It was quite a weird and winding path to Bluebell's being declared a historical landmark on this week's Hart of Dixie! Along the way, Zoe and Joel house-hunted, Wade tried to charm Vivian's son, and we found out that Shelby knows exactly who her baby daddy is. Oh, and George and Lynly predictably fell apart. Here's how it went down! I love that this episode is named for one of my favorite Vince Gill songs, incidentally.
Zoe and Joel's search for a house to lodge their doomed relationship in led them to two main choices: either the house being rented by Aunt Winifred Wilkes, who hates New Yorkers, or the house next door to Crickett and her husband, who like to sing showtunes 24/7. Zoe hatched a plot to get the prickly Winifred to like "Zoel" and rent to them, trying to simultaneously assist Wade with the fact that little Harley despises him and keeps throwing a wrench in his romance with Vivian.
Speaking of, little Harley was totally hilarious and I loved the horrible disses to Wade he got in at every turn, claiming that Cecil the salamander hates Wade. My favorite was after Wade gave Harley the cement mixer toy: "Cecil says he's gonna use it to mix up your brains." At least someone else besides the viewer and Zoe's subconscious is totally anti the Wade/Vivian relationship.
Wade's words in asking Zoe for help, when he claimed that he liked Vivian "more than I've liked anyone since a flaky New Yorker blew into town and, oh yeah, ruined my life," just brought back that same old Zade tension and chemistry we all love so much. It makes me question how much longer Season 3 is going to drag out the Zoe/Joel and Wade/Vivian relationships. I'm frankly ready to see things get shaken up a bit on that score.
Speaking of, George and Lynly finally called it quits after she burned Tansy's hair off. As adorable and pleasant as Antoinette Robertson is, I feel that Lynly has been a thankless role. The writers sort of vacillated over how intelligent or conniving she was at different times and never ended up giving her much personality. But who knows if she's gone for good? We'll see. I don't want to see a return to George and Tansy either, so here's hoping that George becomes more central to the main plot of the show moving forward. When shuffled off into his own subplot with uninspired love interests, poor George just seems to flail about, and he's too good a character for that fate.
Lavon worked so hard, with plenty of bubbly help from Annabeth (impeccably and gorgeously put together again...best dressed award!), to convey to the Lt. Governor that Bluebell was of historic significance. I loved the timed tour of the town with all of the Bluebellians coming up to tell Byrd of some contrived "historical" tidbit...especially when Dash did a practice run pretending to be the Lt.-Gov. Reginald VelJohnson is such a wonderful part of the show's ensemble...Carl Winslow FTW! It was also hilarious when Lavon told Zoe he had no problem with her and Joel leaving for the day, since that would ensure everything ran smoothly.
How fabulous was it that Tom's historical toilet ending up convincing Byrd to sign off? I loved that after everyone dismissed him, Tom turned out to be right. However, Lavon's best laid plans were again almost ruined by a crazy twist in the town melodrama. Seems that Shelby wasn't exactly honest when she told Brick she'd been artificially inseminated. In fact, she had a one night stand with Byrd about eight months ago, and after discussing this with AB decided to tell the Lt-Gov right away, distracting him from signing the papers to save Bluebell. It's a good thing it was merely a temporary distraction, and Byrd did indeed return to the Rammer Jammer to confirm that Bluebell was historic and would remain intact in its unique identity.
At Aunt Winifred's party, Zoe and Wade each crashed and burned in their attempts to help each other get into the good graces of their haters...until, that is, they were actually honest in their positive words about each other. This was also a nice little scene reminding us that "Zade" is still in each of their hearts. While Winifred ultimately decided not to rent to the New Yorkers, Joel compromised and agreed to live next door to the Broadway warblers. Once again, Joel showed himself to be a total sweetheart. I hope Hart of Dixie keeps him around after the inevitable split from Zoe, as it'd be really fascinating to see where life will take him afterwards.
After Shelby told Byrd of his impending fatherhood, he invited her to move away with him so that he could be in his child's life. Shelby immediately accepted (what about the cabaret?) and made her reunion with Brick extremely short-lived. Like all areas of the show, this plotline would have been notably enhanced by Lemon's presence and running commentary. I can't wait for the fabulous Ms. Breeland to return and infuse H.O.D. with her incomparable zest for love, life, and scheming once again.
What did you think of this week's episode? Share your thoughts in the comments!
