The Traitors' Danielle Reveals Her Superpower, Most Respected Player & Talks Retirement
The two-time Big Brother player and The Traitors Season 3 standout unpacks her game — good and bad.
Danielle Reyes just missed out on a huge competition reality win... again.
Being an almost-finalist in two seasons of Big Brother and then getting Banished before the finale of The Traitors Season 3 might break a lot of people, but not Danielle.
RELATED: The Traitors Winners on Their Unique Finale, Danielle's Fake Tears & Gabby's Wedding
She got to smooth over her beef with Britney Haynes and became a social media star for her tears and dramatic reactions all season long. Danielle was also the longest-lasting original Traitor from Season 3 — one whose true identity consistently surprised her fellow players after they went home.
In our exclusive NBC Insider exit interview with Danielle Reyes, she talks about her emotional game, the fallout with Carolyn, the player she respected the most, and if retirement is in the cards.
Danielle's Nervous Nellie strategy... and when it went too far
Considering that Danielle was first in the Traitors' turret with over-the-top Bob the Drag Queen and quirky Carolyn Wiger, did she feel compelled to tweak her own personality and meet them in that emotional, social game space?
"I told myself I was gonna act like this Nervous Nellie," Danielle confirmed. "Let's just be honest, if I walked in as myself with my mannerism, that's so Cirie [Fields]. They would have thought I was a Traitor. So I said, 'You know what, Danielle, if you're gonna act like a Faithful, act like a very scared, Nervous Nellie Faithful.' And that's what I did."
It's no secret, Danielle's show edit this season captured a lot of her outsized reactions to Banishments and Murders, but her fellow players weren't seriously onto her Traitor status until late in the game. Was there a moment when she worried that she maybe played it too big?
RELATED: The Traitors' Britney Reveals Big Post-Reunion Talk with Danielle: "I Will Always Respect Her"
"If you watch the episode where Bob the Drag Queen comes and tells me Jeremy [Collins] said my name, remember what I said?" she posed. "I said, 'Why?' And the reason why I'm asking is I want to know what am I doing. He said, 'All the nervous crying.' I said, 'OK, so let me scale it back a little bit.' It's one of those situations where I scaled it back.
"And then I wouldn't cry on certain things, so I did pull it back... a little," she added, laughing.
"But then I had to kill him," she continued. "Because when Jeremy speaks, people listen. At that moment, I was like, 'Who was he around?' I said, 'OK, I can work on those ladies. I've got time to make them drink the Danielle Kool-Aid. Give them some doubts.' People were thinking I was a Traitor, but there was always that little bit of doubt. All I needed was a little doubt for me to [counter] it."
Why Danielle turned on Carolyn
One sticking point some viewers still don't understand about Danielle's gameplay was if she wanted "Boston Rob" Mariano out so badly, why didn't she really work on persuading Carolyn that they were on the same side in the turret?
"I really was trying," Danielle said. "I get why she didn't trust me, but I really was trying with her. We made a commitment as Traitors: if someone says our names, we're going to tell each other, right? So, people always wonder, 'Why was Nikki [Garcia] in a coffin?' Nikki was in the coffin because Nikki comes to me and said, 'I think Carolyn might be a Traitor,' so I run to Carolyn. Then Carolyn said, 'Let's put her in a coffin.' Now, when Bob tells me that Jeremy said your name, Carolyn goes, 'Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He said your name.' I said, 'When did he say it?'"
Danielle said it was at that moment that she realized she didn't trust Carolyn's motives.
"My eyebrows are raising on her. I'm looking at her, like, 'Are you trying to protect me?' And then the blind side for Bob the Drag Queen. Now, I'm really looking at Carolyn like she really doesn't have my back. Or, I'm thinking her and Boston Rob as Survivors are linking up together to take me out, so that's why I turned on Carolyn," she explained. "And then when I watched the episode, not only did she not tell me, [Jeremy] told her the previous day!"
Danielle reveals a gaming "superpower" that another Traitor used to win
Plus, Danielle said she employed what she calls a shared gaming "superpower" with Cirie all season long, which helped her cast extra doubt and earn trust.
RELATED: 'The Traitors': Cirie Fields Talks Betraying Rachel Reilly
"My social game was...you know the term 'read the room'? I would sit there when I had conversations with people, depending how they were talking, and I would pivot and focus on that topic," she explained. "So if family was important, we talked about family. We talked about gamesmanship, whatever they were saying — and I'm probably giving people insight on how I play my social game — but I have empathy. Cirie has it as well. That's our superpower. We provide empathy when we talk to people. We connect with them at a different level. I think Cirie's background is a nurse, right? In that [job], you have to show empathy. With my background, I'm in sales, so I know how to pivot. So that's what makes us so good at these games. It's not that we're competition beasts. It's that we know how to read a room."
Danielle reveals whose game she respected the most in Season 3
With Season 3 production long behind her and the Reunion special aired, the question remains: What player earned Danielle's respect the most?
"The person I give the most respect to is Gabby Windey," Danielle said with no hesitation.
RELATED: Gabby Told Alan Cumming She'd Marry Her Girlfriend If She Won The Traitors – So, Is There a Ring?
"This was my a-ha moment," she explained. "The Bachelor people, you gotta think, that's a game they're playing against 20 people lying in their faces, saying they love them and all that stuff. So, they actually are going to be better at The Traitors than anybody else. Pilot Pete [Weber] and Gabby, so those Bachelor people are the ones that y'all should be looking at because they smart. Watching Gabby just clock, and she didn't waver at all. She was just straight, 'This is this. I don't care. I am a Bambi...with teeth.' You have to respect her. You know, people say Dylan [Efron] too, but Dylan was so off on a lot of things."
Would Danielle try another competition reality show?
After two heartbreaking, super-close losses on Big Brother and now The Traitors, is Danielle officially retired, or has this stoked her fire to compete again?
"That's a great question because I'm at the point now where I realize I'll never be a bride. I'm actually the Maid of Honor every time," she said, laughing. "But I would love to play another game of something."
She continued, "I played the game as a Traitor, and I was treacherous. But of course, I want to play a game where I don't have to be treacherous and just be myself; the strategic mastermind that I am. And so I would love to play another game just one more time. But I will say this, I felt like this was my opportunity, and I'mma win this Traitors! So, I'm at the point now where I am going to play [any] game as hard, but I won't be surprised if I don't win."
All episodes of The Traitors Seasons 1-3 are available to stream right now on Peacock.
