The First Traitor BANISHED? | Celebrity Traitors Season 2 Episode 2 REACTION
Traitors Expert
The host reacts to Episode 2 of Celebrity Traitors Season 2, analyzing the first elimination of Amol Rajan and the recruitment of James Acas
Key takeaways
- Amol Rajan was eliminated early due to being an outlier without strong industry connections or cliques in the cast.
- James Acaster was recruited as a traitor despite his anxiety and reluctance, making him a potentially effective player due to perceived natural innocence.
Main topics
- Celebrity Traitors Season 2 Episode 2 recap
- Cast dynamics and industry cliques
Notable quotes
"He has the potential, I think, to go quite far in this, and I think he will actually come across as a natural faithful."
Conclusion
The episode provides a highly analytical breakdown of early Season 2 strategy,
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) Celebrity Traders Episode 2 has come out. We've had our first round table and we've got our final traitor recruited. For now at least. Let's get into it. Speaker 1 (0:21) So, we have had our first elimination from the Traitors. And unfortunately, it was Amal Rajan. So, they had the choice, obviously, between Amal and James Acaster. And it kind of looked like it was going to be James, right, out of the two, if it was going to get recruited. But there was still a chance that they could have gone for Amal. Yeah, so Amol's our first player to leave the game. And in some ways, it's kind of predictable that he's gone. Not in that moment. You know, I think the choice could have gone either way. But when you looked at the player list in total, the entire cast, Amol was actually one of the least likely people to win, at least from a betting's odds site I found in the lead up to Seventy Treader Season 2. And there was a few reasons why I agreed with that sentiment. There is a bit of an issue with celebrity traders that some of the less famous people, the less kind of well-connected people, tend to be the people that are eliminated first. So in the first series, we had Nico leaving quite early and he just lacked those connections within the team. And I would argue... when you're looking at this cast, Amol is kind of a bit of an outlier compared to everyone else because we do have some cliques within this. Obviously, there's been a lot of talk about the comedians, but there are several comedians in it this year, a little bit more than last time. But that's kind of discounting the fact that there's also a lot of actors. You know, we've got Michael Sheen, Jerry Hall has done some acting. Speaker 1 (2:11) Sebastian Croft, or they're calling him Bash, Sharon Rooney as an actor, Ross Kemp, Julie, like Richard E. Grant, of course. You know, it's not just comedians. They're picking on the comedians, but there are several groups in here. We've got actors and we've got comedians. And when you look at someone like Amol, he was kind of separate to all of that. So he's quite an easy kill for the Traitors in the first episode. So, yeah, in general... I'm not too surprised that he's one of the first people to go. And unfortunately, if we're looking at this cast, I'll be looking at people like King Kenny going next, which hopefully not, but yeah, King Kenny, I think even Sebastian Croft. People like them need to be worried because they are the less well-known people. And at least to begin with, it kind of makes sense for the traitors to keep around people that they're closer to because they might get more trust from those people. So, yeah, I'm not too surprised that Amol is the first person gone. But this is kind of interesting when it comes to James Acaster being recruited because James didn't want to be a traitor. Now, I am a James Acaster fan. I've watched so much of his work. I've loved him for years. And I kind of feel like I know a little bit about him as a person. And he's someone who does suffer from anxiety and he's very self-reflective. So I genuinely do believe that he didn't want to be a traitor. I think he is going to find this stressful. And if you look at his facial expressions when he's getting recruited, when the coffin doesn't close on him, he actually looks pretty scared. I think that's genuine. I don't think he wants to be a traitor at all. And this is kind of interesting, right? Because normally the people who are chosen as traitors have kind of volunteered to be traitors. And even some of the recruitments tend to be people that want to be a traitor. Although... That's not always the case. But yeah, it's going to be interesting. But I think he could surprise himself here. He seems to be very lacking in confidence in being a trader. But so far, he's been making some good calls. You know, the call about recruiting, sorry, the call about choosing Ross Kemp for the mission, singling him out and putting a bit of doubt on him. Quite a clever tactical move. And also, in the first episode, he is one of the main people that didn't want to let the Richard thing go. So I think James is showing some good signs of gameplay here. And in some ways, he could be quite an effective traitor, because if he hasn't chosen to be a traitor, he has a kind of natural innocence to him, and people will know that he didn't want to be a traitor. Speaker 1 (5:05) He has the potential, I think, to go quite far in this, and I think he will actually come across as a natural faithful. The issue might be for him, I don't know how well he will cope under pressure. So if he's at a round table and people are accusing him of being a traitor, I don't know quite how well he's going to cope with that. And something else he mentioned... is that because there are so many comedians in the cast and some of them are very, very well connected to him, like I'm pretty sure he's worked closely with like Romesh before and Rob Beckett, Joanne McNally, of course, as well, Joe Lycett, like they're all very, very close. These are kind of all comedians who are part of the same kind of group within the industry. Like he says in the episode, they will be able to spot if he's changed his mind on things. So... I think he's, and this seems to be where it's going, he should vote for Richard in this round table. It will kind of clear him for a little bit, make him seem more innocent. So I hope he does do that. And I think that was where it was leading to. They realised, you know, he doesn't want to go down with Richard. He should probably vote for him. Because like they say, it would be a changing character if he spent all of the first day saying, why are we going for Richard? and then suddenly at the last minute changes his mind and votes for like Julie or Ross Kemp or something. So yeah, that