Just as we were bemoaning the fact that The Celebrity Traitors was lacking some big twists, Claudia Winkleman more than delivered. Episode six of the series – which aired on Thursday night – told three contestants the triple-whammy of a twist: not only were they potentially going to be knocked off that night, but it would be done in person on a chess board and the murdered person would get to see the traitors face to face.
And those three unlucky souls? Lucy Beaumont, Nick Mohammed and Kate Garraway. As they each sat down to unroll the wax-stamped letter in their name, they read out the full process of the twisted midnight game: “One of you will be murdered by the traitors face to face. You must walk down to the chess board [the site of the mission earlier in the episode] and stand on the board alone.
“The traitors chess piece will then move towards you. When it stops, you must turn around. If you see Claudia you are safe, but if you see the traitors, you have been murdered.”
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Hats off to the producers: it’s all brilliantly brutal. Even Kate was looking on the bright side of the harrowing would-be killing: “I want to see the traitors face to face,” she reasoned. “If I’m getting murdered, this is the best way to go.”
Who’s most likely to be murdered?
On the face of it, Nick is one of the few faithfuls with the ability to rub a few brain cells together and is beginning to piece together who might be traitors with his smart gameplay, so he poses the most threat to the traitors, meaning they might want to get rid of him.
BBC
But as he revealed his cunning plan on the chess board earlier in the day, rather than confirm himself as a faithful to the others, some people, like Kate, were annoyed they were “thrown under the bus” and prevented from winning the protection of the shield.
They questioned his motives and wondered whether this might have in fact been a move a traitor would make – in which case it serves the traitors better to keep Nick in, so they can set him up at the round table and persuade others to vote for him.
If he is murdered, it also proves his theories to the group as (partially) correct, meaning Joe Marler will gun for the traitors instead.
BBC
There are also rumblings of Kate being a traitor – in cahoots with Jonathan Ross, several people think – and it would be beneficial to keep a person in the game who already has heat on them. One of the traitors could suggest that her being named “the weakest” person in the game was a double-bluff from her, and that she’s actually one of the “big dogs”.
BBC
Which just leaves Lucy, who’s flown under the radar in the game, with only ever a few suspicions raised about her. Out of all of the three potential victims, the traitors seem to have less tactical use for her, and there may well be fewer reverberations around her being murdered.
She has fewer strong alliances with the other players, and by removing her, it allows the traitors to get another clean step closer to the finale, without being unmasked.
Right now though, it’s all in the hands – the feet? – of that giant hooded chess piece on the world’s scariest board game. It’s going to be a long six days until we find out who’s next to face the wrath of those traitors…
The Traitors series 1-3 are streaming on BBC iPlayer. The Celebrity Traitors airs on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 9pm.
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