Leanne Quigley and Jake Brown emerged victorious in Friday’s explosive final after a third incredible series.
Francesca Rowan-Plowden, Leanne, Alexander Dragonetti, Jake and Charlotte Berman were the five remaining contestants going into the tense final.
But it was Faithfuls who managed to out smart the Traitors and bag the £94,600 prize money.
The latest roundtable discussion among the Faithfuls resulted in the elimination of the final Traitor in the series. However, adding to the suspense, the ‘Welsh’ business director did not disclose her true status before exiting the castle.
This turn of events prompted the four remaining players to speculate about the possibility of another villain among them. Suspicion fell heavily on Alexander, especially after he was the next one to be sent away.
But the game didn’t end there as the final three also all voted to banish again in an excruciating round of endgame.
Ultimately, when it came down to decision-making, Frankie chose to eliminate Jake. This led Leanne and Jake to team up against Frankie, who then became the last player to depart from the castle. As a result, Leanne and Jake emerged as the victorious participants in the game.
At the beginning of the episode, Frankie discovered Charlotte was a Traitor after she used her powers as the Seer to unveil her identity.
While she suspected the results to confirm Charlotte was a Faithful, viewers obviously knew Frankie would be shocked.
Opening the letter revealing Charlotte’s traitorous identity, Frankie broke down tears as she exclaimed: ‘Oh my god. It’s quite difficult. It’s a shock to my heart.’
Charlotte then replied: ‘You realise this doesn’t leave this room. The game continues.’
Realising she was about to be framed, Frankie added: ‘Oh my gosh Charlotte. You are going to say that I’m the Traitor aren’t you?’
During a tense breakfast the pair were left battling it out as they each accused each other of lying.
As Charlotte left the room in tears, the two spent the day trying to prove their innocence to the remaining faithfuls, Jake, Leanne and Alexander.
In a heartfelt exchange in the kitchen, Frankie tried to convince Leanne of her faithful status as she said: ‘I am a mummy. I know what this means for you and your boys. I know what you have been through. I swear on making my boys proud I am telling the truth.’
As things got incredibly heated around the roundtable, Charlotte made a final attempt to throw the scent off her as she exclaimed: ‘I would not take her [Frankie] to the endgame. My god.’
However suspicions were then raised over Alexander as the remaining contestants pondered over whether there could still be two Traitors left in the game.
Yet it was game over for Charlotte as all four of the contestants voted for her and she was banished.
The four remaining players then headed outside with Claudia for the ultimate End Game as they each made their choice whether to ‘End the game’ or ‘Banish again’ depending on whether they thought there were any remaining Traitors.
The game only ends when all the contestants vote to ‘End the game,’ however all players were on the same page as they all chose to banish again.
Alexander was then eliminated from the game after Frankie, Leanne and Jake all voted for him.
However the game wasn’t over yet, as Leanne and Jake then voted to banish Frankie before the game finally ended.
On the brink of tears, Leanne was visibly shaking as she waited for Jake to reveal he was also a Faithful as he teased her: ‘I have been, and always have been…. a Faithful!’
Charlotte was the sole remaining Traitor in the five still taking part in the game, meaning that if she had avoided banishment she would have taken all of the prize money.
However, fans didn’t seem too happy with the results as they took to Twitter to share their frustrations.
They penned: ‘Brilliant series , disappointing ending ..not my winners mean girl . Gutted for Alexander and Frankie’;
‘the best series, the most meh winners, justice for alexander’;
‘alexander, minah and linda will be the long lasting winners from this season i feel’; ‘Minah,Alexander and Freddie- the real winners of this series.’;
‘Am I the only one that thinks Alex should have won. He was robbed. Boring final and winners’;
‘Worst winners ever #TheTraitors. Really need to up the standard next time.’; ‘linda, minah, frankie, freddie, alexander, freddie the REAL winners’;
‘Stupendous drama throughout that. Gutted for Alexander and Frankie who both had played blinders. Charlotte was so unlucky with The Seer or probably would have won. What a series tho and worthy winners’;
‘Worst ending to the series, most undeserving winners ever’; ‘Really disappointed with both of the winners of #TheTraitors’
However others enjoyed the ending as they wrote: ‘I really like that ending, it was the ending I thought would happen but it happened in a far more dramatic way, and I think they were justified winners. Jake played the game better than most – although can’t believe the traitors never killed him after Linda’.
