‘Hart of Dixie’ Review: A Day in the Life of a Cowboy

My DVR and I got into a fight this evening that resulted in it refusing to record the beginning of Hart of Dixie. I only missed about four minutes of the episode, which included the previously on part, but even as I struggled to make the machine do its job, I couldn’t help wondering if it was trying to protect me from another upsetting hour of television.

“Should’ve Been a Cowboy” turned out to be a mostly entertaining episode, although I was once again asking myself why Joel has more screen time than Wade, George and Lavon (and fine, I don’t know if that’s an actual fact because I’m not one of those people who counts minutes, but it really seems like he’s on more than all of them put together). On the plus side, most of Joel’s scenes were with Wade tonight and it is a fact that Wade makes everything better (at least in my book).

Joel ended up trailing Wade for the episode because things were not going well with Zoe and Joel’s new house. It needed a ton of repairs and the estimate was outrageous so Joel figured he could do them himself. Zoe more or less laughed at the idea of the city boy doing manly chores (have to side with her on this one) so Joel turned to Wade to teach him how to use tools and that turned into Joel shadowing Wade for the day so he could see what it was like to be a cowboy.

These scenes were fun because Wade is awesome. He flirts and charms his way through his daily routine and Joel was in awe of everything he did, including break up a bar fight by threatening the guys with a lecture on civility. But then Vivian called and invited Wade over for some private time (her kid was elsewhere) so Wade left Joel in charge of the bar and when it was his turn to break up a fight, he agreed to duke it out with one of the guys at high noon the next day. He was excited until Wade explained that ‘civility’ was a lesson he taught with his baseball bat and despite being little, the guy who Joel was set to fight was mean.

Wade promised to take care of it for him, but Joel wanted to fight his own battles. He got beat up, but he was proud of himself and Zoe was proud of him too (ugh, I’m bored just typing this. I don’t care about mature relationships. They do not make for good TV and I’m praying the writers realize that soon (except we’re already more than halfway through the season and I’m losing more and more hope each week). Zoe and Joel need somewhere else to live while their house is being repaired and I can already see the writing on the wall: they’re going to end up back in the carriage house, next door to Wade. If that doesn’t set Zoe and Wade on a path back to each other, nothing ever will. It’s literally the last bit of hope I’m clinging to for them.

Speaking of the last bit of hope, poor AnnaBeth has been having a rough time ever since Lavon told her that he didn’t want to get married. After throwing a disastrous bachelorette party (Tom and Meatball were the strippers. Just take a moment and think about that), AnnaBeth had too much to drink and realized she couldn’t keep pretending like everything was fine. So when Lavon came to check on her the next morning, she told him that he was the love of her life and as long as he could say the same to her, she would wait forever and ever to get married if that was what he wanted.

But Lavon couldn’t say it back and AnnaBeth was so hurt and I hated every second of it. This was exactly why I didn’t want these two to happen in the first place because I knew Lavon wouldn’t love her the way she deserves to be loved (I still think Lavon and Lemon will eventually be endgame. And I’ m not against that, but AnnaBeth deserves better than to be second best). So I’m not sure if this is an actual breakup, but I assume it is since there’s really no way to recover from something that heartbreaking (Side note: I hate when this show makes me sad. It’s like a puppy getting kicked. How dare you?).

Luckily, there was one relationship bright spot in tonight’s episode. It’s been a month since Lynly left town (big time jump between episodes!) and Lavon was still treating George like something he stepped in (which was funny at first until Lavon hurt AnnaBeth and negated all points he had in the episode). Eventually Lavon admitted that he wasn’t really upset with George and George said that he should have ended things with Lynly sooner.

Then he went over to the Rammer Jammer, kissed Tansy and told her they should go out some time and she was all for it (!!!!!). I love them and the sparkly chemistry they have so this moment made me super happy (Another good moment was when Brick said he was going to visit Lemon and his mother because I miss Lemon).

So ends another evening in Bluebell. Despite my usual complaints, I did enjoy the episode (except the part where AnnaBeth got her heart broken). Next week’s will be the final airing before the show takes another hiatus (and moves to Fridays starting March 21) and it’s Zoe’s birthday and her mother is in town. That definitely has the potential to be a fun episode.

What did you guys think? Did you enjoy Joel learning Wade’s cowboy ways? Are you sad for AnnaBeth? Are you happy about George and Tansy? Do you still have any hope for Zoe and Wade? Hit the comments and share your thoughts and theories with us!