Recap & discussion post for Nashville Season 2, Episode 17, “We’ve Got Things To Do” with bonus music links!
We open with Zoe auditioning for a backup singer role with a new song called “Carry You Home,” cowritten by Gordie Sampson, Caitlyn Smith, & Troy Verges. The people listening are impressed, and say they’ll be calling back their top choices soon.
Check out cowriter Caitlyn Smith’s version of “Carry You Home” here:
Scarlett and Deacon are bantering about road life when Deacon asks if Scarlett is headed up tonight to work with Liam. Scarlett explains he can only produce 3 tracks on her album, and she’ll keep writing. Deacon reads between the lines and says that though Liam’s a great producer, Deacon’s never been a big fan.
Maddie and Daphne are over at Teddy’s, working on a new song, “I Can’t Sleep Tonight” that they’re going to play for Deaacon the next day. Teddy walks in with a stiff drink, and chuckles that this looks like nothing like the report Maddie has due on the Liberty Gap. Daphne has done all her math homework and wants Teddy to check it. Maddie teases her about being a nerd, since they don’t even have school the next day. Teddy sits down with Maddie and kindly & firmly says that she has a C in history right now, and though he understands things have been crazy lately, she also can’t let her hobbies get in the way of her studies. Maddie defensively says music isn’t a hobby. Teddy tells her it has to be for the next few years, and that he’ll give her guitar back in time for her lesson if she makes some progress on her book report.
Gunnar goes to see Zoe and Avery at the Bluebird, and he’s gungho about gigging again. Avery says the last time he was in a band, it ended in bad blood, and he’d rather they just stay friends. Gunnar asks Zoe if he’s crazy to want to go full steam ahead with their band, and Zoe thinks maybe it’s not a terrible idea to keep the band thing casual, since they all have their own things going on (well, she hopes to). That’s not what Gunnar wants to hear.
Juliette and Manager Glenn have arrived at Rayna’s to meet with Rayna and Tandy about Highway 65 business. Juliette is ready to hit the ground running, and wants to release a digital download of “Don’t Put Dirt On My Grave Just Yet” immediately to celebrate her signing. Tandy reminds her that this is the song in which she kissed off the entire country music establishment. Juliette says that’s why she wants to release the song as a download, not a radio single. Rayna wants to take things more slowly, she wants Juliette to write and redefine herself as an artist. She wants Juliette to take those Pacific Northwest tour dates she has remaining and use them as a charm offensive, get them talking about her again. Tandy brings up the fact that Will Lexington, whose album is scheduled to drop against Rayna’s, is on the tour, and wants Juliette to drop him from her tour. Juliette asks to speak with Rayna privately. Juliette says she’ll drop Will from the tour and use it as an excuse to get rid of Layla too. She’s also fine with going in to write a great album. But she’s anxious to know how Rayna plans on announcing Juliette’s signing, because she thinks the Rayna James stamp of approval will really speed up country’s re-embrace of her. Rayna tells her that right now, Rayna’s association with Juliette could hurt Rayna, but 6 weeks from now, it could be very beneficial for Juliette with the strategic rollout of Rayna’s album. Rayna is having a drop party for her single tonight, and though Juliette wasn’t invited, Rayna tells her she’s welcome to come, and in fact thinks it would be a good idea. Rayna just wants Juliette to keep their involvement quiet for a little longer. Juliette is not happy about this, but Rayna asks Juliette to trust her.
Over at Deacon’s, Megan is acting distant and continues to hide the truth from Deacon. *sigh* Really not loving this character sabotage of Megan, it feels less like a natural development of her character and more like the writers’ way of sinking a relationship Deacon has with somebody other than Rayna. Clueless Deacon blames himself and all his road time, and promises he’ll get the Great Lakes leg of his tour pushed back so they have more time together. Megan gives her half-hearted approval of the idea. Meanwhile, Teddy arrives with Maddie for her guitar lesson. He asks Deacon for a moment alone, and mentions Maddie’s slipping grades. Teddy tells Deacon he would appreciate it if Deacon could be a positive influence when it came to school for Maddie. Deacon agrees. And Megan walks in. Cue awkwardness. Megan walks out after a goodbye kiss with Deacon, and Teddy just kind of stands there awkwardly when Maddie tells him he can leave. No place for him. Will he go chase after Megan now?
