Joe Vanella on Why He Voted Out A Fellow Traitor & Victor’s Gameplay

The funeral director met his fate on Episode 10 of The Traitors: New Blood. Joe Vanella was the second Traitor banished from the season after Tomica Adams left the episode prior.

Joe, from Wantagh, New York, was a Traitor along with Tomica and Katie Frites. He was a Traitor from day one and made friends with everyone with his jolly personality and funny antics.

He was sitting pretty for a few weeks until Victor Vollbrechthausen caught on to him and Tomica with the murder in plain sight. They had to have someone catch an apple, and whoever did would be murdered that night in a buried-alive situation, out of the people who were up for murder from the previous challenge. Victor latched onto that and ended two of the Traitor’s games.

Joe was then banished on Episode 10, leaving Katie as the only Traitor. She recruited Shane Beatty as the newest Traitor. 

The banished player told us about why they chose not to murder Victor despite him being after them, his confession to Niyyah Hayes right before her murder, and more about his game.

Here, TV Insider catches up with Joe Vanella to break down his time on The Traitors: New Blood.

Euan Cherry/NBC

Going into the game, did you always want to be a Traitor?

Joe Vanella: No. So that’s the craziest thing. I always thought I’d be more suited to be a Faithful. When I was applying, I’m like, “I’ll go in there, I’ll get a Traitor.” I could read people, and the more I thought about it, I said, “Wouldn’t it be crazy given my personality if I was a Traitor?” And at the last second, when I was asked, “Do you want to be a Faithful or a Traitor?” I switched it up, and I’m glad I did because I had the time of my life.

Was it harder or easier than you thought it would be?

Way harder. Way harder. I’m like everybody else. When I sit on my couch at home, and I see the Traitors lamenting, having to murder somebody, I’m like, “Get over it! You’re there for a game. Stop it!” But that’s hard, and you’re sending your friends home. You’re watching your friends go home. These people are telling you the reasons that they need money, and now all of a sudden you’re like, “You’re not getting that,” and it weighs on you a bit. It got tough. It was a weird roller coaster because it was hard in the beginning. You get used to it. It’s like an acquired taste. It’s crazy to say murder’s an acquired taste, but here we are. Then, at the end, you start sending your friends home, and you’re like, “Ah, this doesn’t feel good.”

Speaking of sending your friends home, on the last episode before you were banished, you voted to banish Tomica, who was a fellow Traitor. What was your reasoning and thinking behind that?

Agreement among the traders. We had an agreement. We kept a very loyal turret, and the agreement was that once Victor got pardoned, if anybody got too much heat, we pulled the cord. At that point, the writing was on the wall. Tomica was cooked. There was no way after that round table that I could write down anybody else’s name without it coming back to bite me, and there was no other option. I’ve spoken to Tomica since then. We’re cool. She understands. Thank God. But it did suck writing her name down.

Victor was ultimately the reason you got banished. Inside, how were you feeling when he figured out Fruitgate, that whole murder in plain sight?

So it didn’t bother me because, look, I get why people are excited for him. Great call on Fruitgate, but his social game was so bad that he didn’t have the ear of anybody in the castle. So if anybody’s going to figure it out, let it be the guy who’s nobody’s listening to. I was okay with it. He was running around, and nobody was really paying attention to him. His social currency was so low. Let’s not forget that he got banished. We did our job as Traitors. That dude was gonna hit them, waltzing in with this necklace. So, for anybody to figure it out, if it came from literally anyone else, it would have carried so much more weight, but from Victor in the beginning, zero.

But because he was coming after you and Tomica, why did you guys not think to murder him?

Again, he was banished. We didn’t really need to, and then after that, if we murdered him after Shane saved him, it would have come back on us. The double bluff is hard to work sometimes. And Tomica had so much heat; it was better to just let her see how it would play out at the roundtable. Now, as far as the chalice goes, I knew Morgan [Cook] was going to come for me at the next roundtable. So if I put the poison in Victor’s cup, it’s going to point directly to me. Everybody’s going to be like, “Why? We know that this is happening.” But if Morgan spoke up at the next roundtable, if I made it through, she would have caused me to talk a lot. But when she did, people would listen. So, she had more social currency than Victor at that point, and I thought that getting rid of Morgan would be the right move, and I could handle myself with Victor. And let’s face it, that last roundtable, I verbally outgunned him. I stand by that 100 percent. He had The Dolls’ vote, and I never really had a chance there.

If it was the opposite, and it was Katie being banished, and you were the last Traitor, who would you have recruited to be another Traitor?

No doubt, Shane. She made the right decision there. Shane’s a heady player. He’s watched a lot of reality TV. He’s a fan first, like me. I would have had him in that turret. That’s my guy.

Going back a few weeks ago, when you murdered Niyyah, it was kind of ironic that you’re a funeral director and you were one of the ones being buried alive. How did that feel to kind of be in that position?

[Laughs.] Yeah, being buried alive. I’ve never been to my own funeral before, so it was super weird. It’s funny because everybody else was freaking out about being in a casket, and one of the things my mom said to me before I left for Scotland, she goes, “Whatever you do, don’t curse everybody out when you get banished, and don’t get buried in a casket.” So I was able to give her one of the two, but the casket didn’t bother me because I’m used to that. Everybody was walking into the cemetery, and I’m like, “This is my home field. I’m OK in here.” The worst thing was there was a spider about the size of my hand running around in there. So, I was OK with it.

Your confession to Niyyah was that planned or was that spur of the moment?

Spur of the moment. Niyyah was never somebody who I wanted to murder. She was just somebody I was able to isolate, so that there were no eyes on us together. I felt that I owed it to her because Niyyah and I were very tight, and I did sort of use things that I found out about her to bring her into that kitchen and to get her to catch the apple. Things like I knew somebody was talking about her. I knew she was an Eagles fan, so I could turn this into a playful thing where I sort of lob it to her. So just out of respect, I wanted to tell her, “I’m sorry.” If I were to do it over again, would I do it? I don’t know. Maybe not. I’d let her have her moment because I do feel a little bad about that.

Is there anything about your game that you would change, or anything that you regret?

No, no, there’s not a thing. I think I played a very unique game for a Traitor. I think that the only thing that had me dead was the fruit, and I think that if the banishment was allowed to happen to Victor, I’d be standing around that fire at the end of the game. I truly, truly, truly believe that. I think, I mean, everybody wants to say they played a great game, but I feel like I truly played a great game.

You did play a great game.

Thank you. Appreciate that.