We Don't Talk Enough About The Ending of The Hills

Laguna Beach and The Hills hold an important place in reality TV history, and in my heart. I was obsessed with both shows and basically anything that had to do with southern California. Growing up in Pennsylvania, there was nowhere I’d rather be than the SoCal I saw on TV and heard about in music.

When Laguna Beach started in 2004, I was merely 10 years old but I was forever hooked, marveling at beach parties and Lauren’s hillside mansion. When it ended in 2006, The Hills picked up, following Lauren Conrad as she transferred colleges from San Francisco to LA and started an internship at Teen Vogue.

The Hills ran for six seasons, ending in 2010. By then, Lauren had already left the show and Laguna’s Kristin Cavallari took over as the main character. There’s so many iconic scenes that could be discussed in detail—the girl who didn’t go to Paris, Justin Bobby and his beach combat boots, Heidi’s complete body makeover. But we don’t talk enough about how the series ended.

Kristin meets up with Brody for a sad goodbye as she heads toward the airport, leaving LA. The Hollywood sign is perfectly in shot as they hug and he shuts the car door behind her. A montage plays. Then, suddenly, the background behind Brody moves and we see that he’s standing on a set, Kristin’s car just a few feet in front of him instead of down a palm tree-lined street like we just saw.

I vividly recall sitting in my living room alone and shrieking to absolutely no one. What did I just watch?! Did they just admit it was all fake? Three years earlier, I recalled sitting in the same room with my family as we tuned in to the now hotly debated Sopranos finale. As the screen cut to black, my dad yelled. Was the power out? Did someone sit on the remote? This was my Sopranos.

Entertainment Weekly said at the time that this episode wouldn’t be remembered as one of the most surprising series finales “because it simply admitted what we’ve all been saying for four years now.” But I disagree. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

I’m a fan of reality TV but I’m not naive enough to think all of it is truly real. Even if what’s shot is true, producers have a knack for splicing clips together, editing lines from weeks earlier over other conversations. It’s easy to make something look like something else. Important events that were missed by cameras are reshot, phone calls are faked. But you still hope that the essence of the show you’re watching holds some truth. You want to believe the characters you’ve come to love or hate are actually people.

The Hills is one show that faced a ton of scrutiny over being both heavily scripted and having far too much production manipulation. Brody and Lauren’s entire relationship, Kristin and Brody’s relationship, the drama between Spencer and Heidi—it was mostly all made for TV. (Though Lauren and Heidi’s friendship really did end over the rumors Spencer spread.) I knew it wasn’t all fact and still, I couldn’t believe how it ended. Maybe because it was the first and only time I could remember a reality show actually acknowledging their level of reality, but it felt monumental.

Cast members remarked at the time that it meant viewers could create their own interpretations of just how real the last few years had been, but it wasn’t a confession of fiction. Since then, we’ve learned more about all the setups and trickery. It should tarnish the feelings I have about the show, but I’m not sure it does.

A few years later, an alternate ending was released where there was no backdrop reveal. Brody and Kristin still say their goodbyes, but this time she really does drive off. He comes home to Lauren, the one that started it all. They comment about goodbyes being hard. And then they smirk at each other. Frankly, it was just as weird and while I like the idea of Lauren coming back to close it out, I’m not sure this ending would have been a better choice.

At the time the finale aired, it didn’t seem like anyone in my orbit really cared. If social media was then what it is now, I’m sure there would be much more discussion. My FYP would be only The Hills. Instead, it’s just me, still thinking about it 14 years later.

🌴 I’m not sure how I timed this issue of the newsletter with the release month, but sometimes things just work out that way. The Hills premiered on MTV on May 31, 2006, following the privileged lives of young adults navigating LA for six seasons. In 2019, MTV tried to reboot it with The Hills: New Beginnings. It was nice to see some familiar faces again, but you had to wonder, just how real was it this time? It lasted just two seasons.

🎥 The Real World: Season one of the groundbreaking reality series premieres on May 21, 1992, with its first group of strangers living together in New York City. The show ran for 33 seasons and the spinoff The Challenge is still running today. While watching it religious growing up, I always hoped that one day I’d be on it.

🐦‍⬛ The Crow: If you haven’t seen The Crow, you’re missing out. The hauntingly beautiful tale of love and grief turned 30 this year on May 13, 1994. A long-planned reboot it set for release this summer.

👻 Casper: The first theatrical release of the Harvey Comics friendly ghost is released on May 26, 1995. I still get scared over the Crypt Keeper cameo, but Casper is a yearly rewatch.

𖤐 The Craft: One of the best 90s movies about teen witches is released on May 3, 1996, starring personal favorites Neve Campbell and Skeet Ulrich. Many nights were spent playing light as a feather stiff as a board as a direct result of this movie.

🌍 Boy Meets World: The coming-of-age sitcom airs its last episode on May 5, 2000. Though Disney rebooted the show with 2014’s Girl Meets World, it didn’t have the rawness that the original had. There was just something different about 90s teen TV.