The Traitors viewers have been left perplexed by a last-minute twist that has turned the very purpose of the gameshow on its head.
*Warning – spoilers for the penultimate episode of The Traitors season three follow*
During the penultimate episode of the series aired on Thursday night (23 January), remaining Traitor Charlotte seemed to have the rest of the Faithfuls under her control until a major twist was announced that could potentially foil her plans.
Presenter Claudia Winkleman announced that one person will become “The Seer”, who will then be granted “an extraordinary power” to find out the truth about whether one other contestant is a Faithful or a Traitor.
“The Seer has the power to learn one other player’s identity,” Winkleman said. “The Seer will invite one player this evening to a private, face-to-face meeting. The player that they’ve chosen will have no choice and must reveal if they are a Faithful or a Traitor. This power could turn the entire game on its head.”
After Thursday’s challenge, Frankie had won the power of the seer with the help of Alexander giving her his gold coins, and she decided to invite Charlotte – who Frankie doesn’t know is the last remaining Traitor – to her meeting in the hope of confirming Charlotte’s “Faithful” status.
While some viewers branded the seer twist as “clever”, many have been left complaining that it has “ruined” the game and made the outcome of the final almost inevitable.
Many viewers have predicted that when Charlotte is forced to reveal her Traitor identity to Frankie, the pair will both come out of the meeting telling the remaining Faithfuls that the other one is a Traitor.
Rather than believing Frankie, it’s likely that the remaining Faithfuls – Leanne, Alexander and Jake – will end up being suspicious of both of them and banish them to be safe.
“Really not a fan of this ‘seer’ twist,” wrote one viewer on X/Twitter. “Frankie and Charlotte will just argue saying each other are traitors, the faithful will have to banish both to be 100 per cent sure, guaranteeing a faithful win. it’s taken away any of the tension from the finale.”
Another added: “I think being the Seer is riskier than they realise. If you both come out saying you’re Faithful, you’re safe. But if you discover a Traitor (as Frankie will), you’ll end up going at each other to survive & the others just need to vote both of you out as a safeguard.”
“The seer has ruined this finale. They’ll both go at each other,” chimed another. “The other three won’t have any way of knowing who’s telling the truth, so will hold two meetings and vote them both out to guarantee their own win.”
“Personally, don’t think the producers should interfere with the show’s central game of ‘guessing who is who’ #TheTraitors.”
Another laughed at how Frankie had managed to invite a Traitor to her meeting, despite having an unsuccessful voting record at previous roundtables.
“Frankie is too funny,” said one viewer online. “Voted for the wrong person at every single round table, gets the Seer and her thought process is picking someone she can be sure of is a Faithful, who turns out is actually a Traitor.”
Another said: “Frankie getting almost everything wrong all series, becoming The Seer (thanks to Alexander!) and then choosing Charlotte, the one remaining traitor, because she wants to confirm that she is ‘100 per cent faithful’ is the most Frankie thing ever!”
One person called the twist “divine television”, writing: “Alexander giving Frankie the coins, which gave her the power of The Seer, which led to her choosing Charlotte, whom she trusts the most, to reveal her traitor identity is DIVINE television. God bless you, Alexander, God bless you.”
The twist announcement came after Freddie was banished at the roundtable after just one day as a Traitor, with the politics student admitting on The Traitors: Uncloaked that he found it difficult to transition from Faithful to Traitor.
“It was actually the worst thing, because since the start everyone thought I was a Traitor and I wanted my moment to say I was a Faithful and that ‘You’ve been wrong the whole entire time.’ It didn’t go well at all,” he said.
“I was just panicking straight away, I was completely taken aback and I’m quite naive.”
The Traitors final airs tonight (Friday 24 January) at 8.30pm on BBC One.
