Talking to POPSUGAR Australia the morning after his untimely murder on The Traitors, Mark was in good spirits and ready to chat about the game.
As we wish him our condolences for his death, Mark laughed.
“I was just thinking that! You were like ‘how are you’ and I’m like ‘great thanks!’ — like, hold on, I’ve never been dead or murdered before, so I’m not sure if that’s like, the right response?” he exclaimed. “I don’t know!”
When Mark, who works as a legal professional in the real world, saw the call out for applicants for The Traitors, he was immediately drawn to “the nature of the game”.
“The murder-mystery-type vibes, the lies, deceit, debauchery, you know, sign me up!” he said. “I saw it as an exciting challenge, and I liked the fact that I had no idea what I was getting myself into, that was appealing.”
Although Mark went into the game thinking he had potential to be a great Traitor, he soon found himself very relieved to have been selected as one of the game’s Faithfuls.
Calling it “such a pivotal moment in the game”, Mark recalled what was going through his head as host Rodger Corser circled the room, selecting the Traitors of the game.
“Let me tell you, there is no truer moment than when your body tells you what you do or do not want to be than when old Rodger is stood behind you,” he said. “My body literally had a visceral reaction to the fact that he might put his hand on my shoulder, and I think at that moment, I knew that I wanted to be a Faithful and I knew that I wanted to get those Traitors.”
With that being said, though, Mark felt that if he had been selected as one of the Traitors, his approach to the game would’ve actually been much the same.
Noting that he “immediately came out of that moment like, ‘game on'”, Mark said that this would’ve served him well as a Traitor and allowed him to go undetected.
“If I’m looking back at it, I think I would’ve employed the exact same strategy, which was to go on the absolute hunt, because I think that would’ve been the best defence,” he mused.
While Mark went on to develop a reputation as a Traitor hunter, the Faithfuls had a string of bad luck early on, sending home four of their own before finally banishing Angus, their first Traitor. Reflecting on it, Mark said that he felt it was “a case of practice makes perfect” as they all adjusted to the dynamics of human interaction within the game.
“We just had no idea what we were doing, right?” he said. “This is the craziest environment to be in, where suddenly you can’t trust all the things you know about human interaction and human connection.”
With every aspect of meeting and mingling with new people “completely brought into doubt”, Mark said, they soon found themselves wondering, “is that person even telling you their correct name, or their correct profession?”
He explained: “Suddenly you’re like ‘oh wow, I know nothing’, and you really have to start from that ground level and build your way back up, and what kind of happened is that a lot of people went really wobbly, because they were either over-examining, or not trusting those initial gut feels or gut reactions that they had probably had all along.
“Would I say that the group selecting multiple Faithfuls in a row and banishing them was disengaging? That is like the understatement of the year, like, we were broken as a group!” he recalled, laughing.
“We were not in a good space!”
Soon enough, though, the Faithful found their footing and managed to correctly select and banish Angus from the game, with Traitor Claire banished the very next night. It’s one of the “high highs” of the game that Mark said still gets him when he thinks about it.
“Watching it back, my whole body tingles and feels the excitement that I felt in my body when we got Angus,” he said. “You cannot even believe what that moment does to me, that it did to me in the moment and that it still does to me now!”
As for who’ll take home the $250,000 prize in the end? Well, that’s still up in the air, and there’s only one way to find out who it’ll be.
The Traitors airs at 7.30pm, Sunday – Tuesdays, only on 10 and 10 Play on Demand.
Want more The Traitors’ goss? Check out the stories below:
- Everyone Who Has Gone Home So Far on The Traitors
- The Traitors: Champion Chess Player Jack Is 10 Steps Ahead of His Fellow Competitors
- We Asked Rodger Corser How Far He’d Get in The Traitors
- The Traitors: Fiona Is Strategic, Smart and Determined to Win
- The Traitors: Teresa Has a Superpower Up Her Sleeve
- The Traitors: Midy Hopes He’s a Faithful
- The Traitors: MK Is Used to Calling Out Liars
- The Traitors: Ethan Is Ready to Push Some Barriers
- The Traitors: There’s More Than Meets the Eye With Dirk
- The Traitors Is a New Game Show That Will Keep You On Your Toes — Here’s How to Watch
