Sweet Magnolias season 3 recap guide: All 10 episodes explained

Sweet Magnolias season 3 finale recap

Taking Annie’s advice, Dana Sue meets with Erik. Says she’d love for him to make the cake for her vow renewal ceremony and come back to Sullivan’s. Erik says he betrayed them all and tells Dana Sue about working for Kathy, explaining that he didn’t know who she was when he worked with her.

He continues to pull away putting the blame on himself to which Dana Sue remarks that he lost faith in their friendship, and he admits he might have lost faith in himself. She tries to reassure him that she can help him if he’d just let her, telling him to do whatever makes him feel better before she walks away from the conversation.

At margarita night, the Magnolias catch one another up on the latest developments in their lives and it doesn’t take long for the conversation to shift to the wedding cake. Dana Sue tells them about meeting with Erik, and how he was working for Kathy while on his break and now feels so bad he doesn’t want to come back to Sullivan’s. She says she apologized and now the ball is in his court.

While it seemed that Dana Sue’s conversation with Erik didn’t exactly go to plan, he shows up at Sullivan’s to see Dana Sue and apologizes to her and Isaac. He tells Dana Sue he’s going to make a cupcake tower for the wedding, to which she says she doesn’t work with freelancers and wants him to come back home finally which he accepts.

With Erik on board to make the cake, Helen drops by to see him on the day of Dana Sue’s vow renewal ceremony to deliver a cake topper made from pieces of paper connected to Dana Sue and Ronnie’s memories to represent all they do and the people who love them. They share a moment as she leaves, hinting their story is not over.

Sweet Magnolias season 3 ending explained

The vow renewal finally arrives but before they get the festivities started, Bill and Kathy show up and it looks like the pair might be about to rain on their parade.

Instead, Kathy gifts Ronnie with their mom’s tea set as an olive branch, telling him that she knows what it’s like to want something can’t have. She apologizes to Dana Sue for everything and the pair informs the group they’re leaving town for a bit.

After the temporary bump in the road, the vow renewal unfolds in a beautiful celebration surrounded by friends and family who all come together to celebrate Ronnie and Dana Sue’s love.

As the season ends, Helen catches the flower bouquet and shares a longing exchange with Erik — an exchange that was clearly designed to give fans hope that the couple might be able to find their way back to one another next season.

Surprisingly, there is not a major cliffhanger to end the season for the first time in the show’s history, with the biggest cliffhangers being what’s to come for Helen and Erik. Hopefully, we’ll get to find out in a fourth season on Netflix!

Odds and Ends From the Episode

• Harlan’s dad finally is discharged from the hospital after his stroke and returns to a home that has been customized to fit his new needs with help from the Magnolias Foundation.
• Lily and Kyle share their first kiss.
• Helen meets with Peggy and Charles and is impressed by her commitment to the community, telling her she should run for mayor and offering to run her campaign.
• Annie breaks up with Jackson, telling him she deserves better than to be always hiding. After, she runs into Ty’s arms and says he was right she deserves better. Later at the vow renewal, Ty tells Annie she was right to break up with Jackson. Ty seems to hint they should be together as they hold hands.
• Following up on his conversation with Helen from episode nine, Ty tells Maddie about his desire to take a gap year to figure out what he wants to do with his life instead of trying to simply go through the motions.
• Annie’s birthday wish from earlier in the season might have come true as she seems to have found her sisters in Lily and CeCe.
• A man from Paula’s past comes to town to ask her to come to stay with him and paint murals on commission. It seems he’s recently divorced, bought a house on the coast, and would love for Paula to help bring the house to life with her paintings. She at first takes time to think about it but ends the season leaning towards taking him up on the offer.
• Noreen attends the vow renewal with Jeremy, hinting that we might get to see the pair become an official couple next season. She’s not the only one who brings a date to the ceremony as Pastor June arrives with David, aka the charming man she met at bingo early in the season.
• Speaking of Noreen, at the wedding, Isaac pulls her aside hinting that he might finally be ready to tell her about Bill being his biological father which would likely open a whole can of worms in season 4.

Sweet Magnolias is streaming now on Netflix!