'Bachelorette Shocker': Bentley Williams Comes Back, and Ryan McClean Leaves Show in Frustration
One suitor returns, and another leaves in frustration.
June 28, 2011 — -- "Bachelorette" bad boy Bentley Williams, who infamously quit the ABC reality series after privately acknowledging that he wasn't attracted to bachelorette Ashley Hebert, returned to the show last night. His re-appearance, though brief, forced another suitor to quit the competition.
When host Chris Harrison first told Hebert that Williams has traveled to Hong Kong to see her and was in the same hotel where she was, she seemed stunned.
"Are you serious?" she asked, with tears in her eyes. "He's here. Is this a joke?"
Williams, a 28-year-old divorced dad who lives in Tampa, Fla., left the show in the third episode after openly courting Hebert, then bad-mouthing her behind her back. He told her that he missed his daughter back home, but privately confessed that he was not attracted her.
He had also expressed disappointment that the new bachelorette wasn't Emily Maynard, a former contestant on "The Bachelor."
Hebert -- a 26-year-old dental student from Maine -- has said she was heart-broken when Williams left, and unable to fully respond to the other men vying for her hand because she lacked closure with him.
Last night, she got that closure, and more.
Hebert went to Williams' room, and kissed him in greeting. The two sat on opposite ends of a couch, making small talk, but it soon became clear there wasn't a happy reunion in the making.
"Tell me what's up. Tell me what I've missed," Williams said.
Hebert replied that she'd had "a really hard time" when he left, to which he replied that he "selfishly" appreciated that. She also told him she still could not let go of the strength of her connection to him.
But when she pressed him for more meaningful discussion about his earlier departure and what his reappearance meant for them, he replied that his going home didn't bode well for their future.
"I would implore you to do all you can to see what you have here," he said, referring to the remaining contestants.
At that point, Hebert -- who has been criticized for being weak and foolishly obsessed with Williams, even though she hasn't seen his private confessionals of his true feelings for her -- spiritedly tells him that he should just "be a man" and tell her the truth about his intentions.
She also asked him why he had come all the way to Hong Kong to deliver bad news.
"You should have called," she said.
"I cannot believe I wasted so much time on Bentley," she said afterward. "He's a bad boy that wants to play women and has so many issues in his head -- He's such a player. He's disrespected me to the core."
"You know what? Bentley, if you're watching this, f**k you! I'm done with you," she said.
Following that goodbye, Hebert socialized with the remaining men.
On a date with J.P. Rosenbaum, with whom she says she has the strongest connection, she revealed that she had seen Williams at the hotel and had gotten closure.
Rosenbaum appeared shocked at first, but then thanked her for telling him the truth.
"I'm glad you got the closure you needed and I appreciate your honesty," said Rosenbaum, who told the cameras he is "crazy" about Hebert.
But the other competitors weren't as understanding when Hebert disclosed the news about Williams.
Some expressed surprise; others, disappointment. And some told her that they had left lives behind to devote to the competition, and to her, and felt that her continuing involvement with Williams had devalued their participation.
She seemed shocked by their reactions.
Lucas Daniels, who had a date with Hebert early in the show, said he didn't see how they could make up what had been lost.
"My biggest pet peeve is wasting my time," he told the other contestants.
Ryan "Mickey" McClean had the strongest reaction, telling Hebert in a private conversation that he wanted to be one of the contestants she sent home at the end of the show.
"There's two guys that need to go home tonight," he told Hebert, referring to the format of the weekly rose ceremony. "Just make me one of those guys."
Hebert seemed hurt. She told McClean that he should take the initiative and leave on his own. He did.
At the end of the show, Hebert assured the remaining contestants that she valued them and felt more for each of them than she ever did for Williams.
"I care about each and every one of you so much and I want you to know that," she added.
Blake Julian, 27, a dentist who lives in South Carolina, did not receive a rose and left the show disappointed.