The Traitors’ [Spoiler] Talks Attempted Seed Planting That Didn’t Pan Out: ‘I Think It Backfired on Me’

The following contains spoilers for Thursday’s episode of The Traitors.

The Black Widow-turned-traitor has officially been booted from Alan’s castle.

In Thursday’s episode of The Traitors, not even savvy strategy, key relationships and Trishelle’s Phaedra plan could save Parvati from the roundtable’s hot seat. With Dan having already exited and a new alliance with Peter in place, the former Survivor winner thought she could slip by one more night as eyes began to dart Phaedra’s way. However, a budding friendship and conversation with John backfired, and Parvati was banished from the game in a 7-4 vote. (Read our full recap here.)

Below, Parvati talks to TVLine about Peter escaping her grasp, her close ties with John, whether she’d rendezvous with Jeff Probst in Fiji again and so much more!

TVLINE | How annoyed were you when that torch ceremony prevented you from killing Peter?  
PARVATI SHALLOW | I was so annoyed. I wanted to kill Peter so badly! I wanted to punish him for saying no to my proposal. Mean little Bachelor. I should have known!

I think it would have just been a vengeance murder to kill Peter. [Laughs] I was in a heightened emotional state. I wanted to kill him because I was mad at him and it wouldn’t have helped my game one bit, but I would have done it anyway. [Laughs]

TVLINE | You ended up making an alliance with Peter. Did you feel any inkling of safety at the roundtable because of that?  
You know, I really did! I was in a place where I was like, “OK, this could actually work.” And if John hadn’t have galvanized everyone to vote me at the end, if he wouldn’t have said his big speech, I think CT and Sandra could have voted for Phaedra. It was going in that direction and it completely could have happened. Honestly, for me, it was like the last ditch effort that I had to stay in the game. “OK, I’m gonna work with this guy even though I really wanted to kill him.”

TVLINE | And John, of all people! You had a productive (or so it seemed) conversation with him. How much of that was real and how much were you just putting him on there? 
John and I had a really good relationship! We talked a lot when the cameras weren’t on us, when we were kind of locked down, in between here and there. I knew a lot about his family and his background and he knew a lot about mine. I shared quite a bit with him, so I had a great relationship with him. And also, there was this other element to John that I was wary of because he had made this toast at the very beginning, like probably the second or third roundtable, where he’s like, [in a British accent] “I swear on the lives of my family that I am a faithful to the end of time and I will never betray the faithful.” So then everyone in the castle was like, “OK, well, he’s a faithful.” He, Peter, Bergie and CT were like, “Our role is the saviors and we’re righteous and we are morally superior to the faithful and we will prove it!” So John was doing that.

But also, he was my only chance! I knew he was caught up in this moral superiority and it might not work for me to play the strategy game with him, but I was desperate. The only chance I had to stick around is if some of these faithfuls start to play strategically and think like, “OK, if I know she’s a traitor or I think 99% she’s a traitor, let me keep her around because we have a good relationship. Maybe she won’t murder me because we have a good relationship, and then get some other traitors out who we’re not so sure about, but that could be traitors. Let’s get them out and then save her till later.” So that’s where my head was at. “Can I get them thinking this way?” So I’d had a conversation with John like that, sort of planting that seed and I think it backfired on me. He was so caught up in his moral superiority where he was like, “I know without a shadow of a doubt, she’s the mistress of murder!”

TVLINE | In the turret, Phaedra called you out about acting like an “ice princess.” She even said you had to be more lovable. What was going on in your head when she said those things.  
To be fair, Phaedra didn’t say that first, John said that first. So when we did the challenge where we were running through the woods, and we come back and everyone else is crying and I’m just like, “F–k all you guys,” [Laughs] and he was like, “Partvati, you are the Iron Maiden herself. You’re Margaret Thatcher, the ice queen.” And I was like, “That’s not a compliment, John!” He’s like, “Yes. Yes, it is. You’re very strong. You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met.” I was offended by it. I had to be softer, but it was hard for me because everyone was either avoiding me or attacking me. So I’m like, “How am I going to be emotionally vulnerable and heartfelt with these people when they already think I’m lying?” It felt so icky for me to do that. When I got to the turret with Phaedra, she was repeating what John had already said. So it wasn’t a shock to me and I was just like, “Fine, I guess I’ll be nice.”

TVLINE | Phaedra is great for the one-liners and facial expressions, but it seemed like you and Dan were mostly in the driver’s seat. What did Phaedra add to the traitors trio?  
Yeah, she was entertainment. She was pure jokes. She was so funny. And when we were in the turret, it was me and Dan calling the shots. The one time that Phaedra spoke a name was after I had come for the housewives and she was like, “Oh, well, we gotta kill a housewife then,” and she picked Tamra. That was a really good choice because Tamra, I knew, was suspicious of Phaedra. So that was her one strategic move in the turret, but other than that, it was me and Dan, so we have to take responsibility for our own demise.

TVLINE | If you had denied the offer to become a traitor, how do you think your game would’ve shaken out from there? 
I would have been murdered. It would have been a stupid move for me to say no, because there was already suspicion on me. So I was like, “Well, let me say yes to this and get a little bit of power in the game,” because otherwise I would have just been a sitting duck.

TVLINE | Who are a few Survivor cast members you think would be perfect for The Traitors?  
I think Ethan Zohn [Survivor: Africa] would be an amazing faithful. He’s a horrendous liar, so he would be so twitchy as a traitor, but an amazing faithful because he’s so likable and so good at getting people to want to keep him around because he’s so cute and sweet. And he has a strategic mind to be able to play both sides. He could be the faithful who thinks the way that the faithful needed to think for me. He could have a traitor-faithful alliance and get away with it.

Tyson Apostol [Survivor: Blood vs. Water] would be an amazing, amazing traitor. He’s so tricky and funny and mischievous. He would be such a prankster and make the show really fun to watch. Everyone’s obsessed with Rob, so you kind of want to have Rob just because… he’s Rob. The women I think would be good… Natalie Bolton [Survivor: Micronesia — Fans vs. Favorites]. My black widow Natalie would be amazing. And then maybe Jerri Manthey?

TVLINE | No “maybe” about it! Love Jerri.
Right? I think she’d be fun to watch. Those are my picks.

TVLINE | Season 50 of Survivor is rapidly approaching. If there’s some sort of legacy cast member season, are you interested in that or has that ship sailed for you?  
Every time people ask me this, I’m like, “No, I don’t wanna go back and play Survivor.” Look, I have a love-hate relationship with the game and it’s like an extended family for me, so it is like a sicko family reunion every time they ask me to come back. I kind of feel obligated to say yes, and also, I would have really bad FOMO if I said no because my friends are probably gonna play? [Laughs]

And now that Sandra and I are friends, could we play together? That’s a question for me. Could I actually play with Sandra in an alliance situation? What would that be like? She’s not a loyal kind of ally, I don’t know. That would be a question mark and that curiosity for me might be enough to get me to say yes.