HART OF DIXIE Recap: Old Alabama

Another day another over the top festival in Bluebell Alabama, Pioneer Days. In case you were wondering Pioneer Days celebrates a man Mr. Jones and his wife who settled Bluebell when their wagon broke down 250 years ago.

Enough about that couple, let’s get to the couple I want to see Wade and Zoe. They are all kissy and cute and calling each other baby. In fact I think I just heard Wade agree to go on an orange picking picnic of sorts. He is really taking to this dating thing. Lavon comes upon them, as they are in his kitchen, and seems less thrilled then I am to see this. Part of Lavon’s problem is Southern Living is coming to do a story on Pioneer Days and ever since Ruby left he has been a little distracted. He’s dropped the ball on a few things; finding a couple to play the founding couple and a caterer for the first feast.
Zoe offers up her and Wade as the founding couple. There are costumes involved and this also makes me happy…not nearly as happy as how cute Wade and Zoe are but it’s a close second.
I should warn you now, I plan on saying things about how freaking cute they are all the live long recap.

Anyway, Zoe tells Lavon she is so happy and Lavon really tries to burst her bubble by telling Zoe everyone is happy a month into dating, “You are dating Wade Kinsella. It’s how you deal with his true nature that is going to make or break your relationship.” He leaves Zoe with that look on her face that means she is about to over think things.

In town the townsfolk are getting their costume assignments. George gets to be a General and Tom gets to be a Blacksmith, you would think they had made him Commander and Chief with how excited he gets.
Lemon shows up to talk to AnnaBeth about how they are going to get the catering job for the first feast and the publicity from Southern Living. Seeing how mad Lavon was I don’t see that happening but Lemon can be more than persuasive so we’ll see.
Lemon wastes no time in putting her plan into action. She shows up at Lavon’s with some bakes goods and a smile. He cuts her off, doesn’t even let her in the door. In fact he says no, shuts the door and leaves her standing on the porch.

Zoe is getting her costume from one of the blonde Belles whose name is not coming to me. The blonde Belle gives Zoe Lucille’s diary – the lady who Zoe is playing. Zoe doesn’t get a chance to say anything about said diary because the town Sheriff shows up. He has great news, he found her car. This is surprising since she didn’t know it was missing and in fact at the beginning of the episode Wade tells Zoe he left her car at the car wash and thanks for loaning it to him. The Sheriff goes on to say Wade reported it missing yesterday. Zoe doesn’t seem pleased and she is about to head off to kill a bartender – as she puts it – when blonde Belle says just about the same thing Lavon said earlier, “How you handle this first crisis will make or break the rest of your relationship.”
Blonde Belle quotes the diary she gave Zoe and says the words of positivity are words she lives by. She stresses they should try to stay in the honeymoon period or they could fight for the rest of their relationship. She makes it sound like that would be a bad thing.
Zoe surprisingly takes this advice to heart and reads the diary. When Wade gets home that night and sees the car he starts to explain in his cute little manner but Zoe says it is fine, he will be more careful in the future. He sounds glad she is okay with it but he also looks a little worried that she is being so understanding. He even tries to piss her off by opening the trunk of the car to show her the fish that have been sitting in there for a day. She just smiles.

Late that night Wade does some more Wade like things, like using Zoe’s special flown in from Paris shampoo to wash his sheets but it’s hard to care because he is not wearing a shirt. Zoe lets it go, thanks to the diary. Wade cannot figure out why she isn’t throwing things at him, why isn’t she mad. She tells him about the diary, which she is still reading. He decides it’s a pretty good idea as he is probably going to continue to do stupid things and she is going to not be mad at him. It’s a win win for him.

Over at the Rammer Jammer Brick tracks George down to finally talk about how George must be startled by what he saw on Christmas Eve. George cuts him off right there, he isn’t startled he is scarred. Brick just wants to explain himself, he wants to assure George it was a onetime thing that turned into a two night thing that turned into an every night thing. George does not at all want to hear any of this. Brick says he is the only one that knows so he needs George’s advice.
George: You are a doctor. Why are you trying to kill me?
Brick doesn’t stop talking, he does both sides of the conversation and decides he is having a mid-life crisis. He is going to end it with Shelby and thanks George for his help. George isn’t sure what just happened, it’s all very confusing. Poor George.

Zoe runs into Wade and his friend Meatball who want to go have some beers even though it was supposed to be orange picking day. Zoe lets Wade off the hook and tells him it is fine, drink your day away with Meatball. I can’t wait to see this whole positivity thing backfire because there is only so long Zoe will be able to hold all this in.

AnnaBeth is talking to Lemon about what else they can do to get publicity from Southern Living, Lemon doesn’t care to hear any other ideas, they are catering first feast. Much to AnnaBeth’s dismay Lemon announces she even has a plan.

In the town square Zoe runs into Blonde Belle who is churning butter. Would it be weird if I told you all I’ve actually churned my own butter? Well I have and it was exhausting.
Anyway Blonde Belle tells Zoe – who is binge eating – she needs to find a project as an outlet for her energy. Zoe thinks that is a good idea.

Also in the town square, Lemon and AnnaBeth start a fake fight in front of Lavon where they “break up”. Lavon falls for it and agrees to hire AnnaBeth for first feast. Lavon must really be messed up by this whole Ruby leaving thing to fall for something like that.

