First traitor banished on The Traitors with secret traitor set to be unmasked

Hugo has become the first traitor to be banished from the castle on The Traitors with the secret traitor set to be unmasked.

The barrister received the most votes from his fellow contestants, including fellow traitor Stephen, during Saturday’s episode of the BBC reality gameshow, and his departure prompted celebration from those at the roundtable.

As Hugo left the show, he said: “Guys you are sending someone home who has the forensic skills to find the traitors. You’re all super smart, lovely people, and I’ll never have an experience like this again in my life, so thank you all so much.

“I am a traitor.”

At the roundtable fellow barrister Harriet, who is keeping her occupation a secret, was the first to raise suspicions of Hugo, saying his job made him a “prime target”. Later, Hugo’s former fellow traitor Rachel remarked she was “delighted he’s gone”.

Fiona also brought laughs at the roundtable as she described him as “Rumpole of the Old Bailey” in reference to the legal TV series Rumpole Of The Bailey, which ran from the 1970s to the early 1990s.

In a late twist during the episode, it was also revealed that traditional traitors Rachel and Stephen would have the opportunity to unmask the secret traitor, who is unknown to all players including them as well as viewers.

The pair were told there would be no murder and they would instead be set a challenge.

The challenge saw them tasked with putting a fingerprint on nine contestants they wished to shortlist for murder on a portrait of all of the participants without being detected. If successful they would be joined in the turret by the secret traitor for the next murder.

They were successful and the red-cloaked secret traitor could be seen entering the turret as Saturday’s episode closed before their identity was revealed.

Before the secret traitor appeared, Rachel told Stephen: “Whoever walks through that door, we don’t need them.”

She added: “Who on earth is this secret traitor? If it’s someone that I don’t trust, that could have a ripple effect on my entire strategy.

“Can we trust them? Or are they going to blow our game wide open?”

If unsuccessful, they would not have been joined by the secret traitor, who until now has been able to force the other traitors to murder a contestant from a shortlist of three they had sent to them.

Before agreeing to go for the challenge, Rachel and Stephen agreed to never write each others name down for banishment at the roundtable if they went through with it.

It comes after retiree Ben became the second contestant to be murdered.

He said: “I’m very sad and I’m broken-hearted, but I have won anyway just by playing the game.”

It comes after Ben, sweet shop assistant Reece, and civil servant Maz were shortlisted for murder by the secret traitor during Friday’s episode.

Before the murder took place, Hugo said he wanted to choose Ben as he did not “see a down side” to it.

Elsewhere, in a humorous moment earlier in the episode, contestants joked about there being a secret detective among the group, not knowing that Amanda is hiding her true identity as a retired police detective.

She smiled as Matthew said: “If we found out someone here was a detective, we would feel exactly the same way.”

Jack added: “Could you imagine if one of us was secretly a detective.”

The episode’s challenge saw the contestants split into two teams, castle and gallery.

The castle team were given instructions for photos they had to recreate and take, which the gallery team then had to match to a painting description, with each correctly matched picture being worth £1,000 to the prize pot.

Hilarity ensued as the castle team were forced to pretend to be animals, with one picture seeing Jack pretend to be a cow being milked by Faraaz, while Adam found a shield during the challenge, protecting him from murder that night.

Contestants successfully matched five paintings, contributing £5,000 to the prize pot, bringing its total to £23,750.

The show, hosted by Claudia Winkleman, returns to screens on Wednesday at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer.