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shallownessHart of Dixie - 3.6 ‘Family Tradition’
Zoe and Joel were starting to think they should get a place of their own, what with Dash’s lack of boundaries, (he’s their hotel proprietor.) Guess who owned a perfect house for renting? A Wilkes. My problem with this plotline is like Grandma Breeland, why not do it in seasons 1 or 2? Zoe not responding to their evites after meeting that one Wilkes that one time because she has issues with family only works so far as an explanation for them never being mentioned.
But, hey, via the power of ‘Dolphin Tale’, Zoe was chanting ‘family is forever’ and decided to crash an eight-year-old relative’s birthday party, but once there, instead of introducing herself, (or not going at all and reaching out in a smaller way) she pretended that Joel was a magician and she was his manager named…Chloe. So, she met the Wilkes clan under false pretences, and was bowled over by learning that the birthday boy’s name was Harley. But when she revealed who she really was to his mother, who’d been welcoming up till then, Zoe got rejected bigtime, after ignoring their approaches (retconned though they might be), running away to NYC, party crashing and lying.
Joel tried to make up for it with ‘you’ve still got MEEEE and my family.’ To which, yeah, whatever, new boy (and I wasn’t sure how invested to get in the Wilkes clan. Will they ever turn up again?)
But AB was having family trouble too. Having just returned from staying with her (retconned?) sister, she was suspiciously fine with Lavon going on a bachelor weekend to Vegas with football buddies. When he decided not to go, after all, he was dismayed to find a pair of men’s shoes when he let himself into her place. But they were her dad’s! And she hadn’t told her parents she and Lavon were dating because…it was written to make you feel bad if you dared presume it was because she’s white and he’s black, because this is not the show to explore that aspect of the American south. AB’s parents had a problem with her dating Lavon because of a football rivalry. In fairness, that rivalry is canon from back when they were fake dating.
Lavon agreed to try to charm the parents into getting over it, but it turned out that AB’s sister had told all, and their real aim was to get Lavon to propose, stat, which put AB in a horrible position, ending up having to tell Lavon that she was thinking of marriage (and with the baggage of divorce and what she now saw as the time wasted in her first marriage.) The strong sense coming over was that he wasn’t there (yet???), but could see her POV (and they never even touched the kids thing.) So, that was relatively touching.
But the plotline that really worked for me, despite its ridiculous silliness – the cook sets fire to the kitchen when she doesn’t lose an earring into the food, the Rammer-Jammer keeps losing staff because Wade sleeps with them, and, in the real world, you don’t sell or buy a business over two conversations – was Lemon and Wade’s business partnership coming to an end. It was mainly because of the nods to a romantic relationship breaking up in how they went about it, despite what was really happening. (Lemon claimed Wade was his best friend, when AB has done SO MUCH for her. Dump her for Zoe, AB!) Wade had been taking Lemon for granted, and even if it were retconned, Lemon’s love of Fancies was totally IC, while the Rammer-Jammer is slumming it for her. As she’d dumped the R-J for Fancies, even if (quelle surprise) she was outbid, Wade insisted on the business partnership being dissolved. Lemon admitted that she was still in limbo, trying to work out who she was, while Wade was clear that owning the R-J had always been his dream. Because of the underlying emotional truths, all this worked surprisingly well.
The fourth plotline was, quelle surprise, George finally admitting he’d fallen for Lynley’s wiles, because of his particular damage. Given that AB and Lavon are going through a rough patch, I expect he will live up to his threats about any guy ‘taking advantage’ of his ‘little cousin’ Lynley. Who knows how long this romance will last? George did have a nice moment of offering advice to Lemon over her dilemma, where he was loyal to Wade and cognisant of how well Lemon and Wade had worked together.
So, about half of this had some emotional resonance, at least.
Zoe and Joel were starting to think they should get a place of their own, what with Dash’s lack of boundaries, (he’s their hotel proprietor.) Guess who owned a perfect house for renting? A Wilkes. My problem with this plotline is like Grandma Breeland, why not do it in seasons 1 or 2? Zoe not responding to their evites after meeting that one Wilkes that one time because she has issues with family only works so far as an explanation for them never being mentioned.
But, hey, via the power of ‘Dolphin Tale’, Zoe was chanting ‘family is forever’ and decided to crash an eight-year-old relative’s birthday party, but once there, instead of introducing herself, (or not going at all and reaching out in a smaller way) she pretended that Joel was a magician and she was his manager named…Chloe. So, she met the Wilkes clan under false pretences, and was bowled over by learning that the birthday boy’s name was Harley. But when she revealed who she really was to his mother, who’d been welcoming up till then, Zoe got rejected bigtime, after ignoring their approaches (retconned though they might be), running away to NYC, party crashing and lying.
Joel tried to make up for it with ‘you’ve still got MEEEE and my family.’ To which, yeah, whatever, new boy (and I wasn’t sure how invested to get in the Wilkes clan. Will they ever turn up again?)
But AB was having family trouble too. Having just returned from staying with her (retconned?) sister, she was suspiciously fine with Lavon going on a bachelor weekend to Vegas with football buddies. When he decided not to go, after all, he was dismayed to find a pair of men’s shoes when he let himself into her place. But they were her dad’s! And she hadn’t told her parents she and Lavon were dating because…it was written to make you feel bad if you dared presume it was because she’s white and he’s black, because this is not the show to explore that aspect of the American south. AB’s parents had a problem with her dating Lavon because of a football rivalry. In fairness, that rivalry is canon from back when they were fake dating.
Lavon agreed to try to charm the parents into getting over it, but it turned out that AB’s sister had told all, and their real aim was to get Lavon to propose, stat, which put AB in a horrible position, ending up having to tell Lavon that she was thinking of marriage (and with the baggage of divorce and what she now saw as the time wasted in her first marriage.) The strong sense coming over was that he wasn’t there (yet???), but could see her POV (and they never even touched the kids thing.) So, that was relatively touching.
But the plotline that really worked for me, despite its ridiculous silliness – the cook sets fire to the kitchen when she doesn’t lose an earring into the food, the Rammer-Jammer keeps losing staff because Wade sleeps with them, and, in the real world, you don’t sell or buy a business over two conversations – was Lemon and Wade’s business partnership coming to an end. It was mainly because of the nods to a romantic relationship breaking up in how they went about it, despite what was really happening. (Lemon claimed Wade was his best friend, when AB has done SO MUCH for her. Dump her for Zoe, AB!) Wade had been taking Lemon for granted, and even if it were retconned, Lemon’s love of Fancies was totally IC, while the Rammer-Jammer is slumming it for her. As she’d dumped the R-J for Fancies, even if (quelle surprise) she was outbid, Wade insisted on the business partnership being dissolved. Lemon admitted that she was still in limbo, trying to work out who she was, while Wade was clear that owning the R-J had always been his dream. Because of the underlying emotional truths, all this worked surprisingly well.
The fourth plotline was, quelle surprise, George finally admitting he’d fallen for Lynley’s wiles, because of his particular damage. Given that AB and Lavon are going through a rough patch, I expect he will live up to his threats about any guy ‘taking advantage’ of his ‘little cousin’ Lynley. Who knows how long this romance will last? George did have a nice moment of offering advice to Lemon over her dilemma, where he was loyal to Wade and cognisant of how well Lemon and Wade had worked together.
So, about half of this had some emotional resonance, at least.
