After almost a month of reruns, we finally got a fresh episode of Nashville tonight. I'll be honest, it was a wincer. Here's what happened.
When we left off, Juliette's assistant had shoved a puppy in Deacon's arms and walked away. Picking back up, we find Deacon singing to the poor dog, trying to soothe the adorable little beast. Unsure what else to do, he takes it to the animal hospital where the vet just happens to be young-ish and blonde. She is weirdly crabby, hates on country music, and mocks Deacon for being a musician, but you immediately know where this damn thing is going. He asks her out for lunch and apparently "lunch" is the code word for doing the nasty in Nashvegas. (It's not.) As the pair put their clothes back on at his place a little while later, vet lady protests that she usually doesn't do this and then leaves inexplicably pissed just after she snaps at him to name his dog. I found her character to be confusing and I started to backtrack to figure out what went wrong seeing as how she was by no means obligated to even hit up Baja Fresh with him, let alone sleep with him, but then I remembered Nashville's tendency to introduce and quickly dispose of characters, so I stopped worrying. Later on, Deacon sits on his front porch with Coleman who advises him not to sleep with the vet (too late!) and delivers the following analysis of why Deacon prefers the ol' one night stand: "You try and keep yourself available for Rayna." He follows that up with: "You're strung out on Rayna Jaymes."
Deacon later goes back to the animal hospital and asks the vet out on a proper date. She is not amused at his whole "Dog named Sue" joke.
Meanwhile in the Bluebird universe, Gunnar and Scarlett wake up the morning after their weird grief/sex escapade. In this episode, Gunnar does everything to make the audience hate him. He tells her that what they did didn't have to mean anything. He goes to the police station to see if they've caught Jason's murderers, but the cop basically tells him it's unlikely. Jason was a bad guy in a bad place and there are innocent murder victims out there who need more attention. This upsets Gunnar who decides to go m.i.a. on the day he and Scarlett are supposed to audition for Rayna's label. After a bajillion worried phone calls, she's forced to perform alone. That night Gunnar comes home drunk and they have a skirmish where she tells him, Yo, I get you're grieving, but that doesn't mean you can treat me like crap. He generally acts like a shit, pushes her off him when she tries to hug him, and leaves. Next thing you know, Scarlett is pounding on Deacon's door because she thinks that Gunnar's gone off to do something stupid. They rush off to find Gunnar with his hood up (because he's a badass) lurking outside the bar Jason had gone to before he died. Deacon busts out a story about blaming himself for getting his best friend killed in a car accident. We go WHOA WHAT. After spinning some poetry about getting dark and twisty, Deacon tells Gunnar, "You want to hang on to something, hang on to her [Scarlett]." Gunnar and Scarlett go home. He apologizes but she affirms that the other night was indeed a mistake. Later on that night, they meet in the kitchen because LOVE. In case you're all awww, Scarlett gets a call the next morning that she's been signed as a solo act. I hate Gunnar now, so I'm not upset about it.
Juliette is upset though, only it's directed at the record label because their digital plan is not cutting edge enough. She takes it into her own hands to tweet about playing what was supposed to be a small gig at awesome-store-in-the-Gulch Two Old Hippies. The place gets packed. Deacon makes worried faces and sees Maddie in the crowd even though she's supposed to be grounded. The crowd gets pushy and Maddie gets pinned under a smallish shelf, sending Deacon cutting through the crowd pull her out. It's been rough lately for the kid. The Jaymes household continues to crumble. Rayna and Teddy will take shifts at the house with the girls. Maddie calls her mother a bitch, blames her for Teddy leaving, and it just all sucks. Deacon takes Maddie to the hospital and Rayna and Teddy rush over. It's awkward, especially when Rayna thanks Deacon and he tells her Maddie is like family.
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| Family? Why would you say that? |
Meanwhile at camp Barnes, there is mucho fallout from the show and the multiple injured teeny-boppers. Rayna even calls to yell and tell her "You hurt people around you all the time!" Other stuff happens on the road to emotional recovery between Addiction Counselor, Druggie Mom, and Juliette. The end result is that Juliette is taking them both on tour and picking up the hospital bills for the kids since she kind of incited the whole thing.
Hmm.. what else. Earlier, Teddy had a presser announcing Coleman as Deputy Mayor. I half expected Lamar to be hanging upside down from the rafters bearing his fangs. Later, Lamar busts in the mayor's office drawing power from the mahogany walls. He wants to know about plans for building the stadium since Coleman opposed it. They're doing it, but not on Lamar's land. Coleman and Teddy look like boys being reprimanded by dad. This show tries so hard to push the political intrigue, but it's so boring.
Much like Avery! So boring. Dominic continues to bulldoze him. He literally utters the words "Nashville meets dubstep." Long story short, after Dominic tells Avery he owns him and his music, Avery steals his tapes and torches them. He gives back the car and $75K as Dominic yells threats. Finally, Avery turns up at the Bluebird to sing a song about learning life lessons.
Stray Observations:
+ "Nashville meets dubstep." LULZ
+ To be honest, I would have put Gunnar's ass on the street after that whole mess.
+ Rayna stopping by Katie Couric's new show was a worthless bit of ABC synergy.
+ I think Deacon's revelation about his buddy's death is supposed to further cement the parallels between Deacon and Rayna and Gunnar and Scarlett. I wish they'd stop.
