As every Bachelor viewer knows, Chris Harrison is prone to exaggeration (not every season can be the most dramatic EVER, Chris).
But we have to hand it to the guy -- he was telling the truth when he revealed that Victoria Fuller would eff up Peter Weber's entire season.
Of course, that might not be her fault.
There are too many Victoria scandals to recap here, so we'll just stick to the most recent.
If you caught Monday's marathon, 3-hour episode, then you probably recall the group date in which the ladies modeled swimwear with the hopes of earning a spot on the "digital cover" of Cosmo.
Hey, who hasn't been on that date, right?
Victoria won the day, but her victory was marred by a statement from Cosmo editor Jessica Pels that was published online as the episode aired.
You see, several years ago, Victoria wore a "White Lives Matter" hat as part of an ad campaign promoting the preservation of white marlin.
Was it a dumb, ill-advised joke? Absolutely -- but it seems that's all it was.
Still, the 2016 photo was enough to have Fuller stripped of the title of Cosmo cover girl.
"Unequivocally, the White Lives Matter movement does not reflect the values of the Cosmo brand. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, and any cause that fights to end injustices for people of color," Pels wrote in her article.
It's an important stance and a good statement, but as many have pointed out, it seems that Pels may have willfully ignored some of the complexities of the situation.
More on that later.
One of Victoria's defenders is none other than Peter himself, who has encouraged viewers not to pile on and harass Victoria over an insensitive joke she participated in when she was young.
"Just being completely honest, I can't really speak too much on it, because I don't really know many facts about the whole situation," Weber said in a recent interview with something called The Build.
"All I can speak on is the time I was able to spend with Victoria throughout this experience," he added.
"I truly enjoyed my experience with her. I really feel like she's, you know, a good person and she's got a lot of endearing qualities," Peter went on.
"I just hope people can form their opinion on her based on what they see between the two of us and her time on the show."
He concluded by pointing out that both he and Victoria are "not perfect" and "no one is."
Folks, what we have here is a thorny situation, the kind that demands the sort of nuanced analysis that grownups used to be capable of in the years before the manufactured outrage era.
To be clear, posing in a "White Lives Matter" was a major, major misstep on Victoria's part.
But was it any thing more than that?
Does anyone really believe she's an unrepentant bigot?
Seems more likely that she was just an ignorant 22-year-old who was excited by the prospect of a paying modeling gig, no?
And it's worth considering that while these days anyone still beating the "white lives matter" drum probably has at least one pillow case with eyeholes cut out of it, in 2016, the phrase was being parroted by Democratic presidential candidates while they were on the campaign trail.
Our point is, Victoria did a dumb thing, and being denied the Cosmo cover is a fitting punishment.
But we're with Peter in hoping that this doesn't turn into an online bullying campaign.
Hey, at least wait for the storyline where she sleeps with a bunch of her friends' husbands before you turn against the girl. Just kidding, Victoria!
