->'''Baroness Rodmilla De Ghent:''' Jacqueline, ''darling'', I'd hate to think you had anything to do with this.\\
'''Jacqueline:''' Of course not, Mother. I'm only here for the food.
-->-- ''Film/EverAfter''

It is a fact of life that, inevitably, the AlphaBitch has [[LaserGuidedKarma her moment of comeuppance]]. Just when this moment occurs, the last person you would expect, someone who has always been a loyal member of the GirlPosse, in some cases even the BetaBitch, turns on the Alpha Bitch at the perfect opportune moment, inadvertently aiding the heroes in the process.

Sometimes, this is to [[TheStarscream take the Alpha Bitch's place in her own right]]. Sometimes, [[PostSupportRegret the backstabber suddenly realizes that the Alpha Bitch is simply a miserable human being, and not worth the loyalty]]. Sometimes the backstabber is motivated by some form of {{revenge}}, [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]], or ambition. Whatever the reason, the backstabber's actions will aid the story's heroine (who is inevitably an outcast and the target of the Alpha Bitch's derision). Thus, [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork the backstabber ends up doing the heroine's dirty work without the heroine having to get her hands dirty taking down the Alpha Bitch on her own]]. The backstabber often never realizes this, and such a result is frequently the furthest thing from the backstabber's mind when she moves to betray the Alpha Bitch. However, the backstabber often won't object to the heroine benefiting, as long as the Alpha Bitch is made to suffer, and they may even give the heroine a few concessions. Of course, in some stories, the backstabber might outright ''recruit'' the heroine into helping her do this, and you can expect the latter to be initially suspicious.

Occasionally the character has been pretending to be TheDitz but [[ObfuscatingStupidity is smarter than anyone suspects]]. Occasionally, the heroine manipulates a loyal member of the Girl Posse into taking this action, and that member is usually the weak link in the chain.

Sister trope to TheDogBitesBack (with which it can overlap if the Alpha Bitch is dumb enough to abuse her own posse) and EtTuBrute. Also sometimes overlaps with TheStarscream, though it is much more frequent that Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch comes out of nowhere and the Starscream is usually obvious from scene one. (And if the Alpha Bitch in question is really a LovableAlphaBitch, that makes this character an EvilChancellor.) Can overlap with InsidiousRumorMill if the heroine deliberately manipulates the BetaBitch and GirlPosse to turn against the AlphaBitch using MaliciousSlander. Contrast ProfessionalButtKisser.

!!As this is a {{Betrayal Trope|s}}, [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff unmarked spoilers abound]]. [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned Beware]].
[[noreallife]]
----
!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* This happens to Manami in ''Manga/Life2002'', when one of her GirlPosse tells the teachers about her bullying. This causes Manami to bully her to the point where [[spoiler:she [[BungledSuicide attempts suicide]]]].
* In ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', the AlphaBitch Nanami gets backstabbed by her GirlPosse (Keiko, Aiko, and Yuuko) as part of [[BreakTheHaughty her breakdown.]] TheStarscream girl member ([[spoiler:Keiko Sonoda, the one with GirlishPigtails]]) remarks that it felt good to ''finally'' tell Nanami how they all felt about her, that they had gotten tired of exploiting her popularity, and then takes over the gang. Nanami's recent treatment of the girl, based on jealousy, didn't exactly help her.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/{{CONSEQUENCES|MiraculousLadybug}}'': One installment, [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27702113 “BULLYING”]], [[DeconstructionFic deconstructs]] the FandomSpecificPlot of Marinette getting bullied by her classmates on [[ManipulativeBastard Lila’s]] false accusations. The class actually caught onto [[BitchInSheepsClothing Lila’s true nature]] a long time ago, but instead of confronting her immediately, they continue to act as her loyal followers and pretend to bully Marinette for her, all while gathering evidence of her schemes and manipulations before finally luring her into an EngineeredPublicConfession with her mother and school staff in hiding.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
* Anastasia from ''WesternAnimation/CinderellaIIIATwistInTime'' does this to her mother Lady Tremaine. Not only that, but she goes full CallingTheOldWomanOut on her mother, calling her out for not letting her have her own life and illusions [[spoiler:and having tried to use her in her plans before]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
* Jaqueline, the [[HollywoodHomely "ugly"]] stepsister in ''Film/EverAfter'', rebels against her mother and sister's shameless [[TheVamp vampiness]] after realizing they considered her just barely higher on the family's totem pole than Danielle (who they had made a servant in her own home and denied all happiness) and after being casually dismissed as never being able to attract ''any'' royal's attention at the ball ("You're only going for the food"). She wisely decided to help Danielle dish them out a karmic comeuppance. She's also the one who patched Danielle up after the whipping and expressed the opinion that her mother and sister had crossed a line, well before there was any profit for her in doing so. She also shows disgust when Marguerite tries to steal Danielle's mother's dress early in the film, so it is clear she sympathizes with Danielle from the get-go.
