TV Review: Nashville 3×03 – I Can’t Get Over You to Save My Life

Babies, Beards and Wedding Bells. The Javery baby, Layla’s gone full on cray, and “Layna” can’t find a date.

This week’s episode of Nashville proved to be a drama filled hour that had many of our favorite characters facing some major decisions. Rayna and Luke are having a hard time setting a date for their wedding in between both of their busy tour schedules. Juliette, still screen testing for the big Patsy Cline biopic, is forced to decide whether or not to tell Avery about the baby she’s carrying, which as we all found out last week is NOT Jeff Fordham’s! Deacon is dealing with “Layna- don’t call them Ruke” flaunting their engagement in his face full-time, on top of Maddie who has decided she hates the idea of her mother marrying Luke so everyone around her will be subjected to her teenage angst and attitude. Breakout star Will has fallen to number 2 in album sales and has to decide if he will defy the wishes of label head Jeff or his totally crazy and nasty wife Layla. Let’s see how our favorite Nashvillians handled all this and more, shall we?

Morning sickness isn’t just for mornings

Was anyone else feeling as terrible as we were for poor Juliette? Juliette spent most of this episode puking her brains out and trying to pour her heart out to Avery. He won’t take her calls and from the looks of it is only interested in talking to the bottle right now. Well, the bottle and random chicks he brings home to try and forget about Juliette. Poor Juliette can hardly make it through a voicemail or a rehearsal without having to toss her cookies and her hormones are raging in full effect from the looks of the freakout on Glen and Emily, as well as on Zoe who was simply just trying to be the best backup singer she can be. Hayden plays the highs and lows so well this episode but she always brings it on Nashville, doesn’t she?

“What song are you singin?” ~ Juliette

Instead of confiding in those closest to her, Juliette is screaming at them and shutting them out. We think you’re gonna need help when that baby comes girl, so better not burn those bridges! When she catches Emily and Glen going through her bedroom, (we just loved when Juliette walked into the house eating a gallon of Ben & Jerry’s!) she promptly kicks them out. We can’t understand when she went to see Deacon after her screen test in LA, why she didn’t tell him about the bun in her oven. After all those two have been through, wouldn’t you think if she needed someone to talk to he would be her guy? Apparently not, what with her vague conversation about her breakup with Avery and only referring to a “third-party” that Avery doesn’t know about yet. Deacon’s advice? “Tell him everything, or set him free.” After getting a call from her doctor that it’s time to make the decision about the “procedure”, Juliette puts on her best black hoodie and drives over to Avery’s house to wait for his return and to practice giving her speech to an empty passenger seat. We don’t know about you, but our hearts dropped for Juliette when Avery arrived home with that cheap trick from his gig. We just hope that Juliette was still parked out front when Avery promptly sent that floozy packin! And then, one of our favorite scenes of this episode (and this season so far) happened. Jonathan Jackson just really played heartbreak so well for us in that scene, just singing to his beautiful girl and crying over how much pain he was in from her betrayal. Anyone else cry along with Avery? Just us? We hope this raw emotion from Avery means he is on his way back to realizing that he loved Juliette, and hopefully still does. As for Juliette, our girl is growing up! She turns down booze and boys (the very cute Derek Hough playing her opposite in the Cline biopic) and finally ends up at the last place she can think to turn to.. Rayna’s. We would have went there first Juliette. With those luscious locks, we suspect Rayna’s head is full of great advice!

A wedding planned by your business managers… How romantic…?

