**Warning: Spoilers ahead.
The Traitors’ Rachel has been praised by fans for her ‘masterful’ move in the BBC season finale which helped her win the whole thing.
The 42-year-old from Northern Ireland played an incredible game by fooling the Faithfuls that she was one of them and ended up taking home £47,875 alongside her fellow Traitor Stephen.
All along, she had promised she would never betray him by writing his name on her board, meaning their mission was to get to the final two together.
To do that, the pair needed to work together tactically to eliminate any remaining players that stood in their way.
After both receiving some heat in the run-up to the final, Rachel knew that they had to vote carefully.
In a genius move, she lied to Faraaz just before heading to the fire of truth and told him that she would be voting for Stephen at the next banishment, to ensure that he did the same.
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After Stephen voted for Jade at the round table despite being friends with her the whole time, Faraaz was confused: ‘That’s major Traitor on Traitor business that.’
Rachel capitalised on his suspicion, and asked: ‘Do you think she started crying because he turned on her at the last minute?’
‘Course she did’, Faraaz replied.
Rachel had told Stephen in the run-up to the final that she would be speaking about him as a potential Traitor, so it didn’t come as the biggest surprise when she told the 22-year-old: ‘I’m going to vote for Stephen.’
Fans of the show were impressed.
On Reddit, Hakizimanaa, said this defining power-play ‘solidified her as one of the best Traitors ever’.
Without this conversation, Rachel could have been the next to be voted out.
Jack was set on voting for her, and Faraaz had his suspicions.
By doing what she did, baddevsbtw argued that she ‘masterfully outplayed Faraaz’.
Otherwise it would’ve been a split vote between Rachel and Faraaz, leaving Rachel in an insecure position.
Stephen also received kudos for holding his nerve ‘because he would’ve been voted out after Rachel if he had betrayed her’, said the Reddit user.
Are you pleased that Rachel and Stephen won?
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YES
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NO
‘I love that Rachel and Stephen stuck with each other right to the end!
‘They did SO well, absolutely brilliant’, they wrote.
BasicallyAnya joined with honouring the winners: ‘Rachel was the strategist, with enough people skills to sway a group.
‘Stephen was the people person, with enough subtlety to implement the plans.’
The Traitors is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
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