Summary
Prom night looms, decisions about futures must be made, and margaritas are consumed in “Storms and Rainbows”, the Sweet Magnolias season finale, which, naturally, ends on a pretty major cliffhanger.
This recap of Sweet Magnolias season 1, episode 10, “Storms and Rainbows”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
Check out our spoiler-free season review.
Prom looms large in the season finale of Sweet Magnolias, but there’s plenty more going on deserving of our attention. Will the Magnolias be happy? Do their relationships work out? Does young love blossom? Will the show actually end by resolving any of the storylines?
Well, let’s get on with it.
Maddie
Coach Cal impresses at his first dinner with the entire Townsend family — he even researches baseball musicals to impress Kyle and dinosaur facts to impress Katie. He tells Maddie he loves her and that they should go away together, which sets the alarm bells ringing. She still doesn’t trust herself to be open to him in the way that he deserves. So, after some thought, a surprise dinner is in order to prove that she wants to move forward. (Does Erik just cater for the whole town?) Anyway, it’s cute.
Bill, eager to get a wheel or two of his life back on the tracks, spends the day with Katie. They discuss the prom and the story of Bill proposing to Maddie, which seems an odd playground conversation, but what can you do?
Ty is getting scouted by Cal’s friend, who has a good eye for talent and thinks Ty would be a fit for the Braves, but Maddie wants him to go to college first and is a bit — okay, a lot — put out by how this has all been handled around her. This leads to her and Cal’s first proper argument.
Kyle, on the other hand, is faring much better, despite being let down by Annie. Bill is taking him to see Hamilton — the “teach me, son,” line really got me, for some reason — and Jackson’s little sister, Nellie, a dead match for him personality-wise, invites him over on prom night.
That date goes a bit haywire when Jackson decides to gatecrash and host the prom after-party there. A fight breaks out between Ty and Jackson — Caroline also enjoyably socks Jackson in the mouth — that Kyle intervenes in, and there he goes again, running away. The next we see of him, he’s being pulled from the wreck of Tyler’s car.
Dana Sue
Enter an old friend: Micah Harrison, who is intimately tied to the history of Sullivan’s and also, perhaps, to Isaac. They all cook together. As it turns out Micah wants a favor — he wants Dana Sue to buy him out so that he can help a relative with a medical emergency.
Meanwhile, Simon asks Annie to prom, which means she has to let Kyle down since their anti-prom night in won’t be going ahead. He’s pretty understanding — or at least as understanding as someone who just bought Cuphead for the date can be, I guess.
“Storms and Rainbows” proves complicated for Dana Sue. First: How’s she going to get the money to buy Micah out? Second: Here’s Ronnie, Annie’s father. Turns out these two things relate. Dana Sue needs to divorce Ronnie so she can get a business loan to buy out Micah, but he doesn’t see the situation in quite the same way and would like to come back, thanks very much.
And there’s more for her to worry about: Isaac tearfully asks her if she’s his mother. We don’t get an answer to this long-running dramatic question, either.
Helen
Things aren’t going brilliantly for Helen and Ryan in “Storms and Rainbows”. He’s leaving again — and it hurts more this time because it’s the last time. A discussion of kids brought about the biggest rift, as Ryan’s nihilistic if-you’d-seen-what-I’ve-seen attitude was pretty fundamentally incompatible with Helen’s hopeful, idealistic vision of a next generation that might “save us all”. It’s time for some emergency margaritas.
Erik to the rescue, obviously. Is there nothing that man and his baking can’t fix?