Rayna and Luke are in a whirlwind of publicity and popularity thanks to their “Country Royalty” wedding to be. Only problem is, they can’t seem to find a date to have the wedding. In a meeting with their business managers, Luke seems ready to get married tomorrow while Rayna seems hesitant to jump into anything too quickly. The team of suits finds a date that will work for them, in between touring and the CMAs. (Did you notice the multiple times the Country Music Awards were brought up in this episode? Maybe that means good musical performances are coming our way!) Luke says his ranch is beautiful in November and Rayna suggests pushing the wedding to the next available opening they share, Summer 2016. Luke will not have it, November 1st it is! Rayna, you can send our invite to TVAfterDark.com, please and thank you! This news does not go over well with Maddie, who flips out on Rayna! Be nice to your mother Maddie, sheesh! And next time Daddy Deacon tells you something, perhaps stop to think if you should spill the beans to your mom! The fight with Maddie gets Rayna all cranky and off-put by these wedding plans and after disagreeing with Luke about slowing down to spare Maddie’s feelings, she gets on a private plane to LA to surprise and apologize to Luke in person. Did she really need to apologize in person? We think Rayna and Luke are both laying it on a little thick. Passion or publicity, what do you guys think?

“This isn’t some publicity thing, it’s our wedding.” ~ Rayna

In true Luke form, (don’t hate us but some of us might be Team Deacon here at TVAD) he is a raging jerk towards Deacon on the tour that he forced D to come on. After Ray told Luke about Deacon filling Maddie in on Deacon’s last-ditch attempt to stop the Layna engagement via his proposal, Luke looked more rage filled than we’ve seen on Nashville. Someone should warn Rayna that Luke has some serious anger issues? Or is Luke totally justified in wanting to punch Deacon (again) for trying to “poison” Luke’s relationship with Rayna and her girls? Getting back to Rayna and Deacon, even when she goes to his house to scold him for telling Maddie about the proposal, these two ignite. Connie Britton and Charles Esten have great chemistry with these characters and each other! How long do you think the Nashville writers are going to make us Team Deacon fans wait? In our opinion, there is too much history there to not even give this relationship a chance. Deacon did find something to take his mind of Rayna though, as Luke’s new backup singer Pam showed up at his door after seeing him storm off stage during Ray and Lukes duet. We did find it exciting when Deacon pulled her into his room and had his way with her! Clearly, Pam also agrees with us about being able to see Deacon is madly in love with Rayna, but thinks he’s either “crazy or stupid.” Also having some relationship struggles on Luke’s tour, are Will and Layla. We get that Jeff Fordham hates Layla, but unless you give her a record that crazy chick is gonna out one of your best-selling artists! We don’t quite understand why Will can’t just come out of the closet already. Pretty sure those screaming female fans in the crowd that Jeff referred to would have no issue with sitting next to cuties like Will’s trainer at his concerts. Layla has brought the full on crazy these last two episodes, and we can’t wait to see where this story line is going to go this season. Who knew innocent Layla would turn into such a fame monster? Aubrey Shea Peeples has really played this character well, as evidenced for our feelings towards her going from “she’s so sweet and innocent and I feel sorry for her a little bit” to, ” this good girl has gone bitchy!”

Lies, Red Solo Cups and Lessons

Maddie has hit that age folks. Changing clothes after leaving the house, lying to her dad Teddy to go to parties, and drinking with older boys at something called “Barn-a-Roo.” Maddie was really looking forward to CMA week (there’s that CMA name drop again!) when her dad Deacon would have time off from touring to take her to the cabin to go fishing. Obviously when she finds out this will be the same time as her mother and Luke’s nuptials, she is none too pleased. She hates that she has to stay with Teddy while Ray and Deacon are on their respective tours and we really think she’s being way harsh on her dear old Dad. Look, we don’t happen to have a secret dad that we didn’t know was our biological dad, but wouldn’t you think that Maddie would have a little more heart for poor Teddy? Poor guy is all alone most of this episode and let’s not forget, raised you for the first 14 years of your life! She plays him like a fiddle though and gets permission to go to a backyard BBQ where parents will most certainly be in attendance. Yeah, right. We know we have pulled similar scams on our parental units and we would venture to guess so have you. The issue we take with this though is, if you were 15 and lied to your parents about where you were, the second you saw the band on stage was a band that once played with your bio dad, wouldn’t you high tail it outta there before someone sees you?!? Maddie makes multiple bad decisions in minutes, from the red solo cup of “lemonade” she is given by a random boy, to the leaving the hootenanny with the same boy alone. We found ourselves yelling at the TV “Where is your buddy Maddie?” “Don’t accept a drink you didn’t see poured!” Those college date rape prevention seminars are still with us after all these years! We really love the Stella girls who play Daphne and Maddie and think they are amazing singers (more of that please!), except Maddie is starting to drift into bratty territory. We get that she’s going through alot, what with the my dad is not my dad stuff, and then obviously forming a close bond with Deacon, then Teddy and Deacon are fighting, now Luke and her mom are getting married… Well, if you have been watching you know girl has alot going on. We just don’t want to see the writers make Maddie into some snotty spoiled teenager. Lennon Stella is not only an amazing singer, but also blooming into a wonderful actress. She is really growing up and it’s fun to watch her grow the character of Maddie as well.

