‘Sweet Magnolias’ Season 3 Ending Explained: Who’s Getting Married Next?

Netflix’s sweetest southern soap Sweet Magnolias is back with a brand new season, and it might just be the most dramatic yet. Season 3 of the beloved series pushes the titular trio far out of their comfort zone and introduces new challenges that could prove to be too much to bear.

Of course, if you’re reading this article, then you know how things play out in Season 3 because you’ve already binged Season 3. Either that or you aren’t the kind of person who cares about spoilers and you like knowing the ending well before it hits. Either way, you’ve come to the right place. A whole lot happens at the end of Sweet Magnolias Season 3, and we’re gonna unpack as much of it as we can.

SPOILERS ahead, y’all.

Sweet Magnolias Season 3 ending explained:

Okay, this is bound to take a little while so we better take this one Magnolia at a time — starting with Maddie Townsend (JoAnna Garcia Swisher).

Maddie’s big season finale surprise came from her mother, Paula (Caroline Lagerfelt). Professional painter Paula’s taking a step away from Serenity to go spend some time working on one of her most frequent buyer’s homes. The wealthy Jimmy (Jon Briddell) commissioned a whole mansion’s worth of paintings from Paula — everyone knows this is an invitation for Paula and Jimmy to spend a while hanging out and hooking up. Maddie’s happy for her! She’s less happy about her oldest son Ty (Carson Rowland) deciding to take a gap year and pursue careers that involve working with his hands, but Maddie respects and even encourages this choice. Her younger son Kyle (Logan Allen) suffered some heartbreak when he discovered that his estranged girlfriend Nellie Lewis (Simone Lockhart) actually wasn’t waiting up for him. But whatever — Kyle has a new girlfriend in Lily (Artemis). And as for Maddie’s ex-husband Bill (Chris Klein), he’s left town to give everyone he hurt some space — and he’s doing so with Kathy Sullivan (Wynn Everett).

Let’s use that as a transition to Dana Sue Sullivan. Her… I’m gonna say disturbed sister-in-law Kathy blew back into town demanding either Sullivan’s restaurant or a big stack of cash. She left town with a stack of cash and Bill Townsend. Okay, Kathy did stop by her brother Ronnie’s (Brandon Quinn) vow renewal and give him a peace offering — their grandmother’s old teapot, an item he’s long wanted. Dana Sue and Ronnie renewed their vows with no further hiccups. As for Dana Sue’s daughter Annie (Anneliese Judge), she broke up with her long-distance boyfriend Jackson Lewis (Sam Ashby) and then realized she might have feelings for Ty Townsend. The last we saw, they were holding hands! As for the restaurant, it’s getting back on track now that chef Erik Whitley (Dion Johnstone) accepted Dana Sue’s offer to come back to Sullivan’s.

And that moves us along to Helen Decatur (Heather Headley), who broke up with her long-term on-and-off boyfriend Ryan Wingate (Michael Shenefelt) and has started to patch things up with Chef Erik. But there’s a wrinkle: Erik has hit it off with Genevieve (Nikki Estridge), a newbie in Serenity who works at the Magnolias’ spa! But if wedding bouquets are to be believed, she’ll be the next one to get married. So… will she get married to Erik or someone else? As long as it’s not Ryan!

Helen’s also gonna have her hands full as she helps reporter Peggy Martin (Brittany L. Smith) run for mayor (even though Helen is clearly the best choice for the job, I’m just saying). And Helen’s — I guess you could call CeCe (Harlan Drum) her ward? CeCe made friends with Dana Sue’s daughter Annie and Kyle’s new girlfriend Lily, and they sure do look like the next generation of Magnolias.

Somehow that is not all! Sullivan’s chef Isaac (Chris Medlin) had something to tell his roommate Noreen Fitzgibbons (Jamie Lynn Spears). That something is probably is that he found out last season that his biological father is Bill Townsend… the same Bill Townsend who had a kid with Noreen. And then there’s yoga instructor Trotter Vidhyarkorn (Hunter Burke), who had to leave Serenity in a hurry with his husband Ashley in order to take care of an ailing mentor of his.

And that’s where things stand in Serenity! There are, however, a number of loose ends that need to be tied up should Sweet Magnolias return for Season 4.

• Peggy Martin was digging into disgraced ex-mayor Trent Lewis’ funds and found some shady stuff in there that hasn’t been dealt with.
• We gotta find out what Isaac’s gonna tell Noreen, and how she handles her best friend suddenly becoming her daughter’s half-brother.
• Are Helen and Erik gonna reconcile?
• And what’s up with Erik and Genevieve?
• Is Maddie going to pursue a career writing children’s books inspired by her daughter Katie?
• Where is Annie and Ty’s relationship going?
• Will Trotter and Ashley adopt their friend’s kids, should he pass away?

With so many darn characters in play, Sweet Magnolias could really go anywhere in Season 4 — if Netflix orders it. By leaving some of these plot threads dangling and unraveling some new ones right before the end of the season, it really does seem like the writers assumed they’d come back for more. We’ll just have to wait to see what the future holds for the good people of Serenity.