Yeah, season 3 was not good. I believe that the EP knew exactly what she was going to do with S1. Maybe not every single episode but I think she knew she was going to have Wade want Zoe and Zoe not reciprocate, Zoe want George and George be unavailable, then in the finale have Wade and Zoe finally sleep together and then have George call off the wedding and tell Zoe he wanted to be with her right after.
I think she also had a pretty good idea of what she was going to do in S2. Probably not as detailed as S1 but she knew she was going to have Zoe and Wade do casual monogamous for a while (she has said that lasted longer than she had planned because they were so cute together, the writers just loved writing scenes for them). Then she would have then date seriously and end up breaking up. I believe she knew she was going to have the break up be Wade's fault and that probably meant cheating. Wade had been chasing her for a year, she was the only girl he ever wanted who had "turned him down" or resisted his advances. When Zoe finally let herself accept the fact that she and Wade had something, could be together, could make it work, had let the idea of her and George go because she was so happy with Wade, it had to be Wade who caused them to end, it's the only way it would work, no matter how upset the fans were or how much some protest that Wade wouldn't have done that (I disagree with the idea that Wade had "changed too much" to cheat for what it's worth). Zoe was not going to be the cause of them ending at that point (although there are fans out there who try to say Wade's cheating was Zoe's fault). I also think the EP knew she was going to have Zoe go back to NY at the end of S2. Zoe had never planned to stay in Bluebell and she had wanted to be a surgeon since she was a little girl, the issue with her giving that up to be a GP, giving up NY for Bluebell, was going to have to be addressed at some point and the only way to really do that was to have her go back to NY for a time, then come back to Bluebell and realize that Bluebell is where she wanted to be. I think the EP always knew she was going to send Zoe back to NY in the S2 finale and Zoe being upset about Wade was the perfect excuse for her to run back there.
Beyond the S2 finale though, I don't think the EP had any idea what she wanted to do or where she wanted to go. I think she knew she was going to have Lavon end up with Lemon and Zoe end up with Wade but beyond that she didn't know what to do. I think that's the issue with S3. It meanders along with no real point for a good portion of the season. The first couple episodes are good, then there are a couple about a 1/3 -1/2 though and then the last couple are pretty good but there is a big chunk of the season that is basically pointless to a large degree. It's too bad because it turned a lot of people off. S4 was much, much better. Part of that was that it was shortened and they didn't have time to mess around with pointless stories that didn't go anywhere or have any baring on the main characters. Also Rachel Bilson's real life pregnancy was written in and gave the show a focus it had been missing in S3.
Overall, S4 is much, much better than S3. If you are at 3X10 you are right at what I consider the low point of the series. I don't want to scare you off, but it doesn't get better for several more episodes. You can skip ahead to 3x16 (Carry your love with me), then skip again to I think it's 3x20 (A better man) and probably be fine. I would watch the final 3 episodes of S3 and then all of S4 is great (minus one issue I have with the finale that some people don't seem to be bothered by at all).
Don't worry, you are far from the only person who has felt the way you do about S3 :)
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