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The Traitors: Semi-finalist says they applied for a joke

BBC/Studio Lambert/Llara Plaza The cast of the Traitors lined up in a church. L-R Harry, Charlotte, Andrew, Jaz, Zack, Paul, Jasmine, Ross, Charlie and Evie. The cast stand in pews inside a stone church with stained glass windows visible behind them BBC/Studio Lambert/Llara Plaza
The Traitors sees 22 players compete for a prize fund of up to £120,000

After 130,000 people applied for the latest series of The Traitors, just a handful will remain in the final later.

But one contestant says they only put themselves forward for the show "as a joke".

And they almost got the last laugh after making it to Thursday's semi-final and a tense roundtable session.

About 3,000 people applied to take part in series one of the hit show, but many more fancied their chances in the game of trust and betrayal this year.

Spoiler warning: This article contains details of Thursday night's episode.

Hosted by Claudia Winkleman, the Traitors sees 22 strangers gather in a Scottish castle for the chance to win up to £120,000.

A handful of contestants must pick off their fellow players, the faithful, with nightly "murders" while remaining undetected if they want to snatch the prize fund.

And one semi-finalist, banished just before the last episode, admits she didn't seriously think she had a chance of getting on the show.

BBC/Studio Lambert L-R Andrew, Jasmine and Ross at the Round Table in The Traitors. Andrew is a 45-year-old muscular white man with short brown hair. He wears a short-sleeved white shirt with his fingers interlocking in front of him on the table. Jasmine is a 26-year-old black woman with long braids. She wears a long-sleeved crochet cream top. Ross is a 28-year-old white man with short dark brown hair and a short beard. He wears tortoiseshell glasses and a silver chain over a black T-shirt. They are pictured inside the castle with dark wooden carved features and hanging lights. They each have a glass of water in front of them.BBC/Studio Lambert
Andrew, Jasmine and Ross all raised suspicion at the round table during the series

"I did my application in like five minutes on a whim as a joke," faithful Jasmine Boatswain tells BBC Newsbeat.

"And then I got to the semi-final."

The 26-year-old sales executive was banished at the roundtable when she was suspected of murdering fellow faithful Zack Davies.

"I had no game plan," she says. "It was just vibes.

"I'm not a very logical thinker so if I made myself a big, elaborate plan, I'd just get lost in it.

"So I just thought let me live day by day."

BBC/Studio Lambert/Mark Mainz Jasmine's promotional photo for The Traitors. Jasmine is a 26-year-old black woman with long braids. She wears a long-sleeved crochet cream top. She stands facing right, arms folded, and turns her head to smile at the camera. She is flanked by two cloaked traitors in front of the Scottish castle where the series is filmed and flames have been added for dramatic effectBBC/Studio Lambert/Mark Mainz
Jasmine says she didn't have a game plan and that it was "just vibes"

After four weeks of poisoned sparkling rosé, secret relationships and one of the show's most iconic villains, the series will end later with two traitors still in the game.

Shots were fired during the elimination and the atmosphere was nothing short of tense, but Jasmine insists they're all friends now.

"We're all going to be watching it together," she says. "It'll be really fun because it'll be a nice little reunion and we can all share our theories."

And that includes Zack - who was murdered by the traitors on Thursday just after leading a campaign to banish Jasmine.

"We started off as such good friends," Zack, 27, tells Newsbeat.

"And then circumstances just arise in the show, you start feeling a bit more passion towards one another, and in our case in a bit of a negative way.

"But since filming's ended we're really close."

BBC/Studio Lambert/Llara Plaza Harry and Zack at the Round Table in The Traitors. Harry is a 22-year-old white man with curly brown hair. He wears a grey checked shirt unbuttoned over a grey T-shirt. He has his left arm behind Zack while gesturing at him with his right. Zack is a 27-year-old white man with a shaved head. He wears glasses and a blue hoodie and looks at Harry, his hands under his chin. They are pictured inside the castle with dark wooden carved features and hanging lights. They each have a glass of water in front of them.BBC/Studio Lambert/Llara Plaza
Zack says he was blindsided by traitor Harry who he says was "pulling the wool over our eyes the entire time"

After leaving the show, Harry and Andrew were revealed as the remaining traitors to Zack and Jasmine, who says she was "gagged".

"Harry's just criminally under-rated," adds Zack, a parliamentary affairs advisor from London.

"I just didn't think that he was he was going to be working out those grand schemes that he did.

"And then it turns out he's obviously undercover the smartest person there."

It's a title Zack says he hoped to have for himself.

"I went on the show to figure out if I was as clever as I thought I was," he says.

"If I was clever, I wouldn't have been worked around Harry's finger like a puppet to get everyone out that he wanted me to."

Watch the final episode of The Traitors on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 9pm on Friday.

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