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Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's romantic night out in Miami [PHOTOS]
The couple looked happy and in love at an event in Miami Beach
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Sweet Magnolias Showrunner Talks Season 4 Burning Questions: Who Died?
‘Sweet Magnolias’ showrunner Sheryl Anderson opened up about season 4’s biggest moments, from break ups to a shocking death
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Courtesy of Netflix
Grab your margaritas and pour one out, because Sweet Magnolias showrunner Sheryl J. Anderson is breaking down the Netflix hit’s most explosive season yet.
After premiering in 2020, Sweet Magnolias spent three seasons covering a mere few months’ time for the citizens of small town Serenity, South Carolina. That all changed with the release of season 4 — which hit Netflix on Thursday, February 6 — when viewers caught up with BFFs Maddie (JoAnna Garcia Swisher), Helen (Heather Headley) and Dana Sue (Brooke Elliott) more than one year after the events of season 3 came to a close.
“It freed up how we were telling our stories,” Anderson exclusively told Us Weekly of the choice to leap ahead for the show’s fourth season. “There are 34 minutes between season 1 and season 2 and two hours and 34 minutes between season 2 and season 3. We talked a long time about how big a jump we would take, but we wanted to [do something different].”
Warning: spoilers below for season 4 of Sweet Magnolias.
Related: Who Broke Up? Who Left Town? ‘Sweet Magnolias’ Season 3 Ending Explained
Warning: This story contains spoilers for season 3 of Sweet Magnolias. This interview was completed before the SAG-AFTRA strike. Sweet Magnolias season 3 featured breakups, weddings and goodbyes – but it was the unexpected conflict between Maddie, Helen and Dana Sue that left fans most unnerved. “I will tell you what, I don’t know what […]
Time moving forward, of course, meant big changes happening off screen for the Magnolias and their inner circles: Maddie and Cal (Justin Bruening) went and got engaged, Helen and Eric (Dion Johnstone) found new love – and not with each other — and Dana Sue gave up active control of her restaurant, Sullivan’s, in lieu of teaching students how to cook. Annie (Anneliese Judge), meanwhile, began her senior year of high school while Ty (Carson Rowland) explored his future as a musician.
Fans only have brief moments to catch up with what’s evolved for the characters off screen, however, before the new season jumps into a slew of new twists by the end of episode 1.
“Episode 1 is full of surprises,” Anderson teased. “We wanted to surprise the audience and allow them to recalibrate along with us as we are continuing this journey. We just thought it was interesting and reset some of the story lines in a way that we could come into them more vigorously.”
Season 4 is certainly a vigorous season — one that takes off running and doesn’t stop until the credits roll in the finale. Keep scrolling for Anderson’s break down all of season 4’s biggest bombshells:
Why Did They ‘Kill Bill’? Courtesy of NetflixIt’s revealed early on in season 4 that Bill (Chris Klein) died of a heart attack while living in Texas with his parents and new girlfriend, Kathy (Wynn Everett). When asked why Bill’s death was necessary in moving the story forward, the showrunner pointed out how connected Bill was to Serenity as the ex-husband of Maddie, father of Kyle (Logan Allen), Ty and Katie (Ella Grace Helton), ex-fiancé of Noreen (Jamie Lynn Spears), estranged father of Bex and biological father of Issac (Chris Medlin). Whew!
“I prefer to think of it as Bill’s untimely passing. Not that we killed off Bill,” Anderson quipped to Us before confessing there were “plenty of ‘Kill Bill’ jokes” on set. “But the reason [he died] is we were looking for a cataclysmic event that would strike everybody at the core of their being. And across his time in Serenity, [Bill] has been central, obviously to Maddie and the kids but also to the group of friends around them [and] to other people in town.”
Anderson noted that Bill and Kathy ultimately found their “happy conclusion” during the season 3 finale — when they sought forgiveness before leaving town indefinitely — leaving an open space for something “completely unexpected” to happen.
“We were also looking for a way to have our characters confront those really existential questions that erupt when the first person in your friend group passes,” she continued. “You know, it’s like, ‘Who am I? Could time run out for me tomorrow? And if it does, what’s my legacy? Have I spent my time wisely? Am I doing what I should be doing? Am I with the person I truly love? Bill was such a shock. What if another shock is coming? Should I change my life?’”
Anderson clarified, however, that the writers and the cast all “love” Klein as an actor, sharing that they were collectively ”so sorry to tell him, ‘We’re taking this direction, but we love you.’”
