Warning: This article contains spoilers for series three of The Traitors.
A Traitors contestant has said his experience of Thursday’s penultimate episode was the most “intense thing” he had ever been involved in.
About 10 million viewers have been watching the One series, which challenges contestants, known as “faithfuls”, with identifying the imposters – “traitors” – among their ranks.
In the meantime, the traitors try to surreptitiously “murder” the others undetected so they can win the cash prize, with one contestant voted out of each episode.
Politics student Freddie Fraser, from Peterborough, had been a faithful until he was offered the unexpected ultimatum of switching sides by traitor Charlotte a day before the highly-anticipated final.
The former teenage athlete, who left at the end of Thursday’s episode, told Radio Manchester: “I was completely shocked. She was like the last person I thought would be a traitor out of all the people that were left.
“When there are small numbers, you start looking at everyone but even then no one was looking at Charlotte because she was the most faithful of faithful is how we’d put it.”
He said he could not reveal her true identity to “protect the nature of the game”, adding: “You’re not allowed to say it’s definitely this person – I know it’s this person.
“All I can do is vote for her and imply a little bit but not too much to give it away.”
The 20-year-old felt he had no choice but to accept Charlotte’s offer because he did not want to leave the game.
“But I [also] did not want to be a traitor in the slightest. I felt sick when she asked me the question,” he said.
“I’m a bad liar anyway but then to be asked to switch how to play the game the day before the final, I just thought I just have no clue what I’m doing at all.”
He said he had found the situation “the most intense thing I’ve ever been in”.
He added: “For someone who is only 20 years old, when I had all of these older people voting for me or saying my name, I was like oh my God, you feel like you’re being attacked almost.”
Matters became emotional when faithful Frankie, who had formed a strong bond with Freddie, voted that he should leave.
“I think it was that what set [the tears] off because it was almost like my own mum voting for me,” he said.
“I didn’t mind saying I was a traitor – it was just more the fact that these people are going to think I’ve been lying to them and been manipulative all of the time and obviously that wasn’t the case.”
However he reckons Frankie has sussed out the traitorous identity of London-born Charlotte, who faked a Welsh accent to fool contestants “because my mum’s from Wales, it’s one of the most trustworthy accents”.
Freddie said: “I was like mother Frankie is doing me justice so that was a nice feeling.”
He plans to finish his university degree and added that the show “opened my eyes up to another world, where I’d like to pursue a career in TV presenting, modelling, maybe do a few other shows”.
Despite having the shortest stint as a traitor, he remains loyal to his previous tribe.
“I hope the faithfuls win because I was a faithful for longer,” he said.