Welcome back to Nashville, where Manager Bucky is excited to report on the good press generated by Rayna’s set at the Bluebird Cafe. Rayna insists that’s not why she did it, but she’s fine with the good notices. Bucky and Rayna are also happy that her 10th anniversary Opry celebration, announced on Bobby Bones that morning, sold out in 9 minutes. Rayna’s happy for some money coming in to help pay the bills, but…I don’t think proceeds from Opry ticket sales go to the artist? Bucky is concerned about the expenses associated with Sadie’s album, especially with a relatively inexperienced Avery steering the ship as producer. But Rayna says he’s the kind of guy she wants producing for the label – he has a point of view and she likes what he was able to bring out of Juliette and Scarlett. Still, Bucky can go check in on him. As their meeting ends, Assistant Kurt walks in with a gift for Maddie care of Rayna. It’s a diamond necklace for Maddie with a note welcoming her to Edgehill. And Rayna is not a happy camper.
Meanwhile, Deacon has a checkup with Blandly Cute Young Doctor, with Scarlett in tow. They discuss Deacon’s place on the transplant list, and he’s up there in the ranks, but not high enough to be an immediate priority. Deacon wants to know how long he has to live with his current liver, and when Blandly Cute Young Doctor hems & haws about avoiding absolutes, Deacon walks out, with Scarlett apologizing on his behalf.
Avery is packing up for his day in the studio, but we get a comic sequence of Juliette asking him to do this and that before he finally gets to leave (and he’s already late).
Over at Gunnar’s, he is rifling through and burning things from Kylie’s box of their memories together when Luke Wheeler shows up for a writing appointment. He needs to replace “Good Woman” with a track that more accurately reflects the reality that was Rayna for him, and Gunnar says he has plenty of source material for that.
Avery arrives in studio, late. Bucky is there to greet him (but not before taking a long look at his watch), along with Sadie and the best engineer in town. Said engineer has the tracks ready and is ready to go, but Avery wants to hear each instrumental track first, to decide what stays and what will go. This is going to take a while. Sadie is the only understanding one in the bunch to begin with, and she’s the one who figures it’s Avery’s pregnant wife who is responsible for his lateness.
Deacon is reading up on the prognosis for people with his illness online, and immediately notices a bunch of worrying keywords and a life expectancy of 6 months. That immediately freaks him out. Scarlett has apparently been using her online time to research alternative therapies, and out to go shopping for ingredients for some of them. Meanwhile Maddie wants to Facetime with Deacon, and Scarlett accepts her request before Deacon has a chance to log off. Maddie tells Deacon about how she and Daphne performed with Rayna at the Bluebird, and angles for a resumption of their guitar lessons. Deacon tries to play off that he’s busy, but Maddie only starts to get upset by his vagueness, so Deacon finally suggests they have a guitar lesson later today. They’re both in tears, for different reasons, as they end their conversation.
Will has brought Layla back to their home, though Will is off to stay with Gunnar so Layla can have the place to herself. They have a friendly conversation in which Will asks if Layla might start booking some gigs again. Layla tells Will she’s going to leave Nashville, because she’s a tabloid joke and there’s nothing for her there. Will reminds her she still has a deal with Edgehill, but Layla knows nobody there cares about her. Cue scene in Edgehill, where a newly upbeat Jeff is loving the smoothie Assistant Angie made for him and excited to present his new ingenue act Maddie Conrad to Chairman Of The Board Benton. He does ask after Layla, and when Assistant Angie offers to send her flowers now that she has been released from the hospital, he says no in a way that suggests she has his own (sincere) plans. Rayna storms in to confront Jeff about this Maddie business, and Jeff is only too happy to wave Teddy’s signature to Maddie’s contract in her face. Rayna promises this isn’t over, though.
In studio, Avery is frustrating the engineer by wanting to bring a lot of the instrumentation back. They’ve spent two hours and the “all star band” hasn’t played a note. Bucky has an emergency (Rayna, probably) and tells Avery that he expects Avery to be rolling when Bucky gets back. Avery apologizes to Sadie for the slow pace, but Sadie’s fine with it. She says she’d rather be there than at home, anyway.
