Hart of Dixie - Episode 3.04 - Help Me Make It Through the Night - Review: Grandma helps save the Titanic

Halloween arrived in BlueBell bringing with it some tricks and treats. This week’s episode found our favorite BlueBellians needing help in some way or another. We got to meet Grandma Breeland and found out Brick’s real name. Lemon met a mysterious gentleman while Wade played Casanova. AB called on Zoe to run interference with Lavon. Joel is trying to make friends while he settles into BlueBell. George could rival AB for being a good friend. Brick drank a lot of scotch as a way of coping with his mother’s arrival.

The Titanic that is her social life. Lemon’s social life is all but dead after her affair with Meatball became public and subsequently quitting the Belles. After Crickett refuses to relent on blacklisting Lemon from the Junior League Halloween Masquerade Party, there is nothing left to do but to call Grandma Breeland to help. Grandma Breeland calls in some favors and gets Lemon a date with Tanner Hughes, an insufferable tool who owns a plane and foams at the mouth. While at the masquerade Lemon meets Peter whom she had previously met at the Rammer Jammer when he was seeking some help for his flat tire. After sending her date into a panic about his plane investment, Lemon snuck out of the party with Peter. Not wanting their romantic night to end, Peter suggested that Lemon stay for breakfast. The next morning, Lemon woke up to pancakes and a kiss from Peter before he had to catch a flight to Scotland.

Each week Lemon continues to show how much she has changed since the first season. This week I felt there was a nice balance between season 1 Lemon and season 2 Lemon. She sparkled when Peter was giving her suggestions on how to torture Tanner. There was a natural and easy chemistry between Peter and Lemon. I am definitely hoping that Peter will find himself stranded in BlueBell again sometime in the future. Lemon deserves some happiness, and I wouldn’t mind seeing her have something with Peter.

A night she’ll remember forever. Lavon has promised AB a night she won’t forget to celebrate the anniversary of their first date when they pretended to be a couple last Halloween. AB thinks that perhaps Lavon is going to propose which has her excited until she has a health scare which makes her wonder if she will be able to have children. AB enlisted Zoe’s help to try to distract Lavon so he wouldn’t be able to propose until AB had the results of her tests. Dragging Joel along, Zoe crashed Lavon and AB’s night demanding that Joel and Lavon be friends and everyone play Celebrity until they have fun. AB broke down after she opened the door to an adorable little trick-or-treater. Fortunately for AB, her health scare turned out to be a small cyst on her ovary which wouldn’t impact her ability to have children in the future. Unfortunately for AB, instead of proposing, Lavon’s big surprise was a private viewing of “The Night of the Living Dead” on a 20 ft screen.

I was happy to see AB step out of the shadows this week and get a direction for where she is going. I foresee some relationship troubles ahead for her and Lavon since it doesn’t seem like they are on the same page as far as where they see things going.

That is a very large gentleman. This week Wade slipped back into his old habits which had him sleeping around with unavailable women. One of these women had a very large boyfriend who kept showing up at Wade’s house and at the Rammer Jammer looking to talk to Wade. To avoid the man, Wade convinced George to take him to the masquerade party as his plus one. At the masquerade party Wade hooked up with yet another woman who turned out to be Judge Perkins’ wife which prompted George to promptly get Wade out of the party fast. George played Dr. Freud this week and gave Wade his insight on why he was behaving the way he was which was due to the fact that Wade still wants Zoe and can’t have her. Although Wade unconvincingly denied it, he later turns down the girl with the large boyfriend when she asked him to stop over again.

I think the point of this whole plot was to show that Wade isn’t over Zoe and won’t be anytime soon. What wasn’t so clear to me was why Wade was sleeping with unavailable women. Was it because he didn’t want to have there be any chance of it turning into something in case Zoe becomes available? Or was it because he wanted to prove that he can have any woman he wants even if she is unavailable? Or is it a little bit of all of that? Either way I loved that George called Wade out and was straight with him. The George and Wade dynamic is one of my favorites on the show. And this week was one of the more genuine moments between them where I really felt that there was a long history between them and they were really friends who care about one another.

She’s a force to be reckoned with. Lemon’s grandmother is something else. A holy terror may be too nice. She has a way of getting things done whether she has to push or insult her family members to do it. Grandma Breeland didn’t back down from the disaster that was Lemon’s social life and also reminded Bertram, uh Brick, that he hasn’t escaped her notice either. I actually found Grandma Breeland to be a delight. She is very set in her ways and in such a way that it is funny to see her family just not falling into line with the way things have always been. I really hope we get to see more of her and if she deals with Brick’s life as well. Underneath her the tough exterior, I do think that she really just wants what is best for her family.

Joel is making friends. Zoe really wants Lavon and Joel to be friends. It seems like they aren’t hitting it off quite as well as Zoe would like. Instead Joel seems to gravitate toward Wade and has developed quite the man-crush on him. Zoe isn’t thrilled by this new friendship and tries to persuade Joel that Wade wouldn’t make a good friend. She knows this because she dated him and he is irresponsible and annoying. Could it be that Zoe doesn’t want her new man and her former boyfriend getting close because she still has feelings for Wade and it makes her uncomfortable? I’m also not sure why Wade seems to be pursuing this friendship either which I hope becomes more clear over the next couple of weeks. It is definitely an odd development. And while I’m sure that we’ll get some laughs out of it, I have to question how healthy it is for Wade to be so close to Zoe’s new boyfriend when as we saw he isn’t close to being over her.

Final thoughts. I felt that this was a much better episode than the previous one. Some of the other cast members got to come to the forefront and there was less of a focus on Joel and Zoe and Joel which made me happy. I don’t mind Joel as a character despite not really liking Joel and Zoe. As long as Joel is there to help the main characters’ stories and doesn’t become the story, I am ok with him sticking around. I felt like I got a little bit more of a direction on where the season is going, but I’m still left with a lot of questions. I’m not sure how I feel about the Joel and Wade friendship. I think it is fine for now, but I’m not sure I want to see it continue indefinitely.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Would you like to see Peter or Grandma Breeland return? Are Lavon and AB ever going to talk about taking their relationship to the next level? What is Wade’s motivation for being Joel’s new friend?

Be sure to tune in on Monday for another episode. Zoe desperately wants everyone to like Joel and for him to fit in. Joel finds out a little bit more about Zoe’s love life. And Lavon needs Lemon’s help.

Tracie
Tracie is a wife and stay-at-home mom of 2 residing in NJ. She likes to unwind with a good book or in front of the TV.. She is an avid reader of romance books. She likes to cook and bake. She loves to exercise and is trying to live a healthier life style. She watches a wide variety of TV shows ranging from reality TV to scripted dramas. Some of her past and current favorite TV shows are Sex and the City, Charmed, The Good Wife, and Hart of Dixie.