‘Hart of Dixie’ Review: ‘End of Days’

Last night on Hart of Dixie, AnnaBeth had a dream that predicted the “End of Days” and made the mistake of sharing it with Cricket, who took it to heart and sent all of Bluebell into a town-wide panic. The episode, like the rest of season four, was an absolute delight from start to finish, but the unexpected emotional punch to the gut at the end of the episode felt a little too real.

While it’s true The CW has made no official confirmation that this is the final season, the show’s creator Leila Gerstein stated in multiple interviews that the writers planned these 10 episodes as if they were the final season just in case. And considering The CW renewed its entire fall lineup and Beauty and the Beast, which hasn’t even started airing its third season yet, the writing seems to be on the wall that next Friday will be the final episode of the series. As much as I hate coming to grips with the fact that we’re most likely losing this wonderful show, I’m grateful to the writers for looking out for the audience and the characters this season.

Getting back to the episode, I think the true end of days happened when we saw Zoe, Wade, Lemon, Lavon, George and AB all gathered around the breakfast table, laughing and enjoying each other’s company in spite of the awkward combination of exes and potentials. These people have come a long way in four seasons and now they’re happy and settled…mostly. Aside from the threat of the apocalypse, we had the subject of marriage looming over not only Zoe and Wade, but Lavon and Lemon and an unexpected job offer for George.

Zoe and Wade discovered they had very different views on marriage. Wade knew his first proposal had been a disaster, but he assumed they’d get married eventually only to find out that Zoe doesn’t believe in marriage. They took their disagreement to the main house and Lavon pointed out he knew all along Zoe didn’t believe in marriage and even chimed in on her rant since he knew it so well. Zoe asked Wade when he’d become so pro-marriage and he replied when he met her. Lemon piped up to say how sweet that was and Lavon threatened to marry Wade if Zoe didn’t.

But it was actually George who eventually got through to her. In a fun throwback (to scenes I absolutely hated the first time around), Zoe and George ended up taking a road trip to New Orleans together to watch Meatball perform. George explained to her that marriage is basically the final step in Wade’s metamorphosis from irresponsible womanizer to a standup family man and he wanted to declare his love for Zoe and their family in a ceremony in front of everyone who loved them. George also said their friends would enjoy seeing that and it finally made Zoe see Wade’s perspective to the point that she decided to propose to him.

Unfortunately that proposal was accidentally hijacked, but we’ll get to that later. As a fan of this couple since day one, I can understand where each character is coming from and I wasn’t expecting a wedding in these last episodes so it doesn’t matter if they get married or not. But I love that they’re on the same page now. They’re so in love and want the other one to be happy, which is why Wade was willing to back off and Zoe was willing to not only get married, but take the big step to propose. I don’t know if they’ll make it official next week or not, but there’s no doubt they’ll get there someday (even if we don’t get to see it).

Lemon and Lavon talked about marriage and how it was what they both wanted someday, but then the day ended up coming sooner than they thought. Zoe got called away from her planned proposal to help Brick after he was hurt mud-dogging with the Truitt brothers (only in Bluebell). So when Lavon and Lemon stumbled upon the candles spelling out “Marry Me”, Lemon assumed they were for her and said yes. Lavon was happy she wanted to marry him and that she was happy so he didn’t bother to correct her and they went to tell the town they were engaged. Zoe grudgingly allowed him to steal her proposal because that’s what friends do.

As much as I’ve been against this pairing, I’m happy that Lemon is happy and it does seem fitting to bring the series full circle. It started with her planning a wedding and now it could potentially end with her marrying the man she’s loved for years. Like Wade, Lemon has grown so much over these four years and she’s more than earned her happiness. She has her family, the man she loves, her own business and true friendship in the town she adores. Plus, it’s great having her at the breakfast table with Lavon, Wade and Zoe. I wish we’d gotten that comedic gold even sooner.

While in New Orleans, George ended up with a job offer from Meatball’s cousin Pamela. She was impressed after watching him use his lawyer skills to make sure Meatball got a chance to perform. Pamela wanted to be her manager and since she’s already a country superstar, he’d have to make the move to Nashville. Zoe pointed out that George couldn’t leave Bluebell because he had a job and clients and AB and friends so George turned it down, but he seemed pretty sad about it. Luckily, Meatball accidentally mentioned it to AB and she surprised George by encouraging him to go for it and follow his dream. She promised they’d be fine and could do the long distance thing.

George announced to the town that he’d be leaving after they survived the (not-so) end of days. I was absolutely not prepared for how much this moment hurt. I’m proud of George because he’s always wanted bigger things than small town life, but this is much more fitting than seeing him become a New York lawyer. He loves being a music manager and Meatball and the Truitt brothers packed up to join him on the journey because of course George wouldn’t leave his first clients behind. That’s not who he is. I’m guessing we’ll never know for sure whether or not the long distance thing works for George and AB, but that’s okay. Like AB said, knowing that they’re happy and following their dreams is an amazing thing.

Before we wrap this up, how fun was the townspeople’s reaction to their last night on Earth? As much as I love the main characters on this show, it would not work without the quirky Bluebell residents. Can you imagine not seeing Tom and his odd jobs or hearing about Dash’s blog or his new one man shows or Sergeant Jeffries’ complaints about the noisy hooligans or Sheriff Bill not stopping the chaos? Watching them let loose as the ‘signs’ from AB’s dream started to manifest was a brilliant way to celebrate this crazy town and I loved the last shots with everyone gathered in the town square, first at night after surviving to live another day and then when they gathered to say goodbye to George. It was beautiful to see everyone together.

Now, if you can watch this promo without tears pooling in your eyes, you are a stronger person than I am.