‘Sweet Magnolias’ Season 2 Recap: What to Remember Before Watching Season 3

Hope your bags are packed and you’re ready for a road trip, because we’re headed back to Serenity for another season of Netflix’s Sweet Magnolias. The sweetly southern series returns for Season 3, which you know is gonna be filled with all sorts of folksy sayings and soapy twists. That’s what we love about Sweet Magnolias!

But since Sweet Magnolias is no stranger to plot twists, that makes keeping up with the plot(s) of the show mighty hard. There’s a whole town full of characters to keep track of, and the Netflix model means we have to wait well over a year between seasons. We’ve all seen a lot of TV since Sweet Magnolias wrapped up Season 2 in February 2022. It can be hard to remember where the story left off.

That’s where this here post comes into play. If you need a refresher regarding Sweet Magnolias Season 2 before you binge Season 3, here you go. We’ve got the breakdown you’ve been looking for, so why don’t you sit a spell and dig in?

How did Sweet Magnolias Season 2 end?

It ended with a punch! Literally!

The last we saw of Season 2, Cal Maddox (Justin Bruening) was getting arrested for punching out a rowdy fan of his who was causing a commotion in Sullivan’s. This, of course, followed a school board vote that removed Cal as the baseball coach due to his past anger management issues — a plan orchestrated by one Mary Vaughn Lewis (Allison Gabriel), the sworn enemy of Maddie (JoAnna Garcia Swisher) and her fellow Magnolias Helen Decatur (Heather Headley) and Dana Sue Sullivan (Brooke Elliott).

Mary Vaughn, on a tear against our sweet Magnolias, also forbade her children from speaking to any of Maddie or Dana Sue’s kids. That’s a problem for Maddie’s youngest son Kyle (Logan Allen) and Dana Sue’s daughter Annie (Anneliese Judge) since they were dating Mary Vaughn’s kids.

The season also ended with a proposal from Helen’s estranged ex Ryan (Michael Shenefelt). Ryan blew back into town to attend his Aunt Frances’ funeral and ended up picking up where he left off with Helen, despite Helen having spent most of the season striking up a romance with chef Erik (Dion Johnstone). Helen’s got a life-changing decision to make.

Dana Sue’s season ended with a bit of good news and a bit of bad news. The good news: she’s reconciled with her husband Ronnie (Brandon Quinn), who’s done a whole lot of work on himself and really started showing up for her and their daughter Annie. He’s even moving back into the house! The bad news: some random woman named Kathy (Wynn Eerett) is back in town and looking to settle a score with Dana Sue, although we don’t know what’s ticked this woman off. There’s also unexpected news: the late Miss Frances left Dana Sue a whole lot of money, and now Dana Sue has to figure out why she got this payday and what to do with the money.

And lastly, back to Maddie: our girl got to tell off her ex-husband Bill (Chris Klein) after he revealed that he fathered another secret baby, this time way back in high school. The baby? Chef Isaac (Chris Medlin), a full-grown adult who works at Sullivan’s and is an all-around nice guy. He’s so nice that he’s taken in Bill’s mistress Noreen (Jamie Lynn Spears) and their daughter Rebecca — and no, Noreen does not know that Isaac and her daughter are half-siblings.

Ya got all that? Just to sum it all up:

• Cal punched out a guy who was causing a ruckus, and now he’s got handcuffs on
• Helen got the proposal she always wanted, but not from the guy she’s not currently dating
• Dana Sue got her husband back as well as a whole lot of cash, but this Kathy lady is coming for her
• Maddie’s son Kyle and Dana Sue’s daughter Annie just had a wrench thrown into their relationships with Mary Vaughn’s kids
• Isaac found out that his dad is also his friend/roommate Noreen’s baby daddy

Find out how the Sweet Magnolias are gonna deal with all of this when Season 3 premieres on Thursday, July 20 on Netflix.