Traitors star knows exactly who will win and has bad news for Matthew

Banished Traitors star Dr Ellie Buckley has shared how she thinks the tense final episodes will go down as she bows out of the castle.

Friday night’s episode was the most emotional yet, kicking off with fan-favourite Faithful Jessie’s murder.

During a tense roundtable in which many tears were shed, ultimately it was psychologist Ellie who got the most votes and was banished from the castle – but not before dropping the final bombshell that Ross had been her boyfriend this whole time.

Now, the final eight remain: Traitors Rachel and Stephen against Faithfuls Matthew, Faraaz, Jade, Jack, Roxy and James.

With our treacherous duo still managing to stay afloat, wannabe Traitor Matthew waiting on tenterhooks to see if he’ll be seduced, and our other Faithfuls barking up the wrong (Jade-shaped) tree – all is still to play for.

As the contestant who has spent the most time with this cohort in the castle, Ellie shared her confident prediction on how the finale might pan out to Metro.

‘I think it’s going to be a Traitors victory. Rachel is an incredibly strong player, but Stephen also – now, Jessie has been murdered – I don’t think anyone else is really going to go for him. I think he might have got away with that one,’ she observes.

As for whether the Traitors might finally recruit Matthew after he attempted to strike a deal with them in the confessional box, she’s far more sceptical.

Immediately, she says: ‘I think they got their hands burnt when Fiona came into the turret, and I don’t think they’re going to risk another Traitor entering the polls.’

If Ellie’s correct, then Matthew will have a disappointing wait on his hands on Wednesday night, expecting to get the hoped-for call up to the turret.

The BBC reality contestant has had plenty of highs and lows during her stint on the show – even if she couldn’t admit that to her fellow co-stars.

Not least when she had to watch her secret boyfriend Ross get banished.

Discussing how difficult it was to keep a lid on her connection with the ill-fated Faithful, she adds: ‘Obviously, with Netty and Ross meeting on the driveway, immediately all eyes were on him.’

After a series of unfortunate events for Ross that put him further under suspicion, Ellie admits she was subtly ‘trying to sway the conversation away from him’.

Although she notes: ‘I felt like my connection to Ross was obvious, despite no other players guessing,’ adding that she’s grateful to Jessie for ‘fighting his corner’ when she felt she couldn’t risk blowing her cover.

Still, people on the outside caught onto their connection much quicker after digging up photos of the pair together – something which took her by ‘surprise’.

Ross had previously slammed the ‘disgustingly invasive’ sleuthing some viewers had done, which included revealing their general location.

Ellie shares: ‘I don’t think we’d ever anticipated people would be digging through my old LinkedIn posts.

‘But I also understand the passion people have to discover the secrets and the twists in the show. If I was a viewer, I’d also be doing a Google so I understand.’

Although she echoes her partner’s apprehension at how far some went in tracking them down.

Given the number of secrets she was juggling, Ellie had to keep her head down in the castle and, for that, was voted ‘most bland’, which she admirably took on the chin.

In fact, she wouldn’t change a thing about how she played the game, as it helped her make it as far as she did.

‘It was just Rachel [who] did her take-down at the round table, but otherwise I was trying to ride through to the end,’ she says.

On the chatter that being a quiet Faithful is the best strategy to make it far, she agrees.

‘I think when you are picked as a Faithful, yes, your job is to vote out Traitors, but your job is also to survive, and so you have to be careful about how outspoken you are in the game, because you’ll get banished or murdered if you are too vocal, too quickly,’ she reflects.

Time will tell whether the Traitors or the Faithfuls are triumphant, but fans now have a wait on their hands until the next episode.

The Traitors returns to BBC One at 8pm on Wednesday.

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