TV final reveals result of The Traitors to the show’s faithful fans
The Traitors concluded on Friday, with traitor Harry Clark scooping the £95,150 prize money.
He and faithful Mollie Pearce were the last remaining players, after both voted to eliminate faithful Jaz Singh.
British army engineer Harry said: “My legs are shaking. I just won £95,000.
“I underestimated this massively, you come here and there’s 22 amazing people, and from the off I’ve been a traitor.”
He joked: “I’ve had enough of being naughty and being bad, because that was next level.”
“I didn’t know I could lie that well and keep it up,” Harry said after the final aired.
“The first couple of days I was struggling, because you’re lying to people and building relationships out of a lie. It was just mad.”
Harry had been a traitor since the first episode, but went largely undetected throughout the series.
As Mollie failed to identify Harry as a traitor despite Jaz voting to banish him, she did not win any of the prize money.
Harry came close to being voted out himself as the final three had a showdown around the fire in the Scottish castle.
Viewers watched as disability model Mollie began to write his name down for banishment, before switching to account manager Jaz.
After the revelation that Harry was a traitor, Mollie swore and stormed out of the room.
Mollie, who had become close friends with Harry as the series developed, later said: “I wrote Harry’s name down first, and I looked at him, and I just couldn’t do it, I really trusted him, so I changed it.
“He played an excellent game, so fair play to him.”
After his victory, Harry said: “I came here for my family, my loved ones, they’re my motivation.
“They’re the reason I go on in life, and I can’t wait to ring them and be like, I’ve just won £95,000. It makes me excited inside right now.
“I feel I can breathe, because I’m just me again, I’m Harry again.
“My family know I’m a good guy, so to everyone else, if you don’t think I’m a good guy, I promise you I am.”
Referring to fellow finalist Mollie, he said: “She’s crying. Mollie is the reason I’m here. I need to gain her trust back, I don’t know if it’s possible but I’m going to try my hardest.”
Speaking on the spin-off show Traitors Uncloaked on Friday, Harry said it had been the “hardest thing ever” to admit the truth to his friend.
“When you’re in there you think you’re just having a blast, especially when you’re a traitor, and then when you’re building genuine connections, it felt like we were there for years – and when it came to the end I wanted to say I was a faithful to make Mollie happy, but I couldn’t,” he said.
Mollie, also appearing on the visual podcast on Friday, confirmed she and Harry were friends again – after vowing in the final that she would not speak to him again if he were a traitor.
She called Harry’s revelation a “massive shock” but said: “I think he played an amazing game, I can’t hate him forever.”
Mollie said that Harry had promised her a holiday and said she was “pretty happy with that”.
“It was a game at the end of the day, we all signed up for it,” she added.
But she admitted she chose “the wrong person to trust”.
Harry also said watching the show back was more stressful than taking part – as he did not realise how close fellow contestant Jaz came to discovering his identity.
Account manager Jaz, who was banished at the eleventh hour after putting Harry’s name on his slate, called him a “baby-faced assassin”.
Jaz, called “Jazatha Christie” on social media because of his sleuthing skills, told the BBC that the ending was a “difficult pill to swallow” but the group had “recovered”.
He said he was initially “dying to be a traitor” and put his detection skills down to being “hyper-vigilant” and not getting too close to anyone.
Earlier on in the final episode, veterinary nurse Evie Morrison was banished at the final roundtable, and revealed that she was a faithful.
Another traitor, insurance broker Andrew Jenkins, was then banished as the remaining four contestants gathered around the fire.
There were six traitors in total throughout the series – but Ross, Paul, Ash and Miles were banished at an earlier stage.
The reality series has been a huge hit for the BBC once again, with several episodes reaching an audience of more than six million, including catch-up.
Over 12 episodes, viewers watched as the faithfuls attempted to work out who the traitors were.
The traitors murdered one of their fellow competitors each night. If the traitors had been successfully banished, then the remaining faithfuls would have won the money.
Celebrating with host Claudia Winkleman, he declared: “I’m the best traitor in the world,” before adding: “I hope Mollie didn’t hear that.”
‘Television at its finest’
Viewers praised the show on social media as the second series drew to a close.
“Mollie storming out is the best cinema I’ve ever seen, I am shaking,” tweeted Harrison Brocklehurst.
“Honestly,” added Ariadne Griffin, “give Mollie a Bafta because she is giving the dramatic reality TV performance of a lifetime right now.”
Another viewer, Shane Reaction, said: “Now that my nerves have somewhat recovered, how lucky are we to be living in the all new age of event TV?
“Claudia, the players, the producers, the stylists… everyone involved needs to take a bow. Television at its finest and I’m already counting down to The Traitors 2025.”
Radio 2 breakfast host Zoe Ball described the series as an “amazing three weeks of telly”, adding: “I’m going to miss it, but at least I can get some early nights now!”
And TV producer Andy McLellan said the British version of the show worked so well because regular members of the public were used as contestants rather than celebrities.
“Most of the international ones have celebs and they’re not nearly on the same level,” he said. “Our version’s great success is rooted in the normality of its casting.”