Under Siege
the castle does not care for your credentials
SPOILERS FOR EPISODES 1-9 OF TRAITORS SERIES 4 (2026)
It is no crime to believe that skills afforded by your occupation may be useful in certain situations. However, the Traitors is so far removed from real life. It is a precisely engineered world with high stakes where contestants’ thoughts and feelings are no doubt manipulated by wily producers. Previous series have shown that those with jobs that are deemed impressive or perhaps advantageous often receive negative attention. We have no idea whether those who take part are told to withhold the nature of their careers. You would like to believe they are left to make their own decisions but we can’t say for certain. We hardly ever see them discuss their jobs but that’s not to say it doesn’t happen.
The evidence required to catch Traitors is thin on the ground and participants feast on the tiniest of morsels. That’s why I think that some feel the need to hide. And yet, they do inevitably disclose their credentials in order to assert themselves. To add weight to their voice. Any success is limited because their jobs are rendered obsolete by the artifice of the show. People ascribe meaning to glances and gestures. Non-events become talking points. Silence is frowned upon but monopolising the conversation is prohibited. Social norms are not adhered to. Sometimes it feels like an experiment masquerading as a game show.
I was a senior detective in the Metropolitan Police.
This was a revelation from the slightly fearsome Amanda. A statement that would definitely not come back to haunt the former copper. As viewers we found out this information way before any of the castle’s other residents. Amanda proceeded to hound Jade, a woman less than half her age and a Faithful no less, at numerous round tables. The icing on the cake was Amanda then confessing her profession to the steely Rachel. Fair enough, I guess. It must be hard to keep such a relevant secret. However, it does somewhat weaken its power when the only person you tell is a ruthless Traitor. Absolute gold for the producers. Sure enough, Amanda didn’t last much longer.
That was really mean.
Oh, Hugo. A posh light that burned brightly but briefly. The man, electing to be honest with his fellow contestants early on, revealed himself to be a barrister. He had an innate confidence, which perhaps stems from his job but is arguably standard for men of his demographic. He possessed a voice that was both booming and boomer. His transparent disgust at the introduction of the Secret Traitor and his subsequent loss of power was amusing to see. He was clearly a man used to getting his way. During breakfast in episode 3 Hugo attempted to wrest back control or, at the very least, command some attention. Ben, who had served in the armed forces, had been murdered overnight by Hugo and co. But the barrister just could not help himself. He decried the death and insisted on a moment of silence for the fallen former soldier. It was dramatic behaviour more suited to a court than a table heaving with croissants. Calling a room of full-grown adults ‘mean’ was terribly misjudged and cringeworthy. Hackles rose accordingly and he did not survive the round table that night.
The benefit is to set the cat amongst the pigeons Roxy!!! (no amount of exclamation marks could ever be enough)
Another breakfast. Another barrister painting a target on their own back. This time, the shrewd Harriet lost her cool. Prior to the episode, she had been instrumental in taking down Hugo and was suspicious of both Fiona and Rachel. She felt the pair’s argument at the round table the night before had been Traitor-on-Traitor, and she could now set her sights on Rachel with Fiona having effectively authored her own demise (more on that later). Before presenting her ‘evidence’ about Rachel, Harriet decided to bolster her credibility by telling her rapt audience how she made a living. It was probably not necessary given her credit in the bank but she did it anyway. What started off as calm command of the room ended perilously. High on her own supply, the crescendo of the outburst saw her screaming at Roxy. She did not see another dawn. She was right about Rachel though. Bang on the money once again. But she lost her composure when the others didn’t buy into her theory. She put too much store in her own job and behaved erratically.
This series is not the first one to be impacted by contestants’ jobs. Who could forget the somewhat grating Tom with his lurid pink hair. He concealed his profession as a magician from the others. Apparently he had the ability to read people and he didn’t want to arouse suspicion by revealing that. He feared he would become a target. In a desperate bid to protect his fellow contestant and girlfriend Alex, he theatrically pulled his job out of his metaphorical hat. I don’t need to tell you how that went for him. Perhaps even more memorable was a moment in the third edition of the show. Kasam, openly a doctor, was accused of being a traitor by other castle-dwellers under the proviso that it would make a good narrative for TV. They were wrong but he scrambled for a defence and came up with ‘So you’re basically calling me Harold Shipman or something.’ A little histrionic he might admit.
You’re a liar!
It would be remiss of me to write about contestants self-destructing without mentioning Fiona. She started off with a twinkle in her eye, a cheeky woman in the mould of a Welsh Pamelaaaa. It didn’t take long before her identity as the Secret Traitor was unveiled. In that episode, prior to the reveal, you can see the excitement and relish almost bursting out of her. She was drunk on power and the twinkle turned into a darker glint. Her fierce and baseless accusation that Rachel was a liar was bewildering. Rachel lies out of necessity but not on this occasion. It is rare to see such naked confrontation outside of the round table. The substance for her argument was that Amanda would have confided in her due to her family being full of police officers. Whether she truly believed that or it was just a lever she felt she could use to pull focus on Rachel, it backfired spectacularly.
While Fiona wasn’t necessarily emboldened by her job, she does have something in common with the other three self-immolations from this series. Boomers! Or Boomer-adjacent at least. A generation that, almost inarguably, have been fortunate in many regards. They are, according to a little bit of data, comparatively overconfident. I thought it was very interesting that Maz too worked for the police yet didn’t feel the need to mention it. It’s almost as if he is a little different to the others of his age…
Yes it is just a game, and a difficult one at that, but it also reveals a lot about us. There is a lot of Britishness to the show. Anxiety, jealousy and bias all play their part. It never looks great when a number of the POC are the first to go. I find it fascinating to watch how the contestants conduct themselves and interact with one another. Perhaps the fact that certain people were hoisted by their own petard on the show is little more than coincidence. You can decide for yourself.
I was inspired to write this after reading this fun little piece…
