The Traitors series 4’s mind-blowing ‘Secret Traitor’ twist that changes everything

The BBC’s smash hit reality show The Traitors made its highly anticipated return on New Year’s Day, with a fresh batch of hopeful contestants descending upon the iconic Scottish castle in the hopes of winning up to £120K. But this time, there’s been a huge change to the format as the players prepare for a game unlike any of the previous three seasons. 

Warning! Spoilers for The Traitors season four, episode one ahead!

As host Claudia Winkleman explained in the first episode, a new twist had been added to the game in the form of a ‘Secret Traitor’, whose identity remains a mystery to the Faithful and the three other Traitors. 

Speaking at the season four launch in December, Claudia teased the “extraordinary” gameplay. “We’ve never seen it played like this brilliant cast play it,” said the TV presenter. “At one point, all the hairs are standing on end. They play it in an extraordinary way, which is what’s so amazing about this game and this show, because you think, ‘I’ve seen this, it’s gonna go down this route,’ and all I can say is it absolutely doesn’t.”

But what exactly is the Secret Traitor and when will they be caught? Here’s all we know…

What is the Secret Traitor? 

One of the contestants in this year’s series, excluding Traitors Hugo, Rachel and Steven, has been chosen by Claudia to be the Secret Traitor. 

The identity of the red cloak-wearing player remains a mystery to not just the contestants, but the viewers too, adding a whole new layer to the game. 

While the three Traitors know that there is a Secret Traitor in the game, the Faithfuls do not.

Each night, the Traitors will be presented with a murder shortlist, compiled by the Secret Traitor, which they must choose from. They cannot kill anyone who is not on the list.

What makes the game even more interesting is that, in theory, the Traitors could eventually work out who the Secret Traitor is, because their name will never appear on the murder shortlist. 

When and how will the Secret Traitor be discovered? 

The Secret Traitor’s reign will come to an end when the Traitors have earned their power back, according to executive producer Mike Cotton, who is also the Creative Director at production company Studio Lambert.

“I think what’s really interesting is that the Traitors are used to having all of the power, and for once they don’t,” he said. “There’s a murder shortlist, they can only murder from that, they don’t have free reign over who to kill.”

He continued: “What’s going to be really interesting to see is how they navigate that and can they work out who the Secret Traitor is and can they then manipulate that situation to their advantage.”

While Mike explained that the Secret Traitor’s reign will end when the Traitors take back their power, he remained tight-lipped on how this could happen.

“Claudia says in the show that they’ll continue shortlisting, their reign will continue until the other Traitors earn that power back and that’s for you to wait and see and find out,” he said. 

So, is the ‘Secret Traitor’ lying to viewers in the solo interviews? 

No. While we don’t know who the Secret Traitor is, they are not lying during their solo interview in order to keep their identity a secret. 

“They’re not lying to us in their interviews,” said Mike. “The interviews that you see there, what they would have said would have been the same whether they were a Faithful or a Traitor, so that’s for the viewers to pick up on the clues.”

Why did the producers decide to add a Secret Traitor? 

According to Mike and Claudia, the producers wanted to give the audience a go at working out who the Traitor is. 

“We always say each series is like its own murder mystery,” said Mike. “We never change the core game, but we always play with the twists around it. I think for series one, lots of people said, ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting if the viewers didn’t know who the Traitors are?’ which we don’t agree with actually. We think that knowing who the Traitors are and seeing their duplicity is what makes them feel great. We thought it would be interesting if you didn’t know who one of them was,” he explained, adding: “We thought it would be interesting to try and change the conversation slightly for this season.”

Meanwhile, Claudia said that viewers often think the identity of the Traitors is obvious and liked the idea of letting the audience guess. “The people who watch, endlessly go, ‘How do they not know? It’s just there!'” she said. “Like my dad was constantly like, ‘It’s just there’. And so I like the idea of, OK, have a go.”

The Traitors continues on BBC One and iPlayer on Friday 2 January.