It was a dramatic exit but, for better or for worse, The Bachelorette didn’t shy away from showing deceased cast member Eric Hill’s ups and downs on the show.
We’re going to take a page from The Bachelorette‘s playbook tonight. Instead of focusing on the dates and the roses, we want to focus instead on cast member Eric Hill, who was killed in a paragliding accident shortly after his exit from the show. Tonight, we all got to see how he left the show and, admittedly, it wasn’t very pretty.
The Bachelorette review: Best and worst premiere moments >>
We don’t know Eric. Never had the opportunity to meet him but based on what we saw in the show, we don’t think he would have shied away from the confrontation between himself and Andi being broadcast. Like Andi pointed out, Eric liked to live on the edge a bit, pushing the boundaries. Plus, the argument we saw tonight, right before his exit, seemed really real and heartfelt like Eric himself.
From our perspective, Andi misunderstood what Eric was trying to express during their one on one time. She got upset, and he didn’t do a really effective job clarifying. Again, this may prove that they just weren’t a compatible match, but we think he had genuine feelings for Andi. More than that, we’re confident his conversation with her before the rose ceremony was meant to be a bonding moment from his perspective, not an offensive instance of pointing the finger.
Jason Biggs mocks fallen Bachelorette contestant Eric Hill >>
When Eric accused Andi of putting on a “poker face” for the cameras, he was trying to express his desire for the two to have a real and meaningful connection. Of course, bad choice of wording, but he’s a boy and sometimes guys and girls can have honest intentions of communicating that just end up failing.
He probably expected Andi to say something to the effect of, “Really, I’m not acting for the cameras at all! What do you want to know about me?” Instead, she took it really, really personally. From what we can tell, Andi isn’t fake at all so we could see how she would take Eric’s statement the wrong way. Just a whole bunch of really serious miscommunication that ended poorly. Again, it sounds like Andi was right when she said the relationship just wasn’t going to work because, “I cannot fight for somebody who doesn’t believe in me, and I don’t think you do.”
“If you think I don’t believe in you, it won’t ever work,” Eric wisely responded. “…But I did believe in what we had on that first date.”
INTERVIEW: Could host Chris Harrison be the next Bachelor? >>
And they did have an amazing and genuine first date.
When Eric exited, there was a moment where we felt the show might not have done him justice by leaving that as his ending. Was it even worth it to show the fight? Luckily, Chris Harrison swooped in for some heartfelt time with Andi, where they discussed Eric’s tragic death.
Andi opened up about his exit from the show, and it was apparent she struggles with accepting his death. She said that while she would have liked to have seen him at The Men Tell All episode so they could have a moment to let the past be “water under the bridge,” she doesn’t regret the fact that they concluded they weren’t compatible.
Poor Tasos got the axe from the show tonight without so much as a rose ceremony for a sendoff, but The Bachelorette chose to use their TV time to discuss Eric instead, and we can’t exactly fault them for it. It’s very clear he will be missed by all: the producers, his fellow contestants, all of us who watched from home and, of course, Andi.
Leave a Comment