Traitors 2026 - New Years Day

[CaveMum]

Apologies, I can’t see another thread so just starting this one in anticipation.

Can’t wait to see what the red cloak is all about!

For those wanting to keep track of where we are:

Definite Traitors
Hugo
Rachel
Stephen

Definite Faithful
James
Netty
Maz

MN Opinions
40 posters have given their thoughts on ST (some have made more than one suggestion)
2 originally mentioned Netty but have since chosen alternatives
Fiona has 11 votes
Ross has 10 votes
Judy has 9 votes

I’ll update again after the Friday episode.

Having listened to TRIE, I agree with Richard that we’ll find out the identity of the ST fairly quickly so hopefully I won’t have to keep track of all your comments for too long 🤣

I'm going for Jack purely because his hair annoys me.

I think Hugo is definitely one of the most annoying traitors I've ever seen. And I thought Armani was bad enough.

It's not a spreadsheet of guesses 🙄 it's a spreadsheet of people playing the game on TV and whether they are on the list that the ST gives them

Hello! I'm excited to return to these threads after not being on it for the celebrity version, which I didn't watch.

I watched E1 earlier with DS. Like this thread, we also thought that the ST won't be white as all the other traitors are.

I think Ross is a feasible candidate for ST. However I think I'm going to put my money on Roxie (or Judy) and I'm leaning towards Roxie, with my wildcard choice being Jade.

My reasoning for Roxie being the ST:

1. woman of colour

2. flying under the radar editing-wise most of the episode, but the twist with Judy being revealed means that we all got to notice and remember Roxie in E1

3. Judy is a bit more obvious and got a bigger edit, but that is in Roxie's favour to make her memorable

4. having Roxie (or Judy in reverse) in there means that, as she is likely to not shortlist her mother, it makes it harder for the traitors to guess who the ST is because that's TWO names that will never come up in the shortlists: Roxie and Judy. Especially since as fair as we are aware, the other contestants don't seem to know of R&J's relationship at this point ... even if Roxie was calling out "mum"

My reasoning for Jade being the ST:

1. From a minority ethnicity and younger than the others, so there's diversity age-wise: if she is a traitor then they'll have one in their 20s, one in their 30s, one in their 40s, and one in their 50s.

2. We saw her say she didn't want to be a traitor and maybe production's reasoning for giving her ST is that it will be less pressure because (a) she's anonymous at least for a while and (b) she only has to provide a shortlist, and won't know who is murdered until she finds out along with the faithfuls.

During the boat mission Roxy shouted "stop mum, stop stop." Netty was at the side someone else must have heard it! Oops

This, because it would be very easy to agree a secret code beforehand ("if you see me wearing pink socks at breakfast then it means I'm a traitor"...) This would put both players at an advantage and they could agree to split the winnings later...

It makes it interesting though esp if they are on different sides as they will try to save each other, while not trying to do it too obviously.

That ship has sailed.

So far, having relatives in the game hasn't really been an advantage as shown in previous series.

Pretty small. I did some digging (because I'm sad). He's moved around a bit but was called at Grays in 1998, then worked for govt, a few chambers in London, and overseas for quite a while. Mostly white collar crime mostly defence - https://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/legal/experts/6416

From what I can see she qualified in 1996 and left in 2005. Can't see which chambers, mainly did criminal defence.

They'll have mutual acquaintances for sure (she's still in touch with the legal world and does talks at the Inns of Court etc), but I'd say 50/50 whether they'd know each other to the extent he catches out her subterfuge.

After I watched the episode on streaming I find myself going with outliers here on the votes ane would like it counted if it registers @CaveMum?

Roxie is the secret traitor as the daughter. She has the perfect storm of a secret relationship (mum) who can't help but do things like the "Linda" look albeit innocent and also having to navigate protecting herself, her mum (at this point presumably faithful mum whilst knowing she herself is a traitor) and also the visible traitors, whilst not getting her mum banished. Although the delicious and obvious "throw the scent off tactic" would be to in fact put her mum on the murder list as soon as she has revealed they are mum and daughter!!?? (Dallas / Dynasty anyone ,🤣).

This is an early punt...and I appreciate possibly one too many secrets to keep and It's a hard task for anyone to pull off.

I did reconsider that this was all too much for the first episode and there are so many people to get to know; but I think we would be cheated if the Secret Traitor doesn't get some sort of reasonable editing in the first episode to give us a chance 😊. My TV gut is saying Roxie.

Good sleuthing. Just looked at Harriet Tyce Wikipedia page. Turns out her dad, Lord Nimmo Smith, was a judge as well, mainly in Scotland. I typed in Nimmo Smith to see if that gave us any further barrister info, but only came up with Victoria Nimmo Smith, a clinical researcher , who I guess is relative (sister?).

The secret traitor needs to be a ghost. They don't have to deal with the traitor's dynamics and most people don't even know they exist. They're being hunted by 3 people. If I was them I'd forget scheming and plotting and just try to forget I had a role except when I write the shortlist when I'd go with my gut. It's not a role for an over-thinker or someone big as they'd give the game away too soon. My first choice would be Ross, but Jessie would also work well.

Yes good point, she likely practised under her maiden name and may now use a pen or married name.

On a separate point, as a barrister I'm interested in the various reactions to hiding versus revealing the job. It certainly does not seem to be seen as a 'trustworthy' job, which is funny because a large reason my colleagues and I (all obsessed with traitors) would never apply is that we wouldn't want to be thought of as dishonest as it would be bad for our careers!
But we do also all agree that barristers would not do well or be perceived well.

Oh I think that might have been her name! Operating on around 3 hours of broken sleep when I posted - just hoping to get a decent lie in this morning to get caught back up and feel human again lol!

Someone asked if anyone would keep a spreadsheet of everyone’s guesses who the ST was. The OP then posted and said they would, but it meant none of us could name change before it was revealed…. So you can take your sarcastic eye roll and shove it up your arse.

Did anyone else wonder why Hilary Tyce was in the civilian version, not the Celeb version? She’s a best selling author, and a name known to many.

In the olden days, the word ‘Celebrity’ simply meant someone who was in the public eye, a film star, sportsman, etc and it’s only relatively recently it’s become more of a persona in its own right. The meaning has changed and developed over time to be more encompassing, incorporating a lifestyle, rather than just having a famous face or name.

Agreed, they have to fly under the radar to avoid getting banished before they can make a difference.

It’s a fantastic role - so much power. This is the only year I would hate to be a Traitor as they’re just puppets now.

I think the detective will be out as she seems like an outsider, she isn’t building bonds which are key to staying in.

Definitely. It's also made us all players and invested in a different way. It's a shrewd move

I wonder if being on the non celeb Traitors was her choice? Maybe she thinks she will get further (farther?) than if she was on the celeb version where there are arguably bigger personalities and egos. Has anyone clocked who she is? I know who she is but I wouldn’t have known what she looks like and they don’t give each other their last names do they?

I don't know... they may not be able to hide their identity forever as the process of elimination ramps up, and then all remaining Traitors will work together to get them banished. It doesn't always pay to know too much... the Seer was a disaster.

I’m not feeling very positive about this year, especially when it feels like almost everyone said they wanted to be a traitor. There also seems to be an overload of people who think they’re “amazing at lying” (or some variation of being deceitful). I much prefer when contestants barrel in announcing they’re great at reading people and then turn out worae than the average person at it (Because realistically, none of us really are.) Also not liking the traitors - don't mind Hugo but I see I'm in the minority with that!!

I’m also not convinced about the Secret Traitor twist. I’d have been more okay with us as viewers not knowing who any of them (though that would completely change the show and turn it into something more like The Mole, so in reality couldn't be done). What I don’t like is only one traitor being hidden.

A better twist would have been two groups of traitors that we do know about, with traitor-only task mechanisms that affect who gets into the turret or who gets to influence the shortlist.

With a Secret Traitor, the dynamic changes in a bad way. The traitors will spend all their time trying to work out who the ST is. And even if they do figure it out, they still can’t remove them directly — they have to convince the faithful to banish them, which is already what the faithful are doing anyway. So it feels redundant.

Plus now half of us are going to be obsessively trying to identify the ST instead of doing the actual fun stuff — like calling the faithful “stupid” for their guesses (conveniently forgetting they don’t have access to the same information we do, such as, you know… who the traitors actually are), or debating whether someone’s top is iconic or a crime against fashion.

I've not RTFT, skimmed the middle pages sorry, but did anyone else hear someone say "Mum" when they were in the rowing boats. It didn't hugely surprise me when Roxie said Judy was her Mum but no-one else in the boat mentioned it?

The secret traitor might be one of the traitors.

I think there's more than one family connection in there. The family tree picture in the hallway was fishy.