Bust-ups, secrets and extreme reactions

Spoiler alert: This contains juicy details of the fourth series of The Traitors UK

This series of The Traitors features some of the most explosive scenes the series has ever seen: dramatic twists, Oscar-ready reactions, and plenty of slick shenanigans.

Take a look back at some of this year’s most memorable moments, following the climax of series four on Friday.

The big change at the start of this series was the addition of a red cape alongside the traitors’ usual green. The red hood was initially worn by the secret traitor, whose identity was unknown to both the audience and the other traitors.

The producers wanted to put the audience in the shoes of the faithful and see if they could spot a traitor, and in general the audience was normally as clueless as the faithful.

The identity of the secret traitor was revealed only four episodes later. When the traitor Hugo was exiled, the secret traitor took his place in the tower, and when they pulled back their red hoods it was Fiona below.

In the end, the whole gimmick felt like a bit of a letdown, but at least it added extra excitement to the beginning of the series.

Fiona admitted that she was “drunk with power” and that her hiding set off a chain of events that wreaked havoc.

Fiona – sweet, bubbly, harmless Fiona – turns out to be one of the greatest chaos mongers the show has ever seen. Shortly after joining his fellow traitors in the tower, he declared war on one of them.

When Rachel decided to reveal to the group that the exiled loyalist Amanda had told her that she was a former detective, Fiona became angry at Rachel’s tactics, accused her of lying, and attempted to expose her as a traitor.

The traitors’ next tower summit was extremely strange; Rachel and Fiona glared at each other for five minutes as Stephen watched with excitement.

“Are we going to argue?” he ventured angrily.

“I “I didn’t start it,” an angry Rachel retorted.

Fiona’s high-risk strategy backfired spectacularly, and the players sided with Rachel.

After being exiled, Fiona admitted that she did not think Rachel was lying about Amanda and described her as “stunning”.

When she had the opportunity to speak directly to the traitors hiding in the church’s confessional, Harriet did not mince words.

“If my voice is shaking, it’s not because of my nerves, it’s because of anger that you made such a fool of me,” he said.

“I think we all know it’s up to Rachel,” he continued, revealing that he had named one of the traitors.

“I’m sure you wish you could kill me when you had the chance,” the former lawyer said before turning on his heel with one of his trademark scarves slung over his shoulder.

“He scares the life out of me,” whispered Rachel in the confessional.

The next morning, Harriet dominated the breakfast room with similar drama.

“I wasn’t going to take a day off from doing any more machining and spinning webs around me because I’ve had enough,” he told Rachel, before telling everyone: “I’m after you.”

“Where did this come from?” Rachel asked innocently.

“The point of this is to set the cat among the pigeons,” growled Harriet, leaving the rest of the diners speechless.

However, as with Fiona, the faithful sided with Rachel and abandoned Harriet, perhaps thinking the demonstrations were too extravagant.

Notorious Villain Alan Carr’s cackling may have sounded like a potential giveaway, but Stephen’s poker-faced struggles were even more fun to watch.

Fans have delighted in her range of expressions, with her wide eyes, flushed cheeks and parted jaw regularly stealing the show, with memes paying tribute on social media.

During one of the missions, Stephen jumped when a terrifying hand burst from the tomb; This delighted Claudia. And when Roxy asks him directly if he’s a traitor, his awkward laugh (followed by: “All I can say is that I’m not a traitor”) evokes strong echoes of Carr’s nervous bluffs in Famous Traitors.

Stephen’s reactions may not have raised suspicion, but Hugo did.

At the beginning of the third episode, the contestants discovered that Ben had been murdered.

In a desperate attempt to cover his tracks, the treacherous Hugo caught the group’s attention by exaggerating the amateur drama during breakfast, asking the others to “take a moment” for “that senior gentleman”.

With a disgusted shake of his head he added: “Whoever did this is beyond morality.”

