“It’s genius”: Why Celebrity Traitors Maya, James and Hannah must murder “rogue” James Blunt to survive

Surprise, surprise – another Celebrity Traitors episode has aired (episode 3) and it ended on, you guessed it, a cliffhanger. Following Richard E. Grant’s banishment and Hannah Fry’s recruitment, our Traitors were given the chance to murder again and their shortlist? James Blunt, ‘Bash’ (also known as Sebastian Croft) or Bella Ramsey.

“If we want to make it chaotic, we’ve got to murder James Blunt,” said James Acaster, before Maya argued otherwise: “Kill Bella – that’s the only person smart enough to find us all out”. Hannah’s choice? “Bash – he was suspicious of me, maybe it looks like I’m being framed”.

So, who will they choose? From his unpredictable gameplay to his increasingly wild theories, here’s why the increasingly rogue James Blunt should be top of the hit list if our Traitors are to survive – and why it might just be James Acaster’s most genius suggestion yet.

The leader of the pack

When it comes to challenges, James Blunt leads and no one questions it. He’s quick to get people into groups, work out who should tackle what and decide what the game plan is. It might seem harmless - helpful even - but his natural ability to lead is likely to become an increasingly big problem for the Traitors. James isn’t simply participating in the game, he’s influencing how others play it, and if he can influence how they participate in challenges, he can influence who they believe is a Faithful and who they believe is a Traitor. Risky…

A walking wildcard

If you’re a Traitor, there’s quite literally nothing worse than an unpredictable player. Are they going to suddenly accuse you of being a Traitor on the spot? Will they convince the rest of the Faithfuls to join them? Unfortunately for our Traitors, James Blunt is about as unpredictable as they come. Remember how he suddenly suggested Hannah was the recruited Traitor, seemingly out of nowhere? Not that he was wrong. Or how he fuelled speculation around Julie Hesmondhalgh being a Traitor? It’s sketchy, it’s unpredictable and frankly, it’s every Traitor’s worst nightmare.

“Bella anointed Ross”

You might have noticed by now that James Blunt has a lot of theories. A lot of inaccurate theories, to be precise. Do we need to remind you about Bella “anointing” Ross? He also put Jerry Hall’s behaviour under the microscope at the Round Table in episode 3, telling her: “As you walked in in the morning, both of you were alive, which was a miracle, and then you spoke about the fact that Richard was dead. That was strange”. The room fell silent and Jerry fought to defend herself - and, despite the fact that James’s theory was entirely inaccurate, it was convincing, wasn’t it? Yet more thing that spells trouble for the Traitors.

Oh so rogue...

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s something rather rogue about James Blunt’s approach to the game. While everyone else is busy forming alliances and trying to keep their anxieties under wraps, James appears quite happy doing his own thing. Julie Hesmondhalgh and Bella Ramsey have become quite the scheming pair, Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan are enjoying a laugh together, and Joe Lycett and Joanne McNally seem to have struck up a friendship. James, meanwhile, seems perfectly content going solo.

And he’s been playing his own game off-screen, too. After James floated his theory about Hannah Fry being a recruited Traitor, a fan suggested on Instagram that the accusation might actually have been a clever ploy to stop the Traitors from murdering her. James’s response? “Bingo!” In other words, what looked like a random accusation might, in fact, have been a calculated move to protect Hannah. Clearly, James is much cleverer than anyone realises.

The other James is onto him

Now, it’s quite possible that you’ve been fooled into thinking James Acaster is nervous, scatty and a little bit too silly to have any chance of lasting in The Celebrity Traitors castle. We don’t blame, but we do believe you’re missing a trick. As Myha’la said on Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked in the immediate aftermath of episode 3: “I hope [James] wins, I think he might win. He could really win. He’s coming off as so noble. It’s genius.” Is it possible, then, that James is really onto something by suggesting he and his fellow Traitors get rid of James Blunt? Is he playing it off as some random choice that would create chaos when actually, there’s a real strategy behind it? Our money’s on the answer being yes.