Madelyn Responds to 'The Circle' Fans After Villain Strategy Wins Her No Love

Fans of The Circle know that there are two types of players who end in the finalist group: ruthless players and players who are just really likable. Madelyn Rusinyak was most certainly a member of the first group. The internet has little love for the player, who lied and manipulated her way to the final group and had no problem telling her their thoughts on social media as the season played out. Many called her a "villain."

Now that the finale has aired, the reality TV star responds to fans who have criticized her strategy and behavior on the show, letting them know what she thinks about their criticism. Here's what she had to say.

As Season 7 aired on Netflix, Madelyn mostly let the internet do their own thing with her behavior. She didn't defend herself and just focused on letting people see for themselves as the results of her strategy played out.

But now, the finale is over and she came in third behind second-place Kevin and winners Gianna/Jojo and Nicky. And she quickly took to Instagram to share her thoughts on all the criticism she has received this season.

Madelyn created a photo slide show on Instagram, and wrote in the caption, "The finale of The Circle is out now." She continued, "To the fans that I have DEEPLY offended — the last two slides are for you." The second-to-last slide showed a heart reading, "Jealousy is a disease, get well soon! xoxo." The final slide showed a meme of the middle finger being flipped, with the words, "Don't care, didn't ask, plus you're weird." Clearly, Madelyn is unbothered by the internet hate.

After being so effective at making fans angry and clawing her way to the top, many are wondering if she's actually as villainous as she seemed or just a great strategist.

If you listen to Madelyn herself, she's not very strategic at all. In an interview with Parade, Madelyn explained her strategy. She muses, "Everybody keeps calling me a very strategic player, but I don't know if I really am." She added, "I think that maybe I was lucky and I would make these decisions and I'd be like, 'OK, I'm going to do this. Actually, now I'll do this.' And I didn't really have a plan going into any of it."

Does that make her a villain? In seasons past of The Circle, we've seen people play the game ruthlessly, lying and scheming their way to the top. So are they all villains, or is the game just made for cut-throat strategies and broken promises?

It seems as though the answer is in the nature of the game itself. If Netflix didn't both want and expect people to be ruthless and betray their cast mates, they wouldn't set the show up for those strategies to be so easy to accomplish.

There have been winners who have gotten there by grace and at least slightly kinder strategies, but finalist groups almost always include at least one person who plays the game with laser focus and doesn't care who they hurt on the way to the top. Madelyn just played the game well. Not well enough to win, but well enough to get to third.