While many reality TV stars and Bravolebrities have now been murdered in The Traitor’s Scottish castle, few have uttered final words as iconic as Monét X Change. Upon finding that he’d been executed by the Traitors, the RuPaul’s Drag Race alum waxed poetic, saying, “Now I’m a little Faithful ghost. I’m gonna haunt these hallways. Mark my words, ectoplasm on all these hoes.”
While speaking to Gold Derby after his elimination, Monét called out two “hoes” specifically that he’d like to ectoplasm slime a la Ghostbusters. “Lisa [Rinna] and Candiace [Dillard Bassett],” he says, naming two of the Traitors who did him in. “From this day, going forward, I don’t care if I’m a parent, and it is a housewife at a PTA meeting, I don’t trust housewives. Never again.”
The Drag Race champion was murdered by Rinna, Bassett, and Rob Rausch, at the beginning of Episode 5 after he’d expressed suspicions about Rinna in the previous episode. Whether his death was warranted or not, however, he’s dead set on getting revenge.
“When Alan brings me back to the castle, I am a Housewife hunter,” he says. “They’re going down. They’re going home. They’re getting undone. I am over the Housewives except Phaedra [Parks]. Phaedra has been the only loyal Housewife on the show.”
Gold Derby sat down with Monét following Thursday’s episode to discuss Michael Rapaport’s dining etiquette, the highly coveted breakfast salmon, and why Ginger Minj could be the best Drag Race Traitor of them all.
Monét X Change The Traitors 4 castPeacock
Read on for our full interview with Monét X Change:
Gold Derby: So I need to start with the most important topic: the salmon at the breakfast table. Why is everyone so obsessed with it, and why was it running out?
Monét X Change: This is gonna come as a shock to no one who’s ever been to the UK. They’re not necessarily known for their food. The food is not their thing, but their salmon is on point. It’s not pumped with the hormones and raised in someone’s backyard like in America. They are literally catching it in a lake up the street. The salmon was so good, and at breakfast, they only had two plates, so everyone is always fighting to get the salmon. If anyone took more than two pieces, they would get a side eye and probably get banished.
Bob the Drag Queen was on the last season, and you two are friends. What advice did he give you going in?
Oh, he tried to give me advice, and I said, “I don’t want advice from you. You’re a loser. Anything you have to tell me, I don’t want.” Now I am joining the loser club, but I wanted to play my own game. I don’t want to play how Bob played, because Bob is very loud. He’s very extra. We’ve been friends for 15 years now. Bob tackles everything like that, and that’s just not my energy. I wanted to play my game. I love these strategy games, love Survivor, Big Brother. I’ve been watching The Traitors since Season 1. I’ve watched all the UK seasons. I’ve watched Australia. Not New Zealand. New Zealand is awful. They’re literally playing at like an Airbnb. I’m not gonna watch that. But I knew how I wanted to play The Traitors from all my experience watching the show.
You’re a huge Survivor fan. You’ve been to the set in Fiji. What was it like to arrive and see the Survivor players there?
I was gagged. I love Natalie [Anderson]. I loved her original season, and the way she was such a beast at the challenges, how she stood up to John Rocker, the baseball guy that tried to sun her, and she sunned the fuck out of him. We had a little alliance going, and I watched Yam Yam [Arocho]’s season in real time. Rob [Cesternino] is an OG Survivor player. Everyone knows about Rob, so I was definitely down to play with the Survivors.
What was it like interacting with Michael Rapaport, because you voted for him at the first Round Table?
I was like, “Guys, I don’t care if he’s a Faithful or a Traitor, he has to go. He is distracting us. He’s bad.” Also, I was just sick and tired of being across from Michael and seeing him unhinge his jaw and shovel piles of food into his mouth. I was like, “I don’t need to see that. I’m having nightmares. It makes me uncomfortable.” If for nothing else, he has to go because of that.
Was he the one eating all the salmon?
[Laughs] You know what? I would never sit next to Michael in the breakfast room. I didn’t see how much salmon he would take, but that seems like a very Michael thing to do—take more salmon than the group has okayed you to have.
In the mission, you tell Candiace you need to keep an eye on Lisa Rinna. What made you suspicious of her initially?
That morning, when we were quizzing everyone about the face-to-face murder, where Caroline [Stanbury] got eliminated, Lisa was thinking too hard. We were asking Ron [Funches] questions. Ron would answer without having to overly think about stuff. Lisa was up there about to pop a blood vessel. It just felt weird. I don’t watch The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I’m an only The Real Housewives of Atlanta girl. Now, I’ve been watching Salt Lake City, too. So I don’t really know much about Lisa’s lore, but people were filling me in in the castle, and those lips of hers, there are just so many secrets in there. I just felt in my spirit that Lisa was a Traitor, and I was right.
You were, but then you told the wrong person.
I KNOW. I just thought I could trust Candiace. Me and her had several moments where we were like, “Girl, I got you. We’re gonna protect each other.” After Porsha [Williams]’s banishment, we were both really beat up about it. That’s what made me feel like, “Okay, I think she’s genuinely a Faithful. She’s really upset about it.” I said to her, “Look, girl, I don’t know if you’re a Faithful or a Traitor. You don’t know if I’m a Faithful or a Traitor?” Well, she did know. But I was like, “I trust you, I will protect you. If I’m a Traitor, in the turret, I won’t say your name, and if I’m a Faithful at the Round Table, I will never bring you up. I’m asking the same thing of you.” And she was like, “Bet, let’s do that.” So she was one of my number ones. My number ones were Natalie, Colton [Underwood], Candiace, Porsha, and Rob C., but those two were gone. I thought I found my core group of people I could be locked in with. I just ended up being wrong about Candiace.
What were your thoughts on the conga line situation? Was that suspicious at all to you?
I didn’t think anything of it, but I also wasn’t in the mix of it. When the conga line was going on, I was in the billiards room. After it happened, Rob C mentioned something about it in passing, and it being weird. I was like, “Girl, you’re doing too much? It’s the second episode. They ain’t killing people in plain sight in the second episode.” Rob C KNEW! He’s a smart one.
When you got the letter saying you’d been murdered by the Traitors, what was your initial reaction as to why it had happened?
I think it’s because I was wearing such a cute outfit. I was like, “It’s my best look.” No, I didn’t know why it happened. God, I really had no clue, because that thing I’d said about Lisa to Candiace, I’d also said to the other people I trusted. I didn’t think me bringing Lisa’s name up would have been my death sentence. So I genuinely did not realize why until I saw the episode. We had the viewing party in LA for the first three episodes at the Abbey. I walked in with my partner. I’ve not seen anyone yet. I see Lisa, and she just looks at me and goes, “You shouldn’t have said my name.” I was like, “What?” She’s like, “I love you so much, but you shouldn’t have said my name.” I was like, “Hello Lisa, Nice to see you. I haven’t seen you in so long.”
Kori King tweeted that they need to put her on The Traitors to avenge you and Bob. Do you think she would do better or worse than you two?
I don’t know. I think Kori is a big personality. I think that Kori would do well. I think Bianca Del Rio would do well, but I think the moral of the story is they need to have more than one Drag Race girl. Have two girls on there. Everyone else has these built-in friendships and alliances, except for the queens. We don’t get anyone to commiserate with. Put those two bitches all together. Why not?
Do you think Ginger Minj would do well on The Traitors?
The gaslighting, storytelling queen of America? She might end up hosting the show. She might trick Alan out of his job. Honestly, Ginger Minj for The Traitors. It’s what she was built for.