* In ''Film/HappyDeathDay'', while stuck in a GroundhogDayLoop where every day ends with her death, protagonist Tree at one point demonstrates her decision to get over her own 'Alpha Bitch' status by tipping chocolate milk over the head of Danielle, the leader of her sorority (although it technically doesn't count as this was not Tree's final 'loop', with the result that Tree's the only one who even remembers this happened and Danielle continues as per normal once time progresses beyond this day).
* Heather Duke from ''Film/{{Heathers}}'': After Heather Chandler's death, Heather Duke quickly becomes the new queen bee. Of course, [[MeetTheNewBoss Heather Duke morphs into this role herself rather quickly]].
* Tiara Gold in ''Film/HighSchoolMusical 3'' does it to Sharpay, but it ultimately backfires.
* In ''Film/TheHouseBunny'', the Zetas are just one pledge short of the minimum, so the AlphaBitch demands they be shut down. Just then, her much-abused friend decides she's finally had enough of being belittled and [[BreastAttack punched in the chest]] and announces that she will pledge Zeta as well. (Made all the more satisfying when the AlphaBitch is ''herself'' [[HoistByHisOwnPetard punched in the chest at the end of the scene]]!)
* In ''Film/{{Jawbreaker}}'', just as Courtney is being crowned prom queen, she gets her comeuppance when her ex-friends broadcast over the sound system her confession to killing Liz.
* Cady in ''Film/MeanGirls'' is an odd case of the heroine doing her own knifing. Jo Mitchell has this happen to her in the sequel.
* Lisa Luder in ''Film/RomyAndMichelesHighSchoolReunion'' waits until the reunion before confronting queen bee Christy Masters. Lisa seems to be motivated more by moral outrage and personal dislike of Christy than traditional jealousy. The flashbacks show Lisa had always been a more independent thinker than the rest of the group.
* Tia from ''Film/{{Saved}}'' waits until the prom to destroy Hilary Faye's reputation by proving that she performed the vandalism on the school for which the heroine was blamed.
* From Amanda Bynes' ''Film/SydneyWhite'', a modern retelling of "Literature/SnowWhite", sorority president [[AlphaBitch Rachel Witchburn]], after much verbal and emotional abuse to several people, including her sorority sisters, finally got stripped of her presidency and her regime by said sisters.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* The YA novel ''Literature/LetsGetLost'' has a rare example of this trope where the AlphaBitch in question is ''the protagonist'' and her getting backstabbed is deconstructed, as Isabel is betrayed just as she's started to become a nicer, happier person, confirming her fears that being kind makes you weak, and the girl who takes her place as Queen Bee sinks to even worse behavior that Isabel herself ever stooped to.
* In ''Literature/{{MARZENA}}'', Livia is set up to become a [[TheStarscream Starscreamer]] and take down Marian with the help of Helena, although it turns out later to be only a clever ruse to gain Helena's trust ([[SequelHook or was it?]])
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* In ''Series/EightSimpleRules'', one of the sisters explicitly invokes this trope.
* ''Series/{{BIA}}'': Mara is Carmín’s assistant, who has grown sick and tired of the bad way she is treated by her. She has already started to sabotage her and is plotting to destroy her web fame. Following the downfall of her web fame Carmín closes her channel and Mara becomes the new [[AlphaBitch Queen of Laix]].
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer:'' Harmony does this to Cordelia after it becomes public knowledge that she's been dating Xander. Arguably an {{Inversion}}, however -- Cordelia was a LovableAlphaBitch by this point, while Harmony really had no such depths. (She eventually gained some, but only after graduating, becoming a vampire, and transferring to ''Series/{{Angel}}.''
* ''Series/ControlZ'': Nearly all of the persons within the popular clique backstabbed Isabela in different ways before and after she was outed as transgender.
* In ''Series/{{Glee}}'' season 2, former head cheerleader and AlphaBitch Quinn tells Coach Sue Sylvester of New Cheerleading Captain Santana's boob job to get Santana demoted and put herself back on top.
* In ''Series/GossipGirl'', Penelope constantly is doing this to Blair.
