Arie Luyendyk Jr.

**Arie Luyendyk Jr.** is a Recruited Traitor in *The Traitors (US)/Season 1*.

Arie spent most of the game as a Faithful, present amidst the pack and generally following the group consensus, but never becoming invisible or too suspicious to others. This profile made him an ideal recruit for Traitors Cirie Fields and Christian de la Torre - a role switch he happily accepted. Although he worked with Cirie to Banish Christian before he could backstab them, and hoped to split the final prize fund with her, she decided at the eleventh hour to have him Banished at the Fire of Truth. Perceiving his impending fate, he instead decided to Quit the game, but not before unsuccessfully trying to give subtle hints to Andie Thurmond and Quentin Jiles about Cirie's role.

## Profile

*Retrieved from BBC:*

Arie Luyendyk Jr. is a reality television personality, luxury real estate agent, and former professional racecar driver. As the son of a two-time Indianapolis 500 champion, Arie began racing at a young age and ﬁrst competed in the Indianapolis 500 in 2006. He was annually voted the Most Popular Driver and later served as a broadcast analyst for the NBC Sports Network. He appeared on FOX’s *Hell’s Kitchen*, was the ﬁrst runner-up ABC's *The Bachelorette* in 2012 and led season 22 of *The Bachelor franchise* in 2018 where he met his wife Lauren Luyendyk. Arie and Lauren currently reside in Scottsdale, Arizona and have three children. Arie also appeared on *The Bachelor: Winter Games*, *The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart*, and HGTV’s *House Hunters*.

## Gameplay

Arie was, for most of the game, seen as a dependable Faithful. His physical strength was seen as important for Challenges, and his voice was always considered as a meaningful and relatively measured, rational one; although he was not depicted in the show's edit as having actively targeted or initiated votes against the other contestants. The lack of general distrust towards him, and the low threat level he seemed to possess, were reflected in the zero Banishment votes cast against him (before he chose to Walk) and how he never seemed to be brought up as a Murder target during the Traitors' deliberations.

This present yet unassuming positioning in-game was an attractive proposition to Cirie Fields and Christian de la Torre, who were given the opportunity to Recruit a new Traitor after they had fellow Traitor Cody Calafiore Banished. They deduced that Arie would not be suspected by the others even if they Recruited him, and he proceeded to accept the invitation. However, he and Cirie were alarmed the next morning, when Christian overplayed his hand and made up a story about being offered and turning down Recruitment. The Traitors managed to shift the attention towards Rachel Reilly and have her Banished instead, and Murdered Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick because she managed to deduce some of the Traitors (a move that somehow arose no suspicion among the Faithful, even though Arie also visited the Armoury with her and obtained the Shield), However, Christian's reckless play continued to ruffle feathers - and he started trying to plant seeds, setting the stage to eventually have Arie and Cirie voted out. They decided to quickly retaliate and cut him first, successfully doing so with their respective allies Kate Chastain (although begrudgingly in the former's case, as he had once called her "a cancer to the group") and Andie Thurmond.

At the final Traitors' conclave, Arie cemented a deal with Cirie to make it to the end together and split the prize fund as fellow Traitors, as he prepared to have Quentin Jiles Banished. However, Cirie later felt that Arie had not 'earned' the money as she had been a Traitor (and thus suffered from the resultant stress and anxiety) for much longer than he had. She solidified her alliance with Andie and Quentin to have Kate Banished at the Final Round Table instead; and while all the others voted to end the game at the Fire of Truth, she instead voted to Banish Again, with a speech targeted at having Arie Banished because of his wealth and privilege. Foreseeing how the vote was going to proceed, Arie decided to Quit the game instead, claiming that he was blessed enough and did not need the money as much as the other finalists. He also revealed that he was not just a Traitor but a Recruited one, and explicitly wished Andie and Quentin but not Cirie well, hoping this was enough of a hint to them that Cirie was also a Traitor. They did not pick up on this, leaving Cirie as the sole winner of the prize fund.

## Post-Game

* During the Reunion, Arie attempted to call Cirie out for manipulating Andie and Quentin at the Fire of Truth. However, Cirie fired back and noted that he had been equally complicit in taking the money away from Andie and Quentin, for his win would always have been at their expense.

## Trivia

* Arie is the first Traitor in the international franchise to choose to Quit.
* Arie is the first Recruited Traitor for *The Traitors (US)*.
* Arie is the only contestant to obtain a Shield during his season.
* It was confirmed by all four parties present at the Fire of Truth that had Arie not Quit, he would have been Banished 3-1.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/the-traitors-us-celebrities-civilians-contestants