The Nashville season finale finally had the characters moving forward, though not all for the better. In fact, I’d say there’s only two truly happy characters by the end of the hour, while everyone else is left in a desperate limbo.
Let’s go over the happy first. Will is still living in a dream world, thinking that his father could come around to loving who he actually is. That dream is going to come crashing down when the tabloids officially out Will, complete with photographic evidence. Luke has no problem with Will personally, but they both know that this will change Will’s image as an artist forever. Desperate to keep his image as a straight man and keep his father’s approval, Will pushes Kevin away and even Luke thinks that’s a bad idea. Will then does something that I’ll say right now makes him the breakout character of the hour: he finally stops running from himself. Will officially comes out, refusing to waver even as his father walks right out the door. He then one-ups himself by telling Kevin he loves him.
Teddy has to choose between turning in Tandy for her past crimes or staying out of prison. Even worse, he finds out that Tandy used the illegal money she gained from her dealings with Lamar to invest in Highway 65. Unwilling to make this sacrifice, Teddy is arrested on corruption charges. Luckily Maddie and Daphne are too preoccupied with Deacon’s situation to notice their dad being arrested on live television.
Others choose to get out of limbo by moving way too fast, particularly Scarlett. She decides to move in with Caleb, while Gunnar decides to go to Texas with Kiley to see Micah. Both of these relationships are so not right. What more proof is needed of this than the fact that Scarlett and Gunnar can’t write a single lyric for a new song? Scarlett does eventually get some inspiration, which Gunnar responds to with music. Even separately these two manage to work together well! When they finally do come together to sing “I Will Never Let You Know”, their connection brings them together again, but we’ll have to wait to see if there’s an actual kiss involved.
Juliette’s really just ignoring reality in the throws of postpartum depression. Juliette’s tantrums are usually funny, but telling her boss off and walking away from the baby she calls “it” is just disturbing. Avery’s last straw is when his wife throws a vase at his head while he is holding their daughter. Juliette tops this horrifying move with an even worse one. Turning to Jeff for assistance? Yeah, that’s just wrong on so many levels. She asks Jeff to be her new manager and help her jump ship from Rayna’s label to Luke’s. It’s the last straw for Avery, who packs up Cadence and leaves his wife. Luke seems thrilled to have Juliette on his label, but he has no idea what he’s really in for with Juliette and her depression.
Jeff really has come full circle as a master manipulator. He is telling Layla what to do, even down to losing weight and screening her phone calls. Layla does eventually figure out what Jeff has been doing. In her anger Layla takes a golf club to Jeff and his car! Seriously, how many of us have wanted to do that? The joy from this scene turns sour quickly, because Jeff is able to sweet-talk his way out from under Layla’s bad side with a sweeping speech about how he couldn’t lose her. Bleh.
Seriously the world around the Queen of Country is exploding, and for once we should be happy her focus is solely on Deacon right now; the drama and headaches will be there later. First of all, it needs to be said that we get that the situation is serious, we didn’t need the creepy dead-in-the-ground dream sequence to get that across. Beverly and Deacon prepare to go under the knife, and of course Beverly doesn’t make it easy to be grateful. We’ll put up with it though since she’s saving Deacon. Scared for his life, Deacon proposes to Rayna, which leads to an unofficial exchange of vows, a prelude to the real wedding Rayna affirms they will have one day. The final shot does indeed show that someone flatlined in the OR, but whether it was Deacon or Beverly is a question we’ll have to wait to be answered in the fall.
All in all not the strongest season finale. Hopefully Season 4 does a good job of picking up the pieces.
[Photo credit: Mark Levine/ABC]
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