Creator Sheryl J. Anderson explains the makeups, breakups, job changes, and a game-changing death.

This article contains major character or plot details.

Forget mulled wine and hot cocoa — the women of Sweet Magnolias made sure they had something a little stronger to get them through the holidays in Season 4. The new episodes followed small-town South Carolina best friends Maddie (JoAnna Garcia Swisher), Dana Sue (Brooke Elliott), and Helen (Heather Headley) as they celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, a surprise wedding, and a funeral, all while proving it doesn’t have to be summertime for it to be margarita night.

While previous seasons have seen the Magnolias and the men who love them weather plenty of relationship storms, Season 4 saw Maddie and ex-baseball pro Cal (Justin Bruening) surprise the town with an unexpected Halloween wedding, while Dana Sue and husband Ronnie (Brandon Quinn) reacquainted themselves to married life after renewing their vows in a Season 3 ceremony. It might’ve taken a literal storm (specifically, a hurricane) for Helen and chef Erik (Dion Johnstone) to finally reunite, but they eventually couldn’t resist the fact that they belong together and are now engaged.

JoAnna Garcia Swisher as Maddie Townsend and Justin Bruening as Cal Maddox in Sweet Magnolias Season 4.

Maddie’s oldest son Ty (Carson Rowland) and Dana Sue’s daughter Annie (Anneliese Judge) also managed to acknowledge their feelings for each other, but since Annie plans to attend college in California and Ty plans to tour Europe with his band, it appears they have some growing and learning to do. Another uncertainty: Maddie’s been offered a fancy new publishing job all the way in New York City.

There was plenty to celebrate in Sweet Magnolias Season 4, but profound tragedy also struck the community. At the end of the second episode, Maddie learns that her ex-husband, Bill (Chris Klein), has died suddenly. Bill, who recently moved to Texas to be closer to his own parents, left strict instructions in his will that he be laid to rest in Serenity, where all five of his children reside. In addition to Ty, Kyle (Logan Allen), and Katie (Ella Grace Helton) from his marriage to Maddie, there’s also Rebecca, his daughter with former affair partner Noreen (Jamie Lynn Spears), and Isaac (Chris Medlin), the son Bill didn’t know about until Season 2. Isaac came to Serenity to learn more about his birth family and quickly became an indispensable figure in town — but not many people knew his true identity (including his BFF Noreen).

Below, showrunner Sheryl J. Anderson tells Tudum about the decision to write Bill’s untimely death, whether the Magnolias can still have margarita nights if one of them is in New York, and why Ty and Annie might not be able to make it work.

Chris Klein as Bill in Sweet Magnolias Season 3.

Why does Bill die in Episode 2?

First things first: Klein is a beloved member of the cast, and no one in the writer’s room actually wanted to see him go. “We absolutely love Chris,” Anderson says. “But we were looking for a cataclysmic event that would shake up the entire community. The Magnolias and their men, as we refer to them in the writer’s room, are at that age where sometimes this happens. Not only are you mourning the loss of someone you loved, [the death] sets off all these questions. ‘Am I in the right place? Am I doing what I love? Am I with the right person?’ We wanted to be able to follow those shock waves across the entire community.” After Bill’s death, everyone in Serenity begins to examine the way they’re living their lives and what they want their own legacies to be.

Chris Medlin as Isaac Downey in Sweet Magnolias Season 4.

What does it mean for Isaac now that everyone knows Bill is his birth father?

After Bill’s mother tactlessly reveals Isaac’s parentage at dinner, Noreen — Isaac’s best friend and roommate — feels blindsided. Of course, that’s exactly why Isaac hadn’t told her about their connection. “They are best friends,” Anderson says. “He loves her, he loves Bex, and every day he just had to kick it a little further down the road because, ‘What if this ruins everything? What if this is our last happy day together?’ We felt that was a very identifiable worry that we carry in relationships. Noreen certainly needed time to work it through, but when he was able to explain it was the fear of losing her friendship that had held him back, she forgave him. And that’s real friendship too.”

Heather Headley as Helen Decatur, JoAnna Garcia Swisher as Maddie Townsend and Brooke Elliott as Dana Sue Sullivan in Sweet Magnolias Season 4.

Can the Magnolias survive Maddie moving to New York for her new job?

“I deeply, deeply hope that we get a Season 5 so we can answer that,” says Anderson. “But the reason we even raised the question here at the end of Season 4 was because we feel so many women are confronted with, ‘Am I allowed to put myself first this one time?’ And how complicated it is for somebody like Maddie, with a new marriage, with kids still in the house, with dear, dear friends that you have seen every day your entire life. She’s so deeply woven into the community. Does that mean she has to say no to a dream?”

Dion Johnstone as Erik Whitley and Heather Headley as Helen Decatur in Sweet Magnolias Season 4.

Once Helen and Erik get back together, they quickly get engaged. Why move so fast?

The season begins with the star-crossed couple dating other people, but Helen and Erik eventually find their way back to each other. “They needed some time to work through their individual sets of issues,” Anderson says. “They both knew without talking to each other — perhaps knew in that moment at the end of Season 3 when they look at each other at the vow renewal — they have work to do. And it would be better to do the work separately so that, should they find their way back to each other, it will work. Because it would hurt too much to try again and have it not work.”

Brooke Elliott as Dana Sue Sullivan in Sweet Magnolias Season 4.

Was Dana Sue able to find her renewed purpose now that she’s not running a restaurant and her daughter is heading to college?

“Our overall season theme was ‘seize your passion,’” says Anderson. “Between Dana Sue’s love for the foundation and all the success that she had had in Sullivan’s, she was in a position to try something different. It was about looking at ways that she could combine [her interests] and start thinking about a teaching kitchen. Women so often feel like, ‘Well, I’ve achieved this. Is it selfish to want more?’ We saw this as an organic extension of everything she’s good at.”

Carson Rowland as Tyler Townsend and Anneliese Judge as Annie Sullivan in Sweet Magnolias Season 4.

Will Ty and Annie be able to make their relationship work?

As much as any 17-year-old believes their first love is forever — “it’s easy to believe that it’s all Disney princesses and starlit moments from here on in,” says Anderson — things don’t always turn out that way. “We wanted to have them value their individual dreams, but also look at, ‘What does that do to us as a couple? Can we be mature enough to give each other that space?’ We know that people are really behind this relationship, but we just thought it would be false to say, ‘And now everything’s fine.’ Because good relationships take work.”

All four seasons of Sweet Magnolias are now streaming on Netflix.