Spoiler warning: This article contains spoilers for season two, episode three of The Traitors Ireland.

The Traitors Ireland host Siobhán McSweeney pictured during the latest episode. RTÉ RTÉ

AFTER CATCHING A traitor on the very first night, episode three saw the players arrive with their pitchforks out, ready to find another.

The show really got going in episode two, where we learned about secret occupations, secret marriages, and saw traitor Edelle get banished – largely because of how quickly she drank a glass of water.

Tonight’s episode kicked off with the revelation that the remaining traitors had chosen to murder Laura during the night. 

Laura – who was the driving force behind Edelle’s demise – unfortunately had a target on her back because of her strong traitor hunting skills. 

As Páraic said, “she was pretty damn good” at finding them.

“I wanted to applaud her at one stage,” Fionula said.

Laura wasn’t surprised to find out she was murdered. “I was onto them, I made them uneasy,” she said.

The players were all devastated by the loss of Laura and her investigative skills. Except for the traitors, of course, and also Kayleigh who repeatedly said she was “delighted” to hear about the murder.

Things didn’t stay morose for too long in Slane Castle though, as the players quickly returned to their search for the traitors.

Suspicions

HSE manager Seán A led the traitor hunt to take the heat off himself after he made an unfortunate slip of the tongue at the end of episode two when he said “we need to get the faithfuls early” instead of the traitors. 

He flexed his leadership skills by conducting several meetings with small groups made up of people he chose to reveal his traitor theories. Going full Criminal Minds on his investigation, Seán A made a profile of the traitors, and cross-checked that against who voted for DJ instead of Edelle yesterday.

“Yesterday I was on nobodies’ radar and today I’m on everybody’s radar. I’ve got to get busy,” he said. 

His verdict? Donald and Janet are guilty.

Unfortunately, and probably not surprisingly, Seán A’s intense tête-à-têtes had the opposite effect.

The players quickly told Janet and Donal that Seán A was creating a movement against them.

Buried alive

The players didn’t expect to end up in a coffin on only day three. RTÉ RTÉ

Eventually things moved on and took a bit of a deathly turn when the daily challenge was revealed: Nineteen players had to be sealed in a coffin in what Siobhán described as a “twisted game of hide and seek”.

Not a great challenge for anyone with a fear of small spaces, and many were struggling. 

“How long have we been in here?” a tearful Janet cried at one point.

“About five or six minutes,” Denis said. To be fair, it had actually been 14 minutes. 

Eventually a group of players were freed by Sam, who was voted to do the job.

But Carla said she would have rather stayed in the coffin when she realised they had to race to Siobhán to finish the challenge. 

Roundtable 

Tensions were high at Slane Castle. RTÉ RTÉ

Once back at the castle, Saoirse said some of the women were frustrated because they felt men were repeatedly picked over them in the challenges.

Meanwhile, Seán A returned to his favourite task of trying to convince the group Donal, who was also in the room, was the traitor.

Donal was feeling frustrated, but struggled to stand up for himself.

“I need to be more defensive, more direct. I did start to think that maybe that was from my injury,” he said.

“Last October I broke my neck playing Gaelic football, being at home and doing nothing every day in a neck brace for so long. I thought maybe that has impacted me to not have the confidence, to not have that grit in me anymore,” he added.

Things remained tense when the players arrived at the roundtable, although there was a short moment of joy when Siobhán told the players they had won €4,000 in today’s challenge, bringing the total prize pot to €10,000 already.

But the good cheer didn’t last long, and the players quickly turned on each other. 

Seán A, unsurprisingly, aired his views about Donal and Janet again. David was also suspicious of Donal, but Seán A had caught his attention too. 

Eventually, Pete said that expert traitor hunter Laura had told him before she was banished that she was suspicious of Seán A too. 

Janet was suspicious of Seán A as well. “You came in today with a plan, and that plan was to pin me or [Donal],” she said. 

Eventually Siobhán subtly indicated that she was tired of the back and forth. 

“Alright whisht, bored now, be quiet,” she said, and told the players to cast their votes.

Unsurprisingly, the players voted by a vast majority to banish Seán A, but they were shocked to learn that Seán A was a faithful all along. 

“We’ve wasted a day,” one player could be heard crying.

The traitors have killed either Ian, Saoirse or Aoife. RTÉ RTÉ

But the traitors were delighted with the turn of events.

“A little round of applause to Seán for doing our work for us,” Fionula said when the trio of traitors met that night.

The team decided they needed a “soft kill” tonight to keep the heat off them and confuse the faithfuls.

They narrowed the choice down to Ian, Saoirse and Aoife. Who did they choose? We’ll find out on Sunday.