It’s the penultimate day in the Castle and there are a lot of red Xs on those portraits over the fireplace. There were only five players remaining last night with one more due to be culled overnight by our two traitors, Carla and Pauric.
Pauric is first to breakfast along with faithful Pete.
Pete admits to us at home: “We have had a piss-poor last few nights but, you know what, we’ll stick together.”
Anna: ‘I said ‘Pete’s huge in comparison to me’. I never said big, I never said scary’.
Hmm, not sure that’s the aim of the game, and Anna is already unappreciative of his version of ‘sticking together’.
There’s a delicious interspersing of breakfast table speculation and the somewhat more revealing chat to the audience where traitors are squirming with delight; and faithfuls, Pete and Diego, are tying themselves in knots trying to second and third guess every move and attributing (wrong) motives for gestures.
The last knock at the door and it’s …. Anna, which means that Kayleigh, who had been spot on with her prediction that Carla is a traitor – “she has brought a bit of heat to my name” – is gone.
Last night Kayleigh referenced ‘fudge cake’ and tonight it’s “sugar, sugar, sugar” when she finds out she’s been murdered.
She acknowledges that she definitely wasn’t here for the experience or to make friends: “Winning would’ve been the only outcome that I would’ve liked. Will I be proud of myself or happy with myself with the game that I played? No, because I didn’t win, so I won’t be.”
Diego: “I don’t know what I’m going to do today. I’m very, very confused.”
Also bereft is Diego who had only very recently established an alliance with Kayleigh.
The dwindling numbers is also remarked on by Siobhán: “At least you have a few extra croissants to chomp down on now.”
She also urges them to drink every drop of tea so they correctly guess that this mission is gonna be a splashy one.
Thirty Castle relics have been scattered throughout the forest. Finding all of them will pour €6k into the prize pot.
There’s extra incentive to work hard with the announcement that replenishing the well with randomly located buckets of water within 20 minutes means there will be no murder tonight.
They eventually added €5k to the prize pot and resorted to slopping water from a muddy puddle to win a reprieve from murders.
And we all spotted the nice ‘faithful’ touch from traitor Carla when she made sure she was seen heroically sacrificing some of her drinking water to add a few mililitres of water to the bucket.
The penultimate round table
A quick reminder from Siobhan that the prize pot stands at €35,850 and we’re into the accusations.
They’re back and forward analysing every move and pretty much everyone comes under suspicion. Compliments are few and far between… except when muscly Pete is delighted to have his muscles muscle their way into the conversation.
We end up with a tie and a tense re-vote, with two votes each for Pete and Carla, with one vote for Anna.
Pete and Carla aren’t allowed vote in the re-vote which has them as the only two candidates for banishment.
Pauric has the decider vote and… it’s doom for Sergeant Peter O’Flynn of the Irish Defence Forces.
Pauric O: ‘Can the traitors win? I’m not sure. Can the traitor win? Me? Yes.’
Carla’s delighted that “the OG traitor has made it to the final” she tells us at home.
At the traitors’ after-dark meet-up Pauric is super quick to remind her that her survival so far is “because I have your back”. And then he tells us at home that he reckons the traitorS might not win but a traitor surely will.
Let’s see tomorrow when the two faithfuls and two traitors meet up for the grand finale.