'The Traitors' episode 11 review: Can Ben and Nick count on each other after all?
Traitors Ben and Nick are bound to each other in the latest challenge to add money to the jackpot ahead of the final on Tuesday.
It's the penultimate episode of on RTÉ 1, and all I can think of is counting. You’d think it would be the easiest thing in the world, but it’s become a recurring nightmare on
Friends, enemies, side-eyes, even adding up to 13 felt like rocket science on Monday night.
At breakfast, Kelley confided she had nobody left to trust. Stop sharing your inner fears with the Traitor, Kelley, you numbskull! Right beside her, Ben — coal-haired Ming the Merciless — was already speaking about Will in the past tense. She was too busy horsing into toast to notice.
Vanessa tried the old “sorry about yesterday”, which is exactly what a Mean Girl would say. Lindsay Lohan only trotting after her. Then Kelley looked straight to camera to declare she’d rather lose than upset anyone. Oh, I am calling bull crap on that one.
Faye breezed in, moaning it was all too cliquey. The Clique Queen herself like. She swore she, Ben, and Nick were protecting each other. Oh, Faye, you beautiful blonde fool.
Poor Will is finally given the boot, and delivered his most words yet — a bizarre astronaut analogy about meeting another species (Christine from Cork, maybe? Harsh.)
And then the mission: A so-called torture scenario in a cooperage, (WTF is a cooperage when it's at home?) complete with masked men giving players toddler-level shoves on swings. Bad bondage vibes, I reckon.
Voices of the banished boomed around the room — Diane, Linda, and Christine’s immortal “that’s nasty”.
Yet despite the theatrics, the big challenge? Counting. Seriously lads, these tasks are awful. Ben and Niall, our stealthy Traitors, were hopeless. Maybe they can’t count on each other after all.
Thankfully, the women carried it. Vanessa and Oyin banked €2,000; Kelley and Faye matched it. “Girls on top,” Vanessa cheered.
However, while the pot swelled, suspicions sharpened. Faye flirted her way through the Traitor car, batting lashes not to be voted off. In the other car, Kelley, Vanessa, and Oyin were tearing her apart like seagulls at a bag of chips.
“Strap in,” says Siobhan, “it’s about to get feisty.” At the round table, she swans in wearing a hat like a flying saucer — maybe a nod to Will’s alien monologue. Out of the original 24, just six remain and one must go.
The girls rip into each while the lads sit silent. Come ON girls, ye are better than this! Don't let these two shysters distract ye from the obvious. Faye takes the heat, votes pile up, and she’s banished — devastated, shaking her head, crying in disbelief.
Nick dabs his eyes with a tissue, only to be grinning with champagne minutes later at the banquet.
And damn you, RTÉ, you got me. As they shared their back stories, the hardships and heartbreaks, I welled up. Now I wanted them all to win. I'm bawling. I wasn’t counting on that.
- airs on Tuesday at 9.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
