‘Hart of Dixie’ Recap: We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

Admittedly, I assumed watching this week’s Hart of Dixie would be akin to torture. I’m still super bitter about what the writers did to Wade, but I told myself that I would go into the episode with an open mind, even if it is called “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” While I do still feel like Wade got a raw deal (as did Wilson Bethel) and I’m sad Zoe and Wade probably aren’t getting back together, at least not for a few seasons (if the show lasts that long), the episode was actually pretty great.

The episode started with Zoe wallowing in her breakup blues. She had taken to her bed, was eating everything in sight and had stopped going to work or basically doing anything. When she finally decided to head up to Lavon’s to grab some coffee, Wade was already there and things were awkward. Wade made a quick escape and then Zoe walked around town and everyone offered her pies and sympathy and told her that she could do better than Wade. Meanwhile, everyone had rude words for him, including George, who was mad about Wade lying to his face (ugh, this was the part of the episode that made me want to turn it off).

Zoe headed to the office and Jonah was there. He insinuated that the best thing she could do was have sex with a hot doctor and Zoe pointed out that she would if she could find one. Then she went back to treating her patients, starting with Tonya (McKayla Maroney was back). Tonya had strep throat and told Zoe a story about how she was trying to seduce someone else’s boyfriend and obviously that didn’t sit well with Zoe, even less so when she assumed that boyfriend was Rose’s.

Under the guise of trying to help her friend, Zoe took Rose down to the lake to spy on Tonya and the boy, but it turned out that Rose’s boyfriend really wasn’t doing anything wrong. Rose was not happy with Zoe for making her think otherwise and that made Zoe rethink the “I hate Wade” lifestyle she’d adapted after spending some time in the bar with Lily Anne. Tansy had tried to warn Zoe that hate wasn’t the way to go and she’d also suggested that she’d find someone else someday (someone like George, but not George). However, Zoe hadn’t been ready to hear it just yet. That led to her burning some of Wade’s stuff, singing Lily Anne’s hate anthem and a really funny montage of Zoe jumping/getting pumped up on her bed.

But it was ultimately a talk with Lemon that made her see things more clearly. Before we get into that, let’s talk about Lemon and how her storyline saved this episode from being the terrible mess that I was expecting it to be. Lemon and Magnolia were once again teaming up to keep Brick and Shelby apart. This time, Jonah informed his cousin that Brick was planning on asking Shelby to move in and Lemon knew they would attempt a divide and conquer route. She warned Magnolia not to accept any gifts that Shelby tried to give her, no matter how good they seemed (Cue another hilarious sequence of Shelby offering Magnolia one great thing after another and the teenager saying ‘no’ to each one even as her resolve was weakening).

Disappointed, Shelby went to Brick and told him that nothing was working and he realized that Lemon was obviously involved. He said they needed to ‘out Lemon’ Lemon and then the two presented Magnolia with a new car so of course she was suddenly onboard with their cohabiting plan. But Lemon still had another idea. She found out that Shelby was selling her condo so she wanted to go there and look around and she asked George to go with her. She pointed out that he left her at the altar and she was going to hold that over his head for eternity so he had no choice in the matter.

Even when I didn’t really like George (ie: all of Season 1), I liked George and Lemon together so it was fun to see them interacting and Lemon pulling George into one of her schemes. They searched Shelby’s place and found out that she was in debt and she had to sell her condo or it was going to end up in foreclosure. Lemon figured this made her a gold digger and just as they were getting ready to leave, George heard the realtor coming so he pulled Lemon into a kiss. The two asked the realtor if they could see the guest bedroom and he was horrified and told them no. Lemon headed back home and dropped Shelby’s fiscal cliff bomb, but Brick already knew.

He made it very clear to Lemon that he and Shelby were in an honest relationship and there had never been secrets between them. Shelby had even offered to have a prenuptial agreement in place to keep the girls safe when and if the two got married. Lemon felt terrible and it made her realize that she had some really big trust issues so she went to see George again and apologized and absolved him from the wedding incident. George was excited until Lemon pointed out that if Shelby and Brick get married, she’s going to hold that against him since he broke up with Shelby (Ha, never change Lemon).

So that led to the scene where Lemon found Zoe in the bar and the two talked about wanting to forget the past 12 hours. Lemon told Zoe that she wasn’t her friend and she wasn’t going to hug her, but she could tell her that the hurt wouldn’t last forever and she would get over it. Zoe realized being bitter was not the way to go, especially once Lily Anne started singing another song and the two women practically ran out of the bar to get away from her bitterness.

As for Wade, the townspeople’s shunning him was bad enough, but it was a particularly low blow when Lavon suggested he start eating at his own place for a while. Then the two men got roped into helping out at the church’s casino fundraiser and things remained awkward between them. Lavon wouldn’t let Wade do anything other than sit by the door and take donations and that got to be too much for Wade as people dropped by to say mean things to him. He walked away to take a break and as soon as he did, someone else walked off with the donation box. Lavon yelled at Wade for being a screw-up and a disappointment (poor Wade).

But the box was immediately returned (some old dude thought it was his lunch) and Lavon felt guilty so he headed over to Wade’s place. Wade told him that he understood and he had to accept that he lost the only woman he’d ever cared about, but he hadn’t expected to lose the best friend he ever had too, but he understood. Lavon made it clear that he wasn’t going to lose him; he just needed some time. He told Wade that they would get past it and Wade looked hopeful (Why are you so mean, show?). After that, Zoe showed up and brought Wade back his stuff. She told him that she wasn’t ready to forgive him, but maybe someday. She also told him that she didn’t hate him and she wanted him to know that (Aw, tiny sliver of hope).

Obviously the episode would have been better if this whole Wade cheating thing had been a bad dream, but overall, it was a good episode. I’ve been saying all season that the show is so good when it goes for the comedy and that’s what it was doing tonight. I do hope people start to ease up on Wade, but for now, I’m cautiously optimistic about the rest of the season.

After tonight, the show is on hiatus until April 9. But in the meantime, feel free to leave your comments below and tell us what you thought of the episode. See you back here in April…