The Celebrity Traitors final looms – but will Alan Carr and Cat Burns outwit the Faithfuls?

To quote Claudia Winkleman, it was a rollercoaster 24 hours. The Faithful finally caught Traitor Jonathan, and then Celia Imrie was murdered in plain sight by Alan Carr quoting Shakespeare.

Even this eye-catching round-up doesn’t sufficiently convey the drama producers managed to conjure up in the penultimate episode of this series, now being watched by a reported 12 million pairs of eyeballs.

You have to hand it to Alan Carr, he doesn’t shy from a challenge. Having recovered disturbingly quickly from murdering his pal Paloma in week one, he was at it again last night, betraying another great pal, with a toast at the dinner table. Thus was Celia Imrie summarily dispatched, betrayed with a Judas almost-kiss by a man she "adored" but had come to suspect. As Cat Burns grinned, "Only Alan could do something like that!"

Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play? With the Faithful blind to one of their own being murdered at the table, the dinner party made for quite an emotional pause in the middle of this frantic series, everyone reflecting on their time in the castle, how changed they were, how inspired they felt, what fun it had been… and finally Kate Garraway came into her own, with a moving testimony after some very hard few years. Not that it did her any good, mind you. David Olusoga, still the unknown entity within the group, said, "I didn’t expect to feel changed by it, and I do, and that is a surprise."

And it was Kate who said the most pertinent thing of all at the table – that it was hard to spot Traitors, "because we’re just bedazzled" – surely the cue for all the Faithful to look up and realise the most bedazzling person of all was the Chatty Man nodding along in agreement, while preparing to cast yet another murderous spell…

Suddenly, it was the morning after the night before, with the group proving once again their complete ineptitude in catching Traitors is matched only by their competence and teamwork when it comes to completing the missions. Another load of extra charity cash in the bag offered an upbeat moment before it was back to the Round Table – where, following an unprecedented ding-dong between David and Kate – that’ll teach her to start bringing opinions – the latter was banished, another Faithful down, more shocked faces.

Who will win?

So who or what are we left with going into next Thursday’s grand final single episode? Five people, three Faithful, two Traitors. As David pointed out, "50% of the people I’m talking to are Traitors. I can’t trust anybody." It’s intense.

While Alan and Cat Burns have played a treacherous blinder up to now, two things will surely bring at least one of them down before the final credits roll. One is that Alan is clearly starting to implode – when everyone left was asked to practise saying "I am a Faithful" he couldn’t even say it. His giggly schtick just about saved him, but it was his second properly wobbly moment after the occasion he actually forgot he had a shield. Surely that was the moment his time was up? But because it’s Alan, only Joe Marler seems to remember it. They are, indeed, bedazzled.

And that’s the other ominous note for the Traitors: Joe is onto them, and as we saw with his mission to despatch Jonathan 'Top Dog' Ross, the man who played 95 rugby matches and said his mission on the pitch was "just to stop people", he is the proverbial dog with a bone, and his unblinking eyes have turned to Alan and Cat.

Two questions remain – he’s certain, but will he be able to convince the others? And while we're on the subject – why are he and Nick Mohammed so completely trusting of each other? Of course, they’re right to in this case, but haven’t they seen any previous series? Celia put it succinctly: "It’s a clever game, but it’s cruel." And it's at its very best when it's both. It would serve these two right, and offer up the best twist of all in a series full of delights, if, at this late stage, one of them were to be… recruited.

Read more: Celebrity Traitors odds: Who will win the series?

The Celebrity Traitors concludes on Thursday 6th November at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.

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