Why Did Maddie Keep Her Wedding a Secret From the Magnolias? Courtesy of Netflix“We wanted to make it a family project,” Anderson explained to Us of Maddie hiding her wedding from her two best friends. “And Maddie shares with Dana Sue and Helen that she and Cal let the kids help them plan. So it was, ‘Let’s make it fun, let’s make it splashy, let’s make it so unusual that, you know, [we may] go on [for] many, many seasons and have many, many weddings, [but] there will never be a wedding like Cal and Maddie’s!’”
Cal nd Maddie tied the knot in a surprise ceremony on Halloween night during episode 2. While Maddie’s kids were let in on the secret, even Dana Sue and Helen are kept in the dark — a choice Anderson thought would cultivate an “interesting conversation for friends to have” after the deed is done.
While Dana Sue and Helen weren’t angry with Maddie, they did share their disappointment the following day. Garcia, for her part, called the experience a “big lesson” that Maddie needed to “learn.”
“Look, at the end of the day, if you need a body buried I would go to Maddie because she is gonna keep her lips sealed,” Garcia Fisher said, noting that she’s a lot like Maddie in that way. “Like, when people say, ‘I have that one person that I tell the secret to,’ well I hold secrets like a lockbox. I’m a lockbox secret girl.”
She continued, “I never realized that and I’ve always prided myself on that, but I’ve never realized that that could hurt people’s feelings. So when Helen said, ‘Yeah, you keep secrets but not from us.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I get it.’”
Garcia Fisher added that while she was “surprised” Maddie didn’t let her friends in on the planning, she also understood the decision. “It was like a fun surprise,” she said. “But at the end of the day, I would’ve felt really shafted as a friend. So I think they let [Maddie] off the hook a little easier than I would’ve. I would’ve been mad.”
Maddie’s second big secret of the season— that she knew Bill was Isaac’s biological father — felt like a secret she did need to keep. “There are grades,” Garcia Fisher argued, noting that some secrets “we just keep to ourselves,” even if it is “top tier gossip.”
Breaking Down the ‘Slap’ Heard Around SerenityThe tension between Bill’s mom, Bonnie, and Maddie reached a fever pitch in season 4 after Bonnie screamed at Ty the night of Bill’s funeral. When Maddie called Bonnie “vain” for her behavior, Bonnie attempted to slap Maddie across the face — but Maddie caught her wrist just in time.
According to Anderson, it was important Bonnie never actually made contact when going to hit Maddie. “From the original pitch of the moment there was not full contact, because this is Maddie taking control of the relationship,” she explained to Us. “Maddie tried so hard to be the daughter-in-law that Bonnie expected and therefore Bill expected. And it was a struggle from the get go.”
The moment, Anderson said, led to the “revelation” that Bonnie revealed before leaving Serenity — that Bill secretly stood up for his ex-wife while they were still married.
“We thought that spoke to the complexity of their marriage and how no matter how old we are, a lot of us are still trying to fulfill parental expectations,” Anderson told Us. “Some relationships can bear that and some can’t. But Bill’s a very particular kind of guy, and was raised [with someone saying], ‘You deserve whatever you want.’ So we just spent some time thinking about what kind of parents raise a kid that way. And that’s how we came up with Bonnie and [his dad] Trip.”
Why Was Now the Time for Ty and Annie?After seasons of fans hoped childhood BFFs Ty and Annie would get together, the pair finally kissed and confessed their love during the first episode of season 4. Anderson explained that the pair getting together boiled down to what Ty’s bandmate Olivia (Tommi Rose) told him before heading out on tour.
“We’re gonna go out on the road, and if you continue to mess around and take her for granted, if you stay quiet and we come back and she’s with somebody else, it’s on you,” Anderson said. “And having recognized that he kind of blew it, and she started dating Jackson (Sam Ashby) [in season 2], the wheels start turning and he is like, ‘I better say something!’”
What Happened Between Ty and Annie During the Year Time Jump?Anderson told Us that Ty and Annie were simply in a holding pattern for the year viewers didn’t see them on screen, focusing on their bond as friends.
“It’s,‘We’re just gonna be friends forever.’ So they weren’t pursuing each other,’” she said, before noting that them “holding hands” at the vow renewal during the season 3 finale was “a moment of mutual support” more than anything.
Will Ty and Annie Be Able to Make It Work? Courtesy of NetflixWhile Ty and Annie started season 4 on cloud nine as a couple, things took a turn when Ty returned from tour in the finale, revealing that his band was asked to tour Europe for the summer and fall — and he wanted Annie to defer her acceptance to her dream college to go with him. Annie, for her part, declined the offer, telling Ty that they should be able to survive one year apart after taking 17 years to admit their love.
