Despite Maura’s certainty that the Traitors had chosen to take her out via public execution, the finale begins with the reveal that Rob and Eric actually opted to put their pal Mark in the ground — or at least the coffin sitting outside the castle. The choice is somewhat surprising given his closeness to Rob, but Mark’s newfound suspicion of Eric seems to have been his undoing. Rather than use him later to help take out his fellow Traitor, Rob opted to be loyal to Eric — at least for now.

The split in the castle is now cut-and-dried. Johnny is 100 percent certain (and correct) that Rob and Eric are the Traitors, so it all comes down to the Olympians versus the Traitors with Maura caught in the middle. Rob wants her to vote out Johnny and then Tara with him, but just as Maura gets onboard with that plan, Tara pulls her away to try to get her to vote out Eric — which sounds just as enticing. It’s a classic “two dates to the prom” scenario, and the easily persuaded Maura could go either way.

But the most critical part of their flight is when Maura shares Tara’s proposal with Rob, not as a way to tip him off but rather to try to get him to join them in banishing Eric. No wonder Rob felt like jumping. His entire plan is being unraveled. “I tink that he tinks that we’re stupid enough to not tink he’s a Traitor, but he is,” Maura says about Eric, using a record-breaking number of “tinks” in a single sentence. But with Eric out, Rob would lose his already shaky majority, and Johnny and Tara would be taking home the gold. It would be an underdog upset worthy of the Olympics.

This is arguably the first real hardship Rob has faced in this game, which thus far has been largely smooth sailing for him. That’s in part because he’s been going up against idiots the whole time, but the ease with which things have been handed to him over and over makes him no fun to root for. So it’s thrilling to finally get to see him shaking in his boots as he realizes he doesn’t have quite as much control of Maura as he thought he did.

His only hope now is winning Maura back over at the Round Table. As expected, he and Eric kick things off by going after Johnny and Tara, first bringing up how they kept their distance at the beginning of the game. But they quickly counter by explaining the math as they see it. Given that they believe Maura is their fellow Faithful, that leaves Rob and Eric as the only possible two Traitors in the game — and Eric’s opaque gameplay couldn’t be a bigger red flag. And in a last-ditch attempt to win over Maura, Tara says that Eric brought up her name in the car, which he cops to immediately.

That makes her giddy celebration with Rob in the kitchen afterward particularly painful to watch. They pinky-promise to not only take out Tara next, per Rob’s plan, but also go for Eric. You can see Rob’s eyes light up when he realizes that the entire prize pot — not half of it — is being served up to him on a silver platter (just like the whole game has been). She certainly doesn’t need to twist his arm to go along with that plan. Think about how much snake food he’ll be able to buy! Wait, does he feed the snakes or just catch them? I don’t really know; all I know is that he is one. Meanwhile, Maura will be walking away with nothing but several large hat boxes.

Faced with the fire of truth and Alan’s infamous bejeweled snuggie, they’re all left to decide their fate. Tara looks beautiful, and ultimately, that’s all that matters. Especially considering how anticlimactic this is. They all vote to banish again, and Maura sticks to Rob’s guns and votes out Tara. I pause the episode to mourn by watching her 1998 gold-medal skate. Happier times. All right, back to business. Per their agreement, Maura and Rob vote to banish yet again, completely blindsiding a shocked Eric. Though she wonders for a minute if she’s got things wrong (as she is wont to do), Maura follows through and Eric is eliminated.

This victory isn’t Rob’s star moment, it’s Maura’s. She’s thrilling to watch as she experiences the five stages of grief all in a matter of seconds, and best of all, she’s ultimately a good sport. She gives Rob all of his deserved barbs while still being able to laugh about it through the shock. And at least she can take solace in the fact that none of her hats went unworn.