The Traitors finale contestants have differing views on whether deceitful Charlotte Berman could have gone on to win if there had been no twist at the end of series three.
Before the finale on Friday, one of the remaining contestants who banked the most gold at the end of a challenge became a “seer”, meaning they can chose to meet with one person one-on-one to find out their true identity, whether they are faithful or a traitor.
Faithful Francesca “Frankie” Rowan-Plowden, who was granted the power, picked her close friend Charlotte, who she had believed strongly was a faithful and wanted it confirmed.
During a secret meeting with Charlotte, Francesca opened an envelope containing a card printed with the word “traitor”, revealing her friend’s status.
She had to burn the card, and so had no proof when she disclosed this to the other players during Friday’s finale.
Charlotte had been viewed as a strong faithful by her fellow finalists, but she did not think she was set to win, telling the PA news agency: “I don’t think you can ever think you’re going to win this sort of game, there are so many twists and turns.
“I mean, obviously I didn’t see the seer thing coming… (traitor) Freddie (Fraser) voted for me at the roundtable. I think that, given the way the game was ending this year, with the lack of revealing if you were traitor or faithful, that vote alone would have been enough to cast the doubt.”
She also said she was “thrilled” the faithfuls, project manager Jake Brown and former soldier Leanne Quigley, won the prize pot of £94,600.
The final week also saw Charlotte recruit Freddie as a traitor and set him up to be caught after she convinced him that they should murder Leanne, despite knowing she had a shield protecting her.
When asked whether she thinks without the seer reveal if Charlotte could have walked away with the money, Leanne said: “Absolutely, she was so well trusted by all of us. None of us would have expected it was her.”
She also said that the power “flipped the whole game on its head”, before adding: “None of us realised how difficult it would be for the seer.
“We all wanted it so bad, but we didn’t realise how much it would backfire, and Charlotte played a great game as a traitor, as you should, and was very convincing (when she lied and said) ‘Actually, no, it was Frankie’.”
The programme, which is based on a Dutch format called De Verraders and produced by Studio Lambert, saw Charlotte tearfully claim that she had told Francesca that she was a faithful, and not a traitor during their secret meeting.
Leanne said that the seer position also meant her seeing faithful Francesca as a traitor, because “that final round table before Charlotte left, (she said) ‘don’t trust this woman, don’t take her to end game'”.
Interior designer Francesca and former British diplomat Alexander Dragonetti were then banished as their fellow faithfuls did not believe that they were not traitors.
Alexander said: “You’ve got to get as sure as you can, and that always encourages people to sort of act on their doubts, rather than not, because they’ve seen previous series and they’ve seen people being deprived of the money, so no wonder people want to de-risk as much as they can.”
Leanne, who had told her fellow contestants that she was a nail technician and not a soldier, also said she would spend her share of the prize pot on going through fertility procedure in vitro fertilisation (IVF) again, and spend it on an wedding to her fiancee, Sophie.
Elsewhere, 33-year-old Londoner Charlotte said people think her pretending to have a Welsh accent is either “hilariously idiotically bonkers or kind of inspired genius”.
“Honestly, I’ve had some people tell me it was spot on, and then I’ve had other people tell me that they can’t tell the difference,” she added.
“I mean, whatever (way) it’s hilarious, because I don’t know if you’ve seen but Wales and various places have really embraced it, like there’s all this research being done into the nature of the accents being trustworthy, there was an amazing billboard put up being like, ‘Welcome to Wales, home of the most trustworthy accent’.
“I’m so glad that people have embraced it because I think it taps into the spirit of the show, which is just so camp and pantomime.”
The hit psychological reality series sees strangers compete in a Scottish castle to win a prize pot of up to £120,000, by trying to avoid being killed by the traitors or banished.
The faithfuls must figure out who is a traitor and vote them out so they can take the prize money for themselves.