The pair end the season as one of the only cliffhangers — and Anderson told Us that Annie’s decision played into season 4’s overall theme.
“One of the great heartbreaks of being in love at that age is that you’re at different levels of emotional maturity and what seems like a clear path to him is not a clear path to her,” she explained. “And frankly, one of the things that we were touching on this season is how often women are expected to put aside their dreams. Annie, Dana Sue, Maddie, Helen — I mean, you know, the sacrifice is somehow supposed to come to us naturally. And that was one of the things that we wanted to explore.”
Anderson noted that Annie is such a “supportive” and “giving” character, so forcing her to “stand up against the guy she’s been in love with all her life and say, ‘I have my plans,’ we just thought was an important conversation for a couple of any age to have, but certainly at their age.”
As for Judge, she’s not sure if the duo will make it in the end — but she hopes they will.
“I’m going to be really interested to see if we’re renewed for another season, which I’m crossing my fingers [we will be],” she said. “The cliffhanger, it’s there for me. I feel like I’m right alongside the viewers. Like, ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t know what’s gonna happen.’ Like, I don’t know if Ty’s gonna realize that that was not the right way to approach that conversation. Because it came from a good place. He wanted her to go with him. He wanted to for the world with her. I get it, but it’s hard. It’s so hard. We’ll have to see.”
Are Kids in the Cards for Helen and Eric? Courtesy of NetflixWhile season 4 began with Helen and Eric each respectively dating other people, the pair finally found their way back together during a hurricane — after a dripping wet Eric saved Helen from being crushed by a tree, of course. The twosome spent most of the season in bliss before Eric popped the question on Christmas Eve, but will the newly engaged couple fulfill Helen’s dreams of having children after her miscarriage, and Eric losing his wife and baby?
“I would love to have a season 5 to answer that question,” Anderson told Us with a laugh when asked if adoption may be in the cards for the couple. “But to where they are here in season 4, it’s really important for couples to have at least begun conversations on those big issues before they get engaged. I mean, ideally and certainly before they get married.”
Helen and Eric did have a “delicate” conversation “circling around” about possibly expanding their family in the penultimate episode of season 4, which Anderson said is “really interesting for Helen, who had already been struggling with fertility issues to expand the definition of what it would mean to have children.”
Can ‘Sweet Magnolias’ Go on With Maddie in NYC?Despite finding massive success as a children’s book author during the time jump, season 4 concluded with Maddie accepting a marketing job at a publishing house in New York City. While she’s hesitant to leave, her family and friends encourage her to take the leap — and Garcia Fisher is in full agreement that getting out of Serenity is the right way to go.
“I think it’s important to get out of the bubble a little bit and test the waters,” she said. “And I think that’s sort of a whole part of Maddie’s journey. “She was living this one life for so long and doing it really capably, but it backfired, it blew up. And she really dedicated herself so wholeheartedly to be this wife and this mother and it’s not really all that noble. It was a huge lesson for her where she was like, ‘You know, I definitely sacrificed myself and who I was and experiencing great love and all of those kind of things.’”
Garcia Fisher called Maddie’s move a “cool angle to explore” for the character, especially since it hasn’t been that long since Bill and Maddie actually divorced.
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“It feels like a long time because Sweet Magnolias has been around for a while. but when you really look at the timestamp of our show, it’s pretty rapid fire,” she said, adding, “I think it’s inevitable that she’s gotta get her groove back. And a part of that is reconnecting with her roots and the things that she’s good at and the things that she dedicated herself to at one point in her life. So I love the idea of it.”
But could Sweet Magnolias continue with Maddie in Manhattan? Garcia Fisher certainly thinks so. “I think that it’s safe to say that no matter where Maddie is, where there’s a will, there’s a way,” she told Us, adding, “I think it’d be really cool to see the Magnolias in Central Park strolling around like the Southern Sex and the City gals.”
Just For You
 rejected Kang Hee's (Lee Se Young's) proposal to go to Seoul with her, along with more details about what happened to Kang Hee's mother—making the story even more complex. From Kang Hee being ostracized for her mother's past to Yeon Soo missing out on the life he wanted, here are three moments from episodes 7 and 8 that left us heartbroken.
Warning: spoilers for episodes 7-8 ahead!
