The Traitors Australia has made its gloriously camp return to Australia’s screens, with Big Brother icon Gretel Killeen leading a pack of reality television’s finest.
However, it’s safe to say that not all of these reality TV stars were prepared for the intensity of the game after Married at First Sight sweetheart Cameron Merchant was sent packing before even walking through the manor’s doors.
After The Bachelor’s Alex Nation, MasterChef’s Alvin Quah, and Survivor Australia’s Kirby Bentley were selected as traitors at the round table, the devious game began, with every move, sound, and facial expression a clue – whether it was intended or not.
Unfortunately for RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under, Kween Kong, she was too switched on and made the mistake of sharing her observations too early in the game, ultimately leading to her demise.
After hearing the rustle of Kirby’s jacket beside her at the round table, Kween clocked the traitor from the very beginning, sharing her thoughts with Survivor Australia’s AJ and Henry, as well as traitor Alvin. And therein lay her demise.
“I’m a queen, I know the sound of vinyl,” she whispered to the group.
Once word got back to Kirby in the turret (where the traitors plot their murder each night) that her name was being brought up by the drag queen, Kween’s fate was sealed and the contestant was ‘killed’ off the show before she got the chance to show up to breakfast in drag (the greatest tragedy of all).
With fans divided over Kween’s gameplay, with some claiming she was “too aggressive” with her accusations and others “bored of seeing drag queens going home first”, Kirby spoke to WHO about why the traitors made the choice that they did, and what made Kween such a threat.
Fans call out ‘drag queen is out first’ trope after predicting Kween Kong’s elimination
Before news of Kween’s elimination was revealed in episode two of the series, fans were already predicting her demise, despite hoping for the opposite result.
“If Kween is killed first, I’m going to swing,” one fan wrote on X. “WE GOTTA BREAK THE “DRAG QUEEN IS OUT FIRST” TROPE!!!”
“I’m very bored of seeing drag queens going home first, and I don’t like the implication of the trend,” another fan agreed. “But unfortunately, I think Kween’s goose is cooked.”
After the reality of Kween’s kill set in, some viewers were “very annoyed” at the decision, comparing the plot to other “English-speaking versions” of the show as “yet another drag queen [is] out early and this time barely even getting to play”.
However, other fans took this as a compliment to Kween and her gameplay.
“Hate that a drag queen is out early, but love that it’s because Kween was an immediate threat and clocked a traitor instead of bad gameplay,” one fan commented on Reddit.
Despite now being out of the game, fans are praising Kween’s decision to be vocal about Kirby, observing that she has now put the wheels in motion for Kirby’s eventual demise.
“I want a season of only drag queens in the tower,” one fan commented online.
Now that’s a show I’ll watch.
Why Kirby didn’t ‘really have a choice’ but to kill Kween
As a traitor, Kirby couldn’t risk having a faithful bring up her name so early in the game.
“I don’t think I really [had] a choice,” Kirby said exclusively to WHO. “When your name is floating around, you need to weigh up what the risks are in that decision.”
For Kirby, that didn’t just mean asking “who” said her name, but also figuring out “how much of an influence they have, and what that looks like if you were to sit there at a round table with them”.
“So when it comes to Kween – Kween literally said, ‘Us Drag Queens, we step from the front, we don’t do it from the back,'” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my god. I want to play with Kween.’
“I definitely wanted to play with Kween if we were both traitors or if we were both faithfuls. We couldn’t play opposite to each other because that sort of confrontation – as great as it would be – I feel like that would exhaust me.”
Kirby credited Kween’s strategy, saying she was “switched on” and definitely knew “what she was going”.
“I think she had the right idea to tell a couple of people and then keep it quiet for a minute so she can do her thing at a round table,” she confessed.
However, there was “no way” the traitors were going to let that happen – with both Alvin and Alex agreeing that killing Kween was a “no brainer” in the name of protecting one another, especially this early in the game.
Although, it doesn’t look like some of the players trust Kirby anymore (hello Rob Farnham), so we’ll have to wait until next week to see if the traitors can quell the rumours that Kween left behind as her legacy.
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