Traitors Player Spotlight: Dylan Efron
- aj biggs
- Jan 15
- 4 min read
For the first WD player spotlight we will be diving into Dylan Efron. Before the season not many knew what to expect from the brother of High School Musical Star, Zach Efron. But as the first three episodes came and went, Dylan emerged as the biggest threat to the traitors. Today we will break down all the good and bad from Dylan and why we think he is the strongest traitor this season.
SPOILER WARNING!!! EPISODES 1-3 ARE COVERED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER IN THIS ARTICLE.
Episode 1
Dylan’s first true impression on the show is his introduction with Wells. Dylan introduces himself and Wells immediately responds,”Oh Zach’s Brother.” We then get a confessional from Dylan where he calls himself an “underdog” for being around icons he’s been watching for years. We also see Dylan introducing himself to Jeremy, revealing that he is a huge Survivor fan. In our first 30 seconds of meeting Dylan he is already the perfect protagonist. He’s an underdog, he’s relatable but still famous by association and he seems like a genuine guy. I’m already a fan.
The first “pressure cooker” situation we see the new cast encounter is during the first shield challenge. While the women were upset at the men for not getting off the boat and onto the rafts. Which would be sacrificing their chance at a shield. Dylan seemed to stay out of the crossfire of the Housewives and the Bobs wrath.
The first shield challenge would create another “pressure cooker” for Dylan and he is front and center. Upon return for Dylan and the rest of the players off the boat from the challenge. They decided to confess to leaving the last boat and the money from it, to secure the shield for more people. Dylan is essentially the groups “interim press secretary” facing off stares from Delores and Dorinda digging the knife in. Dylan handles this perfectly, explaining how terrible he feels for what they did. Straight up saying,”I really feel like shit right now.” Showing his empathy for the other players' position in the game. For the first time we are truly able to see how Dylan reacts in tough situations. And he’s great, able to reasonably explain what happened and showed compassion to the other players.
Episode 2
The shield challenge in episode 2 is where we rejoin Dylan. While the players are finding coins to free Rob, Wes, and Derrick, we get another strategy confessional from Dylan, letting us know he wants to be an ally of Rob. While I don’t think putting the coin into a box to complete a challenge will build any “trust” points, the thought process that Dylan has to identify who he should be seeking as alliances is correct and exciting to know Dylan will be an active player this season. Unfortunately, Dylan is not in the edit much for the rest of episode 2. It’s a real shame because, as a reward for releasing the three new players into the game, Derrick used his ability to give out a shield on Dylan. This really makes you think because we hear that Dylan wants Rob as an ally, and ends up getting a shield from Derrick? What happened between there? What did Derrick see about Dylan that he could trust? Is Dylan just THAT trustworthy? Regardless it’s a great sign for Dylan moving forward having Derrick by his side.
Episode 3
Episode 3 is where Dylan learns the art of the round table. Throughout episode two we don’t see much of Dylan in breakfast or the shield challenge. Instead Dylan gets his shine right before the round table at a meal with Wes and Jeremy. When Dylan sits down the name that was brought up was Robyn. When Wes asks Dylan who he thinks, Dylan says it’s between Bob the Drag Queen and Robyn. Wes decides to give the rookie some advice, letting him know,”if you’re going to take a shot, make it hit.”
With this information Dylan goes into the roundtable with a target in mind. Opening the conversation, Dylan says we should look at who was most vocal for Wells’ vote. Robyn reacts by calling Dylan out as a possible traitor and that he’s been targeting Bob the Drag Queen. Dylan gathers his composure in this moment and again lays out that Ayan believed Bob was a traitor and now she is gone. This is where the beautiful line of-“Miss-Guided” is tossed by BTDQ. Stapling a rivalry to come. When the dust settles Tony is the one catching votes.
The strongest part of what I think we see from Dylan here is after the round table when he recognizes that he needs the numbers in order to go after people he believes are traitors.
Looking ahead
Even though the first three episodes for Dylan blew my expectations, his game is not perfect. He shot a shot and missed. It doesn’t matter if he’s right when he’s murdered. I also worry that a rookie will stop trusting his gut around all these legends. So far I think Dylan believes he can win this game FOR the traitors, but he needs to keep that mindset. And the last thing I worry about is that he is allied with the competition reality crew more than anyone, placing him almost at the bottom on paper. I don’t think he is at the bottom, looking at Derrick’s shield and Wes giving him tips before the roundtable, but it’s still an interesting situation.
Coming up to the second release I think there will be an interesting fallout of the BTDQ and Dylan situation. Rob is someone that is really caught between the two and can really earn trust with Dylan by voting Bob off as Dylan’s number. However, we have already seen Rob stand with BTDQ before, and if Dylan fires too early, he won’t live to shoot again.
I also look forward to seeing how Dylan will acquire his numbers and who he will trust to go after BTDQ. I think the pairing of him and Derek is a force that will run through season 3 of The Traitors.
Thank you if you read to this part! If you like our Traitors coverage, check out the traitors tab in "blogs." Let me know what I missed about Dylan's game or if I'm overrating him as best faithful so far. If you feel inclined, please like and share the post with a friend.
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