Layla has bought some items to *ahem* spice up her sex life with Will. He’s about to reject the gesture when someone knocks at the door. It’s Brent….Layla’s new manager! Brent informs them they’ve been kicked off Juliette’s tour, which Will didn’t know. Brent says he found out about an opening at the Franklin Theatre, and can make Layla (or Layla & Will) the main event there tonight. Will walks out, determined to figure out what’s going on.
Rayna and Scarlett are listening to a mix of “Come Find Me,” and Rayna tells Scarlett that she’s got 3 great tracks. Rayna promises Scarlett they’ll still make a great album, and says she has 2 producers in mind. Unfortunately, they’re both booked now so she’s hoping Scarlett can get back on the road and resume working on building buzz, word of mouth. But Scarlett doesn’t want to go back on the road. She tells Rayna that after Liam she doesn’t want to work with a producer who’s a stranger, but she has somebody else in mind. And its….Avery! Because of course. Scarlett lists his credentials (Deacon’s live album, Juliette’s new music), and Rayna is game. Scarlett is going to talk to Avery and see if he’s game. This isn’t going to be awkward at all!
Deacon presents a copy of his live album to an impressed Maddie, and he signs it for her. He tells her if she keeps writing songs like the one she played for him, she’ll be releasing an album of her own in no time. Maddie wants Deacon to talk to Teddy about how she’s actually good at music so he can get off her back about school. Deacon says that school’s important too. Maddie complains about Teddy taking her guitar away, and Deacon plays it off, remindining Maddie that Teddy just lost somebody he loved, and grief is a tricky thing to manage.
Teddy has in fact gone to see Megan at her office. He tells her he is setting up a Victim-Offender Reconciliation task force and wants her to lead it. I guess all the professional women who get involved with Teddy get special task force assignments? Megan asks if this is his way of exploiting her personal tragedy to spend more time with her. Teddy plays it off and says he just wants the best person for the job. Megan says she’ll give him a list of names. Teddy keeps trying, and asks if they can at least talk about what happened. Megan says it was a mistake, that she’s with Deacon. She understands that they’ll run into each other from time to time because of Maddie, but she firmly tells Teddy that he shouldn’t be at her office. She’s obviously wracked with guilt here. Megan’s firm rejection wipes the smiles off Teddy’s face.
As Juliette leaves a message with Avery asking for his discretion on the Highway 65 news, Will goes to see Juliette and tries to get an explanation for why he was kicked off her tour. He says he needs the tour. Juliette can’t tell him the real reason without revealing her new deal, so she tells him Edgehill dumped her so she’s dumping Edgehill off her tour. Will says he thought they were friends. Juliette does not feel good about being held responsible for this rejection.
Layla is on stage performing “It All Slows Down,” cowritten by Karyn Rochelle and Sarah Siskind, on stage at the Franklin Theatre while Brent and Will look on. While Will’s watching, he’s greeted by a guy whose sister apparently knew Will from his hometown days. Will quickly gets uncomfortable when the guy asks him about a bandmate he used to play with, and says he wants to go listen to his girlfriend. Brent can hear the whole exchange too.
Scarlett goes to see Avery, who is happy to see her. She asks him to produce her album, and he hesitates, explaining that he’s dating Juliette now and that it could be complicated. Scarlett says she’s totally over complicated and she’s already sold him as a producer to Rayna. Avery smiles, but you can tell the awkwardness is coming.
Gunnar finds Zoe on break and tries to find out what she might have going on that she’s not as interested in the band thing. Zoe tells him about her audition, and she’s confident she’ll get the gig. If she does, it means a national tour for 6 months, maybe longer. Now, Gunnar’s feeling abandoned.
Layla ends her set, and the crowd response is great. Manager Brent has a new idea, a Layla and Will tour of clubs and theaters around the country. Layla’s excited. Will reminds them his deal is a 360, and he has to get Jeff Fordham’s clearance on this first.
Rayna and Luke are getting ready for her drop party. They banter about Juliette dropping Will from her tour at Tandy’s request. Jeff Fordham wants Luke to take Will on his tour. Luke says he doesn’t have to take Will on tour, but Rayna says she doesn’t want to be in the way. In fact, she seems to find the idea of “sleeping with the enemy” to be pretty hot.
Meanwhile, Maddie and Daphne have overloaded on makeup while getting ready for Rayna’s party. Teddy takes one look at them and quite reasonably says they need to wash their faces before they go to the party because Daphne’s too young for makeup and Maddie’s put on too much. Maddie’s especially annoyed, and Teddy tells her she needs to set a better example for her sister.
As Avery and Juliette prep to go to Rayna’s party, he gets a phone call from Manager Bucky with an offer to producer Scarlett’s album. Juliette, naturally, is not happy, and doesn’t see the difference between the contract she had gotten him to produce for Edgehill and Scarlett bringing in Avery to produce. Avery says him helping out Scarlett because she’s in a jam is just doing a favor for a friend. Juliette says she’s not jealous, she’s pissed that he says one thing, does another. There really is a difference here though. But they’re both angry at each other now.
Rayna’s drop party begins, and Rayna is working the room like the pro that she is. Megan and Deacon are there with Scarlett, and Megan seems to be relieved that she has firmly ended things with Teddy. Scarlett is uncomfortable, and pops a pill to work off the tension. Teddy drops by to drop off the girls. Daphne runs off to find Luke Wheeler, whom she’s clearly come to adore. He & Rayna have a friendly conversation, and he tells her he’s having a little trouble with the girls, especially Maddie, that there’s too much focus on music at the expense of school. Rayna says that if he feels like he has to draw a line, she’ll back him up. Teddy thanks her. He asks when he should come by and pick up the girls. Rayna says he can stay, have a drink. Teddy’s about to say no when he spots Megan. Now he’s going to stick around.
Luke is chatting with the girls when Deacon walks up. The girls are angling to attend one of his shows, and Maddie says that if Deacon ever plays the same city as Luke, they can see both shows. Luke didn’t know Deacon was touring, and tells him he’s too good for a vans and motels tour. Luke says he’s retooling his tour and asks Deacon if he would consider opening for him on the road. Deacon would obviously love to, but wants to talk to somebody first. That somebody is obviously Megan, who is headed to the restroom when Teddy stops her. Teddy says he can feel that Megan doesn’t want to be around him, but only because of how much she’s attracted to him. He tells her these musicians are not normal people, and will never understand her the way he does. Megan just wants him to leave her alone. He says he will if she can tell him she hasn’t thought about their time together. She walks away wordless. Amazingly, we got through this scene without Deacon walking in on anything.
Layla is all excited because Brent has even gotten her a tour sponsor. But Will tells her Jeff wants him on Luke Wheeler’s tour, and he’d rather do stadiums than a dinky theater tour so he’s already said yes. Layla says maybe Will can get her on Luke’s tour, but Will reminds her how Jeff reacted when Will tried to promote her single. Layla is hurt and asks if Will even wants to be in this relationship since he doesn’t want to tour with her, sleep with her, or help her. She walks away when Will has no answer.
Back at the party, Deacon is chatting with a couple of radio people (from Clear Channel and XM respectively) when Juliette walks up. The radio people rather snidely mention they had thought Juliette had moved to LA because it suited her better. Juliette says she went out there for a business meeting with Howie D. but wasn’t content to just leave Nashville behind. Deacon helps out by saying it’s important they keep their top talent in town. The radio people politely agree when Scarlett walks up, and they start gushing to her about how much Rayna has been gushing about her. And you can just see Juliette stew as the radio people mention that Rayna talked up Scarlett’s next album as her next big project, while she’s also getting close to signing Evan Rider. She finally walks away. Oh please, like radio people would
Will and Tandy are laughing about…something when Rayna teases them about flirting with each other. Apparenty Tandy shared their experiences in dressage while children and the stories are funny. Rayna says that was Tandy, not her. As they share a laugh, Juliette takes the mic. Ruh roh. Sure enough, Juliette goes up to introduce Rayna and her new song, just dropping in there that she’s so excited that Rayna signed her to Highway 65 and will be shepharding her through this next phase of her career. The audience is nonplussed. And sure enough, though it loves Rayna’s new song, it isn’t so excited about the Juliette signing. Rayna is livid, and she asks Manager Glenn and Manager Bucky to buy some time to figure out how to clean up the mess Juliette created. Juliette tells Rayna that she was fine with waiting for the rollout of Rayna’s album, but she was not willing to take a back seat to a couple of up & comers too.
