The Traitors finale evaluation: Reality TV at its very best – perfectly orchestrated chaos

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The 12 months 2024 has not acquired off to an important begin: wars proceed to rage, local weather disasters ravage our blue planet, and politics divides neighbours, households, and mates. And but there was one nugget of optimism within the muddy silt of despair: the second sequence of the BBC’s actuality TV sensation, The Traitors. Hosted by human fringe Claudia Winkleman and tailored from a Dutch format loosely based mostly on the after-dinner sport Mafia, The Traitors has gripped the nation over the previous few weeks. Twenty two contestants – extraordinary individuals from throughout the UK – holed up collectively in a Scottish citadel, pressured right into a tango of deceit and interrogation: what might be higher?

And then, in tonight’s remaining episode, there have been 5. Leading the road for the finalists was Traitor Harry, who has change into the present’s breakout star following his ruthless patricide in opposition to ginger agent of darkness, Paul. Then there was his confederate, Andrew, a Welsh bodybuilder who has defied the percentages to outlive his position as cannon fodder for the away crew. And then, on the facet of the Faithfuls, an unholy trinity led by Jaz, who everybody appears satisfied is a cretin regardless of his constantly insightful accusations. “We’ve made some mistakes, haven’t we?” noticed fellow Faithful Mollie, which is placing it evenly. And, lastly, there was Evie – “the only Scottish finalist” as she describes herself – who has spent the sequence sneaking by way of spherical after spherical beneath the quilt of narrative obscurity.

This 12 months, now that the format is extra established and scrutinised, it’s clear that The Traitors has mastered a type of excellent imperfection. The sport itself makes little to no sense: the Faithfuls this 12 months managed to accurately uncover 4 totally different Traitors at the night roundtables, but nonetheless needed to face off in opposition to two Traitors within the remaining. It renders the primary a number of rounds of the sport primarily pointless. The primary technique continues to be to lie low, act dumb and hope that lack of suspicion, or intimidation, carries you all the best way to the showdown. There is a cause, maybe, why parlour video games don’t usually final for a number of days. No quantity of warbled indie covers of emo anthems can paper over these cracks in how the sport works.

And but, The Traitors pulls off its tips, largely as a result of it understands that the essence of any good actuality TV is human psychodrama. The thrill of I’m a Celebrity just isn’t seeing individuals carry out the fascinating process of consuming kangaroo testicle, however witnessing how individuals psychologically deal with the specter of marsupial genitals. Big Brother, in the meantime, is actually the Stanford jail experiment; Rise and Fall, a rerun of Stanley Milgram’s notorious obedience exams. The Traitors is the apotheosis of this, a type of emotional scorching boxing. In simply a few weeks, friendships have been solid and unforged, the stakes raised to a hysterical pitch. The prize pot, which ended up at £95,150, is hardly similar to the $4.5m provided for profitable Squid Game: The Challenge. And but they fought for it with the savagery of a jail riot. Back stabbings – and entrance stabbings – are ten a penny within the Traitors citadel.

In the top, all of it got here all the way down to Mollie. Trapped between a Traitor she trusted and a Faithful she had her doubts about, the higher angels of her nature gained out – to her detriment. It was Harry’s sport; it was at all times Harry’s sport. The sequence’ climactic scene, the place Mollie realised what she’d achieved, was actuality TV unfolding in perfectly orchestrated chaos. “You have played an extraordinary game,” Claudia advised Harry, after Mollie had swept off the set in tears. But actually, it was a rare piece of casting. Finding this 22-year-old military engineer from Slough was the true miracle. “Now I’m just Harry again,” he noticed with reduction as his charade lastly got here to an finish. But, in some way, it’s arduous to think about that this man – born tv gold – is ever going to be “just Harry” once more.