Entertainment

Could Danielle L. Be Returning To 'The Bachelor'?

ABC

This season on The Bachelor, Nick Viall has completely abandoned much of the show's traditional structure, so does that mean all the rules are out the window? Does Danielle Lombard come back during Bachelor hometowns? The preview for the Feb. 20 episode promises a shocking return and shows a clip of a dark-haired woman knocking on Nick's door, so it has people wondering. There aren't that many women that shade of brunette who have left the show recently and could conceivably come back, and Danielle L.'s elimination was particularly surprising. Especially after Nick shared that, early on in the process, he had assumed he'd get engaged to Danielle L. in the finale. (What a fun thing to hear as you're walking out the door.) So could it be Danielle L.? Short answer: no.

As much as I'd love to see the small business owner come back and try to get an explanation out of Nick, I'm pretty sure that the woman who returns is a blast from a little further in the past: Andi Dorfman. It might sound crazy, but this is a format that the show has used before: bringing back the Bachelor or Bachelorette from a past season to give advice to the current star, someone they rejected on their way to "real love."

Jillian Harris and her then-fiancé Ed Swiderski returned to The Bachelor in 2010 to advise Jake Pavelka in his search for a wife, even though Jake and Ed had competed for Jillian's heart on The Bachelorette a season before. And just last season, ABC had engaged couple Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell sit in the audience for JoJo Fletcher's finale to give her advice, even though Ben had so publicly broken JoJo's heart on The Bachelor by telling her he loved her before sending her home and choosing Lauren.

So this is a pattern the show has used in the past. And,yeah, I think it's very likely that we're about to see it again, with the woman from Nick's very first season of The Bachelorette showing up to shed some light on his current process. Andi was the first woman he was prepared to propose to and presumably enough time has passed in between that season to let emotions settle down a little bit and foster a mature conversation. These two were once very important to each other, so I'm interested to see their dynamic now and the insight that Andi can bring to the table.

Not quite as excited as I would be to see Danielle L. return and give Nick a dressing down, but almost.