It’s the midseason finale of Nashville, which means crazy cliffhangers and tons of relationship drama. All of the characters are back in the titular town for the Music City Musical Festival of Music and Musicians Playing Music or whatever horrible name the mayor ended up with.
In this episode, Juliette and Will make tough decisions about their love lives, Rayna makes a tough decision about her future and it’s possible that two characters are dead, unless they’re faster than a speeding bullet or more powerful than a locomotive. It’s too bad no one leaps off a tall building, otherwise the episode would’ve hit the Superman trifecta.
Supertramp
Juliette is hounded by the press after TMZ broke the story that she ruined Charles Wentworth’s marriage. It brings out the best in Juliette, meaning her vicious, vindictive side that wants to know who leaked it so she can punish them. She has a pretty good idea that it’s Layla, but she has no proof. However, she does share her suspicions and record executive Jeff Fordham tells Layla in no uncertain terms that if he finds out she was behind it, she’s done with the label, because Juliette is a bigger cash cow.
At the Music Festival, Juliette’s performance goes horribly wrong when people yell “Home Wrecker” and hold up a giant banner with those words on it. For a fun drinking game, take a shot every time someone uses a different derogatory word to describe Juliette. Tramp, skank, etc. Luckily, Avery is playing back-up and he steps in to sing with Juliette and save the day.
After the concert Juliette breaks down about how the relationship with Charles was just plain dumb (but not as dumb as that weird lesbian kiss with his wife). Juliette finally seems to come to her senses, realizing that she can’t lie, she can’t be anything other than true to herself, and that her parade of men was a distraction because her true love was right under her nose the whole time.
Juliette rushes over to Avery’s place to tell him that she loves him, but a post-coital Scarlett is there to ruin the big romantic moment. Juliette backs away, ashamed, but it seems Nashville is finally going to give us the Juliette-Avery-Scarlett love triangle that’s been boiling since the pilot.
Rayna vs. Jeff
Rayna learns that evil record executive Jeff Fordham is going to release her album, but with severe cuts and changes. After vowing to buy out her contract all season, Rayna finally gets around to doing it with help from her business savvy sister Tandy, who puts up $3 million of her own money to go into business with Rayna. The rest comes from mortgaging the house, liquidating stocks and basically putting all of Rayna’s eggs into one basket. I have a feeling all of the show’s major characters (Scarlett, Gunner, Avery, Deacon, Juliette) will be signed to Highway 65 by the end of the season.
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Gay
Closeted country singer Will Lexington is still completely uninterested in Layla and her bra. He’s more focused on Brent, the super hot assistant who has broken up with his boyfriend after learning that Will beat up those guys who harassed them. During Will’s Music Festival performance, he’s singing to Brent, not to Layla.
Afterwards, we see Brent and Will in bed together. It seems Will has finally given in to his homosexual urges, but when Brent leaves, Will looks shell shocked and sad.
The Scarlett Witch
Scarlett is very pissed at Gunner and Zoey, refusing to talk to either of them. She’s angry that they lied to her and now it feels like Scarlett has lost her best friend. Part of me likes the new Scarlett of season 2, the one with an actual backbone, but she needs to get over herself. She declined Gunner’s proposal than hooked up with her ex. Plus, what did she expect from Zoey? “Oh, hey Scarlett, so you know that guy who proposed to you a few months ago? I’m sleeping with him.” Just watch the end of How I Met Your Mother season 3, when Ted was angry at Barney for sleeping with Robin, and let’s move on.
Going Rogue
Deacon finds out he got cut from the Music Festival, but he doesn’t care. He decides to team up with Gunner and go rogue by staging a concert in a parking lot next to the festival. They play and a record executive shows up with some interest in Deacon as a solo artist. Honestly, this entire subplot was pretty unremarkable with nothing important at all.
Who’s Dead?
In the final moments of the episode, two huge events go down. First, Layla comes over to see Will, but he’s not there. She calls him up and we see that Will is standing on the train tracks as a locomotive comes barreling towards him. Does he commit suicide because he’s a self-loathing gay? I guess we’ll have to wait to find out. I hope not, because it would be a waste. I feel like an openly gay country singer in 2014 would actually be a hot commodity. Will being gay would probably make him more popular and make Jeff even more money.
The episode ends, however, with Rayna and Teddy being civil after the Music Festival. But then a guy walks up with a gun to kill Teddy (most likely sent by Lamar because he still thinks Teddy is the reason he’s in jail). However, Teddy overpowers him and after a shot is fired and the gun falls to the ground, the shooter just runs away.
So Teddy is alive, but the stray bullet hit Peggy. Is the psycho chick who tricked Teddy into marrying her by faking a pregnancy (and a miscarriage) dead? I hope so. I love Kimberly Williams-Paisley, but I’m more than fine with Peggy getting killed off.
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
