Sullivan’s Crossing’s Most Infuriating Habit Just Can’t Happen Again In Season 4 After The Season 3 Cliffhanger

Sullivan’s Crossing season 3 ended with a shocking cliffhanger, but its most infuriating habit must not happen again in season 4. Sullivan’s Crossing season 3 ended with Maggie Sullivan (Morgan Kohan) and her boyfriend California “Cal” Jones (Chad Michael Murray) coming face-to-face with her past summer fling Liam (Marcus Rosner) after they finally worked out their latest relationship problem.

Liam had been mentioned twice during Sullivan’s Crossing season 3. First, Maggie told Lola Gunderson (Amalia Williamson) about him when she encouraged her to have a summer fling of her own. Then, Cal found a letter that Maggie had written to Liam, but never sent, in which she explained that her career would always come first for her.

This caused some angst between Cal and Maggie, but it was settled when she decided to open a private practice in Timberlake rather than leave him for a big city job as a neurosurgeon.

Maggie and Cal were happily heading back to Cal’s cabin during the grand opening of Shandon’s restaurant, when Liam appeared. When Liam greeted Maggie, she appeared stunned when he said, “Is that any way to greet your husband?,” ending Sullivan’s Crossing season 3 with a cliffhanger and leaving fans to wonder if Maggie had been hiding a secret husband all along.

However, the show’s infuriating habit of dropping storylines during the first episode of the next season could mean that Liam is just another plot point that goes nowhere.

Game-Changing Storylines Are Undone On Sullivan’s Crossing

Season 1 Ended With A Cliffhanger That Had Very Little Consequence

Sully looks angry while standing behind the counter in Sullivan’s Crossing

One of the reasons that Sullivan’s Crossing is such a frustrating show to watch is because what could be major storylines are undone almost immediately. The season 1 finale ended with a cliffhanger that didn’t really amount to much in the broad scheme of the show.

Season 1 ended with the reveal that Sully Sullivan (Scott Patterson) had been the one who’d hit Lola with his car while she was riding her bicycle and put her in a coma when she was a little girl. He was drunk and chasing after Maggie as her mother, Phoebe (Lynda Boyd), left the Crossing with her. Sully collapsed as the stress of this devastating memory and the fact that the Crossing was about to go into foreclosure became too much for him.

Sullivan’s Crossing season 2 began with the revelation that Sully had suffered a stroke. However, it was then revealed that he might have Alzheimer’s disease. In the end, Maggie realized that Sully actually had symptoms of Wernicke’s Encephalopathy due to his lapse back into drinking. After treatment, he was completely back to normal, and the season 1 scene of him collapsing was all but forgotten.

In addition, Lola returned to the scene of her accident after Cal’s sister Sedona (Meghan Ory) suggested that it could help bring back memories of what happened that day. Just as Sully was finally about to turn himself in to the police for the hit-and-run, she miraculously remembered that he wasn’t the one who ran her down.

Everyone easily forgave Sully because he was innocent, ignoring the fact that he’d thought he was the one who hurt Lola, and lied about it for so many years. This could’ve been a game-changing storyline, but every part of it was completely negated, and everything was back to how it was at the beginning of the series. Sully was healthy again, and Lola still didn’t know who it was that hit her with their car.

Sullivan’s Crossing Cliffhangers Have No Payoff

Nothing Changes On The Show

Maggie looks at something offscreen in shock in Sullivan’s Crossing

Sullivan’s Crossing season 2 ended with a fire at Shandon’s Diner. Rob (Reid Price) had left chili cooking on the stove, which led to the fire. When Cal and Sully realized that Rob’s son, Finn (Zayn Maloney), was still inside as the restaurant was burning to the ground, they rushed in to save him. Cal eventually carried Finn out of the blaze, but Sully didn’t come out.

Firefighter Rafe Vadas (Dakota Taylor) then arrived on the scene, and went into the burning diner to find Sully. However, he emerged a little while later stating that he couldn’t find him. The diner then exploded, presumably with Sully still inside, while Maggie, who was pregnant with her ex-boyfriend Andrew Mathews’ (Allan Hawco) baby watched in horror. The cliffhanger left fans wondering if Sully was dead or seriously injured.

However, when Sullivan’s Crossing season 3 began, Sully appeared in a scene with Maggie, without a scratch on him, and only a passing mention of the fire as Maggie told him to take it easy, while Sully insisted that he was fine. It was later revealed though, that a tragic consequence of the fire was that Maggie had miscarried her baby due to the stress of the incident.

The Sullivan’s Crossing season 2 finale was harrowing, but the season 3 premiere gave no payoff. Fans felt duped by Sully’s unexplained escape from the exploding diner, and Maggie’s miscarriage felt like a cop-out. Her pregnancy would’ve been an obstacle in her and Cal’s relationship, but it also would’ve been very interesting to see them navigate having a child and dealing with Andrew wanting to be part of their life.

Instead, Maggie conveniently lost the baby, making it possible for her to cut ties with Andrew for good. However, the earlier storyline in which Cal didn’t want kids of his own because he didn’t want to possibly pass on his father’s schizophrenia to them was never addressed again. Now Maggie and Cal are back to square one because she wants children and he doesn’t.

Sullivan’s Crossing’s past mistakes with their cliffhangers and premieres can’t happen again in season 4. It’s very easy to imagine that Liam will follow up his question about being Maggie’s husband with a laugh and a “Just kidding!,” which would be absolutely ridiculous. It’s hard to believe that they really tied the knot or that their marriage won’t quickly end, considering that other major end-of-season plot points have been ignored or erased in the next season.

If Sullivan’s Crossing wants fans to take their season finale cliffhangers seriously, then it must break its exasperating habit of dropping major storylines or not addressing them at all. The show has so much potential, but fans will lose interest if major season finale events have no payoff in the season premieres. Hopefully, the introduction of Liam will move the storylines on Sullivan’s Crossing forward and give it the refresh it needs as it moves into season 4.

Release Date

March 19, 2023

Network

CTV

Directors

Chris Grismer, April Mullen, Jonathan Wright, Martin Wood

Writers

Robyn Carr

• Morgan Kohan

  Maggie Sullivan

• Chad Michael Murray

  Cal Jones