After successfully banishing our queen Linda Rands, the Faithfuls on The Traitors have once again voted out one of their own after a fateful ‘slip-up’.
And viewers are ready to riot over the mistake, jumping to Alex Oleksy’s defence after he was pounced on during the roundtable.
The 29-year-old care manager from Whitby had been laying relatively low in the game so far, but one comment in Thursday’s episode wrongly raised suspicions.
He had been explaining his suspicions to the other players, following Linda’s banishment.
Alex said: ‘Looking at Linda’s voting patterns, she hasn’t thrown a Traitor under the bus.’
He later tried to defend himself, claiming he ‘always’ goes bright red and the awkward comment hadn’t been suspicious.
He went on: ‘I know that I’m a Faithful. At this point, I know the odds are stacked against me and when you know that the odds are completely stacked against you, you’re likely to trip up, you get anxious.’
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But it was too late – the ‘odd’ comment had perked up Joe Scott’s ears, who questioned how Alex could know if Linda had voted for another Traitor or not… unless he was a Traitor himself.
And how wrong Joe was. It was like he hadn’t learnt his lesson from banishing Kasim Ahmed, as he and several others wrote Alex’s name on their chalkboards, only to discover that he was, in fact, a Faithful the entire time.
Revealing the truth, Alex delivered his parting words: ‘I would like to say thank you to everybody in this room, I have had the best time of my life and met the most amazing, wonderful people.
‘And every single one of you is absolutely amazing and I wish you all the best of luck. I am a Faithful.’
‘I feel wretched,’ player Francesca Rowan-Plowden later admitted.
‘I am blessed to have met him, and I am so sad that he’s gone, and I genuinely don’t think he deserved that,’ a tearful Lisa Couplan added.
And viewers were in full agreement, claiming Alex’s mistake didn’t mean he deserved to be ‘banished’.
‘Alex was just clumsy in his language. Feel sorry for him,’ viewer @Fledger111 wrote on X.
‘Poor Alex lmaooo, they really grabbed onto that comment lmaooo,’ @downbadyuno said.
@politicocount1 said: ‘Alex was right with what he said. Poor guy’s just thinking logically.’
‘I don’t see what’s wrong with what Alex just said..,’ @xbritishx agreed.
@EloquentParrot wrote: ‘Alex just inadvertently slipped up. Right theory, wrong language and they’ve nailed him on as a traitor. Fools.’
‘Poor Alex. He just got a bit flustered and tried to speak a little too openly around friends,’ @mt_2052 added.
Following his elimination, Alex revealed he was ‘disappointed’ to not have been chosen as a Traitor, but admitted ‘knowing what I know now, I don’t know if I would have coped with being a Traitor.’
He went on: ‘The pressure is massive when you’re in there. It’s massive as a Faithful so I can only imagine it would be even bigger if you were going to be a Traitor.’
Talking about his gameplan, he continued: ‘I would say that I came in and I had a bit of a strategy, but it all just went out the window for me. I really wanted to rely on my gut instincts, and I didn’t.
‘There were a few times where I had gut instincts about people, and they turned out to be right. I had a few people from the beginning that I suspected and then you get to know people, and you get to like them, and then you think, oh, it couldn’t possibly be!’
He continued: ‘For me, leaving came exactly at the right time. It was such a bizarre situation.
‘So many things had happened, and I was so aware how guilty people thought I was, that the moment of vindication that I got from being able to stand up in front of everybody and say, I’m a Faithful was worth more than any money, and I sincerely mean that…I think!
‘I was so ready to get out of there, and I was so ready to prove my innocence.’
The Traitors continues tomorrow night at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
The Traitors viewers defend player’s fateful ‘mistake’ after suspicious slip-up