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Let’s get this out of the way up top. (Takes deep breath.)
This article contains several spoilers pertaining to The Traitors Australia 2026, including but not limited to who won, who cried and who had to sit covered in pigeons against their will.
Neither Mamamia nor this author is responsible for any ruining of said The Traitors finale episode, should you decide to continue reading. Capiche?
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OK sweet, now it’s just us here; holy sh*t we need to unpack the brilliance that was the 2026 finale of The Traitors Australia.
The whole season was brilliant, hilarious, shocking and dumbfounding, but Wednesday’s night’s conclusion might be the best finale of reality TV I’ve watched in ages.
By now, you probably know (see re: spoilers above) that retired AFLW player Kirby Bentley won 2026’s season of The Traitors Australia.
The OG Traitor lied and charmed her way past her fellow finale contestants — The Bachelor’s Keira Maguire, The Real Housewives of Sydney’s Krissy Marsh, and comedian Rhys Nicholson — to take home exactly $200,600 in silver bullion bars.
I have questions about what you do with these silver bars… Image: Instagram/@stantraitors.
After sculling a glass of champers, the former Survivor contestant and proud Noongar woman said everything she’d done had “definitely been worth it… not only for my family, but for Aboriginal people, and women as well.”
“I just won The Traitors when I nearly got banished on day two, day three, day four, day five… in all the days, I nearly got banished every single day!”
My husband and I would have rioted if host Gretel Killeen had announced anyone other than Kirby as the winner — she’s an absolute champion and seems like an all-round good human… despite being really bloody good at lying and manipulating people.
It was a perfect and satisfying ending to a season that had me locked in since the first episode premiered in early August. Not only because reality TV justice was served, but because, just like the Traitors and Faithfuls, you really couldn’t be sure what was going to happen right up until the final firepit.
Standout moments from the penultimate and finale episodes include:
The Block’s Josh pulling everyone for chats like he was back on Love Island.
The way Josh was banished and exclaimed, “I’m a Faithful!” as if he was talking to a bunch of idiots, despite incorrectly voting out several Faithfuls in what some might call an idiotic fashion.
Oh, darling. Image: Instagram/@stantraitors.
When trainee Traitor Rhys went full turbo mode and tore Kirby a new one after she set him up as a scapegoat in a blindside that didn’t pan out, because of Kiera (more on Kiera in a sec).
After watching him put up with being blindfolded and held hostage, dumped in a tub of slime, and covered in unidentified black goop throughout the season, I thoroughly enjoyed his ‘I’m not angry, I’m disappointed’ speech.
It reminded me of when I’d “miss” the bus as a teenager trying to get out of school, only for mum to tell me it was “fine” because I could just walk.
You did good, Rhys. Image: Instagram/@stantraitors.
The genius editing moment that had me convinced Kiera was actually going to overhear Rhys and Kirby bitching about how silly the Faithfuls were on the verandah, gasbagging like a couple of besties a bottle of wine deep.
Spoiler: she couldn’t, thank God. But I really thought that’s how the show was going to end for a second there. Can you IMAGINE?!
How a black-cloaked henchman made Krissy cut her own hair every time she got an answer wrong in the final challenge. Her breaking down physically and mentally in the mock CIA-style torture chamber was so relatable.
I’d be the same babe. Image: Ten.
Finally, we must talk about Kiera. Darling Kiera, without whom this show would have been far less entertaining.
Not only did Kiera fill every silence with an unhinged one-liner or facial expression, repeat confidential gossip after being explicitly told not to, do the opposite of what she said she was going to do, and contribute the bare minimum to group challenges — except for when she had to sit in a slimy bird food suit and let pigeons eat off her…
That was grim.
We don’t deserve her. Image: Ten.
But our Kiera gave the show her absolute best shot and wore her heart on her sleeve until the end.
Even after incorrectly voting out fellow Faithful Krissy to make it to the final two, only to realised she’d let a Traitor win, the woman sobbed, hugged Kirby tight and told her how happy she was for her.
This show gets a lot of hype, and honestly, the 2026 Australian season was a masterpiece from start to finish. And the best bit was how good it felt to yell out ‘IDIOTS’ to the TV twice a week after a long day at work.
Now The Traitors Australia has finished, I’m not sure what we’re going to do with our Tuesday and Wednesday nights anymore. Bring on The Traitors Australia 2027.
Want more celeb goss and reality TV chat? Listen to the latest episode of The Spill’s Morning Tea below.
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Feature image: Ten.