Everybody Wants to Rule the World | Traitors 2026 | Thread 8 | Spoiler Free!

[CaveMum]

Link to previous thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5475802-tell-me-lies-tell-me-sweet-little-lies-traitors-2026-thread-7-spoiler-free?page=1

Welcome to Thread 8 of Traitors 2026.

This thread runs at TV pace so do not read any further if you are not up to date with the live broadcast. Whilst most discussion will be on the current series, inevitably people will refer to previous series/players/winners so reader beware if you’ve not seen the 3 previous editions, or the celebrity version.

While we welcome posters discussing their theories and speculating on relationships/connections between players, please don’t post spoilers from elsewhere that may ruin things for those of us who like to see things unfold over the course of the series.

The story so far (as at end of Ep 6):

Traitors
Hugo
Rachel
Stephen
Fiona (Secret Traitor)

Murdered
Netty
Ben
Maz
Reece

Banished
Judy (Faithful)
Hugo (Traitor)
Ross (Faithful)
Amanda (Faithful)
Fiona (Traitor)
Harriet (Faithful)

Jessie, James and Adam are the potential murder candidates, but both Jessie and James have shields.

The floor is yours…

There’s no benefit to getting rid early but you do need to lay a bit of ground work. You can’t come out final six gunning for someone who had no suspicion before comes across so traitory.
I think they will have to recruit once they are down to one. So if Rachel or Stephen goes they have to add to ensure there’s at least one in the final.

i think they did the seer all wrong last time. How it works in mafia is you don’t know who the seer is and the chosen one doesn’t know they’ve been selected. So the seer would go see Claudia and ask is Stephen a traitor Claudia says yes and then that player can choose to reveal or not. It works best because Stephen wouldn’t know he’d been asked about so can’t plan a defence but equally no one would know who the seer was. Didn’t work last time so they won’t do it again.

Jessie is beginning to annoy me intensely with that stupid wide open mouth look every time something important happens. I have started to fast forward when she is on (don't watch live).

If it was me I’d do a stone mason from the start.
4 players don’t have any power but just know that they aren’t traitors so they can trust them. It works because you can’t come out and say I’m a mason so i know they’re not a traitor or you’ll be murdered and you can’t actually do anything other than have someone to trust. the traitors would be hunting masons.

I think they discounted Fiona as she acted a bit peculiar at the end. Plus there was the drama of them getting her out, and the general effect that the castle seems to have of turning people into goldfish-brains.

This group got rid of the people I wanted to see more of very early on. Bit crap tbh.

It’s the Stephen and Rachel show. Will we get to hear another 10 seconds of Faraaz, Jade, Ellie and others? Just cannon fodder so I guess producers won’t bother giving airtime.

I don't think I follow. You mean the masons would just have to trust each other that they're not traitors? If any of them are, they'll just lie about it. And surely it would be pointless if the traitors know there's a group of masons?

Are the seer and the chosen one different people?

And how can a seer reveal the traitor if no one knows who the seer is ie won't revealing the traitor also reveal the seer?

Sorry if they're dense questions. End of a long week!

Me too. The 'wide open goldfish face look and grabbing the nearest person in shock' reaction is irritating.

She's made some shrewd observations so far and I like her for that but the dramatics are annoying.

Why do the last few to leave think there are so many traitors?
Harriet thought there were four and Sam and Adam both suggested four.
Ed Gamble was all "you got the traitors between you" as Sam and Adam both pretty much listed everyone left in the castle.
There's never been more than 3, has there?

I want Roxy out next. I liked her to start with but I am finding her weird over-explaining and "fairness" starting to annoy me.

And Matt got the shower scene! I didn't see that coming!

If Ellie has rumbled Stephen or Rachel she needs to start building alliances quickly. Jaz showed that being right but not getting people onside means that you are ignored. Ellie needs a good social game.

Having said that I don't really see any evidence that she does suspect either traitor. If I didn't know she was a psychologist I would be taking her subdued presence at face value.

I don't mind Jessie's exaggerated reactions, she seems to be a mouth breather and had quite a lot of perfect white teeth, so it feels like its just what her face does.

