Nashville Season 3 Episode 15 Review: “That’s the Way Love Goes”

Nashville

It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for, Nashville fans: the Deacon and Rayna reunion. For three seasons we’ve seen these star-crossed lovers go back and forth on the pros and cons of a long-lasting relationship, all while recapping the two decades of love between them before all of that. This time around, after weeks of being apart, Deacon and Rayna are finally reunited for an emotional performance at the Grand Ole Opry. However given that this is Nashville, there’s always a catch.

Before we get to that though, let’s see how everyone else is doing this week. Gunnar, Avery, and Scarlett are proving to be a great band, landing a gig as an opening act for Rascal Flatts. They just have a few technical issues to work through first. Firstly, Avery is so sleep-deprived because his pregnant wife has insomnia that he can barely keep his eyes open during rehearsal. Gunnar becomes very frustrated with his bandmates’ lack of enthusiasm for their performance, and a little hurt that they don’t recognize that this is his first real professional performance. Luckily they’re able to come up with a great band name before their killer performance. “The Three Exes” is both ironic and perfect.

Scarlett is also trying to get her stagnant love life moving again when she goes on a date with Deacon’s doctor. The problem is, since Deacon won’t allow her to tell anyone about his condition, she can only talk to Deacon’s doctor about it. To make up for her horrible lack of dating skill, Scarlett invites the good doctor to her show, which ends very well. Not that well for Gunnar though, who is seen showing some residual jealousy when he sees Scarlett with her new beau.

After Sadie and Rayna dealt with Pete last week, Sadie tries to get her life back to normal. She’s in New York City for an interview with Good Morning America, and unfortunately they discover her recent legal troubles with Pete. At first she decides to decline to comment on the subject. However after Sadie hears a heart-wrenching story on the news about a victim of domestic violence being killed by her husband, Sadie decides that it’s time to tell the world her true story. She bravely tells the world that she is a survivor of domestic abuse, and shames her ex-husband so that he will not get away completely free.

This week Will is forced to work with an openly gay country writer, which brings up all of his insecurities. I understand why Will is uncomfortable coming out to the world, but being uncomfortable with another gay man is a little ridiculous. His insecurities keep him from writing a really great song, until he opens up a little about his youth, which gets the creative juices flowing. Let’s see how this new writing partnership develops.

Will’s ex-wife Layla is getting her creative juices flowing as well. After she has a meeting with Bucky where he doesn’t take her opinion very seriously, Jeff, in the role of her new manager, releases one of her songs on iTunes to make a point that she is a serious artist. The results end up earning Layla some respect as an indie artist, though her relationship with Jeff is still as complicated as ever given that no one yet knows he’s her manager and they haven’t really defined their relationship.

To accommodate Hayden Panetierre’s maternity leave, Juliette is not a part of the events going on in Nashville this week, except through her sleep-deprived husband. Seriously though, given that Hayden Panetierre gave birth back in December, is her alter ego ever going to give birth?

Maddie is having a fantastic week for a 15 year old when she and her sister make their debut at the Grand Ole Opry for Rayna’s 10-year anniversary of her own induction. It’s a good thing her dad Teddy hasn’t yet been exposed for sleeping with a prostitute yet, because that would be such bad timing. She does get former almost stepbrother/possibly future love Colt to come to her perfomance. He however brings his dad Luke since they want to spend more time together as father and son, and there’s definitely some residual awkwardness with Luke and Rayna. It looks like Luke will actually swallow his pride on this one though since Colt decides he wants to come home permanently to spend more time with Luke and Maddie.

Maddie has an even better night when Deacon agrees to come to the performance and sing with Rayna. They give a powerful performance with a connection that would rival June and Johnny Cash’s, before Deacon takes off. This is where Maddie’s luck runs out, she just doesn’t know it yet. Rayna goes to see Deacon and asks him not to leave her like that again, which he just can’t promise since he finally tells her he’s dying. We’re crying with you Rayna.

Are you glad that Deacon finally told Rayna the truth? Will Juliette ever have her baby girl this season? Stay tuned for Nashville On the Record in a few weeks to hear the best of the show’s music.

[Photo via ABC]

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