Ty Townsend

**Tyler "Ty" Townsend** is one of the main characters in Sweet Magnolias. He is portrayed by Carson Rowland.

## Biography

### Early Life

Ty seems to have had a good childhood: he has a good relationship with his parents, siblings and grandmother. He is also very popular in high school, being friends with Gabe Weatherspoon and being the love interest of many girls in school. His academic life is on a good path and he is the star pitcher, with Jackson being the only bad feature in his high school life.

He seems to have grown with the dream of becoming a professional baseball player, without having any other hobbies, even though he used to play guitar. He also seems quite good at writing songs.

### Current Life

**Tyler "Ty" Townsend** is one of the main characters in Sweet Magnolias. Ty was born and raised in the small town of Serenity, South Carolina. He is the eldest child of Maddie and Bill, and is the elder brother of Kyle and Katie.

Ty is a junior at Serenity High School. He is the pitcher for the school's baseball team. Ty struggles with his parents' divorce, which affects his pitching. His relationship with his mother remains strong, while the same cannot be said for his father. Bill leaves Ty and their family for his nurse, Noreen, which puts a strain on their relationship.

Ty is close friends with Annie Sullivan. Their mothers are best friends, so the two grew up together. When Annie gets drunk at a party, Ty takes her home. He is taken aback when she kisses him. He brushes it off as she was intoxicated. To his surprise, she leaves a message for him later that night, professing her feelings. The next day, Annie tries to talk to Ty. He avoids her, much to Annie's dismay. Ty plays Annie's message when confiding in his best friend, Gabe Weatherspoon. His rival, Jackson Lewis, overhears them and shares the message to a group chat. A humiliated Annie is furious with Ty. Rumors about Ty and Annie spread throughout the school. This leads Ty to dating CeCe Matney.

Ty goes to prom with Cece. As the two are dancing, Jackson makes a remark about him only dating her for sex. This leads to a fight between Ty and Jackson, which is broken up by Kyle jumping in. Ty pushes Kyle aside, and Kyle runs out with Ty's car keys due to the frustration of feeling that no one listens to him. Ty, Annie, and Nellie run after Kyle. Kyle gets into a car crash, and Nellie is later revealed to be the passenger in the car.

## Throughout the Series

### Season 1

In Pour It Out: Ty's parents, Bill and Maddie, finalize their divorce agreement, and Ty is seen to have a strained relationship with his father, who left the family to live with Noreen, his nurse, who is now pregnant with Bill's child. Ty's family situation isn't helping his game back at school, where he is the star pitcher, as his teammate Jackson Lewis tends to bully him and make fun of his family situation. Jackson is the son of Serenity's mayor Trent Lewis and his wife, Mary Vaughn Lewis, who is also Maddie's lifelong nemesis. When Maddie tries to confront Tyler about his fights at school, he acts angrily and is even more upset when he sees his mother checking out his baseball coach.

In A United Front: Maddie decides to tell Ty about her meeting with Bill and Coach Cal, and Ty isn't happy about it, as he doesn't want his father to be involved in the decisions he makes, because Bill's own decisions have lately been morally questionable. Maddie ends up meeting alone with Coach Maddox, which warns her that Ty might lose his position in the stating lineup if he doesn't fix his grades and his behavior. Ty is frustrated and underperforming in his baseball matches, with Maddie, Bill and even Noreen come to all his baseball games. Noreen seems supportive, but Ty's teammates laugh at him about Noreen. Ty then has an embarrassing encounter with a girl that claims in front of Ty's friends that he likes High School Musical and ballet (having mistakenly asked for Kyle's help on Tyler's hobbies). However, Ty ends the episode in a good place with the help of a few motivating words from Coach Maddox.

In Give Drink to the Thirsty: Maddie is busy at work, so she forgets to pick up Ty from baseball practice, and Coach Maddox decides to give Ty a ride. However, Bill is waiting there too, wanting to set up a meeting with Maddie and Coach Cal about Ty's progress, this time with him present. Later, Ty is told by his mother that she won't attend the weekly game, and that she and her father willbe alternating, and Ty doesn't like the idea. Ty doesn't perform too well in the game either, as Bill comes with Noreen, who is wearing a "Team TY" T-shirt and is awkwardly cheering for him. Ty later presences a flirty encounter at his house between his mother and his coach, causing him to storm off.

#### Lay It All Down

TBA

In Dance First, Think Later: Ty rescues Annie when she gets drunk and embarrasses herself at a clandestine party. When they get to Annie's place, Ty tucks Annie into bed and gives her some pills for her hangover. Annie drunkenly kisses him and when he leaves she sends a still drunkenly voice message.

