After eight episodes of watching the Faithfuls rattling around without a clue as to who are the long-standing Traitors, finally someone has cracked it. And that person is Joe Marler, who has so painstakingly put together the puzzle of whodunnit that viewers are calling for him to be the actual next James Bond.
Thursday night’s episode of The Celebrity Traitors – the penultimate one before next Thursday’s finale – saw Kate Garraway banished, revealing as she left that she was a Faithful. Having one person fewer in the group finally made it possible for rugby star Joe correctly to zone in on who are the actual Traitors: Alan Carr and Cat Burns.
Nick Mohammed and Joe formed a pact early on and it’s only stronger now – they each know that the other is a “hundy” – or 100% Faithful – and they’re pretty nailed on David Olusoga being one of their number too.
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So even before they heard the banging of the drums summoning them outside to declare their status as Faithfuls, Joe had said the words fans had been waiting for someone to land on: “I think that Cat and Alan are the Traitors.”
On X/Twitter, viewers were praising Joe’s detective work immediately, with someone suggesting his gameplay on the show needs to secure his role as the next 007.
“Joe Marler for the next James Bond he’s so good!!!” they wrote, while another has him in mind for another retro sleuth: “Joe Marler and Nick should become detectives and have their own murder mystery show like the next Poirot…”
BBC
A third viewer felt like Joe’s been taking tips from Mark Bonnar and could be more Line of Duty-inspired, saying: “DCI Joe Marler setting up a sting!”, while a fourth added: “Get Joe Marler his own detective show immediately.”
Meanwhile, it looked like Alan Carr has sealed his own fate – and confirmed Joe’s suspicions – in the worst, most obvious way. When all the remaining five contestants were asked by Claudia to say “I’m a Faithful” out loud, Alan burst out laughing in the middle of the three simple words he was asked to declare.
Later to camera, Joe said of the awkward moment: “That is just another confirmation of what I’m thinking already about Alan. He can’t even look us in the eyes and say: ‘I’m a Faithful’. If that’s not a red flag, I don’t what is.”
He then detailed his cunning plan to catch the Traitors and secure the win for the Faithfuls: “My plan involves getting really close to Alan and Cat so they keep me in the game, so then I can pull the rug from under their feet last minute. Sorry Traitors, I’m coming for you.”
Take ’em down, Joe!
The Celebrity Traitors final episode airs on BBC1 on Thursday 6 Nov at 9pm and on iPlayer afterwards.
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