THE TRAITORS’ ferocious crime novelist Harriet Tyce managed to convince the castle she was a mild-mannered, middle-aged woman.
But it was only a matter of time before the former barrister, 52, unleashed her dark side – and last night it spectacularly backfired.
After a jaw dropping takedown of Traitor Rachel Duffy in the church confessional, she then unravelled in a breakfast showdown reminiscent of a moment in series one dubbed the “red breakfast”.
It led to Harriet’s banishment at the round table and now she has broken her silence.
She said: “My game plan blew up but it is what they say it is… ‘Everyone’s got a plan until someone punches them in the face’.
“The idea was to go in as the nice lady with the jumper, not too much on anyone’s radar – the invisibility cloak of the middle-aged woman – and just try and keep my head down.
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“But it was hard to allow myself to be underestimated consistently.
“It surprised me people weren’t being observant enough… they should have killed me when they had the chance.”
Harriet, who wrote Blood Orange, won the opportunity to ask the Traitors – duo Rachel and Stephen Libby – two questions in Friday’s Smoke and Mirrors mission.
She went for Rachel directly spitting: “If my voice is shaking it is not through nerves, it is through anger that you have taken me for a fool.
“I think we all know that the gig is up for Rachel.
“I am as certain as I possibly can be that Rachel is in that confessional.
“I will have no compunction in going after her.
“There is nothing that you can do to stop me.
“So are you going to continue to work in a pack to protect Rachel?
“That is my question.”
The shocking moment had 8million viewers screaming at the TV, as Rachel and Stephen penned a response that read: “No, take her.”
Now, Harriet has commented: “It was just too irresistible an opportunity to be myself properly and to stop letting anyone play me for a fool.
“I was terrified and I was angry; it was a combination of both emotions.
“I’d already decided that whatever they said to me was meaningless because they had the power to lie.
“I was impressed when they said ‘take her’ about the Rachel question. It did get into my head.”
Harriet was so sure of her position, though, that at breakfast the next morning she set out her stall to the group and revealed her secret that she was a published crime writer and former barrister.
She ranted: “I was not going to allow another day of machinating or web weaving around me because I have had enough, I am on to you, you should’ve killed me when you had the chance.”
When questioned on her motive, she added: “I will tell you the benefit, it was to put the cat among the pigeons, that is all I have to say.”
Today she added: “You have very little control in that environment as a Faithful and I was bloody well going to control my own narrative and not give that to anybody else.
“People could choose not to believe me, but I was not going to leave anyone the opportunity to spread lies about me before I had told the truth.”
‘I’m gutted’
The outburst presented such a change in behaviour that the other Faithful immediately suspected her and it ultimately led to her banishment.
Harriet said: “On the one hand, I’m gutted not to have got further.
“I haven’t won therefore I’ve lost so it’s hard not to see it that way.
“But on the other hand, I could not have asked for more action!
“I managed to find a way of fighting as myself and leaving on my own terms and I really don’t think many other people who’ve been through the game can say that.
“If I were to swap with being there in the final but being duped, I’d take my short-lived game any day.”
Harriet was a hero to the Faithful after taking down barrister Hugo Lodge at only the second round table.
It remains a standout moment for her, too.
She said: “The takedown of Hugo!
“Me with my arms in the air – oh it was glorious.
“Such a good feeling.
“I realised in retrospect that I was fighting for my 25-year-old self who was a pupil back in the 90s dealing with male barristers of a certain age, some of whom were considerably less well behaved than Hugo.”
Elsewhere in the episode, the Traitors agreed to the ultimatum Matthew Hyndman presented in Friday’s cliffhanger.
They promised to murder Jessie at the next opportunity and then recruit him to the turret.
Tonight (thurs) we will learn if hair stylist Jessie, ghost hunting builder Adam or gardener James are chopped.
Host Claudia quipped: “Back in your happy place.”
Stephen laughed: “We’re bloodthirsty.”
Some 11million viewers have now watched the launch episode.
- The Traitors continues tonight (Thurs) at 8pm on BBC One.