In All Best Intentions: Ty is told by Maddie that she is now officially dating Cal. He isn't too thrilled about the knows but ultimately decides to support his mother. Ty has a lot on his mind, as he has received a voice message by Annie, who admits she likes him, and before he can stop it from happening Jackson has sent the message to everyone in school. Annie reacts angrily and ends her friendship with Ty, claiming that everything she said when she was drunk was false, while CeCe sees this as an opportunity to date Ty. Later, Ty attends a family meal with Kyle, Katie, Bill and Noreen, where Bill asks Ty to be his best man at his wedding. Ty doesn't want to, and invents excuses for him and his siblings to leave. Finally, Ty is also seen when Helen visits his school and notices the tension between him and Annie.

In Hold My Hand: Ty watches Mary Vaughn scolding Jackson for not starting in that day's baseball game, so he decides to fake an injury so that Jackson can start. Kyle doesn't like the news about Annie and Ty's kiss and confronts his brother, who tells him that Annie's the one who kissed Ty and not the other way around. Later, Ty is interrogated by Dana Sue about what happened the night before; the former snaps under the pressure and gives everything away about Annie's drunken mishaps. Dana Sue grounds Annie, which makes Annie even angrier at Ty: she gosts him at school, fortunately for CeCe.

In What Fools These Mortals Be: Bill arrives at Ty's baseball game with a brand new car for him in front of the whole town. Even though Ty is happy to have a car, he can see through the act and is still mad at his father because of the way he's been treating his mother.

In Where You Find Me: Ty is at mock trial, worried about his brother who has disappeared. When Annie has to pull double-duty to cover for Kyle, Ty lends her his jacket so her role looks more convincing. They later have a chat at which CeCe observes jealously.

In Storms and Rainbows: Ty is getting scouted by Cal's friend, who has a good eye for talent and think Ty would be a fit for the Braves. However, Maddie wants Ty to go to college first and is very put out by how this has been handled around her. This leads to Maddie having an argument with both Cal and Ty. Later, CeCe asks Ty to prom, to which he says yes. After that, he attends a family dinner with his siblings and mother, and Cal is invited too. After prom, Jackson decides to host the prom after-party at his house. A fight breaks out between and Ty and Jackson when the former intends to defend his brother. Kyle intervenes, runs away and takes Ty's car together with Nellie, Jackson's sister. They both get in a car accident some time later.

## Personality

Ty is the golden boy of Serenity. He is a stereotypical boy-next-door. He is caring, athletic and popular. Ty's most prominent trait is his protectiveness of his friends and family.

## Physical Appearance

Ty is a tall, 16-year-old young man with brown eyes. He has dirty bolnde hair combed in a toupée and has a muscular body.

## Relationships

### Family

#### Maddie Townsend

Maddie is Ty's caring mother. They have a good and healthy relationship: this is shown at many points in the series, when Maddie worries about him, supports his decisions, protects him and tries to offer him advice when he needs it. He helps him when he has doubts about his professional life, shows up to most of his baseball games and defends his interests fearlessly.

#### Bill Townsend

Bill is Ty's father. Their relationship seems to be fine before Bill and Maddie's divorce, as we can see that they share an interest in baseball, with Bill showing up to each of Ty's games. However, after the divorce, Ty is understandably mad for blowing up the family unit and choosing another woman over her mother.

#### Kyle Townsend

Kyle is Ty's younger brother by two years. They seem to have a good relationship, even though they have very different personalities and interests: Kyle is interested in theatre and is much more dramatic, sensitive and expressive than his brother.

#### Katie Townsend

Katie is Ty's youngest sister, by eight years. Ty is shown to take care of her from time from time, and looks like a positive role model for his sister. This is shown when they sing "Rainbow Connection": Tyler seems to have taught Katie how to strum on the guitar.

### Friends

#### Gabe Weatherspoon

Gabe doesn't have many scenes, but is shown to be supportive of his friend. He tries to help Ty move on, be bold and go forward.

## Differences from the book character

Ty and Annie date, and he becomes a professional baseball player for the Atlanta Braves. Ty cheats on Annie and has a string of one-night stands with baseball groupies. He impregnates one of the groupies, Dee-Dee Mitchell, and Dee-Dee leaves their son, Trevor, on Ty's doorstep. He suffers an injury and returns to Serenity for physical therapy, and Annie is his physical therapist.
Ty and Annie end up together, get married and have a daughter named Meg.