*WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the first three episodes of The Traitors (Ireland) on RTÉ.*

Three more episodes of The Traitors will be airing on RTÉ over the next three nights. RTÉ RTÉ

THE TRAITORS WILL be back on our screens tonight on RTÉ, with three more episodes coming out this evening, tomorrow and Tuesday night.

The ‘faithful’ game show contestants in Slane Castle are trying to weed out the ‘traitors’ among them, whilst the murderous traitors are killing off a faithful each night.

So far, the faithfuls have failed to catch a traitor, banishing two of their own by mistake instead, while the traitors have gleefully murdered two faithfuls.

The Journal caught up with the latest three players to get knocked out: Niall, a faithful murdered by the traitors; Nina, a faithful mistakenly banished at the roundtable; and Gemma, who never even got the chance to be designated as either a faithful or a traitor before she was axed from the game in a devious twist.

The competition was pre-recorded, but if the exiled players could have had the chance to give some advice to those still left in the game, what tips would they have bestowed upon them?

Niall was the second faithful to be 'murdered' by the traitors. RTÉ RTÉ

Niall, a 25-year-old teacher from Tyrone, cautioned that being part of a strong group can make it seem like a player is in an alliance that could be strong enough to take a traitor down – thus making the player a target for murder.

“The general understanding was that the traitors were splitting groups up,” Niall said, reflecting on the traitors’ choices of victims so far. 

“I probably would advise someone to play the game safe in the sense of don’t get too attached to people,” he said.

The traitors are always thinking, how are they going to be banished? Who’s going to take them down?

The more people who are “in a group together and are friendly”, the more votes there are that could be mobilised together against a traitor at the roundtable – meaning the traitors will want to break those potential voting blocs apart, he said.

Nina, a faithful, was wrongly banished at the roundtable by faithfuls trying to catch a traitor. RTE RTE

Nina, a 45-year-old financial director from Wexford, outlined the catch-22 that contestants are in: be too loud and face getting picked off for being a strong character, or be too quiet and look suspicious or like you’re not a team player.

“It’s very difficult to give advice, because I wouldn’t change anything that I did,” Nina said.

“I do think Niall is right – but, if you play too safe, then you have a risk of being banished at the roundtable because you’re not a team player and you’re just kind of wallpaper, and you’re not really getting involved,” she said.

“But, if you’re too involved, the traitors will get rid of you because you’re such a good player, or because you’re so effervescent, they want to cause chaos. So I don’t know – somewhere in the middle!

“I suppose I would just advise people to just go in and have fun. I’ll always look back on my experience in it as a really positive, happy, fun experience.”

Before she got a chance to become a faithful or a traitor, Gemma was kicked out of the game in a twist (twice). RTÉ RTÉ

Artist and holistic therapist Gemma, a 39-year-old from Laois, didn’t get to experience any murders or banishments.

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She and another player, John, were knocked out from the game in a twist in the first episode without even setting foot inside Slane Castle.

In the latest episode, players had a chance to vote for either Gemma or John to re-enter the game, and unfortunately for Gemma, she lost out again.

Her advice to the players inside the castle is “to be yourself, and also to really listen and to really look” at everything that is happening.

Faithfuls or traitors?

We asked the three contestants which side they would be rooting for to win: faithfuls or traitors?

“I have to stick with the faithfuls, because I was a faithful myself,” Niall said.

Nina said that she will “always be team faithful”.

“I think it would be very, very tough to get to the very end and trust the person that you’re with, and they turn out to be a traitor and they steal all the money,” she said.

“I don’t know how I would feel if I was a traitor and I stole all the money, having spent two weeks with somebody and then take it from underneath them. That’s why I always wanted to be faithful. I would have found that tough.”

And Gemma agrees: “Of course, I would be for the faithfuls. You’d want to see any good person do well in society.”

Episodes four to six of The Traitors will be airing over the next three nights. Which faithful is going to be the traitors’ next victim? And will the faithfuls catch a traitor soon, or will they keep turning on their own?