In Nashville‘s “Someday You’ll Call My Name”, Rayna is dealing with the fallout from her romantic Bluebird crooning with Deacon. Clearly the poor woman has been lying to herself for years, desperately clinging to a thin barrier that separated her from her feelings for Deacon. But now that barrier is torn to shreds and she’s visibly struggling. She can’t even sit still in the same room with Deacon to plan their upcoming tour. It’s like she can see herself heading down an inevitable path to emotional destruction and she’s doing everything she can to stall for time.
Unable to secure Rayna’s attention, Deacon decides to focus on Juliette for a while. They record the song they wrote for Juliette’s record and end up back in bed together. Juliette is still trying to sweet talk Deacon into signing on for her tour and she’s really playing up the ‘uncomplicated card’. Being with Juliette would be a fun, breezy, easy time! They’d tour the country together lounging around in bed, writing songs … and being awesome and stuff! Once again, it’s evident that Deacon is tempted. Why couldn’t he shrug off years of emotional baggage and start over with a hot, young starlet who adores him? But ultimately he can’t do it. Juliette finally demands an answer: is he going to be her bandleader or not? And Deacon turns her down because she deserves someone who will be there for her 100% and he just can’t offer her that.
It’s interesting because Juliette worked really hard to entice Deacon with her young and carefree ways … but she’s actually anything but carefree. She’s such a bloody emotional mess underneath her perfectly coiffed surface. She’s horrified when her drug addict mother shows up in town, following her from the studio to her home and finally getting thrown in jail for drug possession. Juliette keeps trying to shake her off, pleading to be left alone, but her mother is like a leech. She latches on to her daughter and sucks her dry – taking whatever cash she can get her hands on and chipping away at Juliette’s fragile self-esteem. To avoid a public scandal Juliette reluctantly takes her manager’s advice and agrees to house her mother on her estate until she can be shipped back home. But her presence – coupled with Deacon’s rejection – sends Juliette down a self-destructive spiral. She heads out to a drug store where her ‘hat and sunglasses’ disguise isn’t enough to shield her from tween onlookers armed with smart phones. They catch Juliette pocketing a bottle nail polish without paying. It’s only a matter of time before the Twitterverse explodes!
Why would a mega-rich celebrity want to steal a 5 dollar product? I don’t know, ask Winona Ryder. But if I had to guess, I would say in Juliette’s case it’s a misguided attempt at battling back against her lack of control over her own life. Her mother keeps sweeping her up in childhood misery she can’t escape from and she couldn’t force Deacon to want to be with her. Maybe stealing made her feel free just because she could get away with it. Man, Juliette has really sucked me in! This is the second episode in a row where I’ve been surprised by how dynamic and engaging Hayden is in the role.
While Rayna was fretting about her Deacon problem, she took her frustrations out on her father … who had more than earned it. With the tour downsized and Teddy pumping money into a mayoral campaign, Rayna’s family is facing a tough financial future and they don’t have a lot of options for digging themselves out. Teddy went to speak to an old friend/business partner about a loan, but got all skittish when he learned they were being audited. Lamar offered to loan Rayna and Teddy a large sum of money … but it came with strings attached. Rayna had to agree to limit her touring dates and stay close to home. Rayna lashed out at her father for constantly undermining her career, but learned a surprising family secret from her sister. It turns out that Rayna’s mother had been having an ongoing affair with a musician throughout her marriage to Lamar.
It was a really nice twist because it beautifully revealed the root of Lamar’s hostility. To Lamar, Rayna is a constant reminder of his wife’s betrayal. Not only is she a musician – the type of person Lamar had to compete with – but she’s also a headstrong woman who won’t just settle down and stay home with her hubby all the time. Lamar keeps trying to force Rayna into a box because he failed to tame his own wife. And Rayna’s close relationship with Deacon has to be an incredible sore spot for Lamar. Deacon is ‘the other man’ – the next generation! Rayna tried to reach out to her father with her newfound understanding of his distress, but instead of lowering his defenses he beat her down some more. Guess you can’t teach an old man new manners.
Rayna finally contacted Deacon and faced her emotional distress head-on, but she STILL couldn’t figure out what to do. She tearfully told Deacon that she knows she should let him go and he responded with, “Why don’t you?” I’m not exactly sure what response he was looking for, but I’m intrigued by Deacon’s predicament because he really is the guy who gets shot down over and over but keeps coming back for more. It’s not that Rayna treats him badly, but she does cling to him – while married to another man – because he fulfills a part of her that she’s scared to lose. And he’s not getting what he needs out of it. Part of me thinks he was almost begging her to let him go, to cut him loose, because he knows he’s not capable of breaking free on his own. But he’s also always hoping that she’ll tell him she can’t let him go because she loves him and finally surrender to him. Poor Deacon.
In Scarlett’s plotline, she and Gunnar went into the studio to record their demo so they could get a songwriting deal but Scarlett completely choked, flubbing take after take. It was so bad that Watty suggested to Gunnar that they could replace Scarlett’s voice on the demo. It doesn’t really matter who sings the vocals – it’s the songs they’re trying to sell. Scarlett is clearly crestfallen at the thought, but she doesn’t stand up for herself. You can just see that fire burning somewhere deep inside Scarlett but she keeps pushing it down like she’s afraid of it. Like it’s easier to self-sabotage and sell herself short than acknowledge her talent. But sweet, sweet Gunnar can see her struggling and he confronts Avery about Scarlet’s hesitation. He believes that Scarlett is afraid to really go for her dreams because she could lose Avery in the process. Avery needs to show her that he’s in her corner all the way. Ugh! That fact that Scarlett is even worried about losing Avery by achieving success just proves what a disgustingly awful boyfriend he is. But at least he does the right thing … for once. He eases Scarlett’s fears and goes to the studio with her. She takes a second crack at recording the demo and recaptures the magic she had on stage at the Bluebird.
Photo Courtesy of ABC
