That's doing good. I don't know, dude. My phone has been blowing up, and I've gotten a lot of messages, a lot of ideas.  I'm going to take a little time and relax and figure out what our next moves are going to be and we'll see. It's funny, in an ideal world, I always thought I'd move to the hosting side, but these last few years I've really enjoyed competing again, and I wonder if there's some kind of hybrid that we could figure out because I think I would be so jealous just watching other people play. It's like, I want to get in on the action too! Kind of like a player-coach.

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