Vanessa Was Never the Villain of ‘The Ultimatum: Queer Love’

The Ultimatum: Queer Love is by no means a show that makes any sense. Netflix’s recently wrapped queer sequel to last year’s The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On has only proved that Netflix’s reality canon has gone too far, past the point of any realistic portrayal of modern dating and into a harsh, public-facing world of emotional terror and manipulation. Though the whole season was, to put it simply, a mess, there was one aspect that bugged me beyond all else: the show’s mistreatment of Vanessa Papa.

(Warning: Slight spoilers ahead for The Ultimatum: Queer Love.)

Vanessa appears with her partner, Xander Boger, who issues the ultimatum that all cast mates have ever given or received before appearing on the show. By the end of their time on the show, Vanessa needs to be ready to accept Xander’s marriage proposal or break up with her. That’s the basic premise of The Ultimatum: Several couples, where one person isn’t ready for marriage but the other one is, must briefly exit their current relationship and enter a new “trial marriage” with someone else participating from the show, in order to figure out if couples are ready to be together forever or need to carry on with someone new.

Read more at The Daily Beast.