‘Hart of Dixie’ Review: Merger and Manipulation

After what felt like an exceptionally long hiatus, Hart of Dixie returned tonight with “Something to Talk About.” Since we last left off with our favorite small town residents, Zoe spent a lot of time bonding with her cousin, George has been avoiding the Rammer Jammer because Tansy works there, Shelby took Brick’s concern as an excuse to move in with him and Lavon learned that Fillmore wants to merge with Bluebell.

One of the things that this show does best is tie all the stories together with a lot of comedy thrown in and tonight’s episode was no exception. George and Lavon didn’t want everyone to panic about the merger so they hatched a plan to get information and that involved a road trip with Tansy. Lavon (correctly) worried that George still had feelings for his ex, but the lawyer kept insisting it was strictly business and he was committed to Lynly. But we think he might be protesting too much.

While they were gone, it was up to AnnaBeth to prevent the truth from coming out and she turned to Zoe, who recruited Joel and Wade to help them. Putting Zoe in charge is never a wise choice, but after rejecting the idea of a fake affair between Zoe and George and Zoe and Wade, it was decided that AnnaBeth and Joel would pretend to have an affair so they could leak it to Dash’s blog. Wade opted out and instead took Vivian on a date, something that troubled Zoe quite a bit.

In fact, as Zoe was supposed to be taking pictures of Joel and AnnaBeth faking an illicit tryst, her eyes kept drifting to Wade and Vivian, who were nearby enjoying their date (can we pause for a minute to give a shout out to Wilson Bethel’s arms in that short sleeved shirt?). Joel picked up on Zoe’s unhappiness (props to his hilarious comment about why he’d been driven to an affair), but he didn’t seem as bothered by Zoe’s obsession with her ex as he should have been. Is he really that secure in their relationship? I’m not saying he should have thrown a tantrum in the town square, but he was a little too adult about the whole thing.

Zoe, on the other hand, was not. When Vivian told her that she thought she might like Wade, Zoe refused to give her opinion, insisting that she was Switzerland, which everyone knows is code for, ‘I know terrible things, but I can’t tell you.’ So when Wade took Joel’s (good) advice and called Vivian the next morning, she made it clear that it wasn’t a good idea for them to see each other again because she was a single mother and he might not be the right type of man to let into her life.

Mike Yarish/The CW

This led into the best scene of the episode when Wade confronted Zoe over her meddling and once again showed just how far he’s come from the terrible mistake he made last season. He knows he hurt Zoe, but he’s changed since then and he thinks he could be happy with Vivian. Wade served more truth tea when he asked Zoe why she was the only one in the whole town who couldn’t see that he wasn’t the same person he’d been AND he pointed out that she was the one who walked away. Game, set and match goes to Wade.

Zoe saw the error of her ways and went to make things right with her cousin, urging her to give Wade a chance because he was a good guy and he’d be an even better one with the right woman. Of course that right woman is Zoe and that’s what makes this frustrating. I don’t like having to root for Zoe to fix things between Wade and another woman and I don’t want to enjoy Wade’s scenes with Joel. But I do. Joel has grown on me and his friendship with Wade is awesome. And yet I’m still going to be drawing hearts around Zoe and Wade’s names until they get their act together. Make it happen, show.

Elsewhere, Shelby scared off Brick’s new girlfriend and then he let her have it, only feeling a little terrible for yelling at a pregnant woman. But the poor guy was at the end of his rope and Shelby packed her bags to move out. Naturally Brick convinced her to stay and then she had a new list of chores for him. I don’t know why these two work together, but they totally do.

Now back to the proposed town merger. On their field trip, George and Lavon discovered that Fillmore wanted to take over Bluebell and make it West Fillmore. The mayor was not thrilled with having to pretend to fight with AnnaBeth, but they faked one since the town was camped out on their doorstep. But then Rose, who was doing a journalism internship, spotted them kissing and realized that it was all a ploy to distract the town from the merger. By the time Lavon and George tried to explain everything to the town during the meeting, they citizens of Bluebell had already descended into chaos and panic.

So we ended with the town freaking out and then Zoe, Joel and Rose were celebrating Rose’s potential Huffington Post article about corruption in journalism. Wade brought them drinks on the house because he was happy that Vivian had called him and he knew Zoe had a role in her change of heart even though she feigned innocence. It was a cute ending, but seriously, when are these two going to get back together? I’m trying not to be impatient because I really do enjoy the show as a whole. But the heart wants what it wants.

Also, I miss Lemon.

What did you guys think? Did you enjoy the episode? Are you ready for Zoe and Wade to get back together or do you prefer them with other people? What about George and Tansy? It’s only a matter of time before Lynly is a distant memory…something that probably isn’t going to go over well with Lavon. Hit the comments and share your thoughts with us!