The Traitors: New Blood Season 1 Episode 6 Review: A Murder of Necessity

Pacing plays an important role in reality TV. Poor editing can stifle an excellent storyline by dragging it out. The Traitors: New Blood Season 1 Episode 6, “A Murder of Necessity,” highlights an improvement in pacing but it still needs work in that department.

The Traitors: New Blood Season 1 Episode 5, “Wake of the Living Dead,” suffers from dragging the storyline along to the point of not caring about the results. “A Murder of Necessity” makes up for this by actually making the results of the murder more interesting than expected.

Niyyah is not who we expect to die. Her death shocks, especially when Joe makes the risky move of confessing to the murder, right before her death.

The few minutes devoted to her death bring the excitement that the previous episode lacked. It gives viewers a shocking moment, while also potentially showcasing Joe as even more of a smart gamer.

His confession is risky, but if Niyyah got a few moments before she was taken away, she could have pointed to Joe’s tossing of the apple. This would have raised suspicions about him.

However, by making it seem like he had to sacrifice her as a Faithful, this could have set him up to combat the Traitor accusations.

Nonetheless, fans of The Traitors know that Faithfuls are rarely used to execute missions on their own. This could have backfired and made contestants even more confident of Joe being a Traitor.

But as they say, no risk, no reward. His big plan is for nothing because Niyyah doesn’t get a final moment. She cannot hurt or help Joe’s game.

This moment could have happened at the end of Episode 5, and the cliffhanger could have been whether Niyyah gets a chance to spill what Joe told her. That would have been more compelling than just waiting to see who is murdered.

Niyyah’s death and Joe’s confession are the top moments in “A Murder of Necessity.” Then the episode shifts to focusing on Victor’s attempts to make everyone see that Joe and Tomica are the Traitors.

He’s right, but no one believes him. That’s another shocking moment in this week’s episode.

Last week, it seemed like Tomica and Joe Traitor games may be cut short, but then Victor has been such an unreliable character that no one believes him. Additionally, using fruit to murder seems so obvious that that can’t be it.

Ultimately, Tomica and Joe escape banishment and Traitor exposure. However, this is a turning point in The Traitors: New Blood. Victor could finally cause some suspicion to come their way.

However, he may not make it to see another day on The Traitors. “A Murder of Necessity” is a slight improvement from Episode 5 because it paces itself better. We also have a few genuinely shocking moments.

This once again creates an argument that the new series may work better in pairs. NBC may need to reconsider the release schedule for next season.

Traitors: New Blood still shows a lot of promise. We just need it to learn to pace itself better and show genuinely shocking moments as cliffhangers. Don’t save them for the start of the next episode.

What did you think of this episode of The Traitors: New Blood? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and don’t forget to leave your own rating!

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The Traitors: New Blood airs Thursday at 8/7 c on NBC. 

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