The Traitors can be a frustrating watch. There have been several series where the Faithful have proven so blind to reality that it has felt a one-sided game. Not so in series two of The Celebrity Traitors. Have players ever come closer to collaring a Traitor? Yes, there are dud theories aplenty involving hats, makeup and shields, but the Traitors are on the back foot already. Let’s unpack the hot theories, speculation and clangers from episode 2 and why Julie Hesmondhalgh is now the biggest threat.
Julie Hesmondhalgh is the MVP and she’s going to get recruited
When the heat on Richard E. Grant seemed to be cooling, Julie galvanised the celebrities at the Round Table, saying they’d be ‘the most idiotic group of faithfuls’ if they let the obvious candidate for banishment escape.
Her strategy was also to focus on who might have been recruited as a Traitor and she immediately turned to James. ‘I’d recruit you. I think you’re the super-Traitor hunter,’ she said to the comedian.
Her performance in the ‘corridor conclave’ with James Acaster and Sebastian Croft was a masterclass in playing the game. Julie blew up the Traitor recruitment strategy to save Richard by declaring that anyone defending the actor would immediately be ‘under the microscope’. That made things harder for James.
Julie also revealed Maya was on her ‘maybe’ list as a Traitor. So, Julie’s roughly 80% of the way to correctly identifying the trio. All of this happened in the first 15 minutes of episode 2. Is that a record?
How are the Traitors going to deal with Julie? ‘Murder’ would be too obvious. And if Richard E. Grant is banished at the first Round Table, Julie will look even more like the Faithful she is.
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If Richard goes, the Traitors need to recruit Julie and hope Joanne McNally’s ‘fall guy’ theory about the Withnail and I actor takes hold, albeit not the way Joanne intended it, and attention turns to Julie.
There will be a DESPERATE and chaotic recruiting spree
Every one of the three Traitors, including new recruit James Acaster, has come under suspicion.
James has already been correctly identified by Julie, although tentatively. Sebastian labelled Maya as a potential Traitor, declaring: ‘she’s really smart’ in the corridor conclave before Maya accidentally interrupted.
The ENTIRE cast of players, apart from Jerry Hall, Joanne ‘I’ll eat my bonnet’ McNally and Mayh’la thinks Richard is a Traitor.
If Richard is bounced from the castle, which looks inevitable, expect Maya and James to start recruiting the Faithfuls who have flown under the radar of suspicion. That could be Miranda, James, Sharon or Sebastian. But it really has to be Julie. Whoever they recruit, expect the fallout from Richard’s crazy strategy to continue even if he departs in episode 3.
The Traitors will turn on each other quickly
Maya was hoping the recruitment of James as a Traitor would ‘restore some order’ after Richard’s ‘crazy game’. Wrong. Richard is banking on James being ‘the man for my survival’. Wrong again.
James said: ‘Richard thinks the main job I’ve got it to clear his name, but I’m not going to go down with him.’
Maya and James said nothing in Richard’s defence at the Round Table but also did not point the finger at another player. All Maya could say was, ‘Richard we all love you clearly’ before her defence fizzled out.
Professor Hannah Fry was right when she said, ‘These are Traitors who are not comfortable, who are not cocksure, who are not strategic.’
They also don’t stand up for each other. If Richard survives, expect a fall-out between the Turret Trio. If he goes, can Maya and James stand up for each other after failing Richard?
Jerry Hall is surely going home, right?
With either Professor Hannah Fry or Jerry Hall down to be ‘murdered’, owing to Hall’s ‘haggis’ moment in the second mission, the consensus is that Fry will be leaving. This seems logical. Fry is better at the game than Jerry who has defended her neighbour Richard E. Grant, even when most of the cast has decided his gaffe can’t be explained away.
Professor Fry’s Round Table performance may have saved her. By correctly identifying the Traitors as desperate, Fry may have made herself too obvious a target to ‘murder’; doing so would support her theory. Better to let Jerry Hall go, even though it doesn’t give the Traitors an advantage.
The Traitors will have to ‘murder’ Ross Kemp soon
At breakfast on day 2 Joe Lycett said: ‘I’m going to be keeping a close eye on Ross Kemp.’ In a desperate bid to deflect suspicion from Richard, Maya started episode 2 by telling Jerry: ‘I am suspicious of Ross Kemp’.
Making Ross the celebrity with special privileges in the second mission was supposed to throw suspicion onto the ex-EastEnder. But it failed.
Has any celebrity proven themselves to be more faithful than Kemp? In the second mission he saved every player (apart from the two that couldn’t be saved) AND scored half the gold too. It’s 100% Faithful behaviour. Ross’ paranoia about being murdered in plain sight not once but twice, is too real to be acting. He’s clearly one of the good ones.
The fact he has yet to correctly identify a Traitor, means that the Turret Trio (or will it be duo) should dispense with Kemp asap before he begins making correct deductions. Surely, he’ll need to be ‘murder’ number three otherwise he’ll be hard to get rid of?
Don’t underestimate Bella Ramsey
The Game of Thrones actor’s ‘truth-o-meter’ wavered over Richard. It was not a huge leap of faith seeing as everyone felt the same way. But Bella showed real insight at the Round Table when they said, ‘I did a lot of thinking about how I’d play it as a Traitor’ and revealed they would have come up with identical excuses as Richard. It’s a lot smarter than hat-gate or lip gloss gate. As Sebastian said: ‘Bella’s a formidable player.’
