Could internet sleuths be the death of great TV? The Traitors is proving just that

"Paul isn't my son... but Ross is" will go down in TV history as a twist that collectively left a nation with its jaws on the floor.

It was a moment taken from season two of BBC's The Traitors, the murder mystery-style game that has us captivated week-upon-week, with its new celebrity iteration only furthering its popularity (its finale outshone the New Year's Eve fireworks and Adolescence with 15.4 million viewers).

In the episode in question, suspicions had been raised among the contestants that Diane Carson, a former teacher from Northern Ireland, was related to fellow contestant, Paul Gorton; most notably because they both had red hair.

Social media feeds across the country exploded simultaneously when viewers discovered during episode three that Paul wasn't in fact her son - but another contestant, Ross, [Carson] who bore no resemblance to her in appearance nor accent, secretly was.

BBC

Despite the show's ever-growing arsenal of twists and turns since, few moments have come close to being as earth-shattering...because, well, no one could've foreseen it.

Fast forward, and season four of The Traitors recently made its debut on January 1, with another secret family connection being unveiled to the audience from the get-go - Roxy Wilson and her mother, Judy [Wilson], who wound up being first banished from the castle during the roundtable.

Prior to that, another contestant, Ross Garshong, had let slip to fellow contestants that he knew the now-murdered Netty Österberg outside of the show.

Very quickly, speculation brewed that this wasn't the end of the connections among the cast. How could producers possibly let the plot explode so soon? For those invested in the series, there had to be more.

Before the first episode had even finished, sleuths went digging for answers. But this wasn't just piecing together on-screen clues that would set us up for another Carson-level bombshell. It became deep dives into social media posts from years gone by, past relationships analysed, Wikipedia pages under microscopes - it became personal.

The family tree theory then erupted and began surfacing in reputable news outlets. 'Hidden Twist Uncovered', one publication penned, while another chimed in with a lengthy answer to the question, 'Who Secretly Knows Who?'

The type of theories you usually find buried in the dark depths of Reddit had suddenly become mainstream.

Suspicions about Ellie and Ross's relationship were aroused when after the pair posted holiday snaps in similar locations Ellie Buckley/Ross Garshong

Through these theories, a third connection was made: Ross [Garshong] was quietly playing the game with his long-time girlfriend, Ellie Buckley.

Photos of the pair in suspiciously similar locations during a winter trip to the Canary Islands had been plastered all over X, with details as precise as a sink from the exact spot in the hotel they were staying at circled in red.

One person had even managed to track down a personal trainer they'd both been pictured with at the same time.

"Confirmed, Ross and Ellie know each other", they wrote.

Another user had dug through their LinkedIn connections to discover they were following each other.

In fact, the novelty of the idea that they were interlinked had worn off by the time it was revealed on-screen almost one week later.

"I was still shocked by that Ross/Ellie reveal but it would have been soo [sic] much better if people didn't search their LinkedIn pages", one viewer acknowledged.

"We could have had a gag moment like 'but ...Ross is' but someone had to leak Ross and Ellie's big reveal and that was the most anti climatic thing ever I'm sad", another person wrote on X.

"We already knew", a third pointed out.

BBC

Several other connections have been made throughout the cast, but we won't share them here so that you can watch free from spoilers.

It begs the question: Just why are we robbing ourselves of the joy of watching TV?

Spoilers aren't a new thing by any stretch of the imagination, and social media is a great place to spark conversations with like-minded strangers. But this series has made it clear that there's a line we're towing dangerously close to as the episodes go by, particularly at a time when we have access to more information than ever, on-demand - whether we want to see it or not.

Our desire to know everything all at once is killing the best parts of sofa escapism: Suspense, excitement, and most importantly, being dealt the unexpected.

The Traitors may be a show dedicated to honing your detective skills, but if its cult following is going to have longevity, it's about time we hung up our deerstalkers.

The Traitors series 4 is now streaming on the BBC

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