SPOILER FREE PLEASE The Secret Traitor Big Reveal? Place Your Bets | Traitors 2026 | Thread 3

[CaveMum]

Previous thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5469362-red-cloak-dagger-were-all-being-played-traitors-2026-thread-2?page=1

Here we go, ready for the big reveal (maybe?) next episode - Wednesday 7 January.

Current Status

Confirmed Traitors
Hugo
Rachel
Stephen

Murdered
Netty
Ben

Banished
Judy (Faithful)
Hugo (Traitor)

Confirmed Faithful (still in)
James
Maz
Reece

Secret Traitor Suspects Remaining (in order of when named and who said it first)

Ross - *@maggieFS
Fiona - *@Empress13
Jessie - *@DandelionPockets
Roxy - *@CheerfulBunny
Jade - *@sleepeazie (technically it was CheerfulBunny who said it first, but you’ve already got one on the list!)
Amanda - @TokyoSushi
Sam - @lightanddreamy
Harriet - @Newgirls
Faraaz - @Ohcrap082024
Jack - *@Beachtastic
Ellie - *@Piggywaspushed

Only 2 players have not been named as ST suspects at this point (please provide screenshots if I’ve missed these being named!):

Adam
Matthew

It’s going to be a long 4 days!

Yes, also a boxing coach, but I can’t remember if he said that in the diary room or in public.

Must admit, when they flagged he was a ‘sweet shop assistant’, I was surprised as well. Everyone in this series seems to have some sort of sleuthing skill - detective, barrister, cyber security, gaming etc and ‘sweet shop assistant just doesn’t fit this narrative. He came across a very confident and well spoken young man, and considering his one-to-one talks with Amanda, I did wonder if there was a family link there, if there is indeed another connection secret in the camp.

Just a thought - it is possible that there are so many private conversations going on in there that Reece didn’t think it was weird when Rachel and Stephen asked him to leave them alone at the family tree.

I noticed when people enter a room they’ll ask the couple already talking on the sofa if it’s ok to join them, same as when a few people are chatting in the kitchen - maybe they are just cautious around each other. Reese thought it was no big deal that they wanted to discuss something in private? Or he’s just forgotten about it as so many things happen in one day.

I really dislike Rachel, she’s so humourless and will throw Stephen to the wolves first chance she gets. I really hope Fiona is clever enough to get her out, at the moment her heavy handed spreading of gossip could be too much.

I think Amanda will be suspicious of Fiona and then get Rachel on side who will be happy to assist.

Why is Amanda consistently targeting Jade? Starting to look weird.

I really hope there aren’t more secret relationships. It makes no difference to whether you’re a traitor or not. Doesn’t even really impact game play because you don’t know if they’re a traitor or not. And I can’t cope with the whole of next season being people trying to guess secret relationships rather than who the traitors are.

If they couldn’t recruit you’d have no way to secure a traitor in the final. Imagine how boring if all the traitors were gone day 1,2,3. And the 6 episodes left to fill.

I agree. The secret relationship thing just seems pointless. It makes virtually no difference to the viewers and I can't see what it adds to the game.

If they did it that way, they’d have to end the game when the last traitor left BUT the remaining faithfuls would share the prize money at that point. That would create a very interesting game because the faithfuls would have to decide which ‘traitor’ (they might be wrong about who the traitors are) to keep in and knowingly banish faithfuls so they could keep on doing missions and increasing the prize pot, and reduce the number of people sharing the final prize. So it would explicitly make the faithful turn against each other too - much more sneaky but quite a different sort of game.

I don’t think they’re pushing it at all (assuming you mean the producers).

Viewers certainly are, but this has been happening every year since season one. People have always searched for connections between contestants, sometimes right up until the final episode. This year it’s just being treated as a major development, but i predicted that in the first thread - from the moment the tree portrait was seen.

