Singer Eric Nam – a finalist from season 4 of The Traitors US – got a little help from his Faithful friends to “right some wrongs” with Rob Rausch.
Love Island’s Maura Higgins, comedian, Ron Funches, and gamers Natalie Anderson and Yam Yam Arocho joined forces against the season 4 winner in Eric’s music video for How the Fire Started.
From a Scottish castle to the Wild West:
Eric told PEOPLE it was “fun” to see everyone outside of “the context of Traitors.”
“It was good to see everybody in a different element, just chilling. Ron was doing Ron, just under a tree by himself. Yam Yam was loud as ever. Maura was doing glam and looking fabulous, and Rob just rolled up in an overall.”
Since the gang was all together in LA filming The Traitors US reunion several weeks ago, Eric gathered the troops for an extra-credit project.
“I was like, ‘I know everybody’s going to be in town, so I would love to get them in. I called Rob, and Rob was like, ‘This is the least I can do for you. Absolutely.’ Then I called Maura, and she was like, ‘We have to do this.’ And then we rounded it out with our cast. I think it’s just a great way to wrap up this experience and put a bow on it.”
Re: Eric’s banishment from The Traitors …
While the way his Traitors journey ended “wasn’t ideal,” he realizes that “at the end of the day, it’s a TV show. It’s a game.”
“Every morning I would wake up and yell into the castle, ‘Let’s make great TV.’ That’s what I would say at the start of every morning, just to remind people that this is a gig. So some of the comments I was getting online were crazy. They were so hateful and spiteful. I’m like, ‘You guys, it’s not that serious.'”
Still, the song was definitely “inspired and finished by the experience of Traitors and the betrayal and backstabbing.” Upon reflection, Eric “wouldn’t have been as trusting of” Rob, a man with literal snake tattoos.
“I played as true as I could, as honorably as I could,” he says. “I don’t have any regrets. Do I wish Rob had made a different decision? Yeah, but whatever, that’s on him. People were like, ‘Oh, would you share $100,000 with someone you met three weeks ago?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I would.’ But we’re just different in that way. I don’t fault him for that. It’s just the way it happened.”
The K-Pop superstar says all will be forgiven with Rob when he buys him a Rolex. “If Maura gets a Birkin, Eric should get a Rolex,” he quipped.
Art imitating life:
In an exclusive from PEOPLE, Eric travels to Rob’s ranch to seek revenge for outplaying him in Alan Cumming’s game of murrrder and betrayal and keeping the full prize of $220,800 to himself.
Eric finds the Faithfuls being “held against their will” with “all work and no play.” He and the group then vow to make Rob Rausch, who donned his signature shirtless overalls look, “pay.”
The campy Western-themed video ends with a showdown between the final two Traitors that left the professional snake wrangler tied up and bound to wooden beams. The gang doused Rob in lighter fluid and left him to burn in a fire … until Ron Funches and his heart of gold ran back to rescue him from the flames.
