THE first unfortunate victim of The Traitors has spoken out on her “game plan” – and admitted she is in “half denial” over her exit.
The BBC One show contestant was brutally slayed for her “clever” characteristics as Claudia Winkleman‘s chosen Traitors began their murder mission on Wednesday.
The opening show of The Traitors‘ third season saw a fresh set of competitors return to a castle in Scotland – with three stars axed before they even arrived up north in a shock twist to the train journey.
Yet when hunkered down in the stunning rural retreat financial investigator Armani, 27, retired opera singer Linda, 70 and call centre manager Minah, 29, were handpicked by Claudia and show bosses.
They opted to “kill” communications scientist Yin after she was flagged as a threat to discovering their identity.
After her exit, she admitted she had a game plan and said: “Absolutely I did. I tried to meet as many people as I could within reason. I wanted to gather information about them, observe what they were saying about themselves, what they were not saying.
“I also observed who was observing me, there were a couple of players who seemed to have more eye contact with me than others.
“Off the bat some approached me, others didn’t. I hoovered all that information in which was exactly my plan; to begin to measure things empirically and scientifically so that all worked out.
“I also went to every room in the castle and tried to observe private speaking areas.
“So my environment and the people were analysed, there were a couple of players who stood out immediately – one of those was Dan, just because we had some exposure together on the train and I clocked in the first few hours that he could be an amazing ally to have for the entire rest of the game.”
Talking of her feeling on becoming the first “murder” victim of season three, she added: “I’m still half in denial that it’s happened.
“It’s a lot sooner than I expected but I did know for a fact that if I was chosen as a Faithful which is more likely given the odds that this was a very real possibility, so I did mentally and emotionally prepare myself for the worst possible outcome of leaving first.
“The rug was pulled from under my feet and I just had to accept that this was the situation.”
It’s so hard to say because obviously in hindsight there are so many things I could have done differently. I think it was unfortunate the people I was closest to in those first few hours happened to be chosen as Traitors.
“Had other people been chosen, I honestly think I’d have been absolutely fine.”
She told how her “intellectual” character might not have stood her in good stead.
Yin told how she had considered “hiding” her intellect and her vocabulary to “come across as less eloquent.”
Yet, ultimately, she told how she felt like she was doing herself a disservice if she did.
Yet Yin did conceed it would have “helped me out” to go under the radar a bit more.
Meanwhile, shortly after picking her three female Traitors, Claudia was embroiled in a sexism row.
Claudia, 52, commented on the reasons behind her decision and said: “We talk to all of them in the library, and I’m just the smallest voice in the room but we decide, having had those chats, who it’s going to be.
“And I loved picking these three.”
Asked if it felt like “a statement” after series two’s male domination, Claudia said: “There is a bit of that yes… I had faith.
“They felt like the right three. Whatever happens, it was the right thing to do.”
Claudia ruffled feathers when she interjected after Traitors Harry Clark and Paul Gorton added three men to their pack in quick succession last season.
She told them: “Another man, good, it’s like the olden days.”
Claudia later commented: “Maybe I shouldn’t have done but I just had to say it.
“I was like ‘Come on, boys, what you need here is a really smart woman’, but they were threatened by them.”
THE TRAITORS CONTINUES ON BBC ONE AT 8PM ON THURSDAY NIGHT AND ON IPLAYER.
