If you watch The CW's "Hart of Dixie" (Mondays at 9 p.m. ET), then you know that George Tucker, played by "Friday Night Lights" alum Scott Porter, is the perfect man and the nicest guy in Dixie. No wonder Zoe (Rachel Bilson) fell for him.
But on Monday night's all-new episode, "Destiny & Denial," that's all about to change after the you-know-what hit the fan when George found out about Lemon's (Jaime King) affair with Levon (Cress Williams) in last week's episode. Now, good ole' reliable George is going through somewhat of an identity crisis, and be prepared to see him trade in his sweater vests for a leather jacket and motorcycle.
However, for fans of George and Zoe, don't worry too much about last week's blow-up. He won't stay mad the Bluebell doctor for long. In fact, the two even take a spontaneous trip to the Big Easy, which then leads to George breaking out into song -- yes, that's really Scott Porter singing -- and they'll grow closer than ever before.
HuffPost TV chatted with Porter about George and Zoe's excellent adventure, his tribute to "Community," singing in front of a live audience and that one time he and co-star Wilson Bethel went after the same Captain America role.
Warning: Spoilers ahead!
After last week's episode, everyone expected George to be really depressed and angry, but the first time, when we see George, he's dancing through the town square, acting like everything is just dandy.
It's a bit of a false high. It's George coping, and it's a bit of a dream world in the beginning. He'll go through a couple of emotions before it all really settles on him, and he realizes that what he feels is not going to go away.
That scene when you're dancing around town before meeting up with Zoe and Lemon reminded me of Jason Segel in "The Muppets." I was almost expected Kermit to make an appearance.
[Laughs.] Nice! I was kind of going for a bit of Joseph Gordon Levitt in "500 Days of Summer", when he dances through Central Park. It's a quick nod, but it's a good one nonetheless. What's great about that scene is that George has been so consistent and so steadfast throughout the entirety of the season, so I was very excited about doing that opening sequence. I showed up that morning and David Paymer, the director, said, "I didn't prepare anything. You were on Broadway before, so just do what you do."
So we just had a handful of extras and some of our guest stars and we put together this great little 12-step dance routine. [Laughs.] The one thing that didn't make it in -- that I was crushed about -- was when Ross Philips, who plays Tom Long on the show, and I play patty-cake, and at the end we did the double-tap high-five that Troy and Abed do on "Community." That's another little nod to one of our favorite shows.
That would have been so fun! I'm glad that you're a "Community" fan.
Huge! Huge "Community" fan!
Now, in this episode, we see George buy a motorcycle, take a road trip to New Orleans, sing in front of a live audience and do all of the things that he's always wanted to do, but never had the chance. For a minute, it reminded me of a man going through a mid-life crisis.
If I could pick out one thing that is actually George's biggest flaw, it would be his selfless nature. It's his desire to fix everything and to want everyone to be happy and to make sure everyone is taken care of. You see that in his relationship with Lemon all season long. He knew that something was wrong, and when he finds out that it's this catastrophic, he goes home that night and says, "Everything that I've done for everybody else and everything that I've done for this town and for Zoe when she got here, where did it get me? It got me heartbroken and alone." So he says, "If I'm the only one I can trust, then I'm going to make this guy happy." So that's what he does. It's not so much a mid-life crisis; it's him trying to feel again. Lemon probably told him that he could never have a motorcycle, or maybe in high school, he wanted to join chorus, but his dad told him no. He's tried to make others happy for so long, but this is all about making him happy.
Your performance at the bar was really great.
Thank you! It was nice to exercise that muscle again because it was live. That band was live, I got to sing live in a room full of strangers. It was fresh, it was so freeing and fun for me. It was a great release for me, as well as for George.
You weren't the only one singing. I think everyone in Bluebell sang in this episode.
We keep joking that in Season 7, we're going to have a full musical episode, à la "Scrubs."
I think when "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" did their musical episode, it changed my life.
[Laughs.] Well hang on! We'll do it in a couple of seasons.
I'm holding you to that! OK, so in this episode, Lemon and Zoe both want to help get George out of his funk, so Lemon bakes a cake and Zoe heats up some canned soup. Would George rather have Lemon's cake or Zoe's soup?
Well, George being so selfless and wanting to always try and fix things, it would be very out of character for him -- after the kids have come through and stuck their fingers in the icing -- to not try and make it right again. I think that Zoe and George were like two kids [in this episode]. His connection to her has almost been like a window into a different life for both of them. He's the first person that she feels like she can really trust. She doesn't seem so hellbent on being a doctor anymore when she's with him. She opens up, and the same thing goes for George. When he's with her, he sees how his life could have been, but he's been in a relationship for so long that he doesn't know anything outside of that relationship.
For eight hours of their lives, Zoe and George get to be two children in New Orleans, until reality sets back in, and they're both mature enough to say, "This is fantastic, but it's not real, and tomorrow we'll wake up, and everything will be normal." That's what is so special about them. It's not about lust. They just really understand each other. Zoe is really the only one who could get George to admit that the way in which he's dealt with this betrayal is wrong. It's a very bittersweet episode.
At some point, George ends up at Lemon's door to try and get her side of the story. Is the wedding truly off at this point?
It would be way out of character for George not to at least try and repair things with Lemon, but he's going to do it in a much different fashion than he has this entire season. We're going to see level-headed George, and it's all going to have to be on his terms. As selfish as that may sound, it's necessary for him. What the end result is, who know? It's definitely going to be a fantastic payoff for all of our viewers.
We know that George loves his costumes, as we saw in the Thanksgiving Day episode. Personally, I'd love to see him don a Captain America suit to celebrate the release of "Marvel's The Avengers."
Oh yeah. George would definitely be Captain America, and Wade would be Hawkeye, the smart ass ladies man. George's briefcase would be his shield. I think the same thing can be said in real life. I'm more like Captain America than anyone else in "The Avengers." If this were the "Justice League," I'd say that I was The Flash. It's funny because Wilson and I both tested for the role [of Captain America], and we were both in the final four for "Captain America" once upon a time. That's actually how Wilson and I met. He's definitely Hawkeye in real life.
"Hart of Dixie" airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.