What to remember about the Sweet Magnolias season 1 cliffhanger ahead of season 2

It's almost time to return to Serenity!

Sweet Magnolias, based on the books by Sheryl Woods, made fans like family in its debut season. The Netflix series follows three childhood best friends — Maddie Townsend (JoAnna Garcia Swisher), Helen Decatur (Heather Headley), and Dana Sue Sullivan (Brooke Elliott) — as they keep one another sane in the face of broken relationships, the trials of raising teenagers, and everything else life throws at them. With season 2 dropping on Netflix Friday, here's a refresher on where we left Helen, Maddie and Dana Sue at the end of season 1 — including that big cliffhanger in the finale.

Helen

Accomplished attorney Helen's main goal in season 1 was to open a spa with her best friends. After she buys a mansion from Miss Frances (Cindy Karr), a woman the Magnolias spent time with as children, they have the perfect spot to open their spa, The Corner Spa.

Helen has a full life, but she wants a family of her own. Throughout the season, sparks fly between Helen and Erik Whitley (Dion Johnstone), who works at Dana Sue's restaurant. But when her ex Ryan Wingate (Michael Shenefelt) suddenly arrives in town on a matter related to the spa, Helen is happy to rekindle their romance. Their happiness is short-lived, though, because Ryan reveals that he does not want children, which is incredibly important to Helen. After the painful breakup, Helen finds some solace in Erik, signaling a potentially promising future.

Maddie

Season 1 opens with Maddie going through a messy divorce from her husband Bill Townsend (Chris Klein), who not only cheated on her with a nurse from his office, Noreen Fitzgibbons (Jamie Lynn Spears), but also got her pregnant. The drama means that Maddie needs her Magnolias more than ever as she tries to take care of herself and her three kids. The massive life changes are weighing heavily on all of them.

Maddie, the Corner Spa's day-to-day manager, began dating her son Ty Townsend's (Carson Rowland) baseball coach, former professional athlete Cal Maddox (Justin Bruening). But Bill — despite episodes and episodes of the former couple bumping heads — surprisingly asks Maddie for another chance at the end of season 1.

Dana Sue

While Dana Sue's restaurant Sullivan's is one of Serenity's main haunts, it also presents a plethora of obstacles for the restauranteur in season 1. After firing a disrespectful head chef, Dana Sue finds herself in a bind and overworking while the Magnolias open their spa. Enter Erik, who steps up as sous chef to fill the void. It is the beginning of a beautiful friendship as the pair work together to maintain Sullivan's standards while staying true to a "no assholes" policy.

Things are going smoothly until Dana Sue's old friend Micah Harrison (Marland Burke) — who's also her biggest investor — says he needs money to take care of his sick brother. He gave her so much, so she wanted to do right by her friend, but with the money she put into the spa, Dana Sue doesn't have the money to buy him out. To get the money, she needs a loan, which means reaching out to her estranged husband, Ronnie Sullivan (Brandon Quinn). Bringing him back into her and her daughter Annie Sullivan's (Anneliese Judge) lives raises issues that Dana Sue is not prepared to deal with. There's also her new romance with farmer Jeremy Reynolds (Chase Anderson) to add more to her plate.

With the fate of Sullivan's up in the air, Dana Sue's kitchen is the place of one last revelation. Isaac Downey (Chris Medlin) comes to Serenity and begins working at Sullivan's, but the new resident has a specific reason for arriving in town: he wants to find his birth parents. The young man knows his birth parents are from Serenity, but has no other clues, so he spends the season searching. After seeing Dana Sue and Micah together in the finale, Isaac asks if Dana Sue is his mother.

The season one cliffhanger

The season 1 finale focuses on prom. Maddie's son Ty is at the dance with his date CeCe Matney (Harlan Drum), Annie, and several other students from their school. Kyle Townsend (Logan Allen), Maddie's younger son, is at the afterparty because he's hanging out with the younger sister of another student. Chaos ensues at the afterparty after a fight between Ty and another student turns into a fight between Ty and Kyle. Kyle runs off with Ty's car keys, and several others, including Ty and Annie, run after him.

In the closing moments of the season, all the Magnolias are called to the scene of a car accident. Maddie is shocked and distraught when Kyle is pulled out of Ty's car. A first responder mentions a passenger. Who is the passenger? Will Kyle be okay? Those are the questions Sweet Magnolias season 1 leaves viewers to ponder — and hopefully, that season 2 will answer.

Sweet Magnolias season 2 premieres Feb. 4 on Netflix.

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