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SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about Season 4 of Netflix‘s Sweet Magnolias. Part 3 in a series.
In Sweet Magnolias‘ most eventful season yet, there was a big, one-year time jump; marriage proposals for two of the three Magnolias, Maddie and Helen, coming off fellow Magnolia Dana Sue’s vow renewal in the Season 3 finale; a surprise wedding for Maddie; a shocking death for Maddie’s ex-husband Bill; two star-crossed couples, Helen & Erik and Ty & Annie, finally coming together; and an Erik-Helen romantic scene in the rain for the ages.
Isaac’s secret as being Bill’s secret child is out and, his sexuality is confirmed and he got his first love interest on the show. Cal took over Sullivan’s — now Sullivan & Friends — and he also won over Maddie’s kids who called him dad by the end of the season. New Serenity mayor Peggy and Helen struggled to pull the town out of the financial hole the previous administration had put it into, while Noreen may have found her calling (and, along with her daughter, moved in with Jeremy).
By the Christmas finale, Annie had been accepted to her dream school in California and she and Ty got into their first fight as a couple after his band had accepted an offer to tour in Europe. Meanwhile Maddie, now a published author, had accepted a publishing job in New York, threatening the very fabric of the inseparable Magnolias.
In Part 1 of Deadline’s interview with Sweet Magnolias‘ showrunner Sheryl J. Anderson, she breaks down all elements of the major Season 4 time jump and discusses Maddie and Cal’s surprise wedding. In Part 2, she explains Bill’s death and its aftermath as Chris Klein, who played the character, is leaving the show.
In Part 3 below, Anderson discusses Ty & Annie’s relationship, why Ty was MIA for most of the season touring, the emotional Erik & Helen reunion, Isaac’s new love, Maddie’s new job and what it means for the Magnolias. She provides other clues about a potential fifth season, including whether another time jump is in the cards, and gives her take on potential spinoffs (Sweet Baby Magnolias anyone?)
MIA Ty & short-lived romance?
DEADLINE: Was it scheduling/availability for actor Carson Rowland or was it a creative decision to have Ty disappear for most of the season because, unlike CeCe, who went to college, he chose to stay in Serenity?
ANDERSON: Both, but what we wanted to demonstrate is that he’s caught up in the dream of going on tour as a musician and hasn’t fully thought out what the effect of being away from everybody he loves will be. So we let him go off and have a great time with Olivia while everybody in Serenity is dealing with his absence.
DEADLINE: Ty & Annie had a few sweet moments but by the finale, the love story three seasons in the making is in danger after their fight. Is there hope for them to find their way back or were they doomed from the start?
ANDERSON: There is inherent tragedy in young love, because when we fall in love fully for the first time, we truly believe that love conquers all, but it is part of growing as individuals and growing as a couple to understand that a real relationship takes real work, so they have work ahead of them.
Helen & Erik’s epic rain scene
In Part 1 of her interview, Anderson explained why the post-time jump Season 4 premiere found Erik and Helen both in relationships with other people, saying that “sometimes your feelings for an ex are so intense that you just can’t allow yourself to go there, because if you’re going to go back to that person, you want to make sure It works the next time.” That happened during the massive Serenity storm when Erik rushed to help Helen, trapped in her car by a fallen tree.
DEADLINE: Sweet Magnolias has done romantic scenes but nothing tops the storm. This was out of a romantic novel, Pride and Prejudice-like with the white shirt and the water…
ANDERSON: Thank you for catching our references.
DEADLINE: Talk about that scene; as you had indicated, given their history, there had to be a major event to bring them together.
ANDERSON: We genuinely discussed the storm of emotions that had to collide to bring the two of them together, that they are forces of nature, that their passion is as big as all outdoors. So how could it not be a storm and a swirl of emotion that collides them together so that they can no longer deny each other and the fact that they need to be together.
And then, kissing in the rain, in a white shirt that’s soaking wet, we just wanted them to come together on a scope that spoke to the depth of their love for each other, and that acknowledged to the audience that we know you’ve been waiting for this. This is an epic love story, may we give you an epic scene?
Isaac finding peace (and love)
DEADLINE: Isaac was caught up in the aftermath of Bill’s death when his paternity secret was made public, which was traumatic for him. Also, you had kept Isaac’s sexuality ambiguous for the first few seasons. Why did you decide to reveal it now by introducing a boyfriend for him?
ANDERSON: He wasn’t interested in dating until he was comfortable with who he was in Serenity. So now that everybody — well, anybody who’s interested, but everybody who matters to him — understands his whole story, he was comfortable, and he was open, and a man from his past walked in the door.
