The Traitors finale on BBC One review: is the show losing its spark?
Though there’s still plenty of comedy gold, the show needs a serious shake-up, and more scheming Faithfuls, to retain its appeal
Well, that was a slightly underwhelming finale, wasn’t it? Despite transparent attempts to drum up additional drama by shaking up the format, a cast of fairly inept Faithfuls and a last minute curveball that rendered almost all strategy useless prevented The Traitors’ third season from feeling like a classic.
“I’ve never burned a secret before,” stammered Frankie in the opening moments of the final, torching the note she just received at her and Charlotte’s secret Seer’s dinner party. By inadvertently exposing her most nailed-on Faithful as a fraud, Frankie has changed the entire course of the game, and upped the Faithful’s chances of victory tenfold; if she can dodge Charlotte’s impressive waterworks and valiant attempts to throw her under the bus, that is. As for the final outcome, you’ll have to watch yourself to find out who claims victory in the end.
At its heart, this show is often incredibly nonsensical. Apart from the very rare occasions where the Traitors make hugely obvious slip-ups, the Faithfuls have very little actual concrete evidence to go on. Instead, group-think sets in.
This all-too-familiar herd mentality gathering momentum is fascinating to watch pan out, even if it leads to totally ridiculous decisions such as banishing Kas simply because he’s a doctor (“You’re basically calling me Harold Shipman!” remains one of the best clapbacks of this series) or collectively suspecting Anna because, as Linda put it so very poetically, “you don't need to be a sailor to know how to tie knots.”
Francesca, one of the contestants in the series three of BBC1’s The Traitors (Cody Burridge/BBC/PA)
PA Media
If a player doesn’t immediately click with the wider group, they are quickly cast as exhibiting ‘Traitor behaviour’. There is frequent hand-wringing about how on earth a ‘lovely person’ could possibly bear to tell a few fibs. Not to mention that there’s no real incentive to boot out the Traitors until the very end of the game since they can recruit again, and again. In short, very little of this makes any kind of logical sense – but isn’t that why millions of us tune in every week? Let’s face it, we’re all here for a social experiment rather than the masterful gameplay.
Lucky, because tactical prowess aren’t this lot’s strong suit. The Faithfuls were too silly to figure out that sweet, lovely BAFTA-award-worthy Alexander couldn’t possibly be a Traitor because of Anna’s failed recruitment taking place after he entered the castle. And for reasons beyond all comprehension, Jake was hailed as some sort of intellectual genius for managing to rumble… Linda.
The final admittedly had its comedic highlights, including undercover army officer Leane concealing the fact the mission is not her first helicopter rodeo, Alexander giggling with sheer fear while dangling from 30ft in the air, and a tearful Frankie looking Leanne straight in the eyes and sincerely telling her: “I’m not lying, I’m a mummy.”
Producers are clearly aware already of the game’s limitations, and tweaking the mission formats to raise the stakes has paid off. Introducing the last-minute twist of a Seer, though, felt like a serious misstep, and against the spirit of the game.
The Traitors contestants Alexander and Charlotte (BBC/Studio Lambert/PA)
Departing Traitors being able to vindictively vote for their turret-mate on the way out ruined Wilf’s entire masterplan in season one, and it also piled suspicion on Charlotte here. The trouble is, there’s no real way to outlaw it in the rules. A new tweak which forbids the final departures from revealing their true identities also complicates things further. At this point, a lot of it comes down to blind luck.
Though this season was still incredibly entertaining and filled with some brilliant characters and stand-out comedy moments – shout out to Dan’s theatrical eye rolls, Linda yelling “get over it” at Fozia following the Deathmatch, and Charlotte pretending to be Welsh for literally no reason – The Traitors’ third season also lacked the pace of previous installments, and occasionally felt stale. As for the ending? Messy, and ultimately unsatisfying.
Going into season four, the game finds itself in the grip of a fairly tricky conundrum – the Traitors have a clear incentive to pick off the most strategic players early on, and the Faithfuls also have a tendency to be suspicious of any players who genuinely have the logic and ingenuity needed to take down the Traitors. Without the help of ridiculous, over the top curveballs or mean-spirited “parting gift” style voting from departing Traitors, the Faithfuls don’t stand a chance of victory.
Next time around, this show needs a serious shake-up – in both casting and game format – to rebalance the scales and retain its sticking power.
The Traitors is streaming now on BBC iPlayer
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