The faithful felt that Hugo objected too much and voted for him at the next opportunity, making the lawyer their first traitorous scalp.

This time there were multiple secret connections between the contestants.

Roxy told the audience (but not the rest of the cast) in the first episode: “Judy seems lovely, but I have to say…considering she’s my mother.”

“Stop, mom!” When he shouted, he lost sight of the relationship. The group was frantically paddling a canoe on the first mission, but no one noticed him.

Meanwhile, Ross apparently met Ellie on the train on the way to the castle and told her: “I live and work in London, what about you?” They both looked astonished at the coincidence when the woman replied: “Yes, I live in London too!”

However, in the ninth episode, exiled Ellie revealed to her fellow contestants that she and Ross were in a relationship, and everyone was shocked.

“No game chat, just Ellie and Ross chat! Gossip! Ooh!” James said cheerfully as the surviving players prepared for the dinner party that followed.

But these were not the only connections. It was revealed that Ross and Netty also knew each other through mutual friends but had not seen each other for 10 years. However, this connection was not planned by the producers.

While traitors commit murder most nights, they sometimes have the option of recruiting people.

In one episode, hitherto staunch Northern Irishman Matt was given the chance to talk to traitors Stephen and Rachel, who were hiding in a confession booth.

But instead of trying to figure out who the traitors were, Matt shocked viewers by putting his cards on the table.

“I’m taking a huge risk here,” he told them from behind a wall. “I want to know if you have some confidence.”

Trying to make a deal with the devil, Matt begged the traitors to kill his loyal friend Jessie and then lure him to the dark side.

“So my question is, do we have an agreement?”

Rachel and Stephen said yes, but ultimately never hired another traitor…

There was a shift in the idea of ​​public killing when traitors were asked to draw up a shortlist of nine men for murder by placing red ink fingerprints next to pictures of players in a “family tree”.

Rachel and Stephen gather around the illustration at the entrance of the castle, with the faithful Reece under the pretense of translating the Latin inscription, before the two traitors ask Reece to make him scarce.

Remarkably, this did not make Reece suspicious, even when the group later discovered “bloody” fingerprints in the picture.

Jessie’s way of saying “night night” and saluting her empty armor as she left the castle one evening was perhaps the epitome of her magnificent eccentricity.

He was also one of the staunchest loyalists who constantly and accurately tracked down Stephen, but was mostly ignored by the rest.

He was still enough of a threat to Stephen to pull the metaphorical trigger… but he was underestimated enough that his murder wouldn’t mark him.

Could this be the most fickle group of loyalists in Traitors history? It is unfortunate that consensus cannot be reached in a single roundtable meeting. But hitting a dead end twice; some might call it criminal.

The first time the lucky boxes were opened to finalize an exile vote was in the fifth episode, when the contestants couldn’t decide whether to evict Reece or Amanda. Lady Luck has decided that Amanda’s time is up.

The second stalemate came at a much more dangerous time. With just one episode left, Rachel was finally in the firing line with James, despite intense efforts that left her collapsing and vomiting during that day’s mission.

Viewers were left in the dark as to which of the two chose the chest containing the shield that would allow them to stay in the game.

Ultimately, the odds were in Rachel’s favor, while James was sent packing.

Discussing their win on Uncloaked, Claudia described Rachel and Stephen as “totally loyal to each other” and “like Bonnie and Clyde”.

Nothing strengthened their bond more than the closing scene of the finale, where the winning couple shouts “we are traitors” after receiving the award together.

They worked together until the end; They planned together to secure victory as a couple at the end of the game by voting out Jade, Faraaz and then Jack.

Their devotion to each other was one of the most heartwarming parts of the show, and it was commendable that they kept their promise at the round table to never write each other’s names on their tablets or stab each other in the back, despite watching them plot, exile, and kill for the last three weeks.

They became the first winners of the UK version of the series to win as a pair of traitors; This is even more impressive when you remember that they were chosen as traitors from day one.