DEADLINE: Will that man, Michael, be back? Will their love story continue? ,
ANDERSON: I look forward to the chance and the hope of being able to ponder what happens next.
Cal: New husband, Instant dad
DEADLINE: Talk about Cal’s arc this season not only as a new husband, but becoming a true father figure for Maddie’s kids who made him a Dad Christmas stocking, and also his struggles. When he fell down the stairs, I thought he was on drugs or something.
ANDERSON: No, he has pushed himself to a point of physical exhaustion because he was working so hard to take care of his new family, his new business, all the people that he cares for. We have established over multiple seasons that it has been hard for Cal to admit when he needed help, so this was a necessary step in opening up the vulnerable side of Cal which allowed him to bond with Katie in a deeper way than when he was dating/engaged to her mom, which is why at the tailgate party, she calls him dad without even thinking about it, and he realizes, oh my Gosh, I’m doing it. But it’s a journey for him.
He had no expectation that the kids would immediately embrace him. When they’re on the porch talking about the revelation of Isaac’s secret, he stands apart because he doesn’t feel like that’s his problem to solve.
So if you look at that image, just over the season, as they settled into their marriage, and they deal with conflict and loss together, not only do Cal and Maddie get closer together, but the kids see that, they appreciate that, and so for Christmas, they acknowledge him as dad.
Helen’s Christmas carol
DEADLINE: One of the highlights in the finale, Helen, played by Heather Headley, singing at the Christmas Eve church service. How did that come about?
ANDERSON: Because it was Christmas Eve and I knew I wanted to have Heather sing. She’s a Tony, Award winning musical artist, and, as the saying goes, we would be remiss not to invite her to sing every once in a while. Brooke sang on Broadway too. Chris Medlin comes from Broadway. We have such a wealth of talent in our show, above and beyond them all being amazing actors. Carson [Rowland]’s a musician too.
So when we can organically find moments for them to show the other aspects of their talents, we love them, why not? And it was really important for the emotional arc of that final episode to hit that big high point, because it’s a Christmas carol that speaks to everybody coming together.
And that’s what Sweet Magnolias is about; it’s about these three women but also about the community they have built around them and the community that sustains them. So it seems like having Heather sing a glorious Christmas carol was like putting the star on top of the tree.
Bookmark engagements
DEADLINE: Season 4 started and ended the same way, with the Magnolias doing a toast as one of them has a sparkling engagement ring on. Was that a framing device to bookend the season?
ANDERSON: Visually, yes. Maddie and Cal have already been engaged when the season starts, but we did want to go from celebration to celebration.
Is Annie leaving?
DEADLINE: Looking ahead, is Annie leaving Serenity to go to school in California?
ANDERSON: Well, I mean, eventually. We’re ending in December. If we’re lucky enough to get another season, she’s got another six months of school.
So no Season 5 time jump?
ANDERSON: Everything’s on the table. We don’t have a season five yet, but I’ve been doing this show long enough that 85% of my waking thoughts are about Sweet Magnolias. So all sorts of possibilities exist.
Is Maddie leaving?
DEADLINE What about Maddie’s new job opportunity in New York, which she accepts with support (and some nudging) from her family? Is this the end of the Magnolias?
ANDERSON: Can anything end the Magnolias?! Our ladies have seen each other through bigger challenges than physical distance. When you love someone, you want what’s best for them and want to help them reach that goal. True friends celebrate each other in times of victory, embolden each other to seize their passion, and then link arms to figure out logistics.
Potential spinoffs
DEADLINE: The season saw Noreen returning to nursing with a mobile clinic and Annie, CeCe & Lily doing a Magnolias-style get-together (sans tequila). Are you setting up potential spinoffs: a mobile clinic medical show and Sweet Magnolias: The Next Generation?
ANDERSON: What a fabulous idea. But that’s not what we were doing. Again, season is about seizing your passion, and we wanted to explore how Noreen felt about nursing, because that had gotten very confused with Bill and everything else. And we wanted to show also how Annie, broadening her friendship with CeCe and Lily, is taking advantage of the lessons that her mother and her two best friends have modeled for her whole life.
Managing the gap
DEADLINE: Many shows have had to deal with strike-related delays of their new seasons. How did you handle it? Was it hard on everyone?
ANDERSON: This cast and crew rise to every challenge we give them. I always like to acknowledge that as brilliant as our cast is, our crew deserves an equal shout out, because part of the magic of Serenity are all the artisans behind the scenes, on all our various crews and in all our various departments, because they make Serenity so beautiful, that’s part of the reason I know I want to live there.
