Contains spoilers for The Traitors
Last night's episode of The Traitors featured a moment that caused me to leap off the sofa, text the group chat and pause the TV to take it all in, as Traitor Stephen made the most major of fumbles, when he said: "And so I was thinking to myself last night, oh sorry this morning," in reference to the discovery of the murder in plain sight.
During the blink and you'll miss it moment, Stephen essentially outed himself as a Traitor to the entire group at the round table after breakfast. For some reason it wasn't picked up on by a lot of the group, offering Stephen a narrow escape. However, it's not the first time these Traitors have made mistakes in the four episodes we've seen so far, with one Traitor, Hugo, already banished from the castle in episode three.
With so many mistakes between them, are they just the worst group of Traitors the show has ever seen? Or have the stakes been raised higher it's so much harder to play the game?
This season has seen perhaps the most twists of any season so far. The first episode of the BBC series saw the introduction of a secret Traitor, that both the audience and the Traitors were unaware of the identity of and would be the main Traitor pulling the strings. This threw a major spanner in the works and left the Traitors feeling pretty powerless, and put them at a disadvantage as they were trying to work out the identity of the secret Traitor as well as keeping their own cover.
They've also arguably been given a lot harder challenges than previous seasons. Having to murder nine people in plain sight by finger painting the very obvious large family tree in the centre of the castle? Yeah, it's not as easy as Diane's fizzy rosé death. And then having the round table immediately after breakfast, while a great treat for viewers, meant the Traitors had even less time to mentally prepare themselves and arguably seemed set up to fail.
And if the major fan family tree theory about everyone having someone they know in the castle holds true, this also puts the Traitors at a disadvantage as people will have natural alliances, extra knowledge about the group and more chance of swaying people to their point of view.
However, if they are really good Traitors, surely they should be able to handle whatever is thrown at them? After all, four seasons in they've been able to watch multiple seasons and learn what to do and very much what not to do, and yet this season has been full of Traitor mistakes.
There's been Hugo's impassioned breakfast speech after Ben's murder, which gave away his identity, Stephen's many fumbles and nervous energy, and even Rachel has made her share of mistakes too, such as when she said in front of Reece she needed to tell something important to Stephen, while standing next to the family tree portrait. She might as well have written 'Traitor' on her forehead.
Yes, in other seasons a Traitor has been caught early on, such as when Armani was banished in episode 3 last season, but the rest of the Traitors have still managed to clutch on and keep the game afloat, without too much heat on them. However, in this season it seems they're all giving the game away.
And we're not the only ones who are seriously doubting the skills of this year's Traitors. As one person on X wrote: "Stephen might be one of the best worst #Traitors ever cast. All these mistakes." Another wrote: "Must be the worst group of traitors ever #TheTraitors #TheTraitorsUK." And another said: "These might be the worst traitors ever! Constantly putting their necks out for no reason #TheTraitors."
Four episodes in and the only Traitor who seems to be playing a really good game is Fiona, the secret Traitor. Could she make it to the final and win all the money? We're keeping our fingers crossed for her.
The Traitors continues on BBC One and BBC iPlayer
