The Hills' Iconic Scene: Lauren Conrad Didn't Go to Paris

Being a fashion-obsessed teenage woman coming of age within the aughts meant that I had a vested curiosity in The Hills. All through the summer season after my sophomore yr of highschool, Wednesday nights had been sacred. I’d curl up on the sofa at 10 p.m. sharp, able to take pleasure in half-hour of pure, unadulterated drama within the type of Lauren Conrad’s sartorial adventures as a Teen Vogue intern and Les Deux bottle-popper in Los Angeles. Certain, there have been some unexpected hiccups alongside the way in which — her roommate-turned-frenemy (Heidi Montag) unexpectedly quits faculty to change into a membership promoter, an previous flame (Jason Wahler) with a severely unlucky chinstrap resurfaces — however basically the whole lot was copacetic till one fateful assembly along with her boss, West Coast editor Lisa Love, in season two, episode 1.

In case you’re unfamiliar (which, c'mon), the scene unfolds like this: After a brief and positively not candy summer season in Malibu with Wahler, Conrad (correctly) decides to finish her chaotic tailspin of a relationship and returns to the workplace, the place an especially salty Love is ready to debate why in god’s title Conrad handed on her internship supply. “Lauren didn’t go to Paris,” she says to fellow closet-dwelling intern Whitney Port, inside earshot of Conrad. “She’s gonna all the time be often called the woman who didn’t go to Paris.” A savage, Miranda Priestly-esque burn. 13 years later, it nonetheless stings.

Permit me to again up for some context. Within the season one finale, Conrad could be very a lot on the fence about her summer season plans. Certain, she and Wahler had supposed to lease a seaside home collectively, however that was earlier than she was handpicked for an internship working couture week in Paris. Paris! To cite Love, “Paris might be the only most necessary place to ever be within the style enterprise.” Montag and Port each inform her to take the chance, however nonetheless, Conrad is not sure, a lot to the dismay of each viewer ever. She proceeds to share the information with Wahler, who begrudgingly listens earlier than responding with an accusatory, “Are you going?” Reader: That is gaslighting. After all, everyone knows what she in the end did. The episode ends with Port assembly Love on the airport as a substitute of Conrad, and Conrad arriving on the Malibu home, the place Jason is ready, conveniently at sundown. Ah, younger love.

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There’s a cause why this particular second within the popular culture pantheon continues to plague me — it struck a selected chord. Regardless of having religiously watched The Hills in my late teenagers, I too uncared for to go abroad due to a boy — albeit London as a substitute of Paris for junior yr abroad — and, spoiler alert, we broke up too. Like Wahler, my ex halfheartedly inspired me to go. Like Conrad, I used to be blinded by my emotions and determined to remain. Years later, I nonetheless surprise if a special consequence would have seismically altered the course of my life. I in the end landed a coveted job in style and really feel usually fulfilled, however generally, I can’t assist however assume, will I all the time be the woman who didn’t go?

And but, I did go to London. And Paris. Conrad finally went to Paris too — in season three for the Crillon Ball, opting to take the journey as a substitute of spending time with a special smooth-talking fuckboy by the title of Brody Jenner (stay and study). Had I left New York that yr, I additionally possible wouldn’t have secured an internship at a shiny journal, à la Conrad, that might lay the groundwork for the aforementioned full-time gig.

Nonetheless, the road will ceaselessly hover within the confines of my thoughts as a continuing, nagging interior voice. Conrad could also be a profitable designer and New York Occasions bestselling writer, however who’s to say what might have been if she had simply bit the bullet and brought the rattling internship in Paris? All I do know is that now, a number of weeks into quarantine, I’m not sure when it is going to be secure to journey once more, not to mention to Europe. And there it’s, like clockwork: At all times select Paris.