Hart of Dixie Review: “Blue Christmas”

Finally, the folks around Bluebell are making some sense! It took almost the entire episode, but even Zoe Hart herself found a bit. If that’s not a Hart of Dixie Christmas miracle of the tallest order, I don’t know what is.

Lavon Hayes is a very sad man. There is a reason he and Zoe have become the very best of friends, and it’s because they chase after ideals. Real life doesn’t mean that much to them. They have seen the movies and the television shows and think they know how love and romance are supposed to work. Instead of going with what is making them happy, they talk themselves out of it and drift off into dreamland looking for the false advertising the world pounds into our brains every day. This is what perfection is, now go get it!

Lavon was trying to make Ruby into his ideal. He was willing to go so far as to propose marriage so that in a year, instead of her following her dreams and him moving to Dallas to live with the woman he supposedly loved, he could somehow talk her into returning to small town life. That’s just pathetic. I couldn’t be happier that Lemon’s friends sabotaged his plans. I feel sorry for Lemon for taking the brunt of his anger and disappointment, but in the long rum he’ll realize Lemon may not be ideal, but she’s perfect for him. In a very odd way, the complement each other.

Then we have Zoe and Wade. Wade had been doing everything right. Hell, he’s half of America’s dream boyfriend right now, and that’s no small feat on the part of the writing team on Hart of Dixie. It was also well done that Zoe’s expectations of her mother were so completely off the mark. Zoe’s hardest critic is Zoe herself. Again, she wants to live this ideal, but nobody around her has the same wish. While her mom found it hard, due to their actions, that Zoe and Wade were a couple, she was the first to admit she always kind of liked him. I don’t think Zoe even heard her.

Wade has always been very well written when in scenes with his father. Learning the last time Earl played Santa was the year his wife and Wade’s mother died of cancer spoke volumes. He felt he had let himself, his son and the entire town of Bluebell down. He apparently never quite picked himself up from that one disaster. With Wade’s help, he was able to successfully complete a run as Bluebell’s official Santa and and I hope that sets him on a road of redemption, at the very least with Wade. I’d like to see their relationship explored in more detail because of how much we learn while they are together.

As Zoe said, “I didn’t know that about your family, because we weren’t like that.” Wade just replied that she never asked. They were so busy trying to be what the other thought they were supposed to be, they never truly saw what was happening to them. Something beautiful.

How wonderful was it that what could have been a massive and never ending tale of errors about an engagement ring between George and Tansy was so easily handled? They communicate so well that I think they may really find something in each other. There is an ease with which they treat each other. Sure, they want to make a good impression, but that is just sweet, and not overanxious. I like them together. I like that George laughs when he’s with Tansy. Much like Zoe laughs when she’s with Wade.

Which leaves me with my final thought. Zoe made her move. She could have let things go, but she – no really – listened to her mom and let him know how she felt. She admitted she was afraid of the feelings she was having and we can only imagine how much rockin was going around his Christmas tree that night.