Rayna visits the mayor’s office to confront Teddy about signing Maddie to Jeff’s label, and he covers bravely, claiming he’s been the parent Maddie can count on while Rayna’s been MIA. Are we forgetting the recent incident in which Maddie & Daphne threw some party at Casa James without any parental permission or supervision? Teddy and Rayna are, anyway. Teddy claims he has the right to make decisions about his daughter, and Rayna saves the reminder that Deacon is actually Maddie’s biological father for later, apparently. She walks out, but you know this isn’t over.
Gunnar and Luke are banging furiously on their guitars, and bantering over how “bitch” rhymes with “witch.” But they know their song is not very good. Luke is swigging more Jack Daniels when Will walks in, and Luke greets him by congratulating Will on his lusty “tail-chasing.” Luke now has a brilliant idea for a boys night out, even though it’s the afternoon. Gunnar and Will exchange looks but they’re not about to say no.
Sadie takes a phone call in studio, and it turns out it’s abusive ex Peter from a burner phone, threatening that he won’t leave until they both get what they deserve. He has served her with papers of his own, and is waiting just outside the 100 foot radius prescribed by the restraining order.
Assistant Angie is updating Jeff on his updated schedule when Teddy confronts him about rubbing his victory in Rayna’s face. Teddy wanted to time to discuss this with everybody, but Jeff is all smugness and full steam ahead, commanding Teddy to deliver Maddie for a board meeting the next day at 10 AM. The weight of what he’s done seems to finally have hit Teddy.
Rayna, Manager Bucky, and her lawyer are discussing Maddie’s contract situation, and her lawyer doesn’t have good news as far as their odds of ensuring Maddie doesn’t have to lift a finger for Benton Media/Edgehill Republic.
Over at Deacon’s, Scarlett arrives to find Deacon taking care of “some paperwork.” Scarlett has carrot juice and bee pollen to go with Deacon’s milk thistle – good for his immune system, apparently. Deacon tells her to return the stuff, and starts talking about who’s getting what in the new will he just printed up. Scarlett tries to laugh off his fatalism and tells him he’s being ridiculous, that he needs to focus on hope. But Deacon is determined to a) not tell Maddie anything (which ALWAYS goes well on this show) and b) accept his fate. He has Scarlett in tears by the time he’s done, and shows her where he’s leaving his will.
Avery has finally found a guitar tone that he likes (one that’s more Townes Van Zandt than t10, he says), and his engineer is sardonically relieved that he is finally ready to record. They are interrupted by a call from Juliette, who just wants to talk. Avery is a little fried as he tells her he doesn’t have time to just chat, that he’s under pressure to make some progress on this record and hasn’t made much all morning. He hangs up on Juliette, but because these scenes are just there to work a minimal Hayden Panettiere presence into the show while she was in the late stages of her pregnancy, this doesn’t turn into a real plot point. An assistant in the studio tells Avery that Sadie is not ready to record, that she needs a minute.
Jeff goes to see Layla. She expects nothing from him, and is about to close the door because she figures this is just a conscience-alleviating visit that will end when he learns that she’s fine. But Jeff wants Layla to perform the songs he heard her perform at Winterville Nash Fest at the Board Of Directors meeting the next day. Layla asks if this is because he actually wants her to or because he feels bad that she nearly died at his home. Jeff asks if it matters, and she says it does to her. Jeff says this is about a girl with good voice and something to say, that he wants the world to hear. Layla smiles a little, though she’s still skeptical.
At some raging bar, Will has acquired some hot cheerleaders for Luke and Gunnar’s consumption, and Luke is all about it. Which is weird, considering how careful he usually is about his public image and how the tabloids would be all over this. This does lead to a pretty funny moment where Luke tells the cheerleaders that Gunnar’s girlfriend cheated on him and Gunnar, asked when she broke up with him, replies, “about 10 years ago.” But that’s about it.
Avery finds Sadie hiding behind a locked door. She’s weeping and just wants to be alone. Avery assures her that he’s fine with ending their recording session for the day if that’s what she wants, but he won’t let her leave without knowing that she’s OK.
Maddie arrives at Deacon’s for their guitar lesson. She missed him so much, and has ideas about them playing together at the Bluebird one day. Deacon, meanwhile, has ideas about setting her up with a “real” guitar teacher, because he may not always be around. Maddie isn’t having any of it, and as Deacon continues to be vague about how it’s not always that easy for him to be around even if he wants to be, she starts getting glum. But they start to play.
Scarlett goes to hospital to demand that Blandly Cute Young Dr. Rand reassure Deacon about his prospects, because she can’t take Deacon’s morbidity. Dr. Rand is not about giving false hope, but sees that he needs to at least talk to Scarlett first.
