Juliette Barnes is feeling the consequences of being caught stealing at the local supermarket and has to do a bunch of damage-control in order to maintain her image as a pop icon. Unfortunately, she makes some ill-advised decisions, such as storming off during a Good Morning America interview with Robin Roberts, which leads to her entire tour being put on hold. There is a maelstrom around Juliette’s story-line this episode and Hayden Panettiere does a good job handling all of Juliette’s emotions.
She’s at a stage in her life where she wants to be juggling a million things at once, but doesn’t realize it yet during her young age that she simply has to slow down and take things one at a time. She has her mother living with her currently, a person whom she despises because of her drug addiction but the episode truly shows her mother trying to atone for her mistakes in the past. While this is enough to drive any young woman crazy, she then has to deal with all the pressures to being a star. But if there’s one thing that her and Rayna agrees on, her poppy music is a joke to the Country industry. I can’t help but thinking about how Taylor Swift’s current hit isn’t a direct influence to Juliette Barnes’ character on Nashville.
Meanwhile, Rayna helps Teddy’s campaign by throwing a concert at the Country Club full of supporters. This involves Deacon whom Rayna’s husband and father do not particularly like. There are a lot of little story-lines inside of the big arc of Rayna’s romantic triangle and her family-triangle. As of right now, Rayna has seem to have made a commitment and is sticking with it. She loves her husband even though that puts her closer to her father. She also loves her husband and her family even though she still has feelings for Deacon and is selfishly keeping him by her side. While I applaud Rayna’s stance to decline opening up for Juliette Barnes, she hasn’t portrayed the strength to do what’s right when it comes down to her family. When it all boils down to is, how is she going to be happy? She simply doesn’t know.
Finally, my favorite story-line of the series thus far, Gunnar and Scarlett get the gig and is shown around their new workplace. While Scarlett is stubbornly sticking by Avery’s side, we get the first face-to-face friction between the couple during the episode. I admit that Avery has been the nicest he could possibly be in his situation. There’s no way it’s easy for him to watch as Scarlett practically snapped her fingers and received success in the same field he’s been busting his ass for years, but at the same time it’s not easy for Scarlett since she’s in love with Avery. Avery’s an old school type of do-it-yourself guy, never wanting to accept charity and if he does receive success, it would be solely because of his hard work, which is why he blows up on Scarlett after she kept mentioning him and his band at the dinner with her new colleagues.
So while the chemistry isn’t flying very high for that couple, a new one seems to be brewing between Gunnar and Hailey. There are obvious feelings that Gunnar has for Scarlett, but she’s been entirely faithful to her man. Gunnar’s no idiot either and at the first chance to score with the boss’s assistant, he takes it. It’s not surprising for a drama like Nashville to pin two relationships against each other, while Scarlett’s relationship is in a rut, Gunnar’s is thriving. How will this affect their professional relationship? That’s going to be the fun part.
While there wasn’t much music this episode aside from Rayna and Deacon performing at the Country Club, a lot of wheels were turning. Let’s see if there actually is a more professional side of Juliette where she can actually be controlled by her manager, because if not then she’s headed straight back to a life of stealing nail polish. As for Teddy, we receive hints at a secret shared with Peggy (Kimberly Williams-Paisley). Are they referring to the Teddy sinking the credit union or is it something personal? Nonetheless, I just hope we get more great songs from Gunnar and Scarlett next episode.
Posted by Rob 
The Entertainment Blur 