The Traitors EPs Explain Game-Changing Twist But Admit, 'I'm Not Sure We'd Do It Again'

If you were eagerly salivating over last week's banishment showdown that never happened, you certainly were not alone.

In last Thursday's episode of The Traitors (read a full recap here), a brewing Parvati vs. Peter battle was unfortunately put on hold when Alan announced a middle-of-the-night twist that banished what surely would've been a season's-best roundtable. With a traitor (Parvati) and a faithful (Peter) at each other's throats, the host brought the group out to the forest for a torch ceremony that not only cancelled the week's banishment, but also narrowed down the traitors' murder options for the night.

The last-minute switcheroo left some viewers (us included!) puzzled as to why that twist was executed at such an inopportune time. (Talk about killing the vibe, Alan!) Though as the show's executive producers tell us, it wasn't a ploy put in place to save either player; it had always been planned to be unleashed in Episode 7.

"The majority of episodes we do in one day, because we think that having an episode run over one day gives you the best sort of content," EP Sam Rees-Jones tells TVLine. "It's immersive: You have a breakfast, you have a roundtable. So Episode 7, we had to run over two days, so that was where we had this twist. So it was always planned. It absolutely wasn't the producers' decision of, 'We need to put this in to stop a roundtable.' We love a roundtable more than anyone. It's the beating heart of our show. But a murder mystery has twists, right? But we do think that the roundtable is the best part of our show."

Though reality TV is bound to have twists that bend the expected formula, it's unclear whether the midnight excursion would ever be repeated.

"I'm not sure we'd run to do it again," admits EP Stephen Lambert, "because if you've got something as good as the roundtable, just keep with it. But I think you're always, when planning a show, thinking ahead. It would be good to have some variety, but actually, tread carefully when you have variety because you can sort of lose people because they like the familiar. Particularly when the familiar delivers."

Adds Rees-Jones: "I would say that there are stories that happen from that episode, from that torch ceremony, that run. It wasn't a volcanic eruption at the roundtable, but there are elements, alliances that got cemented or broken down, that continue through. It's a different layer of story." –With reporting by Dave Nemetz

Were you disappointed in last week's episode of The Traitors? Have any predictions for what's to come? Sound off in the comments.