Back at the bar, Gunnar is moping and Will tries to encourage him to join Luke’s party and allow himself to get pawed by hot girls.
Rayna visits Teddy at the mayor’s office, and informs him that tomorrow, her lawyer will file an emergency injunction stripping him of his parental rights vis a vis Maddie, since Deacon is her biological father. There is is! What I want to know is why nobody’s brought up the fact that with this signing, Teddy was splitting up a sister act, and that should be pretty high up on the long list of reasons the signing was a terrible idea (despite the fact that Teddy was being blackmailed). Anyway, Teddy finally offers a partial confession to Rayna, that Jeff is blackmailing him over the time he spent with an escort. Teddy doesn’t quite reveal that he continued seeing the woman after being informed she was a prostitute. He also reveals that he covered for Jeff when it came to what happened to Layla Grant at the party at his home. Rayna is disgusted, but she finally gets it, and agrees that the girls cannot be subjected to a scandal resulting from Teddy’s poor decisionmaking. She asks Teddy not to do anything. Teddy tells her he’s supposed to have Maddie at the Benton Board Of Directors meeting at 10 AM. So, nobody cares that Maddie would have school?
Sadie has opened up to Avery, and shown him the papers Peter The Abuser served her. He not only wants past royalties, but a stake in her current career because of a partnership agreement they signed on a napkin in the bar. Avery says losers like this always appear out of the woodwork when a person’s successful. Sadie says he’s done more than that.
Scarlett and Blandly Cute Young Dr. Rand grab some coffee, and if the good doctor’s increasing screen time weren’t already an indication of potential love interest status, he and Scarlett have awkward coffee banter that leads to him saying that he has no social life. Scarlett apologizes for ambushing him, but says she’s having a tough time staying positive for Deacon. Dr. Rand tells her gently that she’s being a “happiness bully,” and that she and Deacon need to work on finding a medium between blind optimism and blind pessimism.
Maddie is frustrated that she can’t get some chord transitions, and Deacon’s pep talk about not giving up doubles as something relevant to his own life. He tells her to take a deep breath and try again. She does, and launches into “I’ve Got You (And You’ve Got Me),” cowritten by Jacob Davis, Bob & Clint Moffatt and Shelley Skidmore. Her performance of the sweet song is enough to make Deacon tear up, and when that worries Maddie, he assures her it’s because he’s the happiest, proudest man in the world. He says maybe he’ll stick around after all.
To DOWNLOAD “I’ve Got You (And You’ve Got Me),” cowritten by Jacob Davis, Bob & Clint Moffatt and Shelley Skidmore and performed by Lennon and Maisy Stella click HERE!
Back at the bar, the cheerleaders are all over Luke and Gunnar, and when one tries to hit on Will, he finally can’t take it anymore and leaves. Luke is not too busy making out to notice.
Avery is still talking with Sadie, and telling her that she shouldn’t deal with all this alone, that she should tell Rayna. Sadie says it’s humiliating to admit all this, and tries to make Avery promise not to tell anybody, not even Manager Bucky. She says she’s tried a restraining order (so I guess she did reveal Pete’s abuse to Avery?), but Pete’s moved on to mind games. When Avery finds out Pete’s 100 feet outside the studio, messing with Sadie, he grabs his coat to confront Pete, which seems destined to end badly. Avery keeps a safe distance at 1st, and calls Pete out not only as a loser but also as an abuser. Avery sneers that he’s always wondered what kind of jerk gets off on hitting women, which is enough to get Pete to take a run at Avery. Just in time, Sadie runs out to inform Pete he’s in violation of his restraining order, and the surveillance camera’s caught it all. She threatens to call the police unless Pete drives away, and he does, for now. Avery compliments Sadie on her nerve, and says he’ll go tell the musicians to go home. But Sadie now feels ready to record a song.
Will is strumming on a guitar at Gunnar’s the next morning, when Gunnar emerges hungover. Will, ever mindful of his secret, asks if Luke said anything. Just in time, Luke emerges, asking after his pants, his sock, and Cici, who apparently left an hour ago. Luke asks Will what happened last night, and Will starts 1 of those confessions about not being what Luke thought he was. He says he may have cheated on his wife, but the playboy thing is not him. Luke says he had his suspicions, but now he gets it, and just as Gunnar starts to interject to save Will, Luke pronounces Will “sensitive.” Luke admits he’s sensitive too, that the whole hooking up playboy thing didn’t sit right with him, and it sure as hell didn’t make him feel better. He seems ready to write something new, and grabs the guitar from Will’s hand.