* This trope is a major plot point in the early 1990s Canadian teen soap opera ''Series/{{Hillside}}'' (broadcast on Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} as ''Fifteen'' and starring a young Creator/RyanReynolds). The Alpha Bitch is the manipulative, conniving Brooke, who lusts after Hillside School's star athlete Matt and dedicates her life to trying to break up his relationship with "Little Miss Perfect" Ashley (played by Laura Harris). Little does she know that her own BFF and BetaBitch Kelly (played by future anime voice actress Enuka Vanessa Okuma) has her own plan to ruin Brooke, and is even involving Brooke's own sister...
* ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'' has Miu being attacked and sabotaged [[spoiler:by one of her GirlPosse in a beauty pageant. The latter became a zodiart monster, too.]]
* ''Series/LizzieMcGuire'': When Kate breaks her arm, Claire kicks her out of the cheerleading team, takes over as captain, and quickly proves herself to be much worse.
* In the finale of ''Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue'', Diabolico does this to [[BigBad Queen Bansheera]], helping Carter out of the Shadow World portal and closing the lid for him, while [[DraggedOffToHell taking Bansheera into the Shadow World]].
* ''Series/AlRawabiSchoolForGirls'': Inverted with Rania who's more than ready to be the fall guy for Layan and her friends, because she knows that as bad as the abuse she faces at home is, Layan's family is much, [[AxCraxy much worse]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* In Wrestling/{{W|OWWomenOfWrestling}}omen Of Wrestling RichBitch Lana Star befriended an awkward chemist, Poison, in order to gain a minion. When Poison realized she was being used she [[RivalsTeamUp teamed up]] with Star's favorite target Ice Cold to put green dye in Star's shampoo.
* On Monday Night Raw, Wrestling/CandiceMichelle turned on Wrestling/TorrieWilson, the de facto leader of "Vince's Devils", after Wilson's efforts to help Michelle win Wrestling/{{WWE}}'s Women's Championship backfired. That's right, the alpha bitch was brought down by trying to do something nice.
* After Wrestling/AngelinaLove got deported, the remaining [[Wrestling/TheBeautifulPeople Beautiful People]] went to the Knockout Tag Team Champions Wrestling/{{Sar|ahStock}}ita and Wrestling/TaylorWilde to apologize for every bad thing they had done in Wrestling/{{TNA}}, saying it was all Angelina's fault. We were then introduced to Lacey Wrestling/{{Von Erich| Family}}, Angelina's "replacement", who immediately joined Wrestling/VelvetSky and Wrestling/MadisonRayne in assaulting Taylor Wilde and Sarita. When Angelina Love did return to TNA, well she didn't appreciate being [[TheScapegoat scapegoated]] and "replaced" and backstabbed her former stablemates.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Downplayed in ''VideoGame/TheSandman2014''. Regan's GirlPosse loves to stand around and giggle while she insults and belittles Sophie. When Sophie finally stands up for herself by insulting Regan right back, her 'friends' laugh at her expense.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/AttackOnMika'': In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vZEwG57NWM "The queen bee of our class invited me to the pool in hopes of embarrassing me…"]] Habumi's GirlPosse abandons her after [[ShrinkingViolet Suzuka]] wins the pool park's swimsuit contest, revealing they only stuck with Habumi just to get boyfriends. This, along with losing to Suzuka, causes Habumi to break down and assault one of her former minions, resulting in her getting kicked out of the pool park.
* ''WebAnimation/MangaSoprano'':
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8-gfzT4b0c "I was forced to enter the contest, but my brother, a former yakuza, helped me out"]]: After Kanade's SchoolSwimsuit outshines Maria's at the swimsuit contest, [[spoiler:Maria and her GirlPosse chew her out for it only for Kanade's Yakuza brother, Kairi, to show up right when she admitted to destroying Kanade's bikini. As a result, Maria's posse sells her out to Kairi and pins the blame entirely on her to save their own skins.]]
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cld-0lS_ZmA "I was forced to participate in a swimsuit contest as a foil →My brother gave me a cute swimsuit..."]]: Kanade outshines Erica at the beach's swimsuit contest and Ram calls her out for being stuck-up. Teruyama and Karin, her minions, abandon her because Kanade has connections with the famous model Ram, but she also calls both girls out for trying to leech off of Kanade.
* ''WebAnimation/TheMostPopularGirlsInSchool'' is full of this.
** Deandra does this in season 1 to both [[CruelCheerleader head cheerleader]] Mackenzie Zales and socialite Shay Van Buren, taking advantage of their rivalry by [[PlayingBothSides selling them out for the other while pretending she is fully on their side to get perks]].
