In a shocking twist no one was ready for on Wednesday’s episode of The Traitors, Claudia Winkleman brought back two evicted Traitors into the game: Kieran and Amos.

Before the game had even properly begun in the very first episode, Claudia was labelled ‘savage’ for banishing Kieran and Amos after they ranked themselves as least likely to win.

However, Claudia had been harbouring a little secret of her own, as days later, she shocked the other contestants by bringing back Kieran and Amos.

After an incredibly eerie challenge, in which several masked faces lurked in church pews as the contestants completed a challenge, two people unveiled their gold masks and revealed themselves to be the banished Traitors.

‘Team, you did really well in finding that gold from our lovely congregation members, shall we thank some of them? Stand up please,’ Claudia began.

And only two did, before they unveiled themselves.

We were not expecting this! (Picture: BBC)

Two familiar faces lay in the crowd (Picture: BBC)

Claudia had a surprise in store (Picture: BBC)

Kieran and Amos were met with shouts of joy from their fellow contestants, as Claudia explained: ‘Kieran and Amos did not leave the game on day one. You can only leave the Traitors if you are murdered or banished.

‘I’ve had them hidden away separately and they are now coming back to play the game.’

It has now been revealed exactly how Kieran and Amos stayed hidden away from the others in the Scottish castle.

No one was expecting Claudia’s surprise (Picture: BBC/Studio Lambert Associates/Llara Plaza)

After being dismissed from the show by Claudia in episode one, Kieran, 42, and Amos, 30, were filled in on the ‘devilish plan’, and had to hide out in a hotel for five days.

There, they were allowed out of their rooms supervised while the other plays were filming at the castle, but once the contestants were back, Kieran and Amos were individually escorted to their separate rooms and on a strict lockdown so there was no chance the other plays might see them upon their return.

The pair had no phones, no access to the internet, but were able to watch TV and DVDs and listen to the radio.

Amos and Kieran were ‘evicted’ before the game had even begun (Picture: BBC)

And now they return as Faithfuls (Picture: BBC)

But the others don’t yet know that (Picture: BBC)

They also had the use of hand-held gym equipment to work out in their room, and had small fridges in their rooms as well as ample snacks, and three hot meals a day.

While they had to remain away from the other contestants, Kieran and Amos got to spend some time together under supervision, were allowed out for fresh air, and were even taken to the beach during one of the days in hiding.

To keep their identities even more secret, a source confirmed to Metro.co.uk that production had code names and referred to them as ‘pigeons’, while Traitors were called ‘peacocks’.

This comes after fellow contestant Alex reassured fans about the cast’s welfare.

Taking to TikTok, she said: ‘They had a psychiatrist pre-filming, during-filming and after filming, the duty of care is really high.

‘They also had a massive welfare team, I think there was also one person from welfare per contestant, we’ve had pretty much daily calls checking on how we are.’

She added that the BBC team call to update the cast on what goes on in each episode, as they’re unaware of what will be playing out on screen that night.

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‘We don’t know how it’s going to be edited or how the storyline is going to be portrayed, so I actually have a call with the psychiatrist tonight and he’s really lovely,’ she said.

Kieran and Amos have returned as Faithfuls – although that remains unknown to their fellow contestants as the remaining few battle it out to try and win £120,000.

Lurking between them are three Traitors, who will try and kill off one of the other group, The Faithful, but no one is sure who is who.

The Traitors continues tonight at 9pm on BBC One.

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The contestants were shocked when Kieran and Amos made their bombshell return.