Over at Deacon’s, Scarlett and Deacon exchange awkward morning hellos, and Scarlett tells Deacon he doesn’t need to have that immune system-enhancing smoothie on her account. But Deacon says he’s doing it for himself, and they apologize to each other for not letting each other be what they needed to be. Deacon thanks Scarlett for being who she is, and takes a swig of the smoothie. Scarlett is in tears again, and embraces him while comically assuring him that the smoothie’s good for him even if it tastes like crap.
Back at Gunnar’s, Luke is singing “Can’t Help My Heart,” cowritten in real life by Sarah Buxton, Kevin Griffin, and Jedd Hughes. This is by far the best song he’s had on the show, and Luke gets tearful as he sings the tune. Check out co writer Sarah Buxton’s version of the song here:
Gunnar and Luke both know they have a good one here, and Luke chuckles that it’s been a while since he’s written a song that personal. Luke admits it’s going to be a while before he’s over Rayna. Gunnar asks if it’s the loss or the fact that she stood him up at the altar. Luke says it’s both, but more than anything it’s the idea that the love he thought they had, a love that was real for him, may not have been real. Gunnar connects with that. Luke says he feels like crap and he’s disgusted with himself, but it felt great to write that. He suggests Gunnar write a song of his own, that it doesn’t get more country than his girlfriend and 1st love cheating on him with his brother. Gunnar isn’t quite ready.
Layla arrives at Edgehill with her guitar, and Assistant Angie is all fake cheer as she offers Layla coffee and water as she waits. Meanwhile Jeff is playing Maddie’s version of “Heart On Fire,” cowritten by Sarah Buxton, Blair Daly, and Kate York for the Benton Board. He touts her prospects in the pop country market, and Mr. Benton seems duly impressed. Jeff is ready to present Maddie to the board, when Rayna walks in. She is all sunshine and sugar as she informs the board that Maddie won’t make it for the meeting, and settles in for what she says is going to be a long meeting.
When we return from commercial break, it’s just Rayna, Mr. Benton and Jeff Fordham, and Rayna lays into Jeff over signing Maddie without her knowledge. That doesn’t bother Mr. Benton much, but once Rayna reveals the Layla incident at the party at Jeff’s home, it’s over. Benton nullifies Maddie’s contract, and tells Jeff they have additional things to discuss. Rayna’s work is done here, and she leaves.
Bucky is back in studio with Avery and Sadie, and has some bones to pick with Avery over when they finally started recording last night. Avery covers for Sadie, and when Bucky asks if he’s in over his head, Avery says they’ll just let the music speak for itself. Sadie starts singing “Sad Song,” cowritten in real life by Matraca Berg and Ashley Monroe. As she sings, we see Layla finally asking Assistant Angie (who is preparing for a “bloodbath” in the wake of a “furious” Mr. Benton) what’s going on, since she’s been waiting for an hour. Assistant Angie says the meeting is cancelled, and leaves Layla in the office lobby, feeling abandoned and uncared for yet again. Over at Gunnar’s, Will tries to get Gunnar to reconsider burning one of the only childhood pictures he has of Kylie, Jason and him, and Gunnar says all he sees are lies there before tossing the picture in the fire. Scarlett brings Blandly Cute Young Dr. Rand some good coffee, and back in studio, Best Engineer In Town tells Avery that his work on the Sadie song reminded him why he loves working in this town. Manager Bucky is happy, Avery is happy, and Sadie is happy.
To DOWNLOAD “Sad Song,” cowritten by Matraca Berg and Ashley Monroe and perfomed by Laura Benanti, click HERE!
A humbled Jeff goes to see Layla to explain himself, and Layla starts to lay into him about treating her like a fool again. He tells her he’s been fired. Layla allows him inside her home.
Rayna is listening to the finished Sadie Stong track when Teddy arrives at her Highway 65 office at her request. He tries to apologize for what he did, but there’s no excuse. Rayna says she’s going to keep the girls with her for a while, and Teddy should get help. Teddy tries to protest, but he’s got nothing, and Rayna dismisses him from her office. And that’s it for what was a pretty satisfying episode! Come back next week, when we see the aftermath of Edgehill Republic falling apart!
