The Traitors is officially in the endgame now with only two episodes left in the fourth season.
The BBC series has been a massive hit so far with the upcoming finale looking poised to smash the Traitors viewership record set by Alan Carr’s victorious Celebrity Traitors finale.
In the latest episode of The Traitors though, Rachel and Stephen may have survived without any votes, but the pair look more vulnerable than ever thanks to the ‘first big mistake’ they made this season.
Last week’s big cliffhanger revolved around the Traitors being given a dagger to hand out, with the recipient getting two votes at the next roundtable.
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While they briefly considered that the best move was to give it to themselves, they ended up handing the dagger to James, leading to Matthew being the Faithful voted out.
Some tweeting about the TV show live called this a masterstroke, but the episode ended with Faraaz more openly speaking about his suspicions against Rachel and Stephen and the pair seeming set to turn on one another.
One fan on Reddit has pointed out that the downfall of the pair began with them voting for Matthew along with James, stating they instead should have gone for the gardener.
They posted on the r/TheTraitors subreddit saying: “Rachel and Stephen going for Matt instead of James is their first big misstep as a duo strategically imo.
“Their issue, as seen with Faraaz, is people are beginning to look around and clock who actually has the brains to pull off being a Traitor.
“Voting Matt off picks off someone of that ilk, James (no offence if he somehow is reading this) doesn't. It's why Faraaz has clocked it has to be Rachel +/- Stephen/Jade, bc he knows it's not him.
“Vote James out, you still have Matt, Jade and at a push, Faraaz to deflect onto.”
Whilst the post is particularly harsh on James, who has almost made it to the final, it does raise a valid point that Faraaz has no suspicions of James and so keeping Matthew in the game would’ve been a good way to throw off arguably the most astute Faithful.
One top comment on Reddit said: “I was thinking getting out James there would have been so good. Two prime suspects are still left in Jade and Matty.
“Roxy would have been bewildered and chaotic after James revealed he was a Faithful, and I'd love to see that.
“You could chalk up voting James as just getting caught up in the moment.”
Others however pointed out that ultimately the name of the game for Traitors is getting rid of people who they think can figure out it is them.
By banishing Matty and potentially killing Faraaz they may be left with Roxy, James, Jade, and Jack, of whom only Jack has voiced serious suspicions against them.
Amanda Lovett of season one of The Traitors spoke exclusively to LADbible where she agreed that the Traitors had made the right choice.
She said: "What they said, exactly what they said, played out, and the way they're playing it now is that they’ve got all the Faithfuls looking now at James. So James will be banished unless the tables turn and people start focusing on Rachel.
"But I think what they’ve been clever in doing is that when the Faithfuls – there’s 22 players and there’s three Traitors so you’ve got 19 Faithfuls.
"Now you have got weaker and stronger Faithfuls and I think what they’ve done really cleverly is get the weaker Faithfuls to banish the stronger Faithfuls.
"So they’ve manipulated the game, the whole gameplay – and right until the end, like now, everybody’s focus is on James straight away. They’ve done fantastically well."
Regardless of how the cards fall though, with the alliance of Stephen and Rachel showing cracks for the first time, the final two episodes look set to be all-timers.
The Traitors returns on BBC One tonight at 8pm.
Topics: The Traitors, BBC, Reddit, TV and Film, TV
Michael Slavin