The Faithfuls turned on each other as a €2,000 temptation, a powerful dagger and a fiery Round Table played straight into the Traitors’ hands.
With just seven players left in The Traitors Ireland, Carla and Pauric might have expected the pressure to be closing in.
Instead, the Faithfuls did much of the work for them.
“They’re doing our jobs for us,” Pauric said in the Conclave after another chaotic night at Slane Castle.
***Warning: Spoilers for Sunday night’s episode of The Traitors Ireland below.***
Siobhán McSweeney showcases another array of fashion forward outfits in Sunday night’s episode
The dagger lands with Anna
There was no murder to worry about at breakfast, but Siobhán McSweeney soon revealed why.
The Traitors had instead been given the power to award the ceremonial dagger, giving one player two votes at the next Round Table.
They chose Anna.
Anna is shocked that the Traitors chose to give her the dagger
Privately, Carla and Pauric hoped the move would create more confusion among the Faithfuls.
“Let the rest of them cause the damage. We don’t need to,” Pauric said.
Anna immediately began questioning why she had been chosen.
“I think the two Traitors that gifted me with this don’t think I suspect them at all,” she said. “And I won’t use it against them at the table.”
She was right about that much.
Elsewhere, Carla’s name was beginning to circulate, while Pauric appeared increasingly happy to let suspicions move in several directions, as long as they stayed away from him.
€2,000 causes chaos
The day’s mission offered the players the chance to add €6,000 to the prize pot, but temptation was waiting along the way.
Diego and Carla resisted the offers in front of them and secured €2,000 for the group, with Ian and Kayleigh doing the same.
Anna and Pete took a different path.
Pete persuades Anna to take the money
With both believing their time in the castle could be running out, Pete encouraged Anna to take €2,000 for herself.
She did.
“I feel absolutely horrible,” Anna said afterwards.
Pauric, who had been left out of the paired mission, was then offered €2,000 from the €4,000 won by the others.
He turned it down.
“I’ve been a team player here from the start, and I’m not about to get selfish now,” he said.
Back at the castle, Anna’s decision quickly caused uproar.
Pete made no attempt to distance himself from it, telling the group that he had encouraged her to take the money.
Anna admitted she had allowed him to get into her head and immediately regretted it.
“It’s not who I am,” she said. “And if I could give it back, I 100% would.”
Pauric was among her strongest critics, telling Anna he believed she was a Faithful but that she had now given the group another distraction when they should be trying to find a Traitor.
For the actual Traitors, that distraction could hardly have come at a better time.
Ian and Pete go head-to-head
By the Round Table, however, the money was far from the only issue.
Ian turned his attention firmly towards Pete, questioning the role he had played in driving suspicion around previous players and pointing to what he believed had been changes in his behaviour.
He also recalled Pete previously saying “if I was a Faithful”, a comment that had stayed with him.
Pete hit back, accusing Ian of sitting quietly at Round Tables while others did the work.
Tensions are high at the Round Table
“I’m a leader,” Pete said as the exchange grew increasingly heated.
“At least I’m making decisions. You’re doing nothing.”
Ian argued that Pete had become more emotional and erratic in recent days, while Pete insisted Ian was only coming after him because he had begun questioning Ian in return.
Eventually Pauric stepped in as the argument became increasingly personal.
‘It’s at you, Ian’
Anna, meanwhile, was keeping her own cards close to her chest.
Despite holding two votes, she initially refused to reveal who she planned to put on her slate.
She said she believed the dagger had been given to her in the hope that she would use it against Pete or Diego, rather than against one of the Traitors.
When Diego pressed her to reveal where her suspicion really lay, she finally answered.
“It’s at you, Ian.”
She accused Ian of dropping different names to different people around the castle and said she had been watching him for some time.
When the votes were revealed, Diego, Pete and Kayleigh had all voted for Ian.
Ian and Carla voted for Pete, while Pauric voted for Anna.
Anna then used her two dagger votes on Ian, taking his total to five.
He was banished.
“I’m a Faithful. Short and sweet,” Ian said.
Afterwards, Kayleigh admitted she had never really believed Ian was a Traitor.
“Did I think he was a Traitor? Not in a gazillion million years,” she told Diego.
Her real suspicion remained elsewhere.
“I know it’s Carla,” she said.
Diego agreed, but the pair were already wondering who the second Traitor could be.
‘They’re doing our jobs for us’
Back in the Conclave, Carla was stunned by how the Round Table had unfolded.
“I’m shocked,” she said of Ian’s banishment.
Pauric had a rather different reaction.
“They’re all just going at each other,” he said. “They’re doing our jobs for us.”
The pair turned their attention to their next murder, with Pete among those causing concern for Carla.
But with the endgame fast approaching, their focus was also turning to how they could both make it there.
“We need to think about how we both get to the endgame,” Pauric told Carla.
“We know we’re not going to throw each other under the bus.”
Carla agreed.
After another Faithful banishment, six players remain – and the Traitors are ready to murder again.
The Traitors Ireland airs on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays.