The Celebrity Traitors is back for episode seven and the castle is getting quieter by the day. After Friday’s episode saw Joe Lycett banished from the game, the remaining players are left picking through the wreckage of one of the most chaotic exits the show has seen so far.
Lycett’s time in the castle was nothing short of a rollercoaster. From the very first episode, he was stirring the pot, most memorably managing to goad Richard E Grant into effectively outing himself as a traitor in what many viewers called one of the biggest unforced errors in the show’s history. Grant basically handed the game away in that moment, and it was Lycett holding the crowbar.
But Lycett’s own downfall was just as dramatic, and arguably even more baffling. A few episodes in, he openly told his fellow players that he wanted to be recruited as a traitor. It was a bold move, some might say a reckless one. When the traitors did not take him up on the offer, you might have expected that to be the end of it. Instead, the other players convinced themselves he must have been recruited anyway, and voted him out. He was banished not for anything he actually did, but for what everyone assumed he had done. It was a spectacular own goal from the group, and a genuinely strange end to what had been a wildly entertaining run.
So where does that leave us heading into episode seven? The field is thinning out and the paranoia inside the castle walls is only growing. With Grant already gone and Lycett now out of the picture, the remaining faithfuls are going to have to sharpen up fast if they want to identify who is actually working against them.
The traitors, whoever is left among them, will be feeling the pressure too. As the group gets smaller, it becomes harder to hide. Every conversation carries more weight, every reaction gets scrutinised, and the roundtable discussions are getting more intense with each passing episode.
What has made this series so watchable is the calibre of people involved and how differently they have all approached the game. Some have played it cool, others have gone in loud and chaotic, and a few have tried the strategic route with mixed results. Lycett fell somewhere between chaos and strategy, and it cost him in the end, though not before he had left his mark on the whole thing.
Episode seven promises more tension, more accusations, and more of those brilliant castle challenges that leave everyone either bonding or quietly plotting. The question now is whether the faithfuls can get their act together and start making smarter calls, or whether the traitors will continue to run rings around them all the way to the final.
One thing is certain: after losing two of the most entertaining players in the space of a few episodes, the remaining cast are going to have to step up. The castle might be getting quieter, but the game is only getting more intense.