Frank is no longer selling the New York Times, since he’s forced to buy eight copies and only two were sold every week – one to Zoe, one to George. George bargains with him and offers to buy the other six to distribute to schools, which Frank accepts – and draws suspicion from Tansy. She questions George, who last week did everything he could to prevent Zoe from having sex with Jonah, buying all those papers, to which he replies that Zoe’s his friend, he didn’t want her to be hurt by the “giant ass with a stethoscope”, and he would have bought the papers anyway.
That night, Zoe has a dream that George brings her the paper all the way from Birmingham and kisses her passionately in her doorway, causing her to go to Brick for guidance. He tells her that she’s been through a lot recently with the breakup with Wade and that her subconscious has simply decided to take the road untraveled, particularly since it leads to someone unavailable and who can’t hurt her like Wade did. Dr. Breeland then advises Zoe to avoid any and all intimate contact with George until she can get herself together, but she can’t exactly do that once she overhears Crickett struggling with her lines for the upcoming Shakespeare Revue. Crickett’s the understudy for Juliet and can’t seem to get a hang of the dialogue, something Zoe is very familiar with after a summer in theater camp. She finishes a passage that her friend was struggling on and Dash comes alight, proclaiming Zoe Hart to be the new Juliet.
Romeo, you ask? George Tucker, who had been planning to act opposite Tansy; she came down with laryngitis and had to pull out immediately. Though she struggles with how to talk to George about how uncomfortable the idea of kissing him in front of every person in town makes her, he’s got the same idea and the two brainstorm ideas to let Dash down easy. He won’t accept Zoe offering to train Crickett, nor will he ask Tom and Wanda – he already did that and they were too busy raising the bees in their new bee colony. George and Zoe head out to Tom and Wanda’s where they agree to tend to the bees and work at the Dixie Stop (Tom’s new job) if they don’t have to be Romeo and Juliet. Tom and Wanda agree
However, Zoe couldn’t feed the bees and goes to the play anyway, subbing back in for Wanda, while Tansy comes into the Dixie Stop and demands to know why George left the play. In her mind, him backing away from the chance to kiss Zoe means that he still has feelings for her, so if he’s going to prove to her that there’s nothing there, he has to kiss Dr. Hart. Therefore, whether Zoe likes it or not, she’s going to be on stage as Juliet to George’s Romeo.
The scene, though, doesn’t go as planned. Zoe goes very off-book and avoids kissing him until he sees Tansy in the audience and does it anyway, dying in the process and ending the scene before it could go on any longer. Zoe apologizes for things being weird, but she assures George that she didn’t feel anything from the kiss and that she’s completely over him. It’s not true, though, as she can hardly contain her disappointment when Tansy’s forced to move onto his boat once Tom’s bees make a hive in her trailer.
Second Sunday
Lemon and Wade are officially owners of the Rammer Jammer and with that comes the responsibility of staffing, stocking, and keeping the people of BlueBell fed and happy. There are only two restaurants in the entire town and with one offline for a few days, things have gotten crowded and everyone’s gotten much testier, so the sooner they figure things out, the better.
Only, things don’t go smoothly for the two, as they jockey for control over every aspect of the restaurant. When nobody shows up to the staff meeting and Wanda informs them that they all moved on when they found out who bought the Jammer, Lemon and Wade have 48 hours to put together a serving and kitchen staff before the reopening, scheduled to be the Shakespeare after party. Unfortunately, their last-minute applicants aren’t the best, as their cook candidates ranging from Miss Curran, a demanding woman who wants access to the OWN network and time off for every religious holiday, to a French chef with years of experience in Mobile to Meatball, known for his road kill cuisine. The wait staff selection isn’t any better, as there’s a woman with 51 years of experience waiting tables, pretty blonde Fanny who Wade has his eye on, and Magnolia, not old enough to serve alcohol.
Backed against the wall, Wade and Lemon end up hiring the French chef and Fanny for opening day; if they can make it through this one day, they could afford to really focus on finding new people. The new cook doesn’t exactly have a good day, though, as there are several complaints about his grits, prompting Wade and Lemon to fire him and Lemon to take over the grill. She gets overwhelmed quickly, but things take another turn for the worse when she finds out that Fanny lied about her age and is actually a junior at the local high school. As Sheriff Bill was in attendance, he revokes their liquor license, seeing as how it was illegal for Fanny to be working there in the first place.
After getting a pep talk from Wally, Wade and Lemon head to Alcoholic Beverage Control where they run into Miss Curran, who works there. They try to bribe her with free food and liquor, but she makes her terms clear – if they hire her, she’ll reinstate their liquor license. Fortunately, they agree and find out that she’s actually a very good cook. Plus, Meatball might be smitten by her.
Doctor, Doctor
It’s Mental Health Week in BlueBell, the time every year when Brick offers a week of free counseling to any and all comers. Lavon decides to go to the appointment booked for him only to get out of Shakespeare rehearsals, as he thinks that the playwright is a hack. He doesn’t want to disappoint AnnaBeth, though, as she’s elated to finally have someone to do things like this with, so the more time that he spends with Brick, the more he begins opening up about the real reason he doesn’t want to do the play. He had a bad experience in a middle school production of The Wiz, one that lives on in infamy in the minds of those around to see it live, and that’s given him a type of stage fright that won’t allow him to go on stage. He’s been able to further a political career and a pretty solid football career, but Lavon Hayes is only comfortable being Lavon Hayes, nobody else.
Brick decides to work with the mayor through improv exercises and talk therapy centered on the theories and motivations behind his stage fright. However, Lavon only needed to tell AnnaBeth the truth about why he was so apprehensive about going on stage for his fears to wash away, allowing him to put on a wonderful performance and feel the adrenaline that comes with putting on a live performance. During his therapy, he also nudged Brick into talking to Shelby after avoiding her for several days, the results of which were not shown beyond the very beginning of the conversation/confession. What could Brick be too afraid to talk to her about and risk losing his relationship over?
Additional thoughts and observations:
-“As a wise woman once said to me, suck it up and do it.”
-“I’m disgusted. And I eat road kill on the reg.”
-“Don’t smile at me like that, Skeletor.”
-“We have to look like flowers.”
-Apologies for the late-ish recap. My CW affiliate preempted Hart to show a college baseball game…that ended up being a 12-5 win and never close. Awesome, really.
-I’m a little perturbed that they didn’t reveal why Brick was avoiding Shelby in the episode and then the first moments of next week’s preview spilled the beans. I know that I shouldn’t watch previews, but still.
-So, Fanny was too young to serve alcohol, correct? Wasn’t she working the breakfast shift when she was caught? BlueBell doesn’t exactly strike me as the type of town where everybody drinks Mimosas or Bloody Marys, so that rang a little plot contrivance-y to me.
-Also, was it icky how they lingered on her curves only to reveal that she was underage?
-Although I liked the way they handled the Zoe/George kiss, I think it could have been interesting to have them play the scene out normally. If they’re going to entertain the idea of bringing them together, it would have been a good way to show off their chemistry.
-Another “what if?”: Lavon’s play experience. No footage of the stuttering scarecrow?
-I had my head down taking a note during the first time they mentioned her name, so I could have sworn that Miss Curran’s name was Miss Crayon. Why? No idea.
-For those wondering, Lavon/AnnaBeth’s scene was from Hamlet, Shelby’s monologue was from As You Like It, and Frank’s monologue was from Julius Caesar.
–Next week on Hart of Dixie: Zoe unintentionally makes this worse for Brick in his love life, while Wade and Lemon continue to clash at the Rammer Jammer and George is tasked with looking after Tansy’s wild brothers.
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