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the traitors ireland
A traitor feels ‘there is no way I’m getting out of this’ – are they correct?
Pauric O said he is ‘done, finished, there is no way I’m getting out of this’. Surely he’s right?
Warning: This article contains spoilers for season two, episode eight of The Traitors Ireland.
MONDAY NIGHT’S EPISODE of The Traitors Ireland ended on the cliffhangers of all cliffhangers.
Traitor Pauric O was handed the unenviable task of taking a faithful by the hand while saying “good night and thank you for the dance”.
This would trigger a slow death for the faithful, who would find out they were murdered at the next day’s mission.
A “panicking” Pauric O chose Janet and just when it looked like he might get away with it, Janet gasped and asked: “Did you murder me?”
To us watching at home, it seems like the game is up for Pauric O in particular, but also Carla, who witnessed the whole thing.
When the episode picked up tonight, Janet rushes to tell the others that Carla is a traitor and Pauric O murdered her.
His immediate defence is to argue that Janet would now be murdered, which would make him look like a traitor, when he was simply mimicking a voice Janet apparently does while trying to “cheer her up”.
It is as good a defence as is available given the dire circumstances, but in his VT interview, Pauric O concedes that he is “done, finished, there is no way I’m getting out of this”.
Maybe this would be the case with a decent group of faithfuls, but perhaps there is an argument to be made that this is the worst group of contestants the game has ever had.
Because Pauric O went on to receive not a single vote at the roundtable, and is now perhaps in a stronger position than ever.
Poor DJ told the others that this should be the “easiest catch ever”, but not with this group of faithfuls, who somehow missed Aoife’s parting shot at Carla and have now missed Pauric O’s murder in plain sight.
‘Pauric O is 100% faithful’
Traitors Carla and Pauric O know that Janet will be murdered at the mission and therefore have a few hours to make their case.
At breakfast, Pauric O is hard at work and claims Janet is “cracking under the pressure”.
Ian shares a big hug with Pauric O and agrees that he “might be getting set up”. Pete also has a huge bear hug for Pauric O.
Kayleigh meanwhile is still “raging” Pauric O is in the game and is growing tired of hearing of the “dance of death”, showing that he can also rely on her for support.
DJ is the last to enter and Pauric O is quick to get ahead of things and acknowledge that the “heat is now on”.
Meanwhile, DJ’s breakfast appearance triggers one of the more peculiar VT interviews in which he remarks that he “loves” to see Pete’s face at breakfast.
“He’s an absolute machine, he’s a tank, his legs are like sticks but then you move up his body and he has a six-pack.
“But I suppose the strongest part of Pete’s body is his heart.”
Janet is the last to enter for breakfast, and she is as confused as anyone.
She says her “brain is gone” because she should have been murdered.
She tells Pauric O that she is “really sorry” for accusing him of murdering her and that she now “feels really bad”.
“I was just trying to cheer you up,” says Pauric O, and Janet now asserts that Pauric O is “100% faithful”.
As viewers, many will understand her reaction – at this point, Janet even thinks she has a serious chance of winning.
However, most viewers will also have felt safe in the knowledge that once Janet is murdered, it will be “plain as day” who the traitor is, to quote DJ.
‘Better not be made a scapegoat’
Before today’s mission, Ian informs Carla that she will come under suspicion at the roundtable, but in another car containing Pauric O, Janet and Anna, it is Pete who is emerging as the object of suspicion.
In a third car, Pete tells DJ and Kayleigh to their face that he suspects them of being traitors.
This is despite Pete last night telling the roundtable that Kayleigh is “100% faithful”.
“That was an interesting car drive,” says DJ to Carla afterwards.
At the mission, a colourfully dressed McSweeney drops the bombshell that a player was indeed murdered in plain sight last night, which triggers a rueful look on Janet’s face.
Along the way to figuring out the murdered player, the mission sees the players tasked with solving something of a riddle.
If they correctly identify the player described, €500 is added to the prize pot.
