Traitors Ireland episode eight recap: Three goes at the roundtable and has Janet caught a traitor?
The Traitors Ireland Siobhán McSweeney
"They haven't a notion about you," Seán tells Pauric O. "They don't stand a chance."
Our "leader of the faithfuls" is standing face-to-face with the Traitors, the first this season to be murdered face-to-face.
"I was on to you," he tells Carla.
Indeed, the Ballymun early years educator is aware of the ticking time bomb of her time in the castle. At breakfast, she shouts across the table at Donal and Anna to ask for a chat about the previous day's mission and the mystery of the missing shield.
"She came in with lots of fire in her belly," Kayleigh observes. Wanting to quiz Donal before Carla gets there first, Kayleigh pulls him aside quickly.
"Carla's scaring me a bit because she's gunning for the two of youse, you and Anna," she tells him.
Kayleigh tells the audience at home she wants to "test the water" with the teacher, to see if he trusts her, so she asks who he thinks the OG Traitor might have recruited.
"Mine was David...," he says, naming the previous night's departed faithful. "Seán C? Pauric O? Ian?"
An exasperated Kayleigh gives up, having listened to Donal name half the remaining players. But oh, will she pay the price for her test...
Donal wastes no time telling Pauric O and Ian about his encounter.
"Carla told Kayleigh that she's looking at myself and Anna. Carla tells me, she's looking at DJ and Diego," he reports. Meanwhile, Kayleigh tells Pauric O that Donal couldn't give her a name when she asked who he was suspicious of.
"He came to us and told us you gave him two names," Pauric O says.
"I told him fawk," she says. "I gave him an opportunity, I told him NO names."
"Someone's lying," Pauric O tells the camera, grinning, "and I am going to throw them right into the hole."
Monday night's mission? Everyone is chained to a post and must find a key to unlock themselves, then stab one of the creepy hanging dolls — the remaining players and Siobhán — to score €250. Or, in Siobhán's case, €500. Obviously, she's worth more.
The last doll standing gets the shield.
Noble Pete lays down the law: "Everyone stab themselves so there's no argument, okay?"
The group agree, but behind the scenes, people aren't thrilled.
Pete is last to unlock himself and Ian suggests he stabs Siobhán for the remaining €500 and gets the shield. It was his idea to sacrifice it, after all.
Sometimes it pays to be the nice guy, ey?
So it's back to the roundtable, and perhaps the tensest of the season.
Most of it revolves around Donal and Kayleigh's earlier conversation. Donal swears Kayleigh told him Carla said she was looking at him and Anna; Kayleigh swears she didn't.
With the benefit of writing down quotes for this recap, it does seem they may both be honest in their recollections. When Kayleigh said Carla was "gunning for the two of youse", it could well have meant "gunning to chat to you" on her side, while Donal interpreted it as going for their heads as Traitors.
Carla's name also comes up, mostly because the Faithfuls have now decided to take seriously the literal writing-on-the-slate Aoife provided.
It's a three-way tie between Donal, Kayleigh and Carla. After another round, it's down to Carla and Donal, who tie again. After a third vote, wee Donal is banished, and he's barely in the grave when the Traitors are faced with one of the trickiest plays in the game: murdering in plain sight.
The Traitors must hold hands with one of the Faithfuls and say: "Good night, and thanks for the dance."
Pauric O ropes Carla into a private room to decide how they'll do it, which some of the Faithfuls pick up on. They debate who should do it and whether DJ or Kayleigh may be least inclined to notice.
In the end, Janet inserts herself into their conversation and Pauric O makes a "split decision".
In fairness to him, he pulls it off about as smoothly as possible, grabbing her hand and singing the phrase.
But then, there's a prolonged gasp.
"Did you murder me?"
