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!

Also I wondered for a while about the ' you're the only one that has prosecuted'. Wondering if Fiona's job as a local government officer has involved prosecuting businesses?

Hugo knows as he's either found this our from talking to her or he knows her as they were both born in Wales.

Don't be confused by it - all it means is one 'finger loading' (for want of a different description) from the pot made the edit. It may have even been shot after the dabbing was done.

Same with the handwashiing - Rachel could very well have gone to the loo and washed her hands - the shot we were shown was her washing her glass. Which she may have been asked to do.)

On the fingerprint detection - wouldn't hink there's a ruse possible. I don't think fingerprint matching is done looking at someone's fingertips (especially not covertly looking) and then matching to a fingerprint. The differences are too minute!!

I agree the whole Reece happily walking off for Rachel and Stephen to chat was odd. I'm wondering how often that happens, that two people want to talk and the others leave them to it. Could be normal? We've certainly seen in past Traitors someone coming up to a group and say something like "can we talk" and extracting one person.

I saw that same post online too. I don’t think anyone will be surprised by it though.

The Reece wandering off thing reminded me of the set up in a show like Made in Chelsea where 3 characters meet and then one makes an excuse to leave so the others can talk about the topic that has been set up for them. Obviously the Traitors is edited, but this pushed it more obviously into Scripted Reality, rather than the organic sleuthing show it sits more comfortably in. It also highlights, with the introduction of the ST, that this series has a heavier editorial feel.

Those were my thoughts exactly. Scripted reality show presentation. We know it goes on, but please - not so painfully obvious! What with the fake breakfasts and not sleeping in the castle etc, too.

Isn't the ST most likely to be someone who was there for the "Ben" conversation? Highly coincidental for him to have been chosen if not, so I don't think it would be Harriet in that case as she wasn't there.

I'm pretty sure it's Fiona. She was there for that convo and has been the most suspicious in multiple ways including a big smirk when they were choosing traitors, pulling a face when someone in the same jeep said they didn't think there was a traitor in the car with them, really obvious unnecessary misdirections and pretences that she doesn't know what's going on like in the coffin task, "mentioning" both Hugo and Rachel as possibles on the same day, weirdly overconfident, not seeming bothered about a shield (unlike, say, Reece who was obsessed with it!).

Think only other options from the Ben conversation would be Ellie (& the "secret traitor" comment, but that could be a producer plant) and Jessie who'd be the outlier but was very smart to pick up on that whole thing. Though probably wouldn't talk about it if she was the ST. But both could be a reason that Netty's name on the murder list was misspelled with an "ie". It's a real pity that Stephen was panicking so much about having voted for Ben that he didn't pick up on who else was in the room with him when he mentioned it, as surely he'd then realise that one of them probably put Ben on the list purposely.

What always gets me is that the first group down to breakfast just enter the room without knocking and then are surprised that they are 'first down'!! Subsequent groups always knock on the door. How do the first group know not to knock?

The 90s are back (did you notice the young women are doing that hairstyle with two small buns on either side near the top of the head? Brought to full ridiculousness by Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy in Batman and Robin in 1997) , and they were a rerun of the 70s, so that probably explains it.

Oh yeah I’ve never noticed that! Maybe the ‘knock’ sound is added on afterwards?!

I feel like Fiona would be too obvious though. Would the production team give that many clues to make us think it’s her when they’re maybe more likely want us to feel a bit shocked when we find out who it is?

I don’t know. I do think all the smirks and comments have clearly made it look like her, I’m just not sure they’d want it being that easy.

I don’t think it’s Harriet but really hope it is as she’d be brilliant!

I think someone said earlier on a different Traitors set she’d worked on herself that the production team don’t interfere with things that much. May have read that wrong though!

Agree Fiona might be way too obvious, that's the only thing, but I still think it'd be an enormous coincidence to have Ben's name put randomly on the murder list by someone who wasn't in that room, almost to see if Stephen would fall into the trap and do it (which he did). There was no need to change two of the names on the list instead of just one (unless, of course, the producers told the ST they had to). Ellie would be my second choice. Jessie would be the biggest surprise.

I think you’re right - it’s got to be someone in that room unless the producers interfered. I think Ellie is more likely than Fiona though although less so now she’s mentioned the words ST which again may then be too obvious! Would be great if it’s Jessie.

They are all hoping to be the one that gets this series' shower cameo. (Harry, Freddie, Tom Daley)

That’s my theory too.

Us too & they looked so like the real pictures too

Yes, the challenges are so dull usually but this one was brilliant. Faraaz pouting and Harriet french kissing Stephen 😂

I think the hints give that Fiona or Ellie could be the ST are too obvious. The producers are dripping those in to make us think we have sussed it but, to maximise the plot twist, the actual ST is someone we haven’t seen a strong hint about. My money is on Jessie - she was in the room when Ben made his comment. Also having her as a ST to begin with so she has time to get to know everyone and becomes more comfortable speaking to them / at round tables before becoming an official traitor is a good reasonable adjustment. And I think most people would want to take care of her and help her re her stammer so she can fly well under the radar as a traitor.

if she is the ST watch Rachel switch allegiances from Stephen pretty darn quick…

New to the thread as I've finally got caught up with it all!
I'm totally invested in the "everyone's related to someone else" theory. Otherwise it seems a bit pointless that they've revealed the Judy/Roxy connection to the audience and not the players and one of them 's gone now.

And I've been convinced of a Harriet/Hugo connection from early on. At first I thought they were husband and wife (met early in in law training, she gave up barristering once they had children and took to crime writing) and thought it was fascinating that she threw his name out. But once she started gunning for him at the round table, I thought the relationship seemed more like siblings than spouses (I mean, who wouldn't want to do that to their little brother 😅). I am currently blithely ignoring any evidence to the contrary, such as them supposedly coming from separate parts of the UK, things that online sleuthing might suggest etc.

Thank you for all the helpful explanations: they make sense.

I remember seeing the players leaving their dirty glasses around the castle without taking them somewhere to be washed up, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. I will be disappointed if Rachel washed her glass because the production team told her to but quite impressed if she did it on her own initiative, knowing it would be good TV.

If the detective suspected one particular person she might find a way to look at a dirty glass they had held with greasy hands (asking whether they would like some of the hand cream I’m currently applying to my hands) to see if there were any obvious differences in their fingerprints. No, I am clutching at straws here, it’s not likely.

Given there’s a cash prize, the production team wouldn’t be allowed to influence things that might give away who is a traitor, like where Rachel washed her hands.

That could simply be because she already suspects Rachel of being a traitor.

On the topic of the ink - when the lid was off, DD said "That's tomato ketchup!"😂

Might the "X is too obvious" be because they caught a traitor quicker than normal/ was expected? Given what has been said about the production team not being able to influence the game once it's underway because of the cash prize, is it possible that there was a structure for the game that set out the unveiling of the ST once the first traitor was caught - that has to be stuck to but that leaves them unveiling the ST earlier than they expected so that have had to feature the potentials more heavily in the early programmes so that we "know" them to avoid the "who" scenario of interchangeable young men? 🤔

@Seasidewalker They won't start the editing process until it's all over. They'll then put together a storyboard showing what we need to see in each episode.