Tonight’s semi-final of The Traitors ended on an infuriating cliffhanger, sparking outrage among BBC One viewers across the country.
The penultimate episode saw gardener James Baker, 38, and Traitor Rachel locked in the tightest roundtable showdown of the entire series.
With six contestants remaining, the initial vote ended in a deadlock, as James and Rachel each received three votes for banishment.
Rachel, Jade and Stephen voted against James, while Faraaz, James himself and Jack directed their ballots towards Rachel.
The episode saw James and Rachel locked in the tightest roundtable showdown of the entire series
| BBC
Both players were then given the chance to make final pleas to their fellow contestants before a second vote was held.
Despite a tense rethink around the table, the revote also failed to produce a clear outcome.
Jade switched her vote away from James and instead targeted Rachel, while Jack moved in the opposite direction and changed his vote to James, leaving the result tied once again.
With neither side able to secure a majority, host Claudia Winkleman was forced to intervene, introducing the Chest of Chance to determine who would be banished.
James and Rachel each received three votes for banishment
| BBC
She explained each contestant would choose a wooden chest, with the one containing a shield guaranteeing a place in the final.
However, viewers were denied the dramatic reveal, as the episode cut to credits before either James or Rachel could open their chest, meaning the outcome will not be known until Friday night’s final.
The explosive roundtable followed a fraught mission earlier in the episode, during which James came under fire after mixing up bags of gold, despite making repeated uphill runs in an effort to help the group avoid a murder at the castle.
During the vote, Faraaz led the charge against Rachel, accusing her of orchestrating a plan to hand James the dagger to eliminate Matthew.
With six contestants remaining, the initial vote ended in a deadlock
| BBC
Jack and Jade backed his suspicions, while Stephen, Rachel’s fellow Traitor, attempted to redirect attention onto James.
Rachel fiercely defended herself, particularly over her earlier role in Fiona’s banishment.
“I caught her in that lie,” she shouted. “Do not take away from me that I caught one — that’s one of my proudest achievements since I got in here.”
She added: “Don’t dilute that by saying it was traitor on traitor. I still got one.”
The cliffhanger ending sparked immediate backlash online.
One furious viewer fumed: “That Traitors ending tonight was absolutely evil!”
Another branded it a “massive cliffhanger.” A third simply called it “an absolute p***take”.
A fourth viewer described the episode as the “biggest EVER #Traitors let-down”.
Jade switched her vote away from James and instead targeted Rachel
| BBC
“BBC have done us dirty….that #Traitors cliffhanger wasn’t what I wanted. The only round table that actually mattered,” penned another fan of the show.
Others voiced concern for Rachel’s fate, with one fan writing: “How could they leave it like that? Praying Rachel doesn’t go, she deserves to make the final.”
The Traitors’ Rachel faces banishment as game is thrown into confusion
The BBC show’s players had a crucial round table vote in the semi-final, but it ended in chaos as they couldn’t agree on a banishment.
The Traitors left fans on a cliffhanger in the semi-final as Rachel and James faced banishment by the Chests of Chance.
Just as Faithful James and Traitor Rachel, who had split the vote, were about to open their chests and find out who had won, the episode ended with Stephen looking close to losing his nerve completely.
In the previous night’s episode we left the Traitors in their diciest position yet – suspicions were swirling around both of them, with Rachel under the most heat after underdog Faraaz made a bold move against her. Stephen was starting to worry that his ally was about to stab him in the back after Rachel warned him she couldn’t be seen to publicly support him.
Stephen warned in the diary room “game on”, and we began to see the makings of another Traitor vs Traitor showdown ahead of Friday night’s final. If Rachel does survive the Chests of Chance, is her alliance with Stephen strong enough for the endgame or is the turret bond starting to show cracks?
Here’s all the action from the castle in the semi-final of series four.
Faraaz’s big play pays off
Faraaz played it risky but clever last night, by publicly accusing Rachel in a bid to protect himself from murder. It paid off, as Rachel and Stephen had no option but to murder someone else instead.
Roxy was bumped off to implicate James, who she’d fallen out with the night before over a tense round table discussion.
But there was a surprise in store for everyone at breakfast, as host Claudia Winkleman took down Roxy’s picture from the wall and said: “You know who else will be sad for her? Her mum…Judy.” The players looked stunned as they realised the secret the duo had been keeping.
Stephen vs Rachel
The Traitors were still feeling wary of each other, with Stephen saying in the diary room: “My understanding is that we’ve had each other’s backs since the very beginning so I’m quite concerned she could break her promise to me…I need to be very careful how I play the next 24 hours.”
Stephen wasted no time in putting his plan into action, telling Jack at breakfast that he’d “given Rachel a free pass so far” and fuelling the suspicions against her.
Meanwhile, Rachel said: “Stephen can say whatever he wants to say. I’m not gonna flinch.”
Stephen spent all day telling anyone who would listen that he was torn between James and Rachel, and the group’s success in the mission made things even more fragile for them as it meant they couldn’t kill anyone off to strengthen their position.
“You think as a Traitor you’re in control of this game. You haven’t a clue,” said Rachel.
Who’s in the final? We still don’t know
The evidence mounted against Rachel at the round table, as the others brought up Harriet and Fiona’s accusations against her. True to his word, Stephen tried to throw the others off the scent by grilling her about the Fiona row.
But never one to be ground down at a round table, Rachel put up a good fight against James and even implicated Stephen for coming back from the cages mission.
It came down to a draw between James and Rachel, with three votes for each and no outlier voters. Round two saw the vote go in an even split again after Jack and Jade both changed their votes, so out came the Chests of Chance for the third time ever – and the second this series.
We’ve never seen such a tense round table in the castle, with Stephen looking like his nerves couldn’t take much more as the pair opened their chests to find out who had won the shield and who would be going home.
But just before the big reveal, the episode ended, leaving us guessing who will make it to the endgame and whether, if Rachel survives, she and Stephen will still back each other.
The Traitors S4 E11 highlights
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James overdoes it
When Winkleman announced a success in the mission to bring gold to the top of a steep hill would result in not just an extra £10k, but also stopping the final murder, James was determined to smash it.
His co-stars warned him he’d set off too fast, and his efforts came back to bite him as he keeled over into some gorse retching on his final lap.
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Roxy is still so wrong
Roxy was not exactly known for getting her accusations right at the round table, and stayed true to form until the end.
After her murder, she said: “I would love for Stephen or Rachel to win, they’re both wonderful people and I hope they’ve been Faithful and honest throughout the process.”
The Traitors final airs on BBC One at 8:30pm on Friday, 23 January.