One cannot change one's parents
Since the start of Motel California, each episode begins with Yeon Soo and Kang Hee as friends—if they can even be called that. Throughout the two episodes of the week, the couple grows a bit closer, only to return to square one by the end of the second episode. On one hand, Kang Hee's indecisiveness and her inability to stay away from Yeon Soo while also being unable to fully commit is frustrating to watch. However, episodes 5 and 6 provided some insight into her childhood that explains her behavior.
As a child, Kang Hee's mother was pregnant with her younger brother, but when she went into labor, no one was there to help her. Kang Hee's father had left to help Yeon Soo's mother in Seoul, and as a result, the baby died. This revelation makes one thing clear: Kang Hee believes she cannot be with Yeon Soo as long as he remains tied to his mother, who was indirectly responsible for part of her suffering. However, episodes 7 and 8 shed light on why Yeon Soo's mother despises Kang Hee so much and refuses to let her near her son.
With four episodes remaining, the full story has yet to unfold. However, it's revealed that after Kang Hee's brother died, her mother fell into depression and found solace in Yeon Soo's father. The two began an affair and attempted to run away together, but they got into an accident that killed Yeon Soo's father. This adds another layer of complexity to their relationship.
Yeon Soo's mother refuses to let him be with Kang Hee because she is the daughter of that woman—the one who seduced her husband and caused his death. Yet, at the same time, she still loves Yeon Soo, who is the son of the very man who betrayed her. The entire village has ostracized Kang Hee, bullying her and spreading rumors about her since childhood for being the daughter of a vixen. In contrast, Yeon Soo is seen as the golden child, and his future wife is expected to be the luckiest woman alive. It's heartbreaking that the village's cruelty is solely directed at Kang Hee, who did nothing wrong.
Yeon Soo's guilt
One of the more confusing aspects of the show has been why Yeon Soo didn't go to Seoul with Kang Hee. Initially, viewers assumed it was because he didn't have the grades to get into a good university in the city. However, he could have attended a community college, just like Kang Hee did.
In recent episodes, it was revealed that Yeon Soo stayed in Hana-eup because his grandfather was terminally ill and he wanted to be with him. But in episode 8, the real reason is finally unveiled, and it wasn't just his grandfather's illness.
Yeon Soo confesses that he knew his father was secretly meeting with Kang Hee's mother, likely having an affair. As a child, he even preferred Kang Hee's mother over his own because she made his father smile in a way his mother never did. However, because he never told his mother the truth about the affair, he has carried guilt, believing he played a role in ruining her life. As a result, he has spent years doing everything she wanted out of guilt. But now, he believes he has paid the price for keeping the secret and refuses to let his mother dictate his life any longer.
A life never lived
One of the saddest moments in episodes 7 and 8 of Motel California is when Yeon Soo and Kang Hee unexpectedly run into each other on a bus to Seoul. Yeon Soo asks her to give him a tour of the city so he can see the version of himself he could have been if he had left with her years ago. At first, this sentiment doesn't seem all that emotional. But after we learn that he stayed behind because of the guilt he carried for not exposing his father's affair, the moment becomes deeply melancholic.
Yeon Soo could have had a completely different life with Kang Hee. They might have dated throughout their youth, or, as Kang Hee suggests, they could have moved on from each other naturally. What's truly sad, however, is the loss of time and opportunity, something he can never get back. Even if he and Kang Hee end up together by the end of Motel California, Yeon Soo will never get to relive his teenage years, move to Seoul, and experience the life he never had the chance to live.
Every week, we learn more about Kang Hee's mother, shedding light on why the villagers have ostracized her for her entire life. However, considering Hana-eup's tendency to spread rumors, is it possible that Kang Hee's mother and Yeon Soo's father never actually had an affair—that it was just another story born out of the villagers' boredom?
Start watching Motel California:
[viki-watchnow url=https://www.viki.com/tv/40832c-motel-california]
Hello Soompiers! Do you think Kang Hee will finally accept Yeon Soo in her life, or do you think we'll have to wait until the finale week to see them being happy together? Let us know in the comments section below.
Javeria is a binge-watching specialist who loves devouring entire K-dramas in one sitting. Good screenwriting, beautiful cinematography, and a lack of cliches are the way to her heart. As a music fanatic, she listens to multiple artists across different genres and stans the self-producing idol group SEVENTEEN. You can talk to her on Instagram @javeriayousufs.
Currently watching: Love Scout, Motel California, and Study Group.
Looking forward to: Reborn, Weak Hero Class 2, and The Witch. %23accident)
