Nashville 2×01 – I Fall to Pieces
Oh, Nashville! How we’ve missed you. It always feels so nice to be reunited with favorite shows and characters in September. The lives of all our favorite country music stars were in turmoil as season 1 came to its close last May, so it was particularly comforting to be thrown back in with I Fall to Pieces and get some answers to the questions we’ve been asking all summer. Will Rayna and Deacon be okay? What did Scarlett say to Gunnar’s proposal? How will Juliette recover from the loss of her mother? What does Nashville have in store for Avery now that he’s burned so many bridges?
The answer to the first question was obviously going to be yes, as we know the show isn’t losing Connie Britton or Charles Esten. What we didn’t necessarily foresee was Rayna being in much worse shape than Deacon, and Deacon taking the blame for the crash, saying he was the one behind the wheel. Given his level of intoxication, he is facing some serious charges that will be bumped up significantly to involuntary manslaughter should Rayna die. There are probably many theories out there about why Deacon chose to take the fall, and I’d love to hear some of yours. Watching Deacon in prison, I felt that he was blaming himself for the crash anyway, and wouldn’t have much to live for were Rayna to die that he wanted to receive the punishment he felt he deserved – even if legally it wasn’t his crime. The look on his face when he realized Rayna was alive really said it all.
Thankfully, we learned pretty early on that Scarlett said no to Gunnar’s marriage proposal. It was a ridiculous idea on his part to even ask given the way he had behaved in the months prior. What is it with people on TV that they think that once they’ve recognized their mistakes the next step is life long commitment? Does this happen in real life? If it does, I blame The Bachelor. No one wants to just date anymore. Anyway, poor Gunnar is pretty sad without Scarlett and living in their previously shared apartment with all of her things isn’t helping. Not to mention his new roommate, Will, the world’s worst advice giver. This could have something to do with the fact that Will has made a life out of lying to himself and everyone else about who he is. He’s a pro at covering up feelings, but not exactly skilled at actually dealing with them. Fortunately for Gunnar, he realizes that Will is not the person to take his cues from. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize til after he burned Scarlett’s couch. Gunnar did get it together enough to head to the Bluebird for Scarlett’s “last shift” party. The writers obviously recognized that the audience was missing the Scarlett/Gunnar duets from the early days and treated us to a lovely one. Scarlett is meanwhile struggling with lingering feelings for both her former leading men – Gunnar and Avery. Should be interesting to see how that plays out.
I had thought that there was a Juliette-Avery pairing in the making, but he seemed rather unimpressed with her self-serving tribute to Rayna. However, an intense encounter at the hospital with Maddie may have actually turned Juliette around. Isn’t it amazing when incredibly sensitive family information is in the hands of a teenager? Maddie spilled the details of her paternity uncertainty to Juliette as if she was talking what she wore to the CMAs. Crazy. Now the question is – does Juliette share that information with anyone? Scarlett, perhaps?
Final thoughts:
Will punching his former partner in the face and calling him out for hitting on him was particularly grotesque. I have all the empahty in the world for him and I can’t imagine what the self-loathing can do to a person, but that was particularly terrible.
Amazingly, Will’s awful behavior was not the worst it got. Watching Juliette dismiss her potential employee after his failure to bring her to orgasm was horrifying. I can forgive Juliette a lot after what she has been through, but that was just gross.
Teddy’s mistress is pregnant and he wants no part of it. So, naturally when she miscarries, she lies about it. I remember watching a similar storyline the first year of Glee. Don’t these women know your time with this lie is limited. Eventually, someone’s gonna want to see an actual baby.
I have been a huge fan of Rayna and Deacon’s since the pilot of Nashville. But, it’s hard not to notice the fact that the man was sober for almost 2 decades and the person who pushed him off the wagon again was the same person he was with all those years ago when he was deep into his alcoholism. I know people around Rayna keep telling her that Deacon is bad for her, but I would make the argument that she is bad for him. As much as I love them together, and the chemistry is undeniable, maybe it’s not healthy for either of them?
What do you think?