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

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The 12 months 2024 has not acquired off to an amazing 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 primarily based on the after-dinner sport Mafia, The Traitors has gripped the nation over the previous few weeks. Twenty two contestants – strange folks from throughout the UK – holed up collectively in a Scottish fort, compelled right into a tango of deceit and interrogation: what could possibly be higher?

And then, in tonight’s last episode, there have been 5. Leading the road for the finalists was Traitor Harry, who has grow to be the present’s breakout star following his ruthless patricide towards 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 group. And then, on the aspect 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 calmly. 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 duvet 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 good imperfection. The sport itself makes little to no sense: the Faithfuls this 12 months managed to appropriately uncover 4 totally different Traitors at the night roundtables, but nonetheless needed to face off towards two Traitors within the last. It renders the primary a number of rounds of the sport primarily pointless. The fundamental 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 purpose, 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 methods, 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 is just not seeing folks carry out the fascinating job of consuming kangaroo testicle, however witnessing how folks psychologically address 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 sizzling boxing. In simply a few weeks, friendships have been cast and unforged, the stakes raised to a hysterical pitch. The prize pot, which ended up at £95,150, is hardly corresponding to the $4.5m provided for successful 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 fort.

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 received 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 performed, was actuality TV unfolding in perfectly orchestrated chaos. “You have played an extraordinary game,” Claudia instructed Harry, after Mollie had swept off the set in tears. But actually, it was a unprecedented piece of casting. Finding this 22-year-old military engineer from Slough was the actual miracle. “Now I’m just Harry again,” he noticed with aid as his charade lastly got here to an finish. But, in some way, it’s onerous to think about that this man – born tv gold – is ever going to be “just Harry” once more.