As the third season of MTV's The Hills wound down Monday, Lauren was decamping for a dream trip to Paris, while Heidi was homeward bound to Colorado to get some much needed space from Spencer.
As for what happens next, fans won't have to wait very long to find out.
On MTV's live Aftershow following the season finale, Lauren revealed that the series will return this spring with eight bonus episodes tracking her and Whitney's trip to Paris on behalf of Teen Vogue, as well the ongoing relationship drama between Heidi and Spencer.
"This season of The Hills is not over. We'll be picking up soon, and you'll get to see our whole trip to Paris and everything that follows afterwards," Lauren said.
Extending the run of its number one show was an undoubtedly savvy move for MTV, which saw more than 72 million viewers tune in over the course of the third season. Now, the network is playing to those viewers' addictions by giving them more of what they crave.
"MTV is giving the passionate fans of The Hills what they deserve—an extended season to catch up on cast relationships and finally see Lauren realize a long-awaited dream," MTV programming exec Tony DiSanto said in a statement about the bonus episodes.
The new episodes of the series are slated to premiere in March.
In the meantime, fans will be left to grapple with pressing questions such as, "Will Heidi and Spencer actually get married?" and "What's really going on between Lauren and Brody?"
During Monday's episode, Heidi told a coworker she felt like she was "in a relationship with a five-year-old" and needed "breathing room." Toward the end of the show, she was shown tearfully packing her bags for Colorado to put some much needed distance between herself and Spencer.
At the Hills after-party at L.A. hot spot Area Monday night, Heidi arrived alone, tellingly without her engagement ring. Though she told E! Online TV Diva Kristin Dos Santos that she and Spencer are "trying to work it out," she was vague as to whether her wedding is still on. (For more exclusive scoop from the after-party, check out Watch with Kristin.)
Meanwhile, Spencer told Ryan Seacrest on his KIIS-FM radio show Tuesday that the wedding was "definitely on pause," but that he was "madly in love" with Heidi, whom he considers "the most perfect girl on the planet."
All indications of a breakup aside, the duo were spotted together as recently as Friday at the Spike TV Video Game Awards, and were also seen Christmas-tree shopping late last month.
Aside from the on-camera tensions between Heidi and Spencer, there was still evident off-camera friction between Heidi and Lauren, as the former was whisked away from the Area event by MTV publicists before the latter arrived in order to avoid a confrontation.
Both girls have denied rumors of reconciliation, insisting they remain sworn enemies, as do Spencer and Brody, who also fell out in the aftermath of the feud.
At Area, Lauren also denied that she and her boy-who's-a-friend, Brody, are a couple, though she hasn't ruled out the possibility of a romance at some point in the future.
All in all, there's plenty of Hills drama to look forward to in the new year—even if, as Lauren recently admitted to Entertainment Weekly, it's not always all real.
"We're not filming The Truman Show, we don't have cameras set up all around our apartment, and they're not with us 24/7," she said, explaining why "reenactments" of certain situations are sometimes necessary.
"I mean, it's not lying to anyone, it's telling what really happened, but it's just the way they film reality shows."
Faux or no, it's a formula that seems to be working.