The Traitors has crowned its very first winner, and it turns out, Traitors do have more fun. Adelaide-based model, Miss Universe finalist and social media manager Alex Duggan was crowned the very first winner of The Traitors in a nail-biting finale that had us on the edge of our seats.
When host Rodger Corser picked the original Traitors, Alex wasn’t amongst them. Rather, Corser tapped Nigel, Marielle, Claire and Angus to be the Traitors, but soon enough, as villains often do, they turned against one another. First Marielle and Nigel both voted to banish Angus from the game, in order to strengthen their alliances with the Faithful, and then Marielle doubled down and voted to banish Claire, as well.
It was then that Nigel and Marielle were presented with the opportunity to invite a Faithful to come to the dark side. They chose Alex, because she hadn’t been making a lot of waves up to that point. No one suspected her, and she wasn’t loudly hunting them down, either. Nigel and Marielle thought Alex would make for a perfect shield, someone they could throw to the wolves as they continued on their Traitorous way.
“The moment that it happened, I was honestly kind of in shock!” Alex told POPSUGAR Australia over the phone after she’d become a Traitor. “I was like ‘oh my God, I don’t even know how to handle this, and I don’t know if I can handle this!’”
“The pros, honestly, were that I wasn’t going to be murdered overnight!” she recalled. “I was like ‘Yes! Okay, I don’t have to stress about that anymore!’ And also, you know, I have a better chance of survival in the game.
“The cons were that I had no idea whether I was going to make a good Traitor or not; I didn’t know if I had it in me,” she explained, adding that a good Traitor is someone who is “good at manipulation — and manipulation is not a bad word here — and someone who’s good at using what they’ve got and is good at adapting to all situations”.
As it turned out, though, Alex was indeed a very good Traitor. Quickly, she voted to eliminate both Marielle and Nigel in back-to-back banishments, and chose Kate as the final Faithful-turned-Traitor.
Going into the finale, though, there were still obstacles in the way on Alex’s path to victory, namely, her new frenemy and fellow Traitor Kate, an extremely strategic player, as well as Craig and Lewis, the season’s last standing Faithful.
Luckily, the final foursome were successful in the nail-biting final challenge, which saw all four players scale down the side of a waterfall to retain $40,000 in silver bars. This brought the total prize pool of silver bars to its maximum prize pool of $250,000.
In the Banishment Ceremony, Alex and Craig’s alliance proved handy for Alex. She talked Craig into voting Lewis out, which also meant that there was no way Craig could win the prize pool.
You see, if a Traitor gets to the end of The Traitors, they automatically win the entire prize pool to themselves. On the other hand, if two Faithful had made it to the end, the winner would’ve been presented with a choice: Either keep the whole prize for themselves, or split it with their fellow Faithful — with Alex, Kate and Craig as the top three, there was no longer a way for Craig to win the money, so really, it came down to Alex and Kate.
Despite feeling some guilt about knocking Craig out of the game, Alex had her eyes on the prize, and managed to convince Craig to vote against her fellow Traitor to get rid of Kate.
It worked, and with that, Alex took out the win.
Earlier in the season, Alex said that she plans to use the prize of $250,000 to begin a family with her partner, Tiffany Papaemanouil.
“For a gay couple to have kids, obviously we have to go through IVF,” Alex said, calling it a “gruelling, lengthy and expensive process”.
Congratulations, Alex!
Want more The Traitors’ goss? Check out the stories below:
- Everyone Who Has Gone Home So Far on The Traitors
- The Traitors: Champion Chess Player Jack Is 10 Steps Ahead of His Fellow Competitors
- We Asked Rodger Corser How Far He’d Get in The Traitors
- The Traitors: Fiona Is Strategic, Smart and Determined to Win
- The Traitors: Teresa Has a Superpower Up Her Sleeve
- The Traitors: Midy Hopes He’s a Faithful
- The Traitors: MK Is Used to Calling Out Liars
- The Traitors: Ethan Is Ready to Push Some Barriers
- The Traitors: There’s More Than Meets the Eye With Dirk
- The Traitors Is a New Game Show That Will Keep You On Your Toes — Here’s How to Watch
