The Traitors viewers shocked that Faithfuls missed ‘huge’ Rachel slip-up

The Traitors viewers were stunned as the remaining Faithfuls missed what appeared to be a major slip-up from Rachel in the finale, before she and Stephen went on to win the game.

The series concluded on Friday (23 January), after picking up with the results of the chests of chance following a major cliffhanger in the previous episode.

Unfortunately for James, he opened an empty chest while Rachel got the one with the shield, meaning he was immediately banished from the castle.

As the rest of the contestants gathered in the castle for a debrief, Rachel went to assure them: “If I were a Faithful, I’d murder me.” After a pause, she corrected herself: “Traitor. If I were a Traitor, I’d murder me.”

While Jade seemed slightly suspicious at Rachel’s wording, the others appeared to continue talking, completely oblivious.

Viewers at home, of course, were all screaming at their screens.

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“She’s literally just outed herself as a Traitor,” one fan wrote.

“Oh Rachel, that slip-up might’ve cost you,” another warned.

“Did none of them pick up on Rachel saying ‘if I was a Faithful’???” one shocked viewer asked.

Yet Rachel clearly had nothing to worry about, as the game continued with some truly extraordinary demonstrations of duplicity.

After Jade was voted out at the roundtable, Faraaz was next after some double-crossing from Stephen, leaving Jack left as the last Faithful.

After a tense moment that left fans wondering whether Rachel and Stephen would stick to their agreement at the very beginning, it turned out that they were, in fact, faithful to each other.

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Jack was eliminated, meaning that Traitors Rachel and Stephen won the game.

“Whether it was traitorous Celtic duo Rachel and Stephen forging an unshakeable bond in the turret, rogue ‘Secret Traitor’ Fiona self-immolating, crime novelist Harriet also self-immolating (this was a season typified by interesting decision making), or side-burned gardener James delivering mixed metaphors and malapropisms like they were going out of flavour, season four delivered. And then some,” wrote critic Nick Hilton in his four-star review of the finale.

“When, with stifled delight, Stephen revealed his final board (‘for reasons that will become clear’), he brought the curtain down on something quite rare in the world of reality TV: a genuinely impressive performance.

“This isn’t The Apprentice, where ill-equipped buffoons stumble through simple tasks, or I’m a Celeb, where the public torture former politicians and footballers for their onanistic viewing pleasure. This is a competition that was won by two traitors who did really, really well. That their skill is lying and deceiving is beside the point. They have proven themselves to be the Willliams sisters, the Pelé and Garrincha, the Torvill and Dean, of subterfuge.”