Sweet Magnolias may not end Season 4 on a cliffhanger, but it still leaves fans with plenty of questions.
Is Maddie really moving to New York City? Can Ty and Annie make their relationship work from two different continents? And most importantly, is there enough fabric in all of Serenity to sew the extravagantly long wedding dress train of Helen’s (and Heather Headley’s) dreams?
These are just a few of the questions we’re left to ponder following the Netflix drama’s holiday-themed fourth season. Though Sweet Magnolias hasn’t officially been renewed for Season 5, TVLine turned to showrunner Sheryl J. Anderson for a peek into the show’s potential future. Because how could we not?
Grade Season 4 in our poll below, then read on for Anderson’s thoughts about what’s next for your Serenity favorites. When you’re finished, drop a comment with your own hopes for additional seasons of Sweet Magnolias.
Maddie’s Big Move
Yes, Maddie is really en route to the Big Apple, where she has accepted a too-good-to-refuse marketing position at a publishing house. But will we actually see her pounding the pavement in New York, or would a time jump bring her back to Serenity in Season 5 to see how much things have changed?
“I think it would be lovely to explore both,” Anderson says. “What would this all mean for her family? If she she goes to New York, who goes with her?”
Ultimately, Maddie’s big opportunity was born from the theme of Season 4, which is “how we expect women to put their dreams aside to take care of other people,” Anderson says. “If we’re lucky enough to have the opportunity [for a fifth season], I would love to explore what the options are for a woman who loves her family but is also presented with a pretty juicy dream.”
Helen’s Happily Ever After
After four agonizing seasons, Helen Decatur and Erik Whitley are finally engaged. (Sing it with us: “At laaaaaaast!”) And while weddings in Serenity tend to be unpredictable, Anderson knows a few things for certain about the couple’s long-awaited nuptials.
“Helen is a planner, Helen is elegance embodied — I don’t think she’s going to be wearing a Bride of Frankenstein dress and trying to wipe off her stage makeup on the way down the stairs,” Anderson says, with all respect to Maddie and Cal’s Halloween wedding.
So, how big will Helen go on her wedding day? When Heather Headley recently told Anderson that she was going to London, Anderson replied, “Just measure the central aisle in Westminster Abbey to see how long Helen’s train would have to be.”
Dana Sue’s New Direction
As for Dana Sue, who stepped out of Sullivan’s kitchen and into the community this season, it sounds like her Season 5 path will lead her even deeper into Serenity, which is exactly how her portrayer likes it.
“I want her to understand herself better,” Brooke Elliott tells TVLine. “I want her to try things. I want her to maybe not know how to do stuff. I want more of what Sheryl has given us with her four seasons, so I can only assume that will continue. It’s fun for me to play someone who doesn’t always know how to do the thing but she’s trying to figure it out. I like that about her a lot.”
New Couple Alert
“It had been our thought in the writers’ room that Isaac wasn’t ready for a relationship because he was still figuring out who he was and how he fits into the tapestry of Serenity,” Anderson says. “Even though [his paternity] came out in a different way than he would have preferred, once everybody worked through the revelation about Bill, we thought, OK, now he knows who he is. More importantly, he knows that everybody loves him. It was not the cataclysmic event he was afraid it would be.”
Annie Won’t Be Ty’d Down
When it comes to relationships, timing is key. Just ask Ty and Annie, who finally made things official after three seasons, only end the finale at a crossroads. Will she defer attending her dream school to join him on tour in Europe? And what does it say about him that he’s even asking her to do this? It’s a lot to unpack.
“This connects back to our theme of women being expected to put their dreams aside,” Anderson says. “Ty is caught up in the passion of achieving his dream, and he doesn’t fully understand what he’s asking of Annie, but she does. When we fall in love for the first time at that age, there’s the illusion that everything will be easy — and it’s not. You still need to grow and learn as an individual. In those moments where it seems like you’re hampering each other’s growth, can you love each other enough to step back and say, ‘I’ll meet you back here in six months?’”
