The consequences of Juliette’s actions are catching up to her quickly on this week’s Nashville.
Juliette did a bad, bad thing. Not that she hasn’t been a bad girl since we can remember, and abandoning your child certainly qualifies as terrible, but Ms. Barnes’ behavior has reached new lows.
Juliette’s suicidal actions last week ultimately resulted in Jeff’s tragic death. Juliette is so drugged out that she doesn’t even remember what happened. To save face, Juliette plays it as if Jeff was the one who chose to commit suicide. Never mind the mounting evidence to the contrary, including the fact that Jeff’s life was coming together quite successfully and that Colt witnessed Jeff’s tumble. Luke is in shock but has to keep his priorities in perspective. He has to protect both the label and Colt, who was drunk at the time of witnessing Jeff’s death. Luke makes a decision to keep quiet about the circumstances surrounding Jeff’s death for everyone’s sake.
Layla is devastated and Jeff’s horrible sister won’t even entertain the idea of letting Layla go to the funeral. Luke and Rayna do what they can to comfort her. Will is an angel of an ex-husband as he stays by Layla’s side to take care of her. Good thing too because the small favor Layla asks of Juliette just gets thrown back in her face. The only good thing that comes from this particular interaction is that Juliette finally remembers Jeff’s death. She refuses to perform as a result, but this ends up being for the best since Layla goes in her place to give a final tribute to the man she loved. Even better is that Juliette’s horrifying realization finally pushes her to seek professional treatment.
Back in Nashville, Deacon surprises Rayna with his new venture. Rayna becomes very worried at the idea of her alcoholic boyfriend owning a bar. While Deacon vows to never touch another drop of alcohol to honor his sister, Rayna will probably always be on alert as a result of her entire life’s journey with Deacon. With a little pep talk from Bucky, Rayna is able to swallow at least some of her fear, though she’ll never really stop worrying.
Both Gunnar and Scarlett are doing their best to try to get back to some semblance of normal. Scarlett leads the way with a bold new look after donating her hair to Locks of Love. She also struggles to balance her work schedule with her relationship, but eventually that gets worked out as well. The X’s need a new sound engineer so Gunnar offers up Erin as a potential candidate. Both Scarlett and Will are worried Gunnar will dive in too hard, too fast like he always does. He is more likely to do that than Erin, who makes it clear that business is business. She at least knows some boundaries, which let’s face it, Gunnar needs sometimes.
Will and Avery are both hurting over the loss of their relationships and are unsure about what to do next. They both put all of themselves into their relationships. Without the people they love, they don’t know what comes next. When you’re at a painful crossroads in your life, sometimes it’s just best to do nothing at all. In this case that means Will, Avery, and Cadence will all continue to live together and depend on each other as they face the unknown.
[Photo credit: Mark Levine/ABC]
