The Traitors is tightening its grip on viewers as Series 4 rolls on, and for Stephen, the spotlight is starting to feel uncomfortably bright.
When the show returned on January 1, Claudia Winkleman selected Stephen as one of her Traitors alongside Rachel and Hugo. Fiona was also secretly chosen as the Secret Traitor, a twist that only came to light in last night’s episode (January 7).
So far, Hugo remains the only Traitor to have been caught. But as the numbers in the castle continue to fall, many viewers are convinced Stephen has made a series of costly mistakes that could soon expose him.
Here are all the moments that suggest his game may be starting to unravel.
The Traitors: Stephen plotted a mission in front of Faithful Reece
During Saturday’s episode on January 3, Stephen and fellow Traitor Rachel were given a covert task following Hugo’s banishment.
Instead of carrying out a murder that night, the pair were instructed to place blood-coloured fingerprints on the portraits of nine contestants on the family tree artwork they wanted to shortlist for murder. If they completed the mission undetected, the Secret Traitor would be revealed and officially join them in the turret.
As they hovered around the painting, Stephen and Rachel stood openly discussing the task in front of Faithful Reece. Rachel even warned Stephen by saying: “I need to give you a heads up on something.”
Stephen later told Rachel he was comfortable with being one of the nine shortlisted contestants once Reece stepped away. However, he appeared confident that Reece would notice where he had been standing.
When the mission was revealed the following morning, however, Reece failed to connect the dots. Instead of questioning Stephen’s role, he voted for Ross at the round table, leaving viewers furious.
“”I don’t have enough evidence yet.” Reece you’ve got to be [bleep]ing kidding me,” one viewer wrote on X.
“Reece immediately doesn’t deserve a penny from the prize fund if he fumbles this plain sight mission that HE WITNESSED,” another added.
A huge slip-up at the round table
While Reece has yet to fully turn on Stephen, others are starting to question him more closely – particularly Jessie.
At last night’s round table, Stephen spoke about the secret mission and claimed the last person he saw near the painting was Maz. But during his explanation, he appeared to accidentally reveal more than he intended.
“I was thinking to myself last night,” he said, before quickly correcting himself: “Sorry, this morning after we found out.”
Rachel’s reaction immediately suggested concern, while Jessie looked visibly puzzled, raising further suspicion around Stephen’s timeline.
Stephen’s Naz theory could backfire
Stephen continued to insist at the round table that Maz was the final person he saw near the artwork.
However, following the trial later in the episode, both Stephen and Naz were put up for potential murder ahead of tonight’s episode (January 8). Sam and Reece also remain at risk.
If Maz is murdered, Stephen’s theory could quickly collapse, drawing even more attention to him. On the other hand, if Reece survives, questions may arise about why Stephen was spared, potentially reigniting doubts about his role.
Stephen was not involved in the conversation between Rachel and Fiona when they discussed who to murder, meaning the decision made without him could end up damaging his game without him realising it.
‘Stephen’s a little bit on touchy ground at the moment’
Earlier in the series, Stephen also found himself under scrutiny after being part of a small group of contestants who lost a challenge and were separated from the rest of the players. That same night, one member of that group was murdered.
As the Faithfuls began dissecting the situation, suspicion quickly grew that a Traitor must have been among that losing team. With numbers steadily shrinking, Series 2 star Paul exclusively told ED! that this line of thinking could soon put Stephen firmly in danger.
“Stephen’s a little bit on touchy ground at the moment,” he said on behalf of 10bet Casino.
“He’s had a little bit of a dungeon moment, as I had in Series 2, where it might just keep pointing back to him who was in the room with Ross. You know, like, ‘You must be a Traitor’ because more people are going to be banished and murdered, and he’s obviously going to remain.”
Paul believes Stephen could survive until around episode seven or eight, but warned that longevity may only increase suspicion.
“As soon as that table gets smaller, it’s going to be like, ‘Hold on a minute, how are you still here?’ So that might crop up at some point, depending on how long Ross stays,” he said.
Out of the remaining Faithfuls, Jessie appears most convinced by the small group theory. If others begin to follow her lead, Stephen’s time in the castle could soon be up.
Read more: Traitors star insists Amanda ‘should have been killed first’ as he opens up about huge ‘threat’
The Traitors continues at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Thursday January 8, 2026.
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