‘Sweet Magnolias’ Showrunner Explains Season 4 Surprise Time Jump & Reset And That Second Maddie-Cal Bombshell

deadline.com:

SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about Episode 401 of Netflix‘s Sweet Magnolias. After waiting a year and a half for new episodes of Sweet Magnolias, fans tuning in for the Season 4 premiere may be forgiven if they felt like they’d missed a season.

The small-town drama about lifelong friends Maddie, Helen and Dana Sue and their family and romantic lives kicked off with a big, one-year time jump, recapping a slew of major developments that had happened off-screen.

Maddie & Cal are now engaged, and Maddie is a successful book author. Dana Sue’s restaurant Sullivan’s is now Sullivan & Friends, with her stepping back to run the Magnolia Community Foundation, Erik taking over as chef and Cal as lead partner.

Despite those longing looks and spark-inducing hand touches in the Season 3 finale, Erik and Helen are revealed to be happy in relationships: Erik is still with Genevieve who had been MIA the last couple of episodes of last season, and Helen is with Alexander, an architect working on Sullivan’s renovation.