The Bachelor: Vanessa Barfs Her Way Into Nick's (and America's) Heart

On Monday's episode of The Bachelor, Vanessa Grimaldi emerged as the woman most likely to marry Nick Viall. The special ed teacher from Montreal barfed her way to glory with her half-gross, half-adorable one-on-one date with Nick and planted her flag when she called Nick out for keeping the troublemaking Corinne around.

In a break from the two previous seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, in which Lauren Bushnell and Jordan Rodgers were obviously going to win from the very first episode, no clear frontrunner had emerged in the first two episodes of Season 21. But Vanessa had been bubbling up -- she topped a TVGuide.com poll predicting the winner -- and in Episode 3, she broke through.

First, there was her one-on-one date with Nick, on which they went up in a plane to experience a zero-gravity simulation. Vanessa charmed with her pure joy at the experience, screaming in delight, doing push-ups and making out with Nick as they floated around. Her hair looked amazing. Then came the descent, and she got nauseous. She wasn't having fun anymore, and we all felt bad for her. Then she threw up into a bag while Nick, the man she's trying to impress on their first date, looked on. Quel dommage!

But Nick wasn't turned off by Vanessa's sickness, cuddling her to make her feel better and even kissing her on the lips after she puked.

That was the moment where it became clear that Vanessa is likely to win, because Nick wouldn't kiss her after she threw up if he wasn't really, really into her. He likes her so much that even her barfy mouth tastes good to him.

Bachelor Nation was loving it:

Her popularity is quantifiable: between 9:45pm on Monday night and 9:45am on Tuesday morning, she gained more than 20,ooo Instagram followers, putting her over the 100k mark. (Corinne, by comparison, gained about 7k in the same time period, bringing her to about 67k.)

As if Vanessa couldn't get more likable, she then put herself over the top by calling Nick out for continuing to mess around with the immature, inappropriate Corinne. Vanessa was not afraid to tell Nick exactly what she thought, and looked like the grownup who knows what she wants in a house full of kids.

"I question what your intentions are," Vanessa said to Nick. She rationally brought up his caddish reputation and pointed out that this doesn't help. "I'm not judging Corinne, I'm judging your actions," she told him. "Are you looking for a wife, or are you looking for someone to f--- around with?"

Nick reveals why he gave Liz and Corinne roses

Nick had already sent Dominique home on the spot after she confronted him earlier in the episode. So Vanessa was taking a risk. But Nick didn't send her home; in fact, he looked scared. He doesn't want to disappoint Vanessa. She's got him.

Bachelor Nation loved her confrontation with Nick, too:

If Nick's not eating poutine at the end of all this, something went very wrong.

The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.