The latest episode of The Traitors Ireland (RTÉ One, 9.35pm) proves a roll of the dice too far for former Las Vegas casino manager Patrick, who is voted off despite being a signed-up member of Team Faithful. “Unfortunately, your streak is broken,” he tells the remaining players, who’ve been riding high after smoking out traitors three nights in a row.
As The Traitors Ireland heads into its penultimate week, the stakes have never been higher. Nor has the psychological torture, as freshly recruited traitor Nick discovers during the murder section of another ludicrously gripping instalment.
For one night only, the rules around murder have been radically tweaked. Rather than don their traitor capes and submit a name, as has been the custom, Nick and Paudie are required to place an old-school piseog on one of their fellow contestants.
The ritual is fiddly with bells on. First, Nick has to recover a book with the word “piseog” on the spine without raising suspicion (he waits until his bromantic other half Ben has left the room). Then he has to hug the unsuspecting victim, who still doesn’t know they have been eliminated as the end credits roll.
There are obvious stumbling blocks. Nick can’t simply hug anyone – it has to be a contestant with whom he is vaguely chummy. He chooses Christine because they get along, but also because she is part of a girls’ alliance with Vanessa and Faye. Hug applied, Christine is on borrowed time.
Why does Nick have to do it? Because there are no circumstances under which “OG” traitor Paudie is going to go around dispensing public displays of affection. “I’m not being smart here,” he tells Nick. “I’m not a f***ing hugger.”
Aside from taking the piseog, the big drama has to do with suspicion falling on some of the quieter contestants. Engineer Wilkin is nominated at the round table (though he survives at the expense of Patrick) while influencer Faye is called out because she voted to give a shield to Christine on Sunday – a damning sign in the eyes of Joanna.
With all of that happening, it would be easy to overlook the bombshell with which the episode opens: poor Mark murdered by the conspiratorial duo of Nick and Paudie. They display few scruples as they plunge the knife.
“I nicknamed myself the traitor slayer. I’m a faithful slayer now,” says Nick, getting into the groove a bit too easily. He is matched all the way by Paudie, who is having the time of his life leading the faithful on a merry dance. “Maybe I’m enjoying it too much,” he cackles later in the evening. With just four episodes to go, he surely has to be in the frame as the caped crusader who will claim the spoils.
