First murdered 'Traitors Canada' Season 4 player questions whether hiding her profession backfired

Canada's award-winning competition show, The Traitors Canada, is back for Season 4 (Mondays on CTV at 10 p.m. ET/PT, streaming the next day on Crave), with 22 players trying to claim a cash prize of up to $100,000.

In the first episode, host Karine Vanasse proved she has plenty of tricks up her sleeve at the manor, including massive shocks for both Traitors and Faithfuls to start the season.

The first episode kicked off with a new show element called "Fire of Lies." Vanasse gave each player a scroll that revealed whether they were selected as a Traitor or would play as a Faithful. Each person had to declare they were a Faithful in front of the group, with everyone tasked with determining who was telling the truth and who was lying.

Once that was complete, the cast immediately went into their first mission. The competitors saw 32 bags of gold hanging above them. Each person had to set one bag on fire; the bigger the bag, the more money they could claim. But some of the bags had explosives instead of gold, and when someone's bag exploded, they had to go into a cage. Their only shot at freedom was to be replaced with a player whose bag also exploded.

The final three players left in the cages were Karen, a criminal defence lawyer from Vancouver; Katelyn, a family physician also from Vancouver; and Aisha, a student from Toronto. They were on "Death Row," with Traitors, Big Brother Canada alum Spicy Vee, and professional wrestler Taya, having to decide who to murder. They chose Karen, just as it was also revealed that Katelyn was selected as the third Traitor.

Karen hiding that she's a criminal defence lawyer: 'I'm still not sure if that was the right decision'

While the audience watching from home knew Karen's occupation, she lied to the Traitors Canada players, claiming to be a teacher.

"It's pretty obvious from all the previous Traitors and other reality shows that lawyers generally are considered quite [suspect] from the outset. Whether or not they're Traitors, they seem to be judged as having the capacity to be quite devious, more so than other people, which I think is totally unfair. I think other people are also equally devious. We're just very open about it," Karen told Yahoo Canada. "I felt that revealing that would cause me to be an early mark."

"I'm still not sure if that was the right decision. I think you can't really second-guess yourself about these things. … I'm quite exuberant and I feel like if I was just myself … I might have bonded with people a little bit sooner and faster. I just didn't think it would be so relevant so quickly."

But interestingly, despite being in the competition for only a short time, Karen felt that someone already sensed she wasn't being truthful.

"Keturah threw me for a loop. She lives very close to me in Vancouver, and when I was telling her that I was an educator, I'd done a lot of research on what the school systems are like here, to be able to pass this off convincingly. And she looks at me, and she's like, 'I'm an educator too, what school district are you working in?' So I just named a school that was close to me," Karen shared.

"I felt like she probably clocked me, and so I was already thinking, … I really liked her temperament and … she was like me, moving a little bit more slowly and being more watchful, being more introspective. … And I felt that … maybe if there was somebody that I said, 'OK, maybe I'm not a teacher,' I could have relied on her to hold that, at least as far as one can imagine in those circumstances."

Karen on The Traitors Canada Season 4, on CTV and Crave

'It was more exhausting than I thought'

While Karen identified that she's someone who is used to operating under pressure, the impact of the game's stakes, even early in the competition, surprised her.

"I'm really used to operating under pressure and making quick decisions, and really being able to dive into things. But I will say, the experience, it was a little shocking, what the impact is on your nervous system, and how that affects you and wears you down," Karen said. "Even though it was only about 24 hours for me, … you could already feel it starting, and it was more exhausting than I thought it would be."

As we see in every season of Traitors Canada, there is a mix of competitors who have been on reality TV, including Big Brother and Survivor stars, and those who have never appeared on a TV show before. The debate pops up every season about whether these competitors have an advantage or a disadvantage in the game.

Karen recalled being able to identify a difference in how the reality TV alums engaged with the filming element of the show, and they also had a unique "bond" that didn't exist among the other players.

"They were more comfortable in front of the cameras, more comfortable with just the filming process and how that went. But also, even the ones that didn't know each other directly, they had a shared experience that created more of an instant bond, and that was a bit of a challenge," Karen said. "I wasn't entirely sure how to enter those conversations."

After auditioning in Season 3, trying again and making it on the show for Season 4, Karen said she wouldn't say no if asked to return to the manor. The one Traitors Canada element she missed out on this time around, but would be excited to experience is a roundtable deliberation.

"I'm a trial lawyer, and so this idea of collecting evidence, appreciating what your own cognitive biases might be, or how other people's cognitive biases might project, but also body language. As a trial lawyer, you do have to make some evaluations and some snap decisions at the moment, based on how people present on the stand," Karen said. "But also, I'm the child of deaf parents, so … I'm very emotive myself. … So it would have been lovely to have been in a couple of roundtables and participated in those discussions."