The winners of The Traitors season three have been crowned in a thrilling final episode on Friday (24 January).
Warning: major spoilers for The Traitors season finale ahead.
In a tense, 70-minute finale, Jake and Leanne emerged as the winners, taking home the £94,600 prize pot between them (£47,300 each).
After four weeks of twists, turns and scheming the final episode came down to just five contestants: Alexander, Charlotte, Frankie, Leanna and Jake.
Charlotte was the only Traitor remaining. Meanwhile, Frankie had gained the power of The Seer, meaning she was entitled to know the true identity (Traitor or Faithful) of one other contestant.
In the season three opener, a big twist for the finale was revealed, with host Claudia Winkleman telling contestants that the few who made it to the final this year would no longer have to reveal whether they were a Faithful or Traitor after they were banished.
Instead, the final Faithfuls had to rely purely on their instincts about whether or not any Traitors were left in the castle.
Over the past three weeks, viewers have watched on the edge of their seats as 25 contestants competed for the life-changing jackpot.
The game show, which has been a huge hit for the BBC over its three seasons, sees a group of strangers split into Faithfuls and Traitors, who are tasked with playing the ultimate game of deception. Each night, the Traitors choose a Faithful to “murder” while the Faithfuls must work together to eliminate the Traitors.
This season saw four women chosen as the Traitors over the course of the show. Armani, Linda and Minah were chosen as the original trio, but after Armani and Linda were eliminated, in episode eight Minah was allowed to choose one of the Faithful to become a Traitor. She selected Charlotte who later added Freddie to her ranks but he only lasted one night, meaning Charlotte was the only Traitor in the final.
The final episode kicked things off with a bang as Frankie, The Seer, met with Charlotte, where she learned she was a Traitor. After the revelation, a stunned Frankie admitted that Charlotte was a “brilliant” Traitor.
However, at the last breakfast with the remaining five, both Frankie and Charlotte told contrasting stories to the others about what happened in the meeting, further confusing the rest of the group. A tearful Charlotte twisted the knife, by telling Leanne and Alexander that Frankie was a Traitor. Leanne, though, privately questioned this as she recalled thar Freddie had voted for Charlotte on Thursday.
Before there were any more eliminations, the group had to complete the final challenge, which resembled a scene from Mission: Impossible. It first involved Jake and Leanne dangling from a helicopter and having to drop bags of money in a ring of fire, while Charlotte directed them. The pair managed to get three out of the four bags in the ring.
Next up, it was Frankie and Alexander’s turn on the chopper. They weren’t as successful as their predecessors and only managed to get one bag in the ring, thanks mostly to their delayed responses to Charlotte’s directions.
After all that excitement, it was time for the roundtable but not before some last-minute conniving with Frankie and Leanne, after a whispered conversation in the kitchen, while Charlotte turned on the waterworks again when speaking to Jake and Alexander.
As the roundtable began, Winkleman reminded them that if there were any Traitors left, they would take home the jackpot, but if the Faitfuls ousted the Traitors, they would share the prize money.
Charlotte used the roundtable to dish out some sharp barbs including spreading a conspiracy theory that both Frankie and Alexander were Traitors. After the deliberation, the remaining five decided to vote off Charlotte, thus banishing the last Traitor. Due to the new rules, Charlotte didn’t reveal that she was a Traitor, meaning the last four went into the endgame, with suspicions still high.
In the endgame, the final four could unanimously decide to end the game and split the prize money between them, but if they believed there was still a Traitor, they could opt to banish again. In a twist, Leanne, Alexander, Frankie and Jake all chose to banish again. After another vote, Alexander was banished thus eliminating him from the competition.
Yet there were more twists as the remaining three chose to banish yet again, meaning they went back to the chalkboards again. The final vote saw Frankie banished. Jake and Leanne learnt they were both Faithfuls, solidifying them as joint winners.
The first season of the show, which debuted in 2023, quickly became a hit, landing an average of 5.4 million viewers. Last year, the US released its own version, hosted by Alan Cumming.