‘We’ve never watched #TheTraitors before but quite enjoyed it. Didn’t think it was very fair on Frankie and Alexander, but fair play to the winners. Jake played a blinder!’;
‘That was an incredible finale I was trembling and my heart was beating even when I knew the faithful were gonna win. I’m so glad for the winners’.
It comes after viewers were left on the ultimate cliffhanger after Thursday’s episode after Frankie was given the biggest power in the series’ history.
Awarded the title of Seer following the day’s mission, Frankie was given the chance to choose one player as she picked Charlotte.
‘This could be the difference between winning and losing the game’ Claudia told Frankie as she decided who to invite to the face to face meeting.
‘Charlotte I could bring in as an affirmation of a faithful,’ Frankie said. ‘Alexander, I have wound myself in knots. Do I pick someone I am confident in like Charlotte and form an alliance or do I invite Alexander, why did he give me the coins?’
‘My gut is that I need to clear up the people close to me.’
Convinced Charlotte was a faithful. The remaining faithfuls were suspect of her choice, speculating that because Freddie had voted for Charlotte at the round table, Frankie was suspicious of her.
‘In my heart I hope she is a faithful then I can take a sigh of relief that one person is one hundred percent faithful and it was the person I always thought it was,’ Frankie said.
But a stressed Charlotte confessed: ‘My mind is just whirring. Where do I go from here? I feel very pinned in the corner. I am the last traitor standing, it is literally her word against mine.’
Viewers were gripped as they eagerly waited for the moment Charlotte was forced to tell Frankie she was a Traitor, but the episode came to an abrupt end before it was revealed.
It was a cliffhanger that sparked a sea of reaction from fans on social media, with one even admitting they were ‘coming out in hives’ following the tense episode.
Posts on X included: ‘THIS IS REAL TV I AM SAT SHAKING OH MY GOD CHARLOTTE HAS TO REVEAL HERSELF TO FRANKIE;’ ‘I’ve come out in hives;’
Earlier in the episode Freddie Fraser narrowly missed out on a place in the final after a huge slip-up fled to his banishment from the castle.
Freddie was stunned to learn that his ally Charlotte had ‘thrown him under the bus’ by trying to murder Leanne, all the while knowing she was in possession of a shield.
In a dramatic roundtable, Leanne was quick to note that Freddie didn’t know that she had a shield, immediately causing suspicion that he is a Traitor.
Freddie lied that had known about the shield, insisting the now-banished Traitor Minah Shannon had told him at the bar.
However, Frankie was quick to note that Minah had already left the castle by the time they headed to the bar, leaving Freddie’s reasoning in tatters.
Viewers were devastated as Freddie received votes from all the remaining Faithfuls, and fellow Traitor Charlotte, meaning he’d been banished.
After falling at the final roundtable Freddie admitted he had zero strategy in the game, confessing: ‘I think my strategy all along was just to be myself, I can’t put on a facade or portray a different character than who I really am.’
‘My strategy was to get along more with the ladies and do a bit of flirting here and a bit of charming there. I think I’m like that in my everyday life anyway, so fit perfectly.’
He added though that he was gutted to leave the competition as a traitor, explaining: ‘The worst part is that I had to stand up there and say that I was a Traitor, even though it had only been a day!
‘I could have done so many things differently, but everyone will think that looking back. If you haven’t won, you’re obviously going to look back and think you could have done stuff differently.
‘I’m happy with how I played it.’