‘The Traitors’: Boston Rob Shares Season 4 Finale Predictions & Spicy Hot Takes (VIDEO)

It’s finale night for Season 4 of The Traitors! Ahead of the final episode, we caught up with Season 3 gamer Rob “Boston Rob” Mariano, who hosts The Traitors Official Podcast with Bob the Drag Queen, and got his take on how things might play out for the remaining traitors (Rob Rausch and Eric Nam) and faithfuls (Mark Ballas, Maura Higgins, Tara Lipinski, and Johnny Weir).

“I really feel like, at this point in the game, it’s Rob’s game to lose, right?” Mariano says. “He has all the cards stacked in his direction, and it’s almost like … is it too little, too late? Or are they going to be able to flip the script [on him]? He’s played a great game so far, and I think a lot of things have gone his way. At the same time, if Tara and Johnny can get Maura or Mark on board, they might be able to flip it.”

While Rausch has been a dominant traitor this season (he assisted in banishing his former fellow traitors Lisa Rinna and Candiace Dillard Bassett), some viewers have criticized him for being able to skate by on his good looks and charisma, which Mariano admits is “part of the game.”

“Parvati [Shallow] is considered one of the best Survivor players ever, and for the first three or four times she played, she used flirting and that kind of charisma to get far. I’ve used charisma to get far,” he points out. “I think it’s fair.”

Mariano confirms that Rausch has “gotten really lucky” at certain points of the game, specifically referencing when “Lisa kind of [buried] herself when the heat came on her” and “people turning on Candiace.” However, he adds that the Love Island alum has “been able to deflect well,” calling him a “really good player” overall. “I think both can exist,” Mariano adds. “I think he has used what he’s got — his charisma and his charms and his looks — but at the same time, he’s played good, so I don’t think that takes away from it.”

Euan Cherry/PEACOCK

The Survivor winner also touches on the lack of strategy from some of the faithfuls, including Lipinski, Weir, and Higgins. “To be a good faithful, you run the risk of looking dumb and looking like you have no thoughts,” Mariano explains. “At the same time, when it comes down to five or six people, there’s not that many other people it can be, so your odds go up in trying to figure out who it is.”

While Lipinski herself has admitted that she is “bad” at the game, Mariano says he thinks “there is some thought” behind most of the faithfuls’ actions, including the surprising decision not to banish Rausch at the last roundtable.

“In Traitors, even from the beginning, if you figure out who the traitors are and eliminate them, then the game calls to add more traitors,” he continues. “It’s almost like you should figure out who the traitors are, but befriend them so they’ll keep you alive, and hope that they will the entire time. It’s a harder game to play, for sure, and you run the risk of not making great television and looking kind of boring.”

He notes that he recently had an “epiphany” on his podcast about a potential faithful strategy to “intentionally go out there and just [be] wrong a lot” because then “traitors aren’t going to kill you and they’re not necessarily going to banish you, so it’s kind of a way to stay in the game longer and to still be polarizing.”

This week’s finale comes after the banishment of Natalie Anderson at the last roundtable. With Anderson’s elimination, there are no more “gamers” (i.e., players from competition shows such as Survivor, Big Brother, and The Challenge) in the competition. For the last two seasons, gamers, including Mariano, have been targeted because of their threat level as strategists.

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Mariano admits that there’s a “stigma” around gamers that makes it “incredibly difficult” for them to succeed on Traitors. “That’s why the Housewives, as a group, generally do better,” he admits. “They don’t necessarily have competition with each other from different shows. … For the most part, they’re on the same team, where the gamers are constantly paranoid about other gamers and try to fight each other. That’s ultimately a problem, especially when you have everybody else trying to get rid of the gamers because they’re afraid of them.”

He has a possible solution, though: an alliance between the Housewives and gamers! “Unless they can figure out a way to work together, I think they’re always going to meet that demise on the show,” he concludes.

For more from Mariano about The Traitors Season 4, check out the full video interview above!

The Traitors, Season 4 Finale, Thursday, February 26, 9/8c, Peacock