In the end it was surely fitting that a show centred around deception and manipulation was won by one of the most brilliantly Machiavellian contestants we’ve ever seen and the sidekick she could so easily have knifed in the back at the last minute, had she wanted to.
Rachel Duffy, 43, a communications manager from Newry, Northern Ireland played a textbook game as a traitor from week one.
When it came to the final, the only question on everyone’s lips was would she commit the ultimate treachery and turn on fellow traitor Stephen Libby.
She promised him that if they both made it to the end she would have his back and split the loot with him – but could such an accomplished liar ever be trusted?
Sweaty, red, shaking and trembling it seemed that even security consultant Stephen, 32, was fully expecting to be thrown under the bus by Rachel.
Over the past four weeks the mother of three flew under the radar, made friends with the show’s ‘faithfuls’, expertly convincing them she was one of the good guys.
Traitors Stephen Libby and Rachel Duffy emerged victorious in Friday’s nail-biting final of The Traitors as they took home the huge cash prize
Stephen, Rachel, James Baker, Faraaz Noor, Jade Scott, and Jack Butler went head to head to be crowned winner of the fourth series of the BBC One show (L-R Faraaz, Rachel, Stephen, Jade, and Jack)
She kept her head when she came under suspicion, murdered those who threatened her and framed innocents.
Then, last night, when she had to chance to do away with Stephen and walk away with the £95,750 prize pot all to herself she showed she wasn’t such a baddie after all and stayed loyal to him.
It was 85 minutes of edge-of-the-seat drama that gave us one of the most nail-biting Traitors finals we’ve ever had.
When the fourth series began earlier this month, I wasn’t the only one to be concerned.
The celebrity edition, won by comedian Alan Carr, was so sensational it was hard to see how the civilian version – coming just eight weeks later – could ever live up to the drama and excitement.
Things got off to a shaky start when producers, presumably in an attempt to keep things fresh, mixed with the format by introduced a totally unnecessary and confusing ‘secret traitor’ twist that added nothing of real value and was over in the blink of an eye.
Then there’s the show’s bizarre obsession with the contestant’s ‘secret’ relationships (a mother and daughter, a boyfriend and girlfriend) that don’t make any difference to the outcome and nobody really cares about anyway.
It took the early exit of two traitors before things really livened up. Barrister Hugo Lodge and civil servant Fiona Hughes both suffered bad cases of ‘main character syndrome’ as they hogged the screen, overdid the dramatics and came croppers.
The final round table led to faithful Jade being banished, leaving Ardross Castle in floods of tears after her friend Stephen voted her out
Then came the ‘end game’ where the remaining four had to decide if they all trusted each other. However, they didn’t and Faithful Faraaz was the next to be booted
That left just Rachel, Stephen and Jack (seen) – who had been fairly anonymous in the series until last week – standing around the firepit
Once they were out of the way, things really started to take off culminating in the thrilling final.
On Thursday night it looked as though Rachel’s game could be over, the episode ending on a cliffhanger with her and gardener James Baker both at risk of banishment, their fate to be decided by the ‘chests of chance’ – two wooden boxes, one containing a protective shield.
As the final got under way, we saw that Rachel had selected the box with the shield and lived to fight on while hapless James was sent packing.
‘I’m on the ropes but I’m not going down without a fight,’ said Rachel last night.
Our five finalists were Jack Butler, a personal trainer, Faraaz Noor, an auditor, Jade Scott, a PHD student and fellow traitors Rachel and Stephen.
The final round table led to faithful Jade being banished, leaving Ardross Castle in floods of tears after her friend Stephen voted her out.
Then came the ‘end game’ where the remaining four had to decide if they all trusted each other. They didn’t. Faithful Faraaz was the next to be booted.
That left just Rachel, Stephen and Jack – who had been fairly anonymous in the series until last week – standing around the firepit.
Traitors Rachel and Stephen voted out Jack and were left overwhelmed with emotion as host Claudia Winkleman announced they had won the game, each taking home a whopping £47,875
Even though Jack repeatedly said he was ‘manifesting’ a win it would have been a lacklustre outcome if he had, having been a pretty anonymous contestant until last week.
Rachel and Stephen’s victory will cause division, with many viewers rooting for the faithful but, let’s be honest, they were a pretty hopeless bunch.
It was both frustrating and amusing to hear them constantly question why the traitors were keeping them in the competition – yet never once twigging that it was simply because they were terrible at the game and absolutely no threat.
Stephen, the snappiest dresser we’ve ever seen, would never have won on his own wits. Thanks to Rachel he has his share of the prize an surely a gig as a makeover stylist on This Morning awaits.
In the meantime, it’s all hail to ice queen Rachel who earlier confessed to undergoing FBI training as part of her pre-show preparation, claiming it had given her the expertise needed as a faithful to weed out traitors.
None of her fellow contestants were smart enough to see it had actually armed her with the skills to totally pull the wool over their eyes.
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