The Traitors' Marielle reveals surprising truth behind unseen moment

She was arguably one of the strongest players competing on this year’s season of The Traitors, banishing and murdering a majority of Faithfuls while going mostly unnoticed as a Traitor herself, but on Tuesday night Marielle was sent home in an epic blindside.

Chatting with Yahoo Lifestyle following her elimination, the 24-year-old law and international politics student opened up about her time on the reality show, her biggest regrets and what fans didn’t get to see on TV.

“It was a total and true blindside, but I think I played the game to the absolute best of my ability. I pushed my limit,” she says. “They didn’t give me a chance to defend myself, so there was no way of coming out from that.

“Alex had warned me that they had said they were going to vote for me but she thought they had swung it to Lewis. So I was a little bit apprehensive, but then after they didn’t bring it up I felt okay. And then as I saw Craig vote I just went, ‘Oh no, I’m done’.”

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Despite the irony of recruiting Alex to work alongside her and Nigel as a Traitor and then getting voted out by her fellow South Australian, Marielle has no negativity towards her or her gameplay.

“It's funny because I looked Alex in the eyes and she was crying and I was like, I know now that she can tear up on command,” she laughs. “She’s doing a great job. I think for her to have to sit next to me as that new Traitor and look me in the eye while she wrote my name down, she’s gutsy and I’ve got to give her credit for that kind of gameplay because it’s solid.

“I played that exact game and if I was Alex, I would have done exactly the same thing. So I think there just can't be any tension there because I admire the guts of coming into that role and just taking control of the game like that.”

‘So disappointed’

While there were a number of moments in Marielle’s game that never made it to air, including her close alliance with Mark and Justine and therefore the significance of murdering them both, the biggest unseen moment was the one that inadvertently ended up sending her home.

She says that her chat with Fiona about being fearful of Teresa the night before she was murdered actually did take place, despite Kate and Teresa’s disbelief when they were told about it.

“You take a risk with saying things like that because if people aren't there to back it up later and you don't have other players there supporting that then you're definitely putting yourself in a dangerous spot,” she admits.

“I had been so careful the entire game not to start any rumours or talk about things that might not be able to be traced back to someone, and the first time that kind of happened was the end of my game. I think that definitely was my downfall in the end.”

Marielle went on to share that in addition to the Fiona situation, one of her biggest regrets in the game was recruiting Alex as a Traitor.

“Nigel and I were so disappointed that we had to recruit someone else, we really didn't want to,” she confesses. “I think in hindsight, we probably should have recruited someone who was kind of in the firing line for banishment already. I think that probably would have been a better play.

“We chose someone who was really under the radar and I guess we didn't see the repercussions of what that would mean when our names started getting thrown out there. We very much considered Kate as well, but in the end, we felt that Kate was such a strong and vicious player that she might just turn around and take us out straightaway so we thought we played a bit of a safer game going with Alex.”

‘He’s playing a really exceptional game’

As for who she wants to win the show, Marielle is hopeful that her fellow Traitor Nigel will take it home.

“I am Team Nigel all the way,” she says. “I want Nigel to go forth and take that silver with both hands, and I'd love to see an original Traitor get that.

“If I had stayed in the game, there’s no question in my mind that I would have taken Nigel to be with me. That alliance was kind of born out of the fact that we always agreed on the player that we wanted to get rid of and we clearly were thinking about the game in a very similar way.

“Obviously last night he didn't vote for me, and I think that that might come back to hurt him a little bit. But everyone on the show would always say, ‘There’s no way Nigel is a Traitor, he’s fully Faithful’. It just cracks me up, he’s playing a really exceptional game.”

The Traitors continues Sunday 7:30pm on Channel Ten

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