I didn't like the shower scene, would be raging if they did one of those with a semi naked woman so they shouldn't do it with a semi naked man.

I want Ellie to have secretly rumbled Rachel or Stephen, but really think she is just an observer not a reader.

I think Matt will be last seen in a shower and not make it to breakfast.

Ellie definitely saw Rachel and Stephen at the family tree, but never mentioned it when people were asking about who had been near it.

I think this is absolutely true. There’s always someone who pops up and protests that this is just a game, but we’re seeing people operating under pressure and no matter what they set out to do - Hugo, Fiona, Hilary, even blushing Stephen - their real personalities end up surfacing and they win or lose by how likeable they’ve been with the others. We have a front row seat into what the contestants are actually like under pressure! Even their friends may not have had that.

Sorry if I explained it wrong. Imagine if Jessie was the seer. Only Jessie would know. The others would know there was a seer not that it was Jessie. Jessie would then ask Claudia in secret is (for example) Stephen a traitor. Claudia says yes so Jessie has the information. Then it’s up to Jessie if she reveals. She might want to save it for a later date but risk getting murdered or say it straight out. (Also to note that a seer could also be a traitor).

I don't really get why Harriet thought that by sacrificing herself it would 'prove' that Rachel is a traitor either tbh...she didn't know for a fact, and the rest of the Faithfuls know that, once she was revealed as a Faithful. So not sure why she'd think that would prove anything at all.

Harriet would have been better pressing on her theory about Fiona's outburst being a Traitor on Traitor attack.

Totally shallow but Matt's clothes are terrible!
He looks he got his clothes from the 1940's!

I'm sure I'm not the only one to have occasional fantasies about how well I'd get on in the castle.

In my dreams, everyone simply adores me, and I am so lively and engaging and just altogether so insightful that everyone is hanging on my every word. The editing team have difficulty cutting any of the scenes I'm in. They reluctantly do so because otherwise none of the other players would make much of an appearance on screen, but the televised round tables inevitably get a bit longer so as to accommodate my wonderful speeches. At some point, probably in the final, I seize an opportunity to make a breathtakingly gracious gesture (not sure what, obvs, but I'm sure I'd think of something).

I suspect the reality is a bit more difficult than that 😜 especially as I am really gullible and stupid!!

I feel the series started so well but now it’s getting a bit dull.

I enjoyed watching Fiona, Amanda and Harriet.

Now, other than the 2 traitors, the people left are forgettable - they seem like the kind of crowd to have HR on speed dial because they’ve been “othered/misgendered” etc. It’s just not terribly exciting.

Sorry I explained it badly.
in the initial selection of traitors 4 people are selected as masons. Eg Ellie, jade, maz and Matt. Those four people would be told they are masons. All that means is that they aren’t traitors and they know each other aren’t traitors. So Ellie knows jade, Maz and Matt are faithful jade knows Ellie, Maz, Matt are faithful etc. The traitors don’t know who the masons are. And the masons can’t do anything special other than know that each other are masons. So when Matt starts getting heat Ellie knows he’s not a traitor. But if she comes out and says she’s a mason and so is Matt it would put massive targets on their backs for murder. The traitors would need to try and figure out the masons. So they have a hunt of their own. Who are too close? Who trust who without reason? Etc.

Actually, no it was Maz I think, no idea how I'd convinced myself it was Ellie.

Are you mixing her up with Fiona? Fiona repeatedly boasted about her lying skills IRL (or “white” lies as she called them) and lying to people for the sake of it but I don’t remember Rachel making any such claims.

With last night’s cabin I did expect a bunch of them to refuse taking part on the grounds the mission could be anxiety-inducing.

The split or steal thing was only done in the Aussie Traitors. I don't think they'll do it in the UK version. I hope not, it's a terrible way to end the game. Obviously everyone will pick steal, and actually from a gameplay perspective you should. Because you cannot control whether or not you get anything; that's entirely in the other person's hands. All you can control is whether you get half or all should they choose to split, so of course you should choose steal.

I think his job was something vague like "account manager".

I agree he was very good on Uncloaked, very natural in that environment and he's conventionally handsome in a screen-friendly way - he would be good on TV.