Warning: This article contains spoilers for season two, episode ten of The Traitors Ireland.
Anna pictured holding the dagger she received at breakfast. RTÉ
RTÉ
THE LATEST EPISODE of The Traitors Ireland began with a smaller breakfast table and ended with an even smaller group of faithfuls.
In between, there was a ceremonial dagger, a €2,000 temptation, an almighty row and another roundtable result that will have viewers wondering whether the faithfuls have been watching the same programme as the rest of us.
The traitors, Carla and Pauric, barely had to lift a finger. Their fellow contestants were perfectly capable of tearing each other apart.
But first, breakfast.
‘What are we still doing here?’
Anna and Carla are first to arrive, with Anna immediately noticing how much the table has shrunk.
“The first thing we noticed was how small the table’s after getting,” she says.
Carla, meanwhile, appears to be enjoying herself considerably more than everybody else.
“What are we still doing here?” she laughs. “I’m having a blast.”
The pair agree that Ian is looking suspicious, with Pete also on their radar.
When Pete arrives, he sums up the atmosphere: “It’s like Lord of the Flies.”
Kayleigh is disappointed that nobody has been murdered overnight, describing it as a “boring morning”. It is the first time she has actually wanted a murder, she says.
Ian, Kayleigh and Anna at breakfast. RTÉ
RTÉ
She then asks Ian whether he suspects his “ride or die bro”, Pauric.
“No,” Ian replies.
Kayleigh is less convinced. She tells Ian that Pete “absolutely rattled” her the previous day, but she has now shifted her suspicions to Carla and Pauric.
Then Siobhán McSweeney enters to announce that the traitors have given Anna the ceremonial dagger, which carries an extra vote at the roundtable.
“What?” Anna exclaims.
McSweeney departs with a warning that she hopes the contestants do not “STEP on each other’s toes” at the next mission.
“Not more stairs,” groans Carla.
A €2,000 temptation
The players arrive at a courtyard for a mission offering up to €6,000 for the prize pot.
Working in pairs, they must carry bags up a small podium of steps. Along the way, they can drop their bags to claim rewards, including a shield or €2,000 in personal cash. Reach the top together, and €2,000 goes into the communal pot.
Pauric draws the odd card out and must sit out the challenge, much to Kayleigh’s delight.
“As if the day couldn’t have gotten any better,” she says. “Poor Pauric, he wasn’t playing the game. It was fantastic.”
Diego and Carla go first, resisting the rewards and securing €2,000 for the group.
Kayleigh and Ian are next. The personal cash proves tempting for Kayleigh, who has already worked out exactly how she would spend it.
“Oh my God, I could go out to Dundrum with my mam. I had the money spent.”
Nevertheless, both resist temptation and add another €2,000 to the pot.
That leaves Anna and Pete. Both believe the other is a faithful, but Pete argues that Anna should take the personal cash, particularly because she could be vulnerable later in the game.
Anna is reluctant. “But that’s selfish,” she says. Pete is insistent.
Pete pictured during the challenge. RTÉ
RTÉ
“Drop the bag.”
“Are you sure?”
“100%.”
Anna drops it. The group has earned €4,000 rather than the full €6,000, but Anna has €2,000 of her own.
She immediately regrets it. “I feel absolutely horrible,” she tells Pete.
Unfortunately for Anna, the rest of the castle is about to take a rather different view.
‘What the fuck?’
When the group reconvenes, McSweeney reveals that just €4,000 has been added to the prize pot.
She then offers Pauric, who missed out on the challenge, €2,000 from the group’s winnings. No strings attached.
Pauric asks why they only won €4,000. McSweeney refuses to tell him. He turns down the money.
RTÉ offering someone €2,000 for sitting out a day’s work? There’s a joke in there somewhere.
It’s also a decision that makes Pauric look wonderfully selfless, which is particularly convenient given that he is, of course, a traitor.
Back at the castle, Pete explains that he believes his “head’s on the chopping block” and wanted a faithful to get some money.
Ian is having none of it.
“Neither one of them’s getting to the final now because of that,” he declares.
Kayleigh turns to Anna.
“What the fuck? Why did you have to put yourself in that position?”
Kayleigh and Anna. RTÉ
RTÉ
Anna leaves the room visibly upset, with Kayleigh following her.
She says Pete repeatedly urged her to drop the bag and that she regretted the decision almost immediately.
“I don’t even want to talk to anybody. I feel like fucking shit on a shoe.”
In perhaps the gentlest possible response to somebody who has just described themselves as something on the bottom of a shoe, Kayliehg replies: “Oh Anna, what the fudge cake.”
Back in the main room, Pete and Ian are clashing over the decision.
Pauric watches the argument unfold and says during a VT that Pete is acting “more like a traitor than I am”.
‘I apologise for being a leader’
By the time the players arrive at the roundtable, the prize pot stands at €30,800 and the atmosphere is poisonous.
Ian admits that he voted for DJ the previous night despite the fact that he genuinely did not suspect him. He says he allowed friendship to influence his decision and does not intend to make the same mistake again.
He names Pete. Pete points out that Ian is not usually so vocal at the roundtable.
“I’m a leader. I apologise for being a leader. I take control. You sit back,” Pete says.
Ian accuses Pete of attacking his character rather than answering questions. He says Pete’s behaviour has changed and that he has been making rash decisions.
Ian pictured at the roundtable. RTÉ
RTÉ
“At least I’m making decisions. You’re doing nothing,” Pete fires back.
Ian also suggests that Pete is the only player who shows no emotion.
“That is the biggest load of bollocks, and I think everyone knows that,” Pete responds.
Pauric then explains why he rejected McSweeney’s offer of €2,000.
He says he briefly considered taking it home to buy a few things for the apartment he has moved into with his girlfriend, but decided against it because he wanted to play as a team.
“I want to get money in the pot, and I want the faithfuls to win this game,” he declares.
He then turns to Anna and says that, regardless of Pete’s encouragement, she was ultimately the one who dropped the bag.
Anna agrees that she made a mistake.
“I let somebody get into my head,” she says, adding that she would give the money back if she could.
With the dagger giving Anna two votes, Diego asks whether she should tell the group whom she intends to vote for.
Anna refuses, fearing she could be murdered if she reveals her suspicions.
Ian and Pete continue their increasingly heated exchange, with Ian warning that if he is banished and revealed to be a faithful, he wants everybody to look at Pete.
And then it’s time to vote. Another faithful bites the dust
Diego votes for Ian. So does Pete. Kayleigh also votes for Ian.
Pauric votes for Anna, while Ian and Carla vote for Pete.
That leaves Anna and her two votes. She votes for Ian.
“I want to keep this plain and simple because yous are all legends. Yous are wrong. I’m a faithful,” Ian tells the group as he departs.
And so another faithful leaves the castle, having spent much of the episode arguing with another faithful while Carla and Pauric watched on.
It is an especially painful departure given Ian’s repeated insistence that Pauric was the one person he could trust.
After the banishment, Anna confronts Pauric over his vote for her, describing his reasoning as “a bit of a bullshit reason”.
Kayleigh, meanwhile, is convinced that Carla is a traitor.
“It’s 100% Carla,” she tells Diego. “Who the fuck is the other one?”
Speaking to Diego earlier, she had also mentioned that she wants to “set Pauric up in flames whether he’s a traitor or a faithful”.
Good that they’re all getting along.
Carla and Pauric pictured at the conclave. RTÉ
RTÉ
At the conclave, Carla and Pauric consider their options for the next murder.
“Nearly there, kid,” Pauric says.
“Nearly there,” Carla replies.