Deliriousville
We last saw Scarlett melting down under a piano, having taken pills to cope with her mother, then been scared by her mother, then driven to booze, and then plopped on-stage because Juliette either didn't realize or didn't care just how jacked up Scarlett was. Avery gets her out of there and into an ambulance while Juliette watches, worried and jealous. As appalling as this show is about letting Rayna have a selfish impulse, it's GREAT at letting Juliette be honest. As maddening as it is sometimes, it's COMPLETELY in character that she would look at this and see "my boyfriend fawning over his ex" rather than "nice girl on my tour with yarn for hair just had a mental break."
Pantsville
Layla wants Will to do a reality show about their relationship and career highs and lows (which basically are: his is high, hers is low). I'm mostly showing you this because the show is exerting NO effort in costuming Layla. Those pants are straight out of Olivia Pope's Goodwill pile and on a 19-year old or however old she is supposed to be, they are insane. I don't think ANYONE on this show has a handle on who or what Layla is supposed to be. It changes with the wind.
Restraintsville
Scarlett wakes up to find her mother panting all over her, and the mere sight of Mama's forceful bangs -- and the soft restraints on her wrists -- sends her into a screaming tizzy, even though someone thoughtfully gave her a chintz pillowcase. I would have assumed chintz was her fabric equivalent of a safe word.
Gownville
So naturally, we cut straight to Scarlett stomping OUTSIDE the rehab center, because when someone throws a hissyfit while in soft restraints, the FIRST thing you do is go, "Oh, okay, then we''ll totally take those off and let you RUN AROUND BY YOURSELF." Rayna is the only one who can calm her down because she is human aromatherapy, and she tells Scarlett that a good way to convince everyone she isn't nuts is to stop running around looking like the opening credits of Little House on the Prairie.
Scarlett does, however, insist she's fine and she just had too much booze and some "pick-me-up" pills that Liam gave her. And does Rayna bump for a second on the fact that a guy she hired was giving Scarlett pills? No. No, she does not. Because she is the worst boss.
Propsville
Scarlett does get a visit from Juliette, and hilariously is reading "Psychology Today" at the time. Juliette tries to bond with her about having Mom Problems, and Scarlett tears into her about how she sent Scarlett out on stage and didn't care about her problems THEN, so she can cram it NOW. I think Juliette is actually trying to help -- although she also feels cast aside, because Rayna dismissed her from the hospital and she's mildly scared people are blaming her -- and Scarlett is having NONE OF IT and she does have a point. I had sort of thought all this was pointing toward Juliette being the one to HELP Scarlett, because of their shared pasts, but I guess not. They walked this weird line of Juliette telling people Scarlett seemed off, and then not doing anything about it because she couldn't see past her jealousy over Avery spending time with her. Oh, Jules. You are the most interesting one of them all. That jacket and that shirt do not look good together. The end.
Awwwwwville
I just thought you'd like to see Baby Clare Bowen, because CUTE.
Bangsville
Scarlett's mother spends most of the episode having Big Sads. She blames Rayna for only caring about herself and not other people. She blames Deacon for not noting what was going on under his own roof. She tells everyone at the hospital that they have a long history of mental illness in the family to take under advisement. And EVERYONE acts like she is an annoying inconvenience, except for how SHE IS TOTALLY RIGHT YOU GUYS. I am not absolving her of her own role in this -- she jacked with Scarlett's brain as a tot, and again now, and can't see that -- but she is ALSO ONE HUNDRED PERCENT CORRECT that the doctors need to know about their family history, and that Deacon had his head up his ass and didn't pay attention to Scarlett's behavior even though they have addiction AND mental issues in the family of which he is SUPER KEENLY aware, and that Rayna was too busy worry about herself to hear or see any of the obvious clues Scarlett was giving her that she was a chicken-fried mess. When your bipolar, emotionally abusive character is the only one actually SEEING CLEARLY, you have maybe gone off-course as a show.
Awkville
Oliver Hudson invites Gunnar to go golfing, and offers him a fat publishing deal at Edgehill. Gunnar almost takes it, until Oliver makes a disparaging remark about how Scarlett is "loony," at which point Gunnar stalks off angrily. His hipster golfing clothes are HILARIOUS. He looks like Ryan Gosling as Young Mr. Rogers in I Will Be Your Neighbor.
Weepville
Scarlett finds the video of her breakdown and realizes it was a lot more involved than she remembers -- she had thought she just froze -- and so when Zoey shows up, she blocks the phone and comforts her. If Scarlett is being detoxed and evaluated for mental health issues -- although NOBODY actually appears to be doing the latter -- would she really be allowed a cell phone? ESPECIALLY when people know there is traumatizing video out there? Asking for real.
Shirtville
Juliette is insisting to Avery that telling Scarlett to suck it up because that's how the business is does NOT equate to forcing Scarlett to perform. Avery mumbles that it certainly IS the same -- he isn't wrong, and Juliette knows it -- and Juliette tries to get over her jealousy issues but can't, and so Avery leaves to avoid a fight, and also possibly to avoid that blouse, which is SO BAD with the tight updo and all the buttons done that I can't even handle it. The costumers were off their shirt game this week, as you'll see again soon. Also, let's be real: Juliette does not and has never owned that shirt. SHE WOULDN'T. It's nowhere near what this girl would own and wear in her down time.
Bumpkinville
Zoey and Scarlett walk around and reminisce about the bad old days when Scarlett's mother would go insane and Scarlett would sleep at Zoey's, and they're beginning to patch things up, which is GOOD, because they have their Asylum for Anthropologie shoot in ten minutes.
