If Sunday's exit was as obvious as the show's product placement, then Monday's exit from The Bachelor NZ was as unexpected as its occasional genuine poignancy.
In a move few people saw coming, Nina was sent home by Bachelor Zac Franich with a fiery exit that was the most honest emotional outburst the series has seen yet.
Her emotive goodbye, where she accused Zac of not giving her a proper chance, wasn't uncharacteristic of the mansion's most mercurial resident. She was known for making her emotions as clear as the show's Suzuki sponsorship.
But while her previous expressions veered nauseatingly into sappiness, her exit was a master class for every girl who's ever been dumped. And she's proud of it.
"I've never understood why the other girls haven't. If you really care about this guy, you should put up a fight when he says he doesn't want you," she says.
Nina came under fire for looking a little desperate, but doesn't regret how open she appeared onscreen.
"I'm not embarrassed at how open I was," she says of any backlash.
"Who cares. I like me. I like how I express my emotions."
Well, quite. If anything can overturn her public impression it's this steadfast defence of her emotions. But despite her staunchness, she admits she was surprised to go home.
She says Zac has established a pattern of getting to know a girl, then if he didn't give them a rose on their single date, he'd send them home.
"But he sent me home without spending time with me. I was like, what are you doing?"
Until Nina, most of the Bachelorettes have expressed the same level of regret at eviction as you would if you forgot your HOP card on the bus. But Nina's more petulant departure hints that maybe she actually was in it for more than the Insta follows.
"I had a crush! And I went in being open to dating this guy," she admits, adding not all of the others were as love-struck.
"You can tell which girls have feelings for him and which are just waiting it out."
The good news is that it looks like Nina is finding love again - she's dating someone, it's just in a more private way. Her new man has more opportunities to achieve what Zac never managed to and see her real self.
After all, as she says, "there's more to me than just Harry Potter!"
Newshub.
