Quick recap from Siobh\u00e1n. If only faithful are left at the end, they get the loot. If there\u2019s a traitor among them, the conspirators walk away with the dosh. <\/p>\n
Back to the show …<\/p>\n
Side-eye from Kelley as she suggests Paudie recruited Nick and Nick nods along. And now the round table. Can you taste the tension? <\/p>\n
Laura Slattery is reporting from the Clayton Hotel<\/p>\n
Irish wolfhounds, hooded people in gold masks and RT\u00c9 director general Kevin Bakhurst are all in attendance at an RT\u00c9 screening of the finale in Clayton Hotel Ballsbridge.<\/p>\n
The cast \u2014 including the final five \u2014 and host Siobh\u00e1n McSweeney are the guests of honour at the event, compered by Uncloaked presenter Kevin McGahern.<\/p>\n
RT\u00c9 and the producers, Kite Entertainment, have been toasting a massive hit for the broadcaster, with commissioning editor Gr\u00e1inne McAleer, describing the series as being \u201clike 12 All-Irelands\u201d in terms of viewer ratings.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve bagged the ten grand – which is good. Aaaand they\u2019re singing ole, ole, ole \u2013 which is bad. Now Nick is trying to turn Kelley in the car journey back to the castle. It\u2019s like Game of Thrones with added estate agent.<\/p>\n
The challenges are always a bit of filler. But at least this one has decent production values. That tower looks spectacular. <\/p>\n
They\u2019re talking to a man on a walkie talkie. Now there\u2019s a helicopter. Carry on like this and there won\u2019t be any money left for another of Siobh\u00e1n\u2019s statement capes. Just to reiterate I have no idea what\u2019s going on: I have unleashed the Wilkin within. <\/p>\n
Ooh cinematic drone shots of the players pegging it across the countryside in their huge golf-carts. That\u2019s one fifth of the budget gone right there. And now they\u2019re in a dungeon. They see an orc guarding a chest. Only joking \u2013 Vanessa has found clues leading to the next elements. Is anyone following this? <\/p>\n
It\u2019s all gone a bit ZX Spectrum text adventure. They\u2019re looking for crystals to unlock a spire \u2013 I\u2019m having flashbacks to that time I was locked in the goblins\u2019 dungeon playing The Hobbit.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve reached the first ad break. What do we think of Nick and Ben\u2019s plan to separate Vanessa and Oyin by turning Kelley against Vanessa? It was all tears and hugs at the last supper the previous evening – but the traitors are ruthless out of the gate tonight. This could turn nasty. Who am I kidding. This WILL turn nasty.<\/p>\n
The last mission. Siobh\u00e1n in another statement ruff \u2013 and ten grand potentially added to the pot. She explains the mission \u2013 something to do with the elements. I\u2019m not sure the players understand. I certainly don\u2019t. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know it has to be one of the boys. I\u2019m just trying to figure out which one,\u2019 says Kelley. Then the penny drops. \u201cIs it there a chance it\u2019s both of them?\u201d<\/p>\n
Oyin isn\u2019t buying it. \u201cI would jump in the river she says.\u201d Oh Oyin \u2013 can\u2019t you see? <\/p>\n
Vanessa has arrived for brekkie. \u201cThe highs are really highs, the lows are so low,\u201d she says. She sounds traumatised \u2013 as she would having faced down round table truth bombs from Joanna and Faye over the last two round tables. <\/p>\n
Enter Nick, the estate agent who has been selling himself as Mr Trustworthy over the past three weeks. He and Ben have a plan \u2013 persuade Kelley to vote Vanessa out at the round table. Devious. But will it work?<\/p>\n
Aah, we begin with an emotional flashback to the start of the series. How innocent and hopeful they look. Except for Wilkin. He was just giving us peak Wilkin from the outset. <\/p>\n
We open with creepy music, Siobh\u00e1n sounding severe\u2026and breakfast. \u201cI didn\u2019t think I\u2019d make it this far,\u201d says Oyin. Too modest! Viewers had her tagged as one of the sharpest faithful from the start.<\/p>\n
Daggers at the ready, here we go. May the best faithful or traitor win. Actually could they just bring back Paudie and give him the money. Who would object? Aside from Ben and Nick, who weirdly have yet to receive their own portmanteau (Bicholas? Brick?)<\/p>\n
As we prepare to visit Traitors Castle for the last time, it as good a moment as any to look back at the highlights and lowpoints of the season. <\/p>\n
Where to start? The Nick and Ben bromance becoming a \u201cbow-mance\u201d when they mimed pinging a target with their arrows of truth. <\/p>\n
Paudie\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m not a hugger\u201d speech \u2013 the Gettysburg Address of auld fella banter\u2026 We could go on \u2013 but, much like Wilkin at the round table, we\u2019re just going to sit in silence for a while instead. <\/p>\n
Welcome to the Irish Times\u2019 coverage of the final of The Traitors Ireland. This is your last warning before the backstabbing begins for the final time (sob). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quick recap from Siobh\u00e1n. If only faithful are left at the end, they get the loot. If there\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[631,61,60,43,6085,6762,13081],"class_list":{"0":"post-39410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-for-you","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-rte","13":"tag-siobhan-mcsweeney","14":"tag-slane-castle"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}