The Traitors finale review: Genuinely the single most thrilling episode of television ever-Adam Miller-Entertainment – Metro

Forget television, life doesn’t get better than this (Picture: BBC/Studio Lambert Associates/Paul Chappells)

Whenever I see any TV, music or film that hasn’t been made by Beyonce called ‘perfect’ it often makes my skin crawl. I’m yet to see anything that couldn’t be picked apart at all.

Well, that all changed on Thursday night when the most thrilling reality series of all time, easily the most gripping show of 2022, concluded with the most unpredictable, exhilarating, and satisfying 60 minutes of television I have ever seen.

For the last month, The Traitors has gradually become the most-talked about television since the early days of Big Brother.

Like Big Brother, it was a rare moment when its success can only be put down to its fiercely loyal fan base spreading the gospel that this really is well and truly the most unmissable television and it kept us all on the brink of a breakdown right until the very end.

The premise is genius. Throw 22 strangers all competing for a share of the potential £120,000 prize into a castle, host Claudia Winkleman (who couldn’t have loved her job anymore) picks three of them to be traitors – aka silent assassins who ‘kill off’ their rivals in the night – hoping that at least one of them will be in the final and subsequently take the entire prize money from the others, aptly called faithfuls.

Going into the night it seemed inevitable Wilfred Webster would either take the entire prize fund or split it with the only other traitor remaining, Kieran Tompsett.

Swiftly it was clear Wilf was dead set on snatching the whole jackpot, and carefully planted seeds to make sure the faithful finalists – Meryl Williams, Hannah Byczkoxiski and Aaron Evans – voted to banish Kieran in the next roundtable.

And it worked. Each of the finalists could barely be in the same room as Kieran, let alone speak to him, and it became crystal clear to everyone who their next target would be.

However, Wilf underestimated how crystal clear his tactics had been, with Kieran walking into the final roundtable knowing full well his time was up, but he wasn’t going to walk away without giving the faithfuls a ‘parting gift’, essentially letting them know Wilf wasn’t to be trusted without actually saying ‘Wilf is a traitor’.

The next few minutes was television at its finest.

Kieran had thrown a tiger among the pigeons, and paranoia, confusion and desperation has never been higher as suddenly Hannah and Aaron realised the one other contestant they could never imagine stabbing them in the back was doing just that.

Wilf hammered the final nail in his own coffin when he gave Hannah an ultimatum that he would never speak to her again if she voted him out.

After playing a phenomenal, bold and at times agonising game throughout, he messed up at the final hurdle.

To everyone apart from the admirably trust-worthy Meryl, his game was up.

Kieran’ on The Traitors ‘s ‘parting gift’ was *chef’s kiss (Picture: BBC)

Hannah, Meryl and Aaron beat will to win The Traitors (Picture: PA)

Each contestant would then decide whether they felt they’d already banished every traitor and the game was over or if there was one more assassin among them. If just one contestant thought there was another traitor still standing, there would be at least one more banishment.

The campest show on television since Blind Date just got even camper, as Claudia revealed the results by throwing each contestants’ answer into a fire pit which would change either green (no traitors left) or red (at least one more in the circle), depending on the result.

And after forming a friendship and alliance with Wilf, even Hannah knew the man she’d bonded with was hiding a secret.

After getting rid of two traitors and banishing 16 faithfuls, Wilf was so close to grabbing the final £101,050 but in an extraordinary turn of events, he lost it to the worthy winners and came clean.

You couldn’t write it. I went into the night rooting for Wilf to win, certain no one could have possibly deserved it more.

But after the almost traumaitisng 24 hours beforehand, which absolutely no one at home could have possilbly predicted, The Traitors ended exactly how it should be.

A poetic justice that couldn’t be forced, manipulated or plotted by TV execs unfolded and it was absolutely sublime.

No doubt there will be a second series of The Traitors, with 22 contestants who will inevitably be much more savvy than any of the original cast who quite clearly didn’t have a clue, foolish to trust their close friends, and completely naïve to the cruel heart of the game.

Much like Big Brother, any following series will be good but without the authenticity of contestants really going in blind could it ever really be that good again?

Who can tell, but watching The Traitors series one as it unfolded will be an undisputed highlight of 2022 for all of those millions of viewers who got to experience the blistering drama together.

I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever been so enthralled by any television like that, and it will take quite some doing to experience anything like that again.

So in a word, yes, the finale of The Traitors was in deed the perfect end to a perfect series.

The Traitors is available to stream on BBC iPlayer now.

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