The player identified, meanwhile, is informed that there is a chance they were murdered in plain sight last night.
In the end, Anna, Ian, DJ and Janet are identified as the players who could have been murdered and with a dramatic flourish, Janet meets her demise.
DJ tells the others that “it has to be Pauric O”, but Ian emerges from his brush with death and runs straight to Pauric O and gives him a big hug.
“Well done whoever the fuck that was,” says Pauric O, who warns that he “better not be made a scapegoat”.
And while DJ (and us at home) proclaim that this should be the “easiest catch ever”, others such as Anna and Pete are signalling that they too believe Pauric O has been set up.
Back in the castle, DJ pleads to Ian: “Don’t do it to yourself, you have to be strong, it’s so easy.”
‘Are yiz well?’
At the roundtable, McSweeney enters in an eye-catching navy ensemble and remarks that the “floor would shake” with the sound of celebrations should they catch a traitor.
However, she notes that the only thing which has been shaken in recent days is the faithful’s confidence.
And when the roundtable starts, somehow, it’s DJ who is instantly being quizzed by Pete.
And while DJ is more than up to Pete’s challenge, he quickly pivots to Pauric O murdering in plain sight.
However, Pete inexplicably declares that he has “no questions” for Pauric O and when Pauric O defends himself, it appears that he has the backing of the majority of the players.
Pauric O will later remark that he was in “shock” that there “wasn’t more heat on me”. Viewers at home are equally perplexed.
Kayleigh then puts Pete’s name out there but Pauric O steers the conversation back to DJ, and Diego also raises his suspicions on DJ (a decision he will later tearfully regret).
Before roundtable deliberations end, DJ emphatically states that he was nowhere near Janet last night.
To viewers at home, this is understandable – Janet was murdered in plain sight, and DJ is explaining that he could not have been in a position to do this.
But according to logic known only to the faithfuls, this somehow just makes him seem all the more suspicious.
Janet was murdered in plain sight and she explicitly blamed Pauric O for this.
Yet only DJ brings this up and there appears to be no discussion by the others around who killed Janet in plain sight or by what means if it wasn’t Pauric O.
Kayleigh kickstarts the voting and puts down Pete’s name, and when it comes time for DJ to vote, he has sensed that he fought the good fight regarding Pauric O but has lost – he too goes for Pete.
However, DJ then starts to pick up votes and in the end, it is he who is banished, while Pauric O doesn’t receive a single vote.
Before he is banished, DJ says he is “actually shaking” and as his voice breaks, he informs the players that he is “an absolute faithful”.
Carla meanwhile asks: “Are yiz all well? Are people actually sitting there like, ‘sure he wouldn’t have done it’. Are yiz okay?”
“What the fuck, how did I get away with that?” Pauric O later tells Carla.
Ian meanwhile will later tell Pauric O that he “wants to win it” with him and enters into an even stronger alliance.
“The only one person that I fully trust in here now is Pauric O,” Ian tells a VT interview.
“And even if he was a traitor, I know he wouldn’t murder me and would bring me to the final with him.”
Ian also confides in Pauric O that he feels like an “eejit” after the roundtable – presumably he feels even more like one after watching back tonight’s show.
Meanwhile, at the conclave, Pauric O correctly observes that “they’re doing our jobs for us”.
McSweeney enters to inform the traitors that instead of a murder, they have been given the “ceremonial dagger” which will be handed out at breakfast the next morning.
It will grant the player in possession of it two votes at the next roundtable.
The traitors decide not to take it, and deliberate between granting it to either Anna or Diego, with Carla remarking that it will “cause a bit of confusion”.
“I think things are looking well now for myself and Pauric,” she adds.
But unbeknownst to her, Pauric O offered her name as a potential traitor to Ian and tells a VT interview that “from now on, I need to think about me, I’m taking charge”.
So while we can perhaps give up on the faithfuls catching Carla or Pauric O, tension in the conclave could prove to be a bigger threat to the traitors.
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