Paul Gorton: Season three of ‘The Traitors’ is already shaping up to be brilliantly brutal
In the first of his weekly columns for Rolling Stone UK, 'The Traitors' season two star Paul Gorton gives his opinions on the show's third season.
By Paul Gorton
Well that was brutal, wasn’t it? We were barely fifteen minutes into the first episode of The Traitors when Jack, Fozia and Alex decided to get off the train to the castle and immediately sacrifice their place in the game.
It’s a noble move – and a quite fitting one from former British Diplomat Alex – but there’s no way you would have caught me doing it. If that happened last year, I think I would have tried to convince the rest of the group to say, ‘fuck the ten grand on offer, let’s all turn up to the castle and see what the consequences are’. Because if you leave and you don’t come back, you’re not seeing that money already.
But that moment also showed that there’s a lot of tension early doors, which means it’s shaping up to be a great season. There’s a lot of exciting characters too. I think they’ve nailed the casting and Charlotte – the London girl pretending to be Welsh – is absolutely phenomenal. I was even considering being Scouse when I went on the show so I’m made up that someone has given that idea a go. I think Charlotte is a proper, proper game player and not just a fan of the show who wants to experience it.
Then there’s poor Yin, the first person to be murdered. I can see why they went for her. She’s a Doctor of Communication and it’s fine to tell us that in the initial interviews, but telling everyone in the castle about it isn’t a wise move. If you’re intelligent and if you don’t keep yourself in check, then you’ll end up burning your fingers.
Talking of keeping yourself in check, the same goes for the Traitors right now too: Linda, Armani and Minah. Did you see that moment when Armani was crying at breakfast because she feared that her sister wouldn’t come back? I know you’ve got to show a bit of emotion to quell suspicions, but that was way too much. She’s doing way too much too soon and she needs to tone it down if she wants to stay in the game.
Linda has the same problem too, but if she gets through a couple of tough first days I think people might fall into the trap of putting trust in the older generation, and that idea they couldn’t be a traitor because they’re so lovely.
At the moment, then, my shining light among the Traitors is Minah. I think she’s playing it well, she’s going under the radar and remaining very understated and quite quiet, super chilled. I could see me and Harry being Traitors with her because when you look at people like Minah, I wouldn’t backstab her.
She’s a Scouser too, like lots of my family, and I said at the end of last year that it’s a good to have a scouser in there because like her they’re sharp, really cool and collected. She’s doing really well, but I feel like Linda and Armani are actually letting it down a bit.
Who will they target next then? We’ve seen Keith get the chop on account of being a big personality and I think that Leanne – the Army veteran posing as a nail technician – could be in a danger zone. She could be a great Traitor if she gets recruited or she’ll get killed because she’s almost too involved.
And as for the ones who could go far, it’s those faithfuls who are in there quietly, not really contributing too much and not being called out. I promise you now they’ll be in the final, because they’re the ones you win against. You win against individuals like Jaz like year who, in theory, had all the information, but just couldn’t deliver it. That said, he still got further than me!
The game’s afoot, as they say, and season three is shaping up to be an absolute corker.
As told to Nick Reilly