BBC/Studio LambertWarning: This article contains spoilers for series three of The Traitors.
A banished Traitors contestant whose parting words have been called “iconic” by fans says they wanted to leave the show “with a smile”.
The BBC One show challenges contestants, known as “faithfuls”, with identifying a group of imposters within their ranks.
Those traitors attempt to secretly pick off the others while remaining undetected and directing suspicion elsewhere.
The latest faithful to be banished from the Scottish castle where the show is filmed says that a traitor kicked out previously “messed everything up” for him.
Dr Kasim “Kas” Ahmed tells BBC Asian Network News that Armani, who was unmasked in the previous episode as a traitor, had defended him with “the best of intentions”.
But he thinks she ended up sealing his fate instead.
“After Armani went, everything seemed to fall on me, and it didn’t matter what I did,” he says.
“Everyone had just decided that I was a traitor.”
Kas, who has returned to shifts in the A&E department since filming the show, says that being a doctor could have worked against him once the game got under way.
“I work in hospital. I’m used to things being a mess,” he says.
“I’m used to being in high-pressure situations and just being able to be myself, because you learn how to develop yourself and how to maintain your composure.
“But everyone else wasn’t used to dealing with it.”
Kas does agree, though, that some of the accusations thrown at him during the roundtable scene – where contestants must choose who to banish – were “ridiculous”.
BBC/Studio LambertHe says his parting line – where he made others think he was about to admit to being a traitor before pivoting to the truth – was planned, but he did experience some last-minute nerves.
“When it came to it I was like, ‘Oh, God, I don’t know if I can do this,” he says.
Kas says he focused on host Claudia Winkleman, and when he noticed a smirk from underneath her trademark fringe, he plucked up the courage to drop his bombshell final words.
“I was like, ‘Okay, Claudia’s got my back here,” he says.
“‘Just look straight ahead and just say what you were going to say’.”
BBC/Studio LambertFans of the show have criticised other contestants for isolating Kas from the group.
In one scene he is shown walking into a room to eat lunch, before realising all of the contestants inside are talking to him.
The moment he turns around to leave and is forced to eat alone has been described as “heartbreaking” by viewers.
Kas says fellow contestant Fozia, who sacrificed herself in an episode one elimination task, was an “ally” during their short time together.
He says there are no hard feelings towards the rest of the cast but he admits he did feel isolated during those moments.
But he hopes strong words from Fozia about their treatment of him will land in the remaining episodes.
“I think hopefully that will trigger something in people’s minds to make them think, ‘well actually what we did here wasn’t really appropriate and shouldn’t have happened in the slightest,” he says.
“I would get that feeling from watching what happens after the next couple of episodes, that people’s mindsets change slightly with regards to how they’re respecting each other.”