** It is revealed that Shay and Mackenzie’s rivalry began in third grade when Mackenzie [[WeUsedToBeFriends betrayed their friendship]] by deserting her on the playground when she got injured to steal the head cheerleader position from her, and has kept ever since, a title that every woman in Shay’s family before her has held, making Shay the first girl in her family to never be head cheerleader.
** Ashley Katchadourian turns on her fellow Overland Park cheerleaders after Trisha mistakenly blows up at her for not watching the bathroom door and blames her for [[spoiler: Deandra getting her arms ripped off]] and Brittany steals her boyfriend at prom. She joins forces with the rival Atchison cheer squad, trying to help sabotage the Overland Park squad and then officially joining the Aitchison squad at cheer nationals so that her former cheer teammates would not have enough members to compete themselves.
** Deandra believes that this happened to her when she was an Atchison student. Back then, she was head cheerleader and AlphaBitch, while Tanya Berkowitz was her BetaBitch. Then one day, right before the Homecoming game, Tanya gave Deandra a pack of Pop Rocks while she was having tummy troubles because of three chili dogs and a load of Mountain Dew. Right when she was at the top of the pyramid, the Pop Rocks, swallowed whole, [[PottyEmergency triggered diarrhea that bombed]] on the whole cheer squad holding her up, [[FallenPrincess destroying her reputation at Atchison High]], leading her to seek a fresh start at Overland Park. Deandra thinks that Tanya gave her the Pop Rocks on purpose, but some of the OP cheerleaders point out it was unlikely she knew of Deandra’s stomach issues before.
** It is revealed at the beginning of Season 3 that [[spoiler: [[GreaterScopeVillain Jenna Daurabond]] has [[TheChessmaster been pulling the strings behind the conflicts]] of the previous seasons]] to get back at Mackenzie for backstabbing her, telling her to back off Ashley’s boyfriend because of “girl code”, and [[{{Hypocrite}} then making out with the guy herself]]. She takes this betrayal even further by attempting to change what is considered cool and popular, rendering Mackenzie and her GirlPosse obsolete as popular girls.
** [[spoiler:Season 4's main plot is Brittnay doing this to Mackenzie. After 8-and-a-half years, she's had enough of her. They reconcile at the end.]]
* ''WebAnimation/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers'': [[spoiler: You'd think this would count with Desti when she suffers a literal case of this courtesy of a false Sephiroth created by [[BigBad Francis]], [[SubvertedTrope except she was murdered after having shortly before redeeming herself and reconciled with Meggy]]]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/ComingUpViolet'', swapping the spiked and non-spiked drinks.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Happens to Azula from ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' during "The Boiling Rock", when Mai and Ty Lee turn on her. As Azula thought she held total command over them, their betrayal makes her paranoid of everyone she commands and is one of the contributors to her VillainousBreakdown.
%%* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}''
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Grojband}}'': After spending the whole series abusing her and treating her as a slave, Trina abandons her BetaBitch Mina on Earth in the GrandFinale to be wiped out with the rest of the world by an asteroid so she can be with Nick forever. Mina snaps as a result of this and chooses to help Grojband destroy the asteroid by giving them their equipment before unleashing an awesome verbal tirade against Trina about all the crap she's been forced to put up with and how she gets no appreciation for her efforts.
* Roxy does this to Pizzazz in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' episode "Roxy Rumbles". After Jetta and Pizzazz make fun of her due to her [[NeverLearnedToRead inability to read]] she calls them out and quits the band. She ends up returning a few days later due to her contract.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Crusaders of the Lost Mark", Silver Spoon turns against Diamond Tiara [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal after being treated badly one too many times]]. It's this little bit that sends Diamond spiraling toward a long-awaited HeelFaceTurn.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' episode "Outcast Ashley", Ashley B. and the other two Ashleys kick Ashley A. out of the clique for forgetting "Purple Day" (the anniversary of the day they first met where they all wear purple; Ashley A. was wearing yellow), and so Ashley A. decides to hang out with [[TheSmartGuy Gretchen]] for a while. However, the other Ashleys end up befriending her, and then in the end, they leave Gretchen behind and Ashley A. returns to the group.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Island'' episode "Paintball Deer Hunter", Beth betrays Heather by shooting her repeatedly with a paintball gun after being bullied and bossed around by her for the entire season. Lindsay, Heather's other stooge, even joins in on the fun. Sadly, Beth is voted off soon after and Lindsay goes right back to working for her again...up until "That's Off the Chain" where Lindsay is eliminated, but nonetheless delivers her a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech so epic that most of it is bleeped out. Later, in the penultimate challenge of the season, [[LaserGuidedKarma it is Lindsay's dare that ultimately gets Heather eliminated]].
[[/folder]]
----