The last time a collective fever of this calibre gripped the UK was probably the delayed 2020 men’s Euros, when England were in the final, every pub in the country was fully booked and everyone forgot that they had never watched a football game in their life. Now, the manic energy in the air is because of a TV show called The Traitors.

We needn’t have worried that series two would fall flat next to the genius of series one – there have been even more camp theatrics, memeable moments and villainous characters. It’s Succession. It’s Shakespeare. It’s pure cinema. And now, someone has to win. 

With just one episode left, it’s all to play for. Will Harry, an OG Traitor who’s played a blinder from start to finish, execute his evil plan to the end, and break Mollie’s heart? Will Andrew, the traitor brawn behind Harry’s brains, steal it from him at the last minute? Or will the Faithfuls finally piece together the puzzle all but Jaz seem programmed to deny, ultimately splitting the money and resulting in clenched jaws, firm handshakes and mutual social media-muting? It really could go in any direction. Here, we’ve lined up the potential outcomes. 

Mollie

Sure, you could point out the fact that Mollie has been happily hoodwinked by almost every Traitor, is cheerfully unaware of her best pal Harry’s constant schemes and slaughters (even when she puts two and two together, she seems to come up with five), and hasn’t stuck her head particularly far above the parapet. But the fact is, whether intentional or not, she is toeing a tightrope that far more forthright, observant, calculating and ambitious contestants have toppled off catastrophically. 

Mollie contributes just enough at the round table to not seem too passive; she avoids rubbing anyone up the wrong way, be they Traitor or Faithful; and most importantly, she is well-liked enough that people just want her to stick around. Because this might be a game of tactics, but let’s not kid ourselves that it isn’t also a popularity contest.

One by one, anyone who’s a little too shy, a little too assertive, a little too awkward, a little too anxious, a little too observant, has been picked off. But Mollie has sailed through to the final because, well, no one, Traitor or Faithful, particularly wants her to leave. All she needs now is a last-minute epiphany about Harry – which should be doable since he’s getting increasingly cocky – and the money’s hers. (AP)

Evie

Could Evie be the dark horse to walk away with the Traitors’ haul? The softly spoken Scot has flown largely under the radar throughout the series – perhaps in part because she bore more than a passing resemblance to her Bristolian fellow Faithful Charlie. Outdoorsy and dogged, she has been solid in challenges, not ruffled many feathers and claims to have a great poker face.

She came in for some ridicule after claiming that her veterinary nurse training makes her a great competitor, but there’s some sense in that – she is used to code switching daily between helping a family say goodbye to a beloved pet and merrily celebrating the arrival of a new puppy with an excited child. She said she’d make a great Traitor, but her shrewdness and emotional intelligence could just make her a victorious Faithful.

Harry

Let’s not kid ourselves – this year’s Faithfuls don’t deserve to win. They’ve been useless at sniffing out the Traitors, only managing to banish them once they turned on one another. Harry – the ultimate Traitor – is the only one who has truly earned his place in the final and should take home the prize pot.  

At just 22, the British Army engineer came across as a slightly ditzy and down-to-earth, genuine guy in the early days of the competition. But under the wing of the villainous Paul, he has proved himself a scheming, sneaky, and intelligent player. He hasn’t found himself in the final by chance, but worked his way there by outsmarting everyone without them even realising. If he continues his current game plan of convincing everyone he’s a Faithful – particularly Mollie, who may well be his downfall should she turn on him – Harry has got the win in the bag. (EBa)  

Jaz

The Traitors is a very unfair game. I was furious last year when Meryl, who spent most of the first series growing more and more irate and having worse and worse instincts, took home the cash. She had been consistently wrong and contributed little to the detective work that ended up overthrowing Wilf. She just didn’t do enough to get banished or murdered either. It sets a precedent: you can be very bad at this game and still win.

So I don’t hold out much hope for Jaz, who is very good at this game. He’s sharp, he’s cynical, he’s vocal but not confrontational, he’s the only one who dared speak his suspicions about Paul and he’s the only one who dares HAVE suspicions about Harry. And still nobody takes him seriously?

I despair of this group of Faithfuls who appear totally unable to spot the obvious patterns, but I also now despair of Jaz who is not being vocal enough about his certainty on Harry. I hope he is gathering watertight indisputable evidence for a final roundtable showdown that will catch Harry off-guard, but I fear he may have left it too late.

As far as I’m concerned, Harry and Jaz are the only two who – on the basis of gameplay and strategy and not on the worthy question of “what they would do with the money” – deserve to win.

Andrew

If Andrew wins The Traitors, I’m writing to Ofcom. Throwing my TV at a wall. Messaging all my WhatsApp groups in a vexed manner. The man – and there’s no denying he’s a very large, Welsh man – has done precisely nothing since he was recruited, simply agreeing with every evil plan that comes out of Harry’s mouth, looking slightly shifty and saying “well I’m a traitor now, aren’t I?” in the diary room. And yet, he could still clinch it.

Last night, he was moving traitorish at the round table, and not in a way that exposes him as a traitor, but simply by gaslighting Ross about whether he’d used the word “elusive” to describe Harry (who was, in typical little-shit fashion, the one who brought it up). He doesn’t trust Harry – fairly – and has been laying the groundwork for a betrayal should it be necessary. I fear that, at the last moment, he might pull a Kieran-of-series-one and sabotage the best traitor in the biz, not through spite like Kieran, but through fear that Harry is going to do the same to him.

Given Andrew is wont to go with the group in all contexts, gunning for Harry at the roundtable could expose him as a traitor, too, leading to a faithful victory. Equally, though, at this stage in the game, everyone is a suspect, which means Andrew outing Harry could be passed off as a hunch. Because of how many traitors have been banished already, getting one more, whether that’s Andrew or Harry, will make it relatively easy to convince faithfuls in the final that there are no traitors left to traitor them up.

And if the remaining traitor is Andrew? Andrew (who is so clearly a faithful at heart; a Taurus, a Hufflepuff, a lawful neutral, a wife guy) and not Harry (I’m going to say Virgo, Slytherin, chaotic evil, swiping Tinder left right and centre), who has mischief running through his very veins? Well, as I said – Ofcom, strongly worded letter. Which will, of course, be sent in an envelope marked “Ofcom (sorry) xoxo”. (EBo)