Sir Stephen Fry might be widely hailed as the smartest man alive, but he wasn't actually the smartest player in The Celebrity Traitors. Last night, the nation's brightest mind was banished. Somehow we're six episodes in and the Faithfuls still haven't caught a single Traitor. Jonathan Ross's days have felt numbered since the 'murder' of Ruth Codd, but Alan Carr and Cat Burns have barely registered on anyone's radar – or so we thought.
This week, we discovered there's one Faithful who's bang on the money, but wise enough to know that if you come for a Traitor too soon, you'll end up on the chopping block yourself. That Faithful is… Nick Mohammed.
The Ted Lasso star has been flying relatively under the radar – clearly part of his strategy. Aside from his lightning-fast puzzle-solving in the very first challenge, he's held back, kept his distance and observed from afar.
Now we know what those observations have found, and Nick is the only player still in the game who knows what's up and is posing any real threat to the Traitors. Even the "unreadable" Joe Marler, who's gunning for Jonathan, has put a target on his back – one we're not sure he'll shake off before the next banishment.
Nick has firmly established himself as the best Faithful of this series – and one of the best of all time. It's much harder to prove yourself as a truly great Faithful when the Traitors control the game right until the very end.
The best Faithful players know they should be the ones pulling the strings – without drawing attention to themselves. That's even harder for celebrities, used to being the loudest, most authoritative voices in the rooms.
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On Wednesday, Nick subtly let viewers know he's onto Cat Burns – the first person in the entire series to even mention her name when speculating about the Traitors. But not only is he onto her, he's got the perfect strategy to bring her down: keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
It's a tactic many players say they wish they'd used in hindsight, but rarely have the nerve to try. The Traitors presents itself as a team game – Faithfuls working together to catch Traitors – but it's far from that. The best players are selfish, Faithful or Traitor alike. They know that to reach the final, they must look out for themselves and strike when it suits their own game – not that of the team.
Right now, though, this particular team of Faithfuls might be the worst we've ever seen. Joe Marler and Joe Wilkinson are the only two who've dabbled in a theory with any real logic, suspecting that Sir Stephen Fry or Jonathan Ross must be a Traitor. "The Big Dog" theory is so obvious – and, more importantly, accurate.
Yet David Olusoga and Mark Bonnar still found themselves in an unprecedented position: facing a tie-break at the round table – a phenomenon never seen before in any series of The Traitors – following a ferocious charge led by the two Joes.
Wilkinson subsequently found himself 'murdered' that night. We thought Joe Marler could be the underdog of the series, but this week he proved to be the Faithfuls' biggest hindrance – and a huge asset to the Traitors. Even after getting rid of one "big dog," we can't help but predict that Marler has now firmly put himself in the firing line at the next banishment. His brute force at every round table has swayed the vote towards a Faithful far too often; once again, it'll be simple to manipulate the Faithful into voting out one of their own, with so much evidence stacked against the rugby ace.
Nick, though, is playing the game perfectly. The Traitors have no idea how much of a threat he really is; his name had barely come up in the turret, even though he's the only player who stands a real chance of catching them out.
Last night, the comedian proved he's always thinking ten steps ahead – even if no one else around him can understand his logic. He intentionally sabotaged the chess challenge, knowingly throwing Faithfuls under the bus to keep shields away from those he suspected most.
It was a stroke of genius few players – if any – have ever been capable of pulling off. And he would have got away with it too, if he hadn't blown up his gamble at the round table by revealing all.
That could turn out to be the mistake that costs him the game, but we have a sneaky feeling it won't. The Traitors might realise they've underestimated Nick now, but they still don't know quite how much of a threat he poses – particularly to Jonathan and Cat, who he 'knows' with absolute certainty are Traitors.
If anything, he's exactly the brain a Traitor would want to recruit at the earliest opportunity.
Ahead of this week's unprecedented deadlock – one of the most chaotic round tables yet –Cat may have finally let her mask slip. When asked to put names forward, she seemed panicked, overwhelmed and unprepared, parroting Joe Wilkinson almost word for word.
Joe Marler also warned her last night: "I need to see more from you." With Nick on her tail, she doesn't know it yet – but she could be doomed.
It's hard to have faith in this group of Faithfuls when they've halved the cast and still haven't caught a single Traitor. Even as the only "Big Dog" left, we fully expect that Jonathan could escape another banishment at this rate.
If the Faithful have any chance of winning, Nick will be the one to lead them there. Even Sir Stephen didn't have the conviction to outsmart a Traitor – even if his evidence-based sleep theory saw him onto something – but Nick is quietly outsmarting everyone inside the Castle.
Last night, he proved that not only does he have the foresight and smarts to go all the way, but he's got the courage to think outside the box – even if it means putting himself at risk –to catch a Traitor.
It was a bold move to reveal that he'd willingly thrown his fellow Faithfuls Kate Garraway and Lucy Beaumont to the wolves, depriving them of shields when the group is so small and the stakes so high.
Initially, we thought it was perhaps too bold a move – but if anyone understands risk assessment, it's Nick. He'll have weighed the damage, predicted the Traitors' next step.
Should Nick survive this face-to-face murder (what a cliffhanger!) he'll surely make it to the final. But will he be there as a Faithful, or a Traitor?
Suddenly, every Traitor has heat on them. Jonathan has almost since the beginning; Cat's hesitancy at the round table is raising suspicion; and Alan's peak-Alan clanger – forgetting he had a shield – has brought attention for the first time.
One of them must be banished soon – and so, a recruitment is looming.
If they have any sense, whichever Traitors are still standing would be foolish not to sign up their biggest – and only – threat: Nick Mohammed.
The Traitors series 1-3 are streaming on BBC iPlayer. The Celebrity Traitors airs on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 9pm.
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