Nashville - Recap: Scarlett Fever
Recap video and review of Nashville - Season 1 Episode 15 - When You're Tired of Breaking Other Hearts:
Nashville has a lot of table-setting to do for the latter half of its season, so it stands to reason that we'd wind up with an episode as busy as "When You're Tired of Breaking Other Hearts". Luckily, the episode is mostly good, as it rehashes the issues that we left off on before our little break, while also structuring the story in such a way that we can get some sense of where the show will be going as it heads towards the season finale. Ultimately, it's hard not to feel confident about where this show is headed, as the conflicts feel natural and organic to the story while also presenting genuinely compelling dilemmas. It's a solid episode from top-to-bottom, less for what it does in its own right, and more for what it means in the grand scheme of the season, as I feel as though the series has returned from its break delivering big narrative momentum right out of the gate.
Credit: ABC
Much of this momentum comes from the Scarlett (Clare Bowen) and Gunnar (Sam Palladio) storyline. Gunnar is still understandably torn up over his brother's murder, which makes things extra awkward the morning after their long-anticipated hookup. Gunnar leads on that the hookup didn't mean anything more than it did on the surface, which clearly hurts Scarlett, and also kicks off an episode-long bender in which Gunnar gets drunk and mopes about his brother's death, a downward spiral that is exacerbated after a salty police detective implies that Jason was a lousy person whose murder isn't much of a priority. Gunnar disappears, leaving Scarlett to attend their meeting with Rayna (Connie Britton) and executives from her new label by herself. She plays one of the songs, and it seems to go over well, but Scarlett is incensed when Gunnar returns home later. She laces into him for never answering his phone or letting her know where he was, and the entire argument blows up to the point where Gunnar doesn't even want Scarlett comforting him, telling her he doesn't need her pity before storming off to hunt for his brother's murderers at the bar where he was killed.
Credit: ABC
Scarlett goes to Deacon (Charles Esten) for help, and together they intercept Gunnar before he can go and do anything stupid. It's a great moment for Esten, as Deacon poignantly recounts to Gunnar how he felt responsible for his best friend's death for years. When he had been Gunnar's age, he'd made his best friend drive home drunk, resulting in a crash that killed his friend -- and a burden that led to an addiction that cost him the only woman he ever truly loved. It's an insightful speech that gives us a window into what led to Deacon's formerly destructive path -- a path that cost him a future with Rayna. Deacon tells Gunnar to let go of the pain and hold onto Scarlett, and this is