The Bachelorette Recap: Find Out How Eric Hill Exited the Show

Find out what happened on tonight's Bachelorette as this week's two-night special came to a close

Tonight's Bachelorette was a somber one, as we said goodbye to Eric Hill, who passed away in a paragliding accident after his time on the ABC reality hit. In lieu of a final rose ceremony, Chris Harrison sat down with Andi Dorfman to talk about the less-than-ideal way Eric was eliminated from the competition.

But we'll come back to Eric's dramatic exit from the show a little later. 

The first one-on-one of the night went to Dylan. As they rode the rails, Andi was determined to get the shy accountant to open up to her, but he was clearly having a hard time with it. As they ate a romantic dinner on a train, he finally told her his story, which turned out to be a fairly devastating one. He revealed that over the past four years, he had lost both his sister and his brother and it had been incredibly hard on him and his mom. Andi cried into the camera, upset with herself for making Dylan talk about such horrible memories. She gave him a rose, promising that it was not a pity rose, and more about the fact that he was so willing to open up to her. 

Moving onto the group date, it was as basketball-themed outing, starting with some practice time with a group of female all-star players, who were clearly better than any of the guys. The practice session was sort of dismal, but once the guys were divided into two teams, things started to get interesting. The red team, the Rosebuds, was made up of Brian, Eric, Cody, Marquel and Nick. The white team, or the Five of Hearts, featured Josh, JJ, Chris, Patrick and Tasos. The Rosebuds quickly dominated, with pro basketball coach Brian leading them to victory, which meant that they got a more intimate date with Andi later that night. The Five of Hearts were understandably "miserable" over their loss.

At the game's "afterparty," Andi spent some time with a few of the guys. First up? Eric, because she felt that since their first date in last week's episode, their relationship had not progressed at all. His problem was that he wasn't comfortable in such formal settings and she said she felt the same way, but that's what the show is. Eventually, she got him to talk about his family and he opened up about leaving the Mormon church when he was 26. And it seemed like their talk completely got rid of her concerns. 

Next up was Brian, who took Andi out onto the basketball court to teach her how to shoot and completely impressed her with a half-court shot. He claimed to be completely smitten and beat himself up for not going in for a kiss. He's apparently terrible at reading signs. He was sure that today's rose was his to lose. Nick, on the other hand, went in for the kiss right at the start, and these two are clearly into each other. That's all they could really talk about, before they got down to some more smooching.  

Brian was clearly relieved when he got the group date rose, but it wasn't really a surprise. He clearly stood out the most, despite the lack of kissing.

For her one-on-one date with Marcus, Andi decided to face her fear of heights by making him rappel down their hotel with her. He realized he had to be "the man in the relationship," so he put aside his fears and helped her off the ledge, which she found very romantic. It was super cute when he got her to focus on telling him about her mom instead of looking down at the ground and he clearly earned himself a ton of points in her book. They had dinner and went to a concert later, and, as he yelled into her ear over the loud music at the concert, he's totally falling for her. 

In her hotel room, Andi wondered if she might actually find what she's looking for in this competition after all, and received a special delivery. It was a love note, from a mysterious secret admirer! Ooh!

The cocktail party brought a mixed bag of emotions and moments with various guys. Tasos told Andi he wanted to show her another side and Brian took Andi back to the basketball court to make up for the lack of a kiss earlier, which she was completely into. Marquel gave her a bit of a self-defense lesson and they both cracked each other up.

Then, Eric interrupted. He confronted Andi, feeling that she was actually the one who wasn't being herself around him. He felt he had only seen glimpses of the real her, and he told her he was there to meet a person, and not "a TV actress," which caused Andi to burst into tears. She told him that he had no idea what it took to make sure she was acting as natural as possible and giving each guy the time that he deserved. They could both see that something was wrong there and Andi suggested that he should leave, because they could obviously both see that this wasn't going to work.

So Eric left, and Andi, through tears, asked the other guys if any of the rest of them felt the same way as Eric. Instead of a rose ceremony, Chris Harrison simply announced to us that Tasos had been eliminated, and had a discussion with Andi about Eric and the way he left the show. She had nothing but kind things to say about him and regretted the chance to not have another laughter-filled talk with him.