Mamaville
And Mama shows up and tells Scarlett, over and over, that this isn't her fault because she had a BREAKDOWN and it's IN THE FAMILY and none of this is her doing at ALL, and no one BLAMES her, and so it's clear that Mama has been telling herself this as well as a way of absolving herself of responsibility for anything she's done as a result of her own condition. I still think she's a lot more correct than anyone is giving her credit for, though, and somehow in this episode the show HUGELY muddies what Scarlett's real issues might be, in a way that is less enticing than just plain confusing.
Shirtville Part 2: The Shirtening
Oliver Hudson wants Will to think LONG AND HARD about doing a reality show, because it just might expose things he isn't ready to expose, which also might have to do with the words "long and hard." Oliver won't say the words out loud, though, because he wants "plausible deniability," so he just leaves a resentful Will to wonder what to do, and WHY OH WHY Oliver Hudson is wearing a shirt that gaps so badly between the buttons, and what his pectoral workout regimen might be.
STOPITville
This should be their album cover for a record full of smoky duets about abandonment.
Deacon had snapped at Rayna as well about her level of culpability in all this, and so this is him apologizing. Rayna says that she was just trying to help and create a safe haven, via Highway 65, to protect artists from all this. I waited and waited and waited for the "but" to come in, or for her to say, "I guess I couldn't do it," or something, but NO. She basically just TAKES the apology and makes NONE of her own, for not paying a damn bit of attention to Scarlett. It's SO egregious to me. It's a small company. IT HAS TWO ARTISTS. For a long time Scarlett was the ONLY artist. YOU NEED HER. PAY. ATTENTION. Ugh. I might be out on Rayna, y'all. FREE LUKE WHEELER.
Rayna does tell Deacon she's decided Scarlett is family -- she remembers when Deacon saw her as a baby and how delighted he was, which I hope brought up a lot of sad feelings about how he might have been if she'd let him be with Maddie when SHE was a baby -- and so she's going to let Scarlett out of her contract, if she chooses. Well, good. I hated Scarlett's music. She needs to go back to singing with Gunnar.
STOPITville 2: STOPIT Boogaloo
Avery took refuge in her room, because I guess visiting hours are FOREVER in this strange-ass rehab hospital. Scarlett wakes up and he says he thought she might want to see a friendly face, given that she wouldn't let go of him while they were transporting her here, and she smiles that he was her first love and she'll never love anyone else as much. Avery says she will always have a place in his heart, also, and as they clasp at each other and smile -- I swear, if this show goes back to the two of them, I will scream, because it DID NOT WORK and I'm way too invested in Avery and Juliette -- we see that Juliette has been listening.
Buzzville
She handles these feelings as well as you'd expect.
Nashville, Season 3, episode 19
So then Rayna sings the song that closes out the episode, all about how all your shit basically comes back at you... which leads to her ENDING the episode by saying that Highway 65's future now depends SOLELY on her album launch. As if ANY of the emotions we've felt this hour have ANYTHING to do with her stupid album, or with rooting FOR Rayna in any way.
Quitsville
Scarlett tells Deacon she's out of the recording game, and she's relieved, because she doesn't want to be a star. She also told her mother to buzz off back home, and that she's owning that these were HER mistakes that she made and not just things that happened to her. Which is great except is NOBODY worried about her mental state at all? Anyone? Bueller? God, Ferris Bueller would TOTALLY have thoughts about this. I wish we could ask him. He'd be a good Get A Grip friend for her.
Smoochville
Will agrees to do the reality show JUST to spite Oliver Hudson, who is watching. Then he kisses Layla to seal the deal. Then Oliver turns around at whatever party this is and sees Gunnar, who blows past him without a word. And Oliver gets all bummed out...
Uhohville
... and voila. The thing about Oliver Hudson the actor is that he, intentionally or not, somehow plays every scene as if he might secretly want to bone the person he's talking to in it. No matter who it is. So for a while I thought he was hot for Rayna, and then for Juliette, and then I seriously was like, "Oh, are he and BRENT lovers?" and then I wondered if he was quietly wanting to bang Will, and even Gunnar. EVERYONE. It's ALWAYS there. I don't know if it's that he has CHEMISTRY with any of them, per se, but there's an attitude and a look in his eye that suggests he wants to Hate Sex the SHIT out of absolutely everyone. And here, he and Juliette eyeball each other's total depression and then sneak into a back room and make out like crazy and possibly have sex next to a mop bucket or whatever.
GIRLPLEASEville
And then, because NOBODY ON TV IS SMART EVER, they walk out of the closet AT THE SAME TIME and into the party WHILE REARRANGING THEIR OUTFITS IN FRONT OF A GLASS DOOR. COME ON. Juliette in particular should be smoother than that, even if she is hammered. These are both people who are obsessed with appearances. It's LUDICROUS. STOP BEING DUMB.
Spyville
Of course, that contrivance is all so that Gunnar can see them and get his suspicious face on, and I guess TECHNICALLY we don't know what happened -- maybe she put a stop to it, maybe Oliver did, maybe they had wild animal sex and they'll do it again -- but it looks like Juliette and Avery are headed for a rough patch regardless. And I know that's better for story than a happy couple, but seriously, the two episodes where they were just cute together were SO GOOD and the actors looked like they were enjoying the hell out of it, and I'm not ready for Juliette to get run over by a YET ANOTHER bus driven by her own psyche. But I can't tell if I'm mad at the show, or if it's actually pretty good storytelling -- because if nothing else, it's CERTAINLY consistent to the character that she would get jumpy and jealous and hurt and then go out and sabotage everything so that she can pretend she's in control and won't be the one getting hurt. You break my heart, kid. That must mean I care.