The very first episode of The Traitors UK came to our screens on 29 November 2022 following the huge success of the Dutch series De Verraders.
Hosted by Claudia Winkleman, the opening shots are of a beautiful castle in the Scottish Highlands where this show takes place.
Premise of the Game
Claudia informs us that the participants will be competing to win up to £120,000.
They need to work as a team to complete epic missions in order to build up the prize pot.
However, secretly hidden among them will be the traitors who are eliminating them throughout the game.
It’s up to the others, the faithful’s, to figure out who the traitors are and to banish them from the game before the end.
If they get to the end game with no traitors, the prize pot will be divided amongst them.
If there are any traitors left, the traitors will take everything.
This is the ultimate game of deception, skill and trust. This is The Traitors.
Introduction of the Players
We are first introduced to Amanda. She is a 54 year old estate agent from Swansea. She has five children and five grandchildren and thinks she can spot a liar from a mile away.
Closely followed, we are introduced to Aarron – 24, a property agent, Andrea – a retired 72 year old, Alex – 26, a content creator, presenter and actress, Tom, a 24 year old magician, Aisha, 23, Matt who is also 23, Kieran, 42, Amos, a 30 year old doctor, Wilfred – 28 and a charity worker and Imran a 22 year old scientist.
The contestants all meet at a train station where they are firstly taken by steam train and then several jeeps take them to reach their final destination.
They are greeted by Claudia when they arrive who tells them that the game has already begun and asks them to line up from most to least likely to win the competition.
Amos and Keiran go to the end of the line out of politeness, making them the least likely.
Claudia informs them that they are now out, that every decision they make from now on will have a consequence and they leave the game. Harsh!
We are then introduced to Theo – 26, Hannah -32 and Meryl -25.
After that initial shock, Claudia invites everyone into the castle.
Aaron can be heard exclaiming “lets go everywhere!!” while jumping up and down.
The castle is huge.
After running around looking at the castles vast interior, the group separate into smaller groups with everyone talking about how sad they were to see Amos and Kieran leave so soon.
Alex tells the viewers that Tom is her boyfriend in real life but they’re keeping it secret from everyone else as they doesn’t want them to think they’ve already got a bond.
We are then introduced to Maddy – 29. She is an actress but hasn’t mentioned that to anyone in the castle. She thinks that being an actor will help her.
It’s Time to Choose
Claudia interviews all the contestants to see who she will choose to be “the Traitors”.
With everyone blindfolded and sat around the round table, she makes her choice.
She chooses Alyssa, Will and Amanda.
There is a palpable tension in the air after the traitors have been chosen with everyone looking around trying to guess who has been chosen.
Andrea comments that she’s quite disappointed as she wanted to be a traitor.
Theo says he feels “shook” and “vulnerable”.
Will says to camera that his main objective is to make friends with the most outgoing personalities in there and gain their trust.
Aaron doesn’t think one of the traitors is Amanda and will be gutted if she is one. Oops!
The First Mission
Claudia gathers everyone in the hall. She explains that it doesn’t matter if you are a traitor or a faithful, everyone works together to put money into the pot during missions.
The aim of the first game is to ignite the magnificent wicker beasts in 30 minutes or less and put £15,000 into the prize fund which currently stands at £0.
Players get into two teams, 6 of each team will find and collect all pieces of rope, dip them in flammable liquid, tie them together to make a long fuse.
The remaining 4 on each team will be further down the loch.
Once the wick is in place, the first members sound the foghorn and the others will row back with a flaming torch to light to wick and set fire to the beast.
John, a 49 year old spa therapist, feels that everyone should pull their resources to win the most amount of money but notices that all the young, alpha male boys are all congretating together. He’s trying not to take it personally.
Once divided into their teams, they get to work.
In the blue team are Andrea, Rayan, Nicky, Aisha, Faye and Claire with Meryl, Paul, Will and Imran in their boat.
In the green team are Alyssa, Hannah, Amanda, Matt and Alex with Aaron, Theo, Tom and Ivan in their boat.
Andrea says no-one realised that in order to open the barrels of flammable liquid, they needed to find a key. Everyone was frantically searching.
Claire, a 43 ex-police officer remarked that the chain they needed weighed about three times as much as she did.
The green team tries the first key they found and open the barrel.
After a third of the alloted time has passed, both teams have opened the barrels.
It’s at this point that the green team are way ahead of the blue team so Claudia begins to encourage the blue team members.
Nicky becomes the leader of the blue team and starts instructing her teammates. She only has one hand and finds it impossible to do any tasks that requires the use of both hands.
Meanwhile, the green team have completed making the wick and sounded their foghorn for their teammates to row to shore.
Tom lights the torch and Ivan takes control once they’re inside the boat and instructs them on how to row across the lake. He later stated that he didn’t wish to stand out as much as he did.
On the other team, Imran begins complaining that they have all the oldest people on their team so it was obvious they were going to lose. He says that the green team are more younger and vibrant and find its annoying.
Claudia announces that half their time has passed.
The green teams boat arrives to shore with the torch well lit and Tom lights the wick. The flames travel up the wick and set the wicker beast alight. They have won the mission.
Everyone celebrates, but the blue team still have to complete their mission. They only have 9 minutes left.
With all the blue teammates encouraging eachother, they complete the first part of the mission and Rayan sounds the foghorn.
Paul lights the torch and jumps into the boat. Initially, the blue team start rowing in the wrong direction but soon readjust and row to shore.
With only seconds to go, Paul lights the wick, the flame travels up the wick and the wicker beast ignites into flames.
Both teams have completed their mission within the allotted time and therefore £15,000 has been added to the prize fund.
On the way back to the castle, everyone already has theories about who is a traitor. Alyssa begins speading the rumours about Nicky again.
Once back at the castle, the group enter the bar to discover cocktails have been laid out for them.
They all toast eachother on a job well done and enjoy their drinks. Matt continues to tak about how lovely Alex is and how good she looks.
Claudia interupts their drinking and informs them that when the clock strikes midnight, they must leave the castle immediately as that is when the murdering hour begins and tonight, someone WILL be murdered.
Everyone departs to various places inside the castle for the rest of the evening. There is a sense of trepidation in the air as no-one wants to be the first one out.
Theo immediately calls out Imran and Tom agrees although Tom doesn’t actually think Imran is a traitor but says that it keeps the heat off his back for a while.
The clock strikes midnight and everyone gasps, bids their farewells and leaves the castle.
Will says to camera “For everyone else, it’s time to go home but for us it’s time to murder”.
Alyssa says to camera “It’s my turn now. I have the power to kill whoever I want and to be honest, it’s thrilling”.
The First Murder
After undertaking the rules of being a traitor, the three chosen ones meet eachother for the first time.
They are all extremely pleased with the choice and think they have a good chance as none of them have been suspected all day.
They agree that the three main suspects at the moment are Faye, Nicky and Imran so none of those can be murdered as they will get banished themselves from the round table.
Alyssa suggests Theo, as he is a main player and friendly with everyone. She backs it up by saying that if they take out Theo, people will think Imran did it.
Will suggests murdering Imran purely because he was complaining about the younger players being stronger during the task.
Other names thrown into the mix are Andrea and Aisha.
After making their choice, Will asks the other traitors how they’re going to feel about murdering someone. Amanda says “absolutely fine”.
The traitors sign the death warrant and Alyssa holds it. “Theres just so much power in my hands, isn’t there!” she says.
Will replies “and its great!”
They then leave the castle and hand over the death warrant to Claudia.
The game is officially underway. Click HERE for episode 2 to find out who was murdered!
*All Images in this post courtesy of BBC.