Review : 'Nashville' : 'Hanky Panky Women'

Cozy, no?

This week's episode of Nashville highlighted two important sides of the music industry: disillusionment and legal problems. I'm going to try and keep it brief this week since I've got an early morning, loves.

As Rayna packs for a weekend with Luke Wheeler at his tour stop in Tampa, her girl talk with Tandy about Liam v. Luke gets interrupted by the fuzz looking for her masters at the behest of the Evil Boss Jeff Fordham. As she goes to the safe, we wonder where that pyro Avery is when you need some masters burned or something. This will be the beginning of the terrible, horrible, no good, bad day.

Everyone is in Tampa since Scarlett and Gunnar joined the tour (Scarlett was totally like So.... what're you doing on this bus?). Deacon even shows up to deliver his niece her pillow. Rayna spars with Jeff, Jeff psyches out Scarlett, and ultimately it leads to Scarlett freezing on stage. She'd been complaining about her monitors being screwed up and the sound guy wouldn't fix it. Within seconds, the arena crowd starts chucking crap at her (does that happen?) and Rayna has to grab her by the hand (not for the first time that night) and drag her back out there and chastise the audience. I feel like between Rayna's defense, and Deacon's front-row-sitting-pillow-delivering self, they're basically parenting the pink-haired waif. Oy. Afterward, Scarlett melts down big time, as you would. Rayna gets into another jam with Jeff, who wants to release her album with some hideous album art (which is totally a bluff). Anyhoodle, all the stress and fighting interferes with Rayna and Luke having sexy times. But then they hear Gunnar and Scarlett singing together outside by the pool (remember the time Gunnar and Scarlett had an important convo by a pool that moved along their relationship before everything got real weird? No? Okay.) Gunnar's been struggling to write for Luke, whose fans are apparently only interested in songs about beer and trucks...

Sounds about right. 

That's right folks, once you get to do what you want to do, you don't get to do it the way you want to.  Life lessons from Nashville. Luke and Rayna like the song, though. They learn it for the next night's show and perform it. It's not bad, even if the phrase "ball and chain" is a little tired. Speaking of the next night, Scarlett somehow (probably because of beaucoup pep talks from EVERYONE) manages to come off like a seasoned professional instead of a child's torn dress, drifting down the street in the wind after a tornado demolishes a neighborhood. (Sorry.) Later, Scarlett will curl up alone on her hotel bed. The upshot of the duet is that Rayna is able to strike a deal with Jeff. He can have that duet, which will be massively successful, if she can have her masters back and he's like Ok. Maybe they'll be BFFs now since bullies WANT to be stopped, according to Rayna.

As for Juliette, remember last week when Olivia Wentworth showed up and kissed her on the mouth? Turns out the Wentworths are into threesomes.

Scandalous. 

Juliette is like Hell no. Later on, Avery is like CAN I B FREND?? TELLZ ME Y U SAD. She does, and the biggest surprise is how he doesn't tackle him into bed after he delivers one of his signature Avery Barkley Feel Better Speeches. She tells the Wentworths to shove it. Later, Charlie shows up and says he might be in love with her.

OH. And then Peggy bought a tub of pig's blood or something and faked a miscarriage after Teddy said he wanted to go to the doctor's office with her.

THANKS FOR THE IMAGE, NASHVILLE. 


Stray Observations:
+ "Steel is forged in fire."– Inspirational thing Rayna said that Watty said. WHERE IS WATTY, ANYWAY?
+ "I ain't dead and I ain't done." – Inspirational thing Deacon said about himself
+ "I might not be cut out for this." – True thing Scarlett said