Warning this article contains major spoilers about The Traitors Ireland.
The Traitors Ireland has the nation hooked, and Monday night’s episode eight delivered another chaotic cocktail of backstabs, tears, and one very Irish reaction to a murder twist.
The episode began with Paudie selecting a new recruit, after his own son Andrew was sent packing the night before and he went with Nick. The move paid off instantly, with Nick proving he’s no saint on Team Traitors by backstabbing “nice guy” Mark, one of the Faithfuls’ most trusted players.
Nick looked hesitant about the job at first, but once the penny dropped that it was murder or be murdered, he embraced the role quickly. He was hands-on in searching for the book in the Library, carried out the hit in broad daylight, and looked the part of a seasoned Traitor by the end of the night. Still, it’s worth noting that at breakfast Nick mentioned Paudie’s name in a list of suspects which could come back to bite.
Paudie doesn’t do hugs
After Patrick was banished in the roundtable came the twist that produced yet another iconic Paudie moment. Siobhán tore up the rulebook and announced a one-night-only piseóg murder: the Traitors would have to murder their victim in plain sight dealing the blow with a hug.
Nick looked rattled by the idea of killing in plain sight and his friend Ben even seemed to pick up on the nerves. Paudie, meanwhile, had the most Irish reaction imaginable.
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After five murders so far he finally drew the line “I’m not a f*ing hugger,” he told Nick, flat-out refusing to take part.
Paudie’s massive online fanbase were in raptures.
Mike Ryan hilariously noted on Traitors Uncloaked@ “if they said to Paudie “We are going to put you in the middle of a ring covered in honey and send our seven grizzly bears I think he’d go ‘send me in so’” but hugs are where he drew the line.
When overseas viewers watch this, they’ll be staggered by the sheer number of expletives flying around the castle but for Irish audiences, it just added to the authenticity.
In the end Nick stepped forward, and Christine offered herself as the embrace. In a surreal closing scene, Nick hugged her as the credits rolled and Christine, in that moment, sealed her own fate.
As Nicole Glennon in the Irish Examiner neatly put it, Christine quite literally “embraced her own murder.”
The eyes of the nations will be firmly on RTÉ tonight as the Faithful try to piece together what went down last night.