‘Hart of Dixie’ Review: Cabaret Bluebell with a side of Lemon

This week’s episode of Hart of Dixie had all the right elements to be everything I love about the show: a kooky town event, more than one person scheming and Wade. As a bonus, Lemon was back via Skype!

Basically, “Star of the Show” should have been highly entertaining and instead it was just kind of there with a few cute moments and a zinger or two, but nothing that really stands out or makes me all that excited to write about it (by the way, apologies for the late review – the show was preempted for a basketball game).

So let’s start with the good stuff: Lemon! It was so nice to see her and have her involved in everyone’s business. The highlight was definitely Lemon’s “Who cares?” response when asked how her grandmother was doing. Lemon had more important things to talk about like helping Brick get rid of Shelby (more on that later), encouraging Lavon to keep fighting and guiding Cricket and the Belles into doing their part to save the town. Sadly, her scenes were over way too fast, but I’ll take any Lemon we can get and be thrilled with her.

While we’re on the subject of characters who always need more screen time, let’s talk about Wade. He didn’t have a lot to do in this episode. There were a few fun scenes where he got to mock the idea of Zoe being creative and directing a cabaret. Obviously I’m always here for Wade and Zoe scenes, but Joel was in all of them, so point deduction on that front. Other than that, Wade was worrying about the state of his new relationship with Vivian because Tansy warned him that Vivian wasn’t being honest.

But it wasn’t because Vivian wasn’t interested. She’s just trying to figure out the single mom balancing act with her dating life. And Wade handled it really well to once again show how much he’s grown. It’s awesome that he’s more mature now, but at the same time, Wade and Zoe being in separate adult relationships takes a lot of fun out of the show. I miss their craziness and their cuteness and their sexiness…I think you guys know what I’m saying (at least my fellow shippers do. If you’re not a fan of the pairing, then just disregard my complete bias).

Speaking of my bias…I loved George and Tansy this week. I missed them and even though Lynly and Scooter were in most of their scenes, it was basically like they weren’t really there because George and Tansy still have feelings for each other and no one else matters. First, Tansy warned George that Lynly has crazy eyes and then after Scooter learned that Tansy had been spying for Bluebell, George warned him not to tell the dog bad things about him (so cute). Afterward, George, Tansy and Lynly drank together and Lynly passed out first (rookie mistake).

George and Tansy headed outside to get some air and have a meaningful conversation that ended with Tansy falling asleep and whispering that maybe she shouldn’t have let him go. Needless to say George seemed very interested to hear that. Unfortunately, Lynly heard it too from the doorway. Lynly doesn’t bother me as much as she used to, but I’m still Team Tansy on this one. I want her with George and she’s going to have to watch her back because Crazy Eyes is onto them.

Now that’s we’ve covered the interesting parts of the episode, let’s get to the main event: Shelby’s cabaret. One of Lemon’s devious plans was to have Brick nominate Zoe to be director so she would ruin everything. Zoe took up the challenge to prove that she was creative and then wrote a cabaret about cells…as in biology. It had disaster written all over it and it probably would have been a funny episode if it didn’t feel like it was trying too hard to be a funny episode. Instead, it just seemed like too much and an uninteresting too much at that.

Once Lavon realized that he had a real chance to impress someone who could help save the town (thanks to Cricket’s sabotage skills (another highlight), the cabaret needed to be saved and it was Joel to the rescue (yawn). But Shelby (newly reunited with Brick) ended up being the star after all, even while on bed rest. I approve of finding ways for Laura Bell Bundy to sing, but other than that, there wasn’t really anything special about the cabaret. Zoe’s end of the episode song was funny because Rachel Bilson is beyond adorable, but even that felt completely unnecessary (probably because she was singing to Joel. If it had been a Zoe and Wade scene, I’d  be filling this review with gifs).

So after all that, Bluebell is still in danger, but maybe in less danger than before. Lemon is still gone for more episodes. On the positive side, George knows he might still have a chance at a relationship with Tansy. Other than that, I’m not really sure what the takeaway from this episode is supposed to be because nothing really happened…

Next week in “One More Last Chance,” Wade and Vivian are getting closer, but her son might put a damper on their relationship. Check out the preview clip and then hit the comments and share your thoughts with us. Did you enjoy this episode? Which pairings do you want to see happen?