The Traitors Ireland returned on Monday night, with the first murder, the first Round Table and suspicions already taking hold in the castle.
There were some impressively sharp instincts, one very well-hidden relationship and a dramatic end to the night.
***Spoiler warning: The following contains details from episode two of The Traitors Ireland.***
Here are the key moments from episode two:
The contestants gather for breakfast after their first day in the castle – who has been murdered?
Edelle becomes the fourth Traitor
The episode opened with the reveal that Edelle had been chosen to join Carla, Fionula and Páraic K as the fourth Traitor.
There was a catch. She would not discover who her fellow Traitors were until the following night’s conclave.
Edelle becomes the fourth Traitor
Instead, her first task was to choose the first murder from Emma, Denis and Kayleigh.
Edelle picked Emma, explaining that she knew her least and felt keeping Denis and Kayleigh could benefit her later in the game.
Emma admitted she was “raging” to be the first player murdered, but took her early exit in good spirits.
“I don’t know what I could have done differently,” she said. “But I enjoyed it.”
Pete gets very close to the truth
Edelle may not have known who her fellow Traitors were, but Pete spotted an interaction that was far more significant than he realised.
After Páraic K went over to Edelle and squeezed her arm, Pete joked that it looked “like a meeting of Traitors”.
He was almost exactly right.
Pete appears to have good instincts
Páraic knew Edelle had been recruited, while Edelle still had no idea that he was a Traitor.
Pete kept watching Páraic and later questioned his change in demeanour at the Round Table.
Páraic looked him directly in the eye and insisted: “I’m 100% Faithful.”
Denis and Diego are hiding a major secret
The day’s mission saw the players pair up for a musical chairs-style challenge, with money for the prize pot and shields up for grabs.
Denis and Diego made no secret of the fact that survival came first, with Denis memorably declaring: “F*** the money.”
Denis was focused on survival during tonight’s mission
It worked. The pair were the last couple standing, winning two shields, while the group managed to bank just €1,400 of a possible €4,000.
Diego compared their victory to “an Olympic medal in Irish dancing”.
Then came the bigger reveal.
Diego and Denis revealed they are married!
Denis told viewers that Diego is actually his husband of 11 years, something the other players do not know.
“He is a way better husband than he is a dancer,” Diego joked. “He’s just the best.”
Laura puts Edelle under pressure
The first Round Table saw suspicion fly in several directions.
DJ found himself in trouble after admitting he had lied about his job, telling Fionula that he worked in the parts department of a car dealership when he is actually a car salesman.
But Laura had been watching Edelle closely.
Sparks flew at the first round table
She questioned a string of small things she had noticed, including Edelle’s behaviour after the Traitor selection and how distracted she appeared afterwards.
Edelle dismissed the case against her as “nonsense” and insisted she was simply nervous and fidgety.
“I said I wanted to be a Traitor,” she told the table. “Unfortunately, I’m not.”
The Faithfuls strike first
The vote became an extraordinarily close contest between DJ and Edelle, with the pair level on eight votes at one stage.
But Edelle eventually received the most votes and was banished.
Asked to reveal whether she was a Faithful or a Traitor, she told the group: “I am a Traitor.”
The room erupted.
The Faithfuls had caught a Traitor at their very first Round Table, and Edelle’s time on the other side was over before she had even made it to the conclave to meet her teammates.
“Poor Edelle didn’t even get into the conclave and we threw her under the bus,” Fionula later said. “But it was necessary.”
Laura gets it right, then gets it wrong
Catching Edelle should have been an unqualified win for the Faithfuls, but Laura quickly drew one conclusion that could play straight into the Traitors’ hands.
She said she did not believe the remaining Traitors would have voted out one of their own so early.
In fact, Carla and Páraic K had done exactly that.
Their votes for Edelle could now help shield them from suspicion, while Fionula was far less comfortable with how quickly her teammates had turned on their new recruit.
Fionula, Carla and Paraic K gather to murder another Faithful
Back in the conclave, she admitted she felt “slightly thrown under the bus”.
And after helping to catch the first Traitor, Laura had made herself a target. She was quickly discussed as a possible next murder, alongside Seán C and Pauric O.
Who has been murdered? All will be revealed on Tuesday episode.
The Traitors Ireland continues on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.