“The best way for people like us to deal with all them feelings is to write them down.” ~ Scarlett

Thank goodness for Maddie’s cousin Scarlett (or as Maddie referred to her, my dad’s niece) or else Maddie may have ended up in a scene straight out of an After School Special. Scarlett promptly yanks Maddie out of there and insists on taking her home. While Maddie is busy protesting this, she looks back and sees her frind cozying up to the guy she was just kidding. Ahhh, frenemies start young these days, don’t they? Scarlett explains to Maddie that being an artist means you feel all emotions so deeply that it’s both a blessing and a curse. Scarlett tells Maddie to put that down on paper instead of ya know, freaking out on everyone who loves her. This made us squeal because that could mean a new duet from the oh so talented Lennon and Stella Maisy. Maybe even a Maddie/Scarlett duet? We are really missing Clare Bowen’s voice this season so far! Scarlett promises not to tell either of Maddie’s daddies about this Barn-a-Roo fiasco, and we promise to beg for more scenes with these two! Let’s hope we get to see this relationship grow this season. Maddie needs an older sister type influence, doesn’t she?

FINAL VERDICT

Nashville really tugged at our heartstrings this week. We saw real and raw emotion from actors Hayden Panettiere and Jonathan Jackson. We were crying right along with Avery in that final scene! Maddie is growing up, as is the actor playing her (Lennon Maisy), so we were glad to see more screen time of her interacting with her family and friends. While this was a packed episode, it still feels like we are standing still in these storylines. The other issue for us though, is that the music isn’t bringing it like it has in the past two seasons. We know that T Bone Burnett is no longer in charge of the musical direction of the show, so musical director Buddy Miller, please hear our call for more great music from these characters! The tracks we downloaded last season are getting lonely in our iTunes library! Besides Juliette’s rendition of ‘Crazy’, we can’t think of any other memorable musical moments from this season. Did we miss one? Help us out and tell us in the comments which Nashville tune you are playing over and over again!

Questions, Comments, Concerns…

• Luke’s new back-up singer Pam? Girrrrl, you try way too hard.
• Will and that comment about needing a better release at the gym? #supersubtle bro.
• Hey Derek Hough! Welcome to Nashville! You were great this week! We’ll keep you. Also, heis very cute with facial hair! Helloooo Derek!
• If they ever make it to the wedding, we will be treated with what Luke & Rayna are calling, “The Honeymoon Tour.” #gag
• Maddie, we love you kid but tighten up with that `tude.
• Juliette had a flashback to her mean girl days and was awful to Emily and Glen. Who calls the only two people close to her, their employees? #wayharsh
• Have Teddy and Daphne been downgraded to special appearances only? We only saw them like, twice?!
• Zoe needs to chill with her jealousy over Scarlett and Gunnar singing together. He asked her to move in, did she forget?
• This first love of Gunnar’s is very interesting indeed. Maybe Zoe should worry?
• Charles Esten has a way with pulling a lady to him when he wants her and we kinda dig it.
• When Rayna rented the private plane to go see Luke, well that was just ridiculous. I mean really, you are the only artist on your label, how does she even got it like that?
• Derek Hough is cute with facial hair! Helloooo Derek! 😉
• Girl, Juliette you don’t have much time left. You’re not a little bit pregnant. You’re 8 weeks into not having much of a choice.