Netflix’s romantic drama series returned with Season 4 on February 6, 2025, and features some critical plot developments that are bound to cause some turbulence among the viewers.
This includes the death of a fan-favorite character. Showrunner Sheryl J. Anderson discussed the death in several recent interviews, its impact on the overarching storyline, and how the actor responded to the news of their character being killed off.
It is revealed toward the end of Sweet Magnolias Season 4 Episode 2 that Bill Townsend, portrayed by Chris Klein, has died. Bill’s mother, Bonnie Townsend (Judith Ivey), informs Bill’s ex-wife Maddie (JoAnna Garcia Swisher) about his death just before the credits start rolling.
Episode 3 discloses the circumstances of Bill’s death and Bonnie tells Maddie that Bill had a heart attack while he was in his hometown in Texas, for which he departed at the end of Season 3.
While speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Anderson explained they didn’t plan to kill off Bill, but they wanted “a cataclysmic event that would shake up everybody’s lives.” She elaborated, “We wanted to be able to trace the shock waves of a single event across this tightly bound group of friends and, of course, his family, in a way that everybody had to stop and take a really deep, thoughtful look at what they were doing with their lives, which leads more than one person to make some bold changes.” Bill was a family doctor in the fictional town of Serenity, South Carolina, where the series takes place.