Juliette returns home to find Avery waiting for her by her fire pit. He tells her her announcement is all over the news. Juliette says she’s ruined any chance she has at a comeback because…she signed with somebody who doesn’t respect her. Avery says Rayna respects her, just doesn’t see her side of things, and that sometimes what is a good idea to one is a threat to another. Juliette picks up on how that seems to apply to Scarlett and her too. Avery tells Juliette that if it’s going to be a problem for them, he will turn down the offer to produce Scarlett. Juliette asks if that’s what he really wants. Avery is honest, saying the album would be a good fit for him and what he really wants is for Juliette to find a way to be OK with it so he doesn’t have to say no.
Zoe returns to Gunnar and Will’s, and Will gives them some time. Gunnar hadn’t responded to 8 of Zoe’s texts, and he admits he’s just tired of seeing everybody around him perform while he’s stuck behind just writing. Zoe admits she doesn’t want to leave for 6 months.
Maddie is at Teddy’s watching a YouTube upload by another musician when Teddy walks in and asks to see her project. She says she’s not done with. Teddy points out that she had said she was done with it that afternoon. Maddie has no answer, and Teddy grounds her for 2 weeks with no music privileges. Maddie is angry, and says Rayna would understand. Teddy says he spoke with Rayna earlier that night and he and Rayna are on the same page. Maddie says that just means they both suck and she wants to go live with her real father. And that leaves a mark. Teddy flinches, then recovers and says Maddie is now grounded a month, and if she keeps it up, she won’t be allowed to work on music even longer.
Rayna vents a little to Luke. Luke tells her about inviting Deacon to go on the road with him. Rayna is surprised, and Luke asks if she’s OK with that given their history. Rayna laughs it all off, saying Luke should go have a great tour with Deacon and Will, and she’ll deal with her miserable Highway 65 issues. They cuddle.
Meanwhile Brent goes to see Will, and lectures him about the possibility of other old flames exposing him even though Brent won’t. He tells Will he can’t break up with Layla now.
Rayna has gone to see Juliette, and tells her how she’s staked everything on Highway 65, that if it goes under, Rayna loses her house, where she lives with her kids (seriously, what happened to Lamar’s fortune??). Juliette apologizes, and asks what Rayna needs her to do. Rayna is playing the Opry that night, and Juliette says she’s surprised the Opry hasn’t revoked her membership. Rayna says that’s not how it works. She has an idea for the 2 of them.
Will confides in Gunnar that he’s had other encounters with men, though no real relationships. Now that his profile is getting higher and he’s about to get a 45 minute set on Luke Wheeler’s tour, he wishes there were a way to shut people up if anybody did come out of the woodwork. Suddenly, he seems to have an idea. Uh oh….
Daphne pokes her head into Maddie’s room and asks if she’s been playing guitar. Maddie is rude and tells Daphne to leave her alone. Turns out, Maddie’s uploaded a performance of her own song online, and she posts it as….Maddie Claybourne. Oh boy. That hasn’t been made public.
Rayna is on stage at the Opry, smooth-talking the crowd while she’s on stage. She introduces a new song, one that she’s going to sing with the perfect duet partner…not Luke tonight, but Juliette. The audience reaction to Juliette is very tepid. As they sing, “He Ain’t Gonna Change,” Scarlett tells Avery Manager Bucky said Avery hadn’t accepted the offer to produce her album yet. Avery says he’s hoping to have an answer for Manager Bucky soon. Scarlett says she really needs Avery on the album. Deacon and Megan are at home, and Deacon asks Megan if she’d really be OK with him going out on the road with Luke. Megan tells Deacon she thinks this is an offer he has to take, and Deacon is happy. Meanwhile Will takes Layla back to the Franklin Theatre, shines a spotlight on her, and asks her to marry him. She’s thrilled and says, “Hell yeah!” Going out on a limb here and thinking that isn’t going to end well. “He ain’t gonna change,” indeed.
To DOWNLOAD “He Ain’t Gonna Change,” cowritten by Al Anderson and Karyn Rochelle and performed by Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere, click HERE!
