Was 'Bachelor' Season 28 Contestant Sydney Gordon Only Cast to Stir Up Drama? Here's What We Know

On Season 28 of The Bachelor, we meet 32 single, gorgeous ladies all vying for Joey Graziadei's heart. One of these hopefuls is Rhode Island resident Sydney Gordon, who owns her own vintage store, Folk Vintage Co., in Newport.

Like many of the other women at the mansion, Sydney is "so ready to find my forever person," per her bio on ABC. But unlike some of the other women, she has not distanced herself from the drama during her romantic pursuit. In fact, Sydney really stirred the pot in Episode 2 and seemingly started a smear campaign against contestant Maria Georgas. Is that really the proper behavior for someone looking to walk away from the show with a fiancé? Not really.

Below we unpack Sydney's actions and the claim that she's a producer plant.

In Episode 2, Madina Alam, who is 31 and the oldest woman in Season 28, started talking with some of the ladies about her age, claiming she was feeling insecure as Joey is only 28 years old.

Following Madina's candid admission, Sydney overheard Maria talking with another contestant about Madina's age.

Maria claims that Madina shouldn't feel "insecure" about her age. After all Maria, 29, is older than Joey, too.

In a confessional, Maria even says: "Madina, you are 31. Own it. Joey probably loves it," indicating that Joey probably wouldn't view Madina's age as too old but rather as an "advantage."

But when Sydney hears Maria mention Madina's age, she goes and snitches, telling Joey the other women that Maria is a bully.

When Maria finds out Sydney is slandering her she defends her stance that she doesn't view women in their late twenties and early thirties as old. But Sydney continues pushing the narrative that Maria is downplaying Madina's insecurities and poking fun at her vulnerabilities.

A few days after the episode aired, Sydney shared a video on Instagram explaining what gaslighting meant, which seemingly nodded to Maria denying that she was talking poorly about Madina. Was Sydney creating a genuine post on what gaslighting is or was she trying to rile up Maria's supporters even more? That remains a mystery.

Viewers weren't too keen on what Syndey did to Maria, especially as Maria seemed to have nothing but respect for Madina and her age.

Some started questioning whether Sydney was a producer plant, a term that is constantly thrown around in reality TV discussion boards. There appear to be several definitions floating around about what a producer plant is, but generally, it is someone producers may have created storylines for on the show. These folks may have had connections that also helped them get on the show.

In Sydney's case, viewers seem to think that the producers encouraged her to fabricate drama between some of the other women in the mansion.

Viewers also picked up on the fact that Sydney along with contestant Lea Cayanan, didn't go on any of the group dates in Week 2. It was unclear why Sydney and Lea were left out of the group other than the fact that producers wanted to stir up drama.

Perhaps she was excluded because Sydney was never there to find love in the first place, just to stir the pot.

Watch The Bachelor on Mondays at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.