Later that night Wade gets home to find Zoe quilting. He is as confused as I am, but it is her project. Wade should be happy, because it is the only thing keeping Zoe from throttling him.

The next morning it’s finally arrived, Pioneer Day and EVERYONE is in costume. They even turn off the electricity for the day. Zoe is working on another project which Lavon thinks is ridiculous. She should tell Wade what is wrong, give him a piece of her mind. She says that will just end in them fighting all the time, just like her parents.
Zoe is so into her projects, thanks to Wade being Wade, that she offers to help make candles and then do some flower arranging. She has become a regular Southern Belle.

Brick is at his office getting his pioneer doctor kit together when Shelby shows up with a gift for him. It’s an argyle sweater. He likes the sweater but…She sees what is happening and pulls some reverse psychology on him. He ends up saying he is an adult and he will do what he wants. Which in this case is continue to see Shelby.
First Lavon falls for Lemon’s plan and now Brick is so easily swayed. What is going on down there in Bluebell??

Its evening and AnnaBeth and Lemon are setting up for the first feast when Lavon comes in. AnnaBeth says Lemon is giving her unsolicited advice and Lavon says if she needs something to do Lemon can be the grog wench for the dinner. Lemon doesn’t seem to like being called a wench but she can’t admit her plan with AnnaBeth so she agrees.

The Rammer Jammer has been turned into Ye Old Tavern and Wade confides in his boss how weird Zoe has been acting lately when she shows up with all the Belle’s and their garlands. Wade’s boss says it looks like Zoe has turned into Lemon Breeland. Wade is understandably not okay with this.

Wade goes to visit George to get some help. George is only a little happier to see Wade than he was to see Brick. Wade lays out the issue and George says he knows all about the diary and its ridiculousness. George figures women are like volcanos, they have little mini eruptions to let off steam or they are going to have one huge eruption and that won’t be pretty. He suggests Wade gets Zoe to erupt.
George: You are Wade Kinsella. I’m pretty sure you know how to piss off a girl.

Back at the feast AnnaBeth is talking to Southern Living while Lemon looks on. Lavon won’t leave AnnaBeth’s side though so she is stuck not being part of the interview.

Zoe finds Wade to tell him she finished the diary and she is so excited. Wade puts his plan into action, he stops showering, decides to grow a scratchy beard and announces to the whole town how great their sex life is. Zoe looks like she is going to crack for a moment but nope, she holds it together.

George unfortunately runs into Brick again who calls Shelby a siren. George says she is hard to break up with, as he well knows. George ends up giving Brick some advice – a compliment sandwich.

Wade is still trying to get Zoe to erupt. He has a raccoon chew up one of her Christian Louboutin shoes. She finally catches on and asks what his deal is. He accuses her of turning into Lemon Breeland and tells her to get mad. She won’t do it. They are going to go to the first feast and they are going to be perfectly happy!

First feast is underway and everyone is there. Lemon is wenching, Zoe is doing some fancy folding of her napkin as a project and AnnaBeth is getting all the credit for the food even though they were Lemon’s recipes.
Brick gets a call and goes to meet Shelby. He is wearing a Bluetooth headset and George is on the other side of the square so he can feed Brick lines. This will end well I’m sure.
Brick repeats what George says and Shelby immediately calls him out on the compliment sandwich. She looks around and then calls George out. She accuses him of dumping her again and she slaps him. George keeps getting slapped by that woman.

Things are about to unravel so here we go…

Lemon tries to get involved with the Southern Living interview only to be shooed off by the journalist. She pretty much dismisses Lemon and turns her attention back to AnnaBeth. Lavon sees this and follows Lemon outside. Turns out Lavon knew the whole time. He confronts her about what she told Ruby and instead of telling him she loves him she says she wanted to punish Ruby for how mean she was to her in high school. So there will be no reconciliation there.

At the first feast it is time for the first couple when Meatball shows up. He not so soberly proclaims he and Wade went to the Fox Trap, a strip club, and it’s so cool how Zoe didn’t mind. Well Zoe didn’t know and it appears she is finally actually mad. She loses it and Wade tries to cover it up but Zoe is erupting. They have a fight in front of the town fight and storm out.

That night Zoe and Wade are at her place. She can’t believe they fought in front of the whole town. Wade says he may not have gone about it the right way but he had the right idea, she can’t keep her feelings bottled up. Zoe has never had a real relationship and she doesn’t want to fight all the time. Wade says them fighting is what brought them together in the first place and they will figure this out together. Then he hands her the diary and tells her to read the last page.

After reading the last page Cricket – Blonde Belle – gets confronted by Zoe. She says the epilogue of the diary says Lucille ends up losing it over a broken wagon wheel after all those years of conflict free marriage and realizes her whole theory was crap. Zoe’s going back to the way she was.

George comes across Brick eating lunch and joins him. Brick looks pretty depressed and George sits down and offers to listen to what is wrong. Brick misses Shelby, she was a little crazy but he felt alive when he was with her. George says Brick should do what makes him feel happy. Brick leaves to call Shelby.

And we end with Zoe and Wade back to normal with the cute little bickering that ends in a shaving cream fight. Ahh…so cute!

Hart of Dixie airs Tuesday 8/7c on The CW