Mind you I'm not the best person to discuss it, as I don’t really understand why it’s considered exciting. The first ever connections reveal in the first season didn’t land particularly well for me (possibly because I wasn’t invested in the contestants involved). The “but Ross is…” moment was entertaining granted, contestants made it more fun. Beyond that, it feels no different from contestants being eliminated immediately and then brought back later. It’s not especially shocking or surprising anymore—just expected (though not done this year 😁).

As far as I know, only one other country has leaned into contestants being related. (I won’t say which country, in case anyone prefers not to know and likes to be surprised by it. Though i think it's already been mentioned 🤫.)

Someone said up thread that Amanda & Judy could be partners but I've been having Amanda pop up on my Instagram feed & there are pictures of her with her partner and it's not Judy.

Jeez Louise Jades lovely cardigan is over £400.

Perhaps she does have a barrister for a dad after all 😀

'Why is Amanda consistently targeting Jade? Starting to look weird.'

It is a bit weird, and now Maz has joined in. The only thing I can think is that Jade comes across very stony faced in the edit - maybe they think she's working too hard to keep a poker face as she has something to hide. Amanda's detective skills are not bowling us over so far!

Yes and he couldn't keep his mouth shut about having a beautiful girlfriend in there, Alex

I think from individual contestant point of veiew, it is worth it. Banishing traitors early and often means they might get recruit as a traitor. Especially this year, with nearly all of them wanting to be a traitor.

I’m so disappointed with the ST reveal. Because once again it reminds me how low intelligence TV directors think we all are.

So the ST was the ‘wily old lady’ acting cute and ditzy with the faithful and acting like a pantomime villain in the diary room. They might as well give her a moustache to twirl.

And in case anyone hadn’t clocked the ease with which Ross and Ellie talked together, the TV directors cut to reaction shots of Ellie every time Ross spoke.

so on the basis that the directors think we are all simpletons, I reckon Amanda and Reece are mum and son cos they joked about it.

I am glad it wasn't a minority woman as that would put a target on minority women in the future given past trends

At least it proves that the teaser shots of the person in the red cloak were not her - she's waay too short. It would have been a dead giveaway - they must have used one of the production team.

I'm wondering if they avoided having a minority traitor this time to reduce the likelihood of minority players being voted off early in a future series. Maybe that's too meta... (I also think Judy went because she robustly challenged Sam and that sold it to him, and others - and poor Ross was wrong footed by Nettie appearing in front of his actual partner, so he was over-explaining all the time).

Despite that, I am uncomfortable with the vulnerability of POC in this - even more so in Stricty and IACGMOOH when Joe Public can show their predjudice.

Surely (and hopefully) the others - especially the astute Jessie - will see this and get rid of Fiona. Someone might pick up on how she was deliberately so slow in looking for the skulls.

Excellent description of Fiona.

He said it at a round table.

Agree with all this. I’m not even excited about the next episode now as it’s all been too obvious and made simple for us all because apparently we aren’t very clever.

Re the secret relationships which are also being made obvious - agree I’m not sure what it adds to the game itself but I think someone here mentioned that the pairs could easily have a code to signal to the other that they’re a traitor. Wouldn’t be too difficult e.g cough once when I first see you after the traitors are chosen. Or touch your hair etc. It would make a mockery of the whole game. Unless they never choose traitors who have a known relationship in there.

I like Jessie and hope she wins. I can’t warm to any of the traitors.

Reluctantly signing up for the theory that they all know each other.

My thoughts are:

Amanda and Reece - mother and son
James and Rachel - brother and sister
Jade and Jack - boyfriend and girlfriend
Hugo and Harriet - know each other but not sure how maybe former colleagues

It think there's two types of each pair maybe.

Also she comes across - deliberately - as much older than 60. Diane from an earlier series is early 60s but had a vibrant, energetic presence much more in keeping with most people in their early 60s.

I think the secret jobs/ relationships will be used in a later trial, eg playing 2 truths and a lie, or match the person to revelation.