Doesn’t it say something about the game that, not only was Linda not a very good traitor, she was under suspicion right from the start by an annoyingly gobby and tenacious fellow-contestant, yet she still survived into episode seven?
I mean, I think that gives the lie to the idea that the production team are looking for certain qualities that would make ‘a good traitor’, like an ability to lie convincingly, when they allocate the traitor roles. I know some former contestant said that part of the interview involved lying in response to questioning. Linda can’t have been good at that, so she was clearly cast for other reasons.
I mean, even leaving aside that the producers presumably can’t have predicted who would sacrifice themselves on the train, someone like the appalling Leanne would probably be a very cutthroat, efficient traitor, and people would be wary of confronting her at the round table because she’s like an attack dog at the mildest suspicion. But they already had an over-confident, gobby, aggressive traitor in Armani, plus the interesting sister angle to boot, so they clearly wanted a different ‘type’.
I bet the production team is thrilled that they created an unlikely cult figure in Linda.