Every contestant on Matt James' season of The Bachelor is hoping for a fairy tale ending.
So perhaps it's fitting that there's an evil queen standing in their way.
Okay, "evil" might be a strong word, but there's no denying that Queen Victoria is this season's villain.
Every season has one, of course.
Hannah Brown had Luke Parker; Peter Weber had Victoria Fuller (there's something about that name!), and for Tayshia Adams it was Bennett, or Noah, or Covid-19 -- it was just a weird season all-around.
But while previous installments might have found viewers disagreeing about who most needed to be sent home, this time, everyone seems to concur that the Queen needs be dethroned before she does anymore damage.
On Tuesday's episode, Victoria went on the offensive against fellow contestant Marylynn and resorted to incredibly shady tactics in an effort to have her eliminated from the show.
Clearly taking a page from the book of past Bachelor villains, Victoria brought the matter to Matt and played the victim before Marylynn had a chance to tell her side of the story.
The plan seems to have worked -- Victoria can be seen in previews of upcoming episodes -- but it certainly didn't make her any friends among the other contestants.
After all, Marylynn didn't actually do anything wrong, and Larson has been antagonizing the entire cast from day one.
Now, some viewers are starting to feel that her villainy is a bit over the top -- and they're calling shenanigans on this season of The Bachelor.
Who could be so lacking in self-awareness as to call herself an empath after shrieking at a roomful of people and blasting mild-mannered Marylynn as "psychologically disturbed"?
And just as importantly, who would rock a black bra with a wedding dress or a weird peasant get-up for a televised cocktail party.
A plant! A paid actress! A professional troll!
Or at least that's what a lot of viewers who tweeted during the show believe.
"Is Victoria a producer plant, a true villain, or trying to get a bra sponsorship? FIND OUT NEXT WEEK ON THE MOST DRA-MATT-IC SZN YET" one person joked, as reported by Cosmo.
"I refuse to believe Victoria is actually like this in real life. She's got to be a producer plant, no one is this outrageous... right?" another person asked.
"This Victoria girl on The Bachelor is a plant right? Like... put there by the producers to cause chaos," a third viewer echoed.
"Victoria is a plant. You can’t tell me otherwise. There is no other explaination," a fourth chimed in.
Even Bachelor Nation fan favorite J.P. Rosenbaum thinks there's something suspicious about Victoria's behavior.
“The more I think about it, the more I believe that Victoria was planted by the show/producers,” he tweeted.
“She just doesn’t seem to fit the mold. Her ‘villain’ traits don’t seemed authentic. Her presence, attitude, etc. were so forced. No way she’s just a random contestant.”
There's been no official comment from ABC or Chris Harrison, but Bachelor producer Rob Mills appeared on Nick Viall's Viall Files podcast this week, and he dismissed the rumors outright.
“I think that the question is…why is she that way?" he asked.
"There’s always a story for how somebody became that way.…I don’t know that you’ll learn more now on The Bachelor, but I’m very curious about it, so maybe it’s something we’ll have Chris ask about or on Paradise.”
Well, at least he's basically admitting that she doesn't have a shot in hell of winning this thing -- but she should be damn entertaining on Paradise!
Here's hoping this season's annointed protagonist, Abigail Heringer, is able to triumph over the evil queen.