Survivor legends Sandra Diaz-Twine and Parvati Shallow are bringing a whole lot of history into The Traitors castle. Prior to Friday’s Season 2 premiere of Peacock’s devious and dramatic competition show, Diaz-Twine and Shallow opened up to PopCulture.com about how they “squashed everything” with the help of RuPaul’s Drag Race star Peppermint.
The two Survivor champions, who have sparred on social media after playing together twice, might not have entered The Traitors castle on the best of terms, but they made sure to keep the peace amid the chaos of the game. “[We] weren’t in each other’s hair. I had different groups that I was always talking to,” Diaz-Twine told PopCulture in a joint interview with Shallow and Peppermint. “I made sure to check in with Parvati, too. I think she knows a lot of times I feel like when Parvati looks at me, she knows what I’m thinking – if things are good or things are bad.” She added, “But once we squashed everything, I moved on.”
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Shallow and Diaz-Twine agreed that it was Peppermint who helped them take the next step in their relationship. “These are two queens of Survivor and have been on our screens for many, many years,” Peppermint shared. “I could sense that there was a little bit of some type of tension, whether it [was] real or perceived or something leftover.”
She continued, “I can’t quite articulate it but … these two fabulous human beings were not together the way that I felt like they should be. Not trying to dictate [or] tell people what to do, but I could tell that there were maybe some conversations that had been left unsaid. It was important for me to see them at least have the opportunity to see eye-to-eye knowing what we were about to go into.”
It’s these social connections Peppermint hoped would take her to the end on The Traitors, as she joked that as opposed to Drag Race, “I don’t think there would be a dress-making competition in Traitors.” And while Diaz-Twine and Shallow thought Traitors would be a walk in the park compared to Survivor, the two were surprised at how intense the Peacock show was.
Shallow explained, “The thing with Traitors is there’s actually more to survive than in Survivor because you have to survive the round table and you also have to survive being murdered. You have to have the ability to connect with people [when] who knows who’s lying [and] who’s telling the truth. Nobody really knows anything.” The Survivor: Micronesia winner continued, “I think Traitors is more of a pressure cooker because everyone is so on top of each other and the accusations are flying and this cast is high-drama … I was relying a lot on my survival skills more than anything in this game.”
“I didn’t realize how hard the missions would be compared to the challenges we do on Survivor, but I tried to give it my all every single time,” agreed Diaz-Twine. “Other than that, I was happy it was in the castle. I was happy we were being fed. I think it was a good group. I really enjoyed it.”
The Traitors Season 2 premieres the first three episodes on Friday, Jan. 12 at 9 p.m. ET on Peacock, with weekly episodes following on Thursdays at the same time.
