The third season of The Traitors UK may have ended a while ago, but one its most memorable players is enjoying a second wave of fandom across the pond.
After the American version of the reality competition drew to a close on March 6, streaming company Peacock decided to fill The Traitors-shaped hole in viewers’ lives by releasing the latest installment of the hit BBC show.
Which means that fans in the US are only just discovering some of season three’s greats – including retired opera singer Linda, who was branded the ‘Meryl Streep of the Scottish Highlands’ following her stint on The Traitors.
The Hertfordshire native, 70, quickly became a fan-favourite after the show premiered on New Year’s Day and host Claudia Winkleman selected Linda as one of three Traitors to do her murderous bidding.
Viewers in the UK couldn’t get enough of Linda’s antics and iconic one-liners as as she went about trying to hoodwink the Faithfuls in the face of intense scrutiny from her suspicious fellow contestants.
And while Americans may disagree with Britons on a number of things – from jacket potatoes to The Office – Linda’s excellent stint on The Traitors is not one of them, as fans on both sides of the Atlantic have been left equally delighted by her.
‘The Americans have just discovered Linda,’ on post on X, formerly known as Twitter, as viewers shared their favourite moments of her time on The Traitors.
Linda cemented her spot in The Traitors’ Hall off Fame right off the bat after she nearly gave herself away just moments after Claudia picked her, Minah, and Armani to be the first batch of Traitors during episode one.
The third season of The Traitors UK may have ended a while ago, but one its most memorable players – Linda Rand – is enjoying a second wave of fandom across the pond
After the American version of the reality competition drew to a close on March 6, streaming company Peacock decided to fill The Traitors-shaped hole in viewers’ lives by releasing the latest installment of the hit BBC show
Which means that fans in the US are only just discovering some of season three’s greats – including retired opera singer Linda, who was branded the ‘ Meryl Streep of the Scottish Highlands’ following her stint on The Traitors
Fellow contestant and the ever-Faithful Jake quickly clocked how Linda visibly reacted when Claudia said the show’s title aloud by turning towards her at the mention of ‘traitors’.
As time went on, Linda seized every opportunity to show off her acting skills – including when she turned on the waterworks after the other players discovered that Livi Deane had been ‘murdered’ by The Traitors in one episode.
Despite already knowing the 26-year-old’s fate, Linda began sobbing at the breakfast table in a bid to make herself seem like a Faithful in what many fans felt was a ‘BAFTA-winning’ performance.
Americans watching the action inside the show’s iconic castle unfold for the first time gushed over Linda, with one person writing she was ‘better than all the US s3 traitors’ while comparing the BBC series to its US counterpart.
‘Linda was better than all the US s3 traitors idc!’ their tweet read.
Another X user posted a compilation of some of Linda’s theatrics, with the caption: ‘The best to ever do it.’
A third person expressed their shock and upset over Linda eventually being banished from the castle halfway through the season, after her fellow Traitor Minah turned on her during a tense round table.
The heartbroken fan wrote: ‘JUST FELL TO MY KNEES THEY GOT MY MEEMAW [Southern slang for grandmother in the US]’
Americans watching the action inside the show’s iconic castle unfold for the first time gushed over Linda, with one person writing she was ‘better than all the US s3 traitors’ while comparing the BBC series to its US counterpart
Meanwhile, Britons celebrated Linda’s newfound fame in the United States, with one X user writing: ‘Ahh mate, it keeps getting better. We all love Linda.;
Another person said: ‘I’m so glad the americans finally got the traitors uk season 3 so they can all see just how iconic linda is.’
A mini comments war threatened to erupt after some British viewers posted spoilers for the season that concluded on January 25.
‘No spoilers – but it’s the 2 who you don’t expect who will walk away with everything, and the penultimate recruitment to the Traitors will turn the game on its head,’ one such comment read.
In response, a disgruntled American fired back: ‘”Says no spoilers'” Immediately spoils it.’
Brits weren’t the only fans that nearly spoiled the ongoing season of The Traitors UK for American audiences just catching up with it, after one person let it slip that Linda gets banished while sharing their disappointment.
In response, another X user shared: ‘What nooooo I’m not this far yet. They better not get Minah.’
‘I hope not, she’s sooo good,’ a third praised the 29-year-old call centre manager, who enjoyed a spectacular run as a Traitor while succesfully endearing herself to The Faithfuls.
Linda cemented her spot in The Traitors’ Hall off Fame right off the bat and went on to become one of season three’s most entertaining contestants
Viewers in the UK couldn’t get enough of Linda’s antics and iconic one-liners as as she went about trying to hoodwink the Faithfuls in the face of intense scrutiny from her suspicious fellow contestants
A mini comments war threatened to erupt after some British viewers posted spoilers for the season that concluded on January 25 while Americans were still catching up
‘Oh honey, a storm is coming,’ one UK viewer replied, seemingly referring to Minah’s fate on the show.
The Liverpudlian’s strategic gameplay carried her through 10 episodes of the show, until Minah decided to recruit Charlotte Berman as a fellow Traitor in a move that, ultimately, became her undoing.
Fans of the BBC series were shocked after Charlotte Berman threw her teammate Minah under the bus, just two days before the finale, ending Minah’s run on The Traitors.
Minah later broke her silence Minah on Charlotte’s savage betrayal on the show’s spin off Uncloaked, admitting she should have thought twice about her choice of teammate.
‘Charlotte, I had accused her on the second round table and she had proven her faithfulness so in my head I thought she is the only female who has proven to everybody that she is one hundred percent faithful therefore surely she will think that I want to win with her,’ she explained of her pick.
‘But looking back on it now, because I accused her she didn’t trust me one bit.’
Minah went on to say though that she wouldn’t change a thing about how she played the game.
‘I want to say I’d pick different but if I’m being honest with you I wouldn’t do anything different, I didn’t win but I went out how I wanted to go out with integrity,’ she said. ‘I was clear in my mission which was a sisterhood. I tried where possible to protect Linda, I never made rumours about Charlotte.’