‘I’m frankly so sick of it’, Jade’s resigned sigh echoed across the roundtable on tonight’s episode of the Traitors.
‘I’ve never seen someone have to go through so many roundtables and have to put up with as much as I have,’ she told them.
It feels like Jade’s fight for a place at the roundtable day after day finally became too much – but not just for her.
I agree. It’s gone too far.
The Traitors castle is normally home to high spirits and mild peril, but when proceedings veer off track towards devastating decisions and odd witch hunts, it ruins the fun for everyone.
Not since the banishment of the kind natured doctor Kas last series, has a scene as uncomfortable as tonight’s unfolded in the dimly-lit war room.
Especially since the ‘evidence’ offered for Jade being a Traitor has always been paper-thin.
I was genuinely tempted to look away from the screen when Jade burst into tears and wasn’t surprised some in the room looked just as uncomfortable as I felt or that Claudia Winkleman offered a dinner party to lighten the mood.
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Before tonight’s episode the 25 year old PhD student seemed to be taking perpetual suspicion on the chin. But despite coming out swinging at the roundtable, her voice started to crack as she mounted her most convincing defence yet.
Suspicion is likely to fall on everyone at one time or another, but Jade has had a rough ride of it.
On day one, Amanda decided that Jade looked expressionless and shifty right after Claudia Winkleman picked her Traitors at the first roundtable and that theory has bloomed in her absence.
Thankfully, Jade narrowly dodged banishment tonight and the only reason she hasn’t been sent packing yet is that the movement against her consists of just a minority of the group, even if they are as vocal as they are inflexible.
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The persistent suspicion of Jade has been exacerbated by the fact she is one of the youngest contestants there – which shows in her inability to mount a convincing defence.
It was the same fate that befell Reece, the sweet shop assistant murdered fourth by the Traitors, who, like Jade, seemed overwhelmed by the ferocity of the allegations against him.
Spearheading the campaign against Jade is Matthew, 35, who pointedly told her he wouldn’t be swayed by her tears.
I can’t admonish Matthew though – although I am tempted – but the job of a Faithful is to accuse others of being Traitors.
The issue I take is that suspicions have largely arisen as a result of her muted personality, even if her winter wardrobe (that rainbow cardigan felt like a contestant in its own right) has suggested the opposite.
I believed that the cosy crime setting of The Traitors castle would be an ideal reality show setting for an introvert – it was worlds away from the piranha’s pool that is the Big Brother house or under the microscope of the Love Island villa.
How do you feel about Jade's treatment on The Traitors?
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It's unfair and uncomfortable to watch.
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It's just part of the game.
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I'm not sure how I feel.
But the BBC murder mystery has shown that when there’s nothing substantial to go on, contestants can easily reach blindly for the straws. There seems to be an immediate instinct to be cluelessly suspicious of anything.
You are suspicious if you have a big personality, but also if you’re a shrinking violet.
However, as I noted after last night’s episode, the key is to say just enough – that’s how I would play it.
Ellie said she had tried to correct that early accusation that she was ‘too quiet’ at the roundtable. But she continued to attract suspicion and – in another brainless Faithful move – was banished for being a bit shy.
I can only hope Jade doesn’t suffer the same fate next week. At least the Traitors certainly won’t murder her as they clearly feel like keeping around someone with so much suspicion is shining the spotlight away from them.
Going in as a video gamer and self-professed fan of social deception games, Jade might have thought she would be in a stronger position for the castle than she has been.
She likely thought she would be battling the Traitors from a position of presumed innocence, instead of having to fight for her right to be ‘bland’.
Much of the dinner party that Claudia set up for them after the tense banishment, was taken up with the eight-strong cast telling us the good things they would do with the prize pot.
Jade’s was among them, explaining it in terms of wanting a safe space for herself, after her mother was found dead in Hong Kong in 2018. ‘It’s affected me a lot,’ she shared.
‘It takes me a really long time to let people in… I think that can come off as standoffish at first.’
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Her words were enough to elicit an apology from Matthew for making her cry – a much required moment of humanity in the discomfort of it all.
I have so little faith in the Faithful.
I don’t know if Jade’s reveal of her mother’s death will move the needle on their perception of Jade.
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But if the attacks on her have set a fire in her to keep fighting back, what a comeback it would be.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk.
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