The Traitors Ireland: Trust frays as endgame looms

With the numbers dwindling and confidence badly shaken, friendships and alliances came under increasing pressure on Tuesday night's The Traitors Ireland.

And as the endgame edged closer, one player was already thinking several moves ahead.

***Warning: Spoilers for Tuesday night’s episode of The Traitors Ireland follow.***

"Did you murder me?"

The episode picked up after the Traitors’ murder-in-plain-sight task, with Janet convinced something had happened to her.

Her suspicions quickly fell on Pauric O after he had taken her hand and joked about dancing the night away.

"Did you murder me?" she asked.

Pauric denied it, insisting he had only been trying to cheer her up, but Janet was not convinced.

For Pauric, the situation was getting dangerously close to the truth.

"This is me done. I’m finished now. Like, there’s no way I’m getting out of this," he said.

But when Janet walked into breakfast the following morning, she apologised for potentially setting him up and accepted his explanation.

The relief did not last long.

Away with the fairies

At the mission, Siobhán McSweeney revealed that the Traitors had indeed murdered in plain sight.

Their victim had been marked to be "taken by the fairies" and replaced with a changeling, and the players could add €2,000 to the prize pot if they worked out who it was.

A series of clues eventually left Anna, Janet, Ian and DJ as the four possible victims.

By then, Janet feared she knew what was coming.

"The Faithful know everything. They know all my thoughts. They know who I would have come for at the table, and they most importantly know who murdered me in plain sight," she said.

A final trial by fire confirmed Janet was the changeling.

And she had no doubt who was responsible.

"It has to be Pauric O. Like, there’s no question about it."

Pauric knew exactly how bad it looked.

"Well done whoever the f*** that was. Well f***ing done," he said, as he appeared to believe somebody had deliberately set him up.

Pete comes under the spotlight

Suspicion initially swung towards Pauric, with DJ describing him as potentially "our easiest catch ever".

Pete, however, was convinced he had been set up.

And before long, attention began moving elsewhere.

Pete had already caused concern when he told Ian, "If I was a Faithful", wording Ian immediately picked up on.

He had also strongly defended Kayleigh the previous night, only to suggest the following day that she may have been recruited.

By the time they arrived at the Round Table, Pete had some explaining to do.

Another Faithful falls

Siobhán told the players the prize pot now stood at €26,850 before reminding them of their recent record.

"This room used to be the place where you’d catch them," she said.

"For the last few days, the only thing that has been shaking is your confidence."

Pete opened proceedings by going after DJ, questioning his previous lie and the way he responded when challenged.

DJ hit back, raising Pauric’s interaction with Janet and questioning whether the murder in plain sight might have been exactly what it appeared to be.

Pauric argued that Janet herself had apologised to him at breakfast for putting a target on his back.

"If she thought I killed her in plain sight, why did she not come in this morning all guns blazing still?" he asked.

Kayleigh then challenged Pete over his sudden change of heart about her, while Ian summed up the increasingly tangled debate: "There was definitely one Traitor in that car by the sounds of it."

When it came to the vote, Kayleigh and DJ chose Pete.

Everyone else voted for DJ.

An emotional DJ told the group he had experienced "one of the best times of my life" in the castle before revealing he had been a Faithful.

"Another night, another Faithful gone," Siobhán said.

"A very unfortunate pattern is beginning to emerge."

"How am I after getting away with that one?"

Pauric could barely believe it.

Despite being directly linked to Janet’s murder, he had survived another Round Table with relatively little pressure.

"I think I’m in shock, not over the banishment at Round Table. The fact that there wasn’t more heat on me," he said.

"Like, how am I after getting away with that one?"

Carla appeared equally astonished that the Faithfuls had not pushed him harder.

Pauric then strengthened his position further by striking an endgame pact with Ian.

The pair shook hands after discussing Pete and Carla as possible Traitors, with Ian saying he wanted to win the game alongside Pauric.

"I just fully trust him here now," Ian said.

He went even further, suggesting that even if Pauric was a Traitor, he believed he would still bring him to the final.

The power of the dagger

There was no murder to end the night.

Instead, Siobhán arrived at the Conclave with a ceremonial dagger which will give its holder two votes at the next Round Table.

Carla and Pauric could keep it for themselves or hand it to a Faithful.

Pauric argued that giving it away to Anna or Diego could create more confusion.

But there was another shift taking place inside the Conclave.

Pauric reflected on how he had backed Carla since becoming a Traitor, including supporting her choices to murder Sam and Seán C.

Now, he was ready to change tack.

"I think from now on I need to think about me," he said.

"I am taking charge. It’s got to be my decision what happens."

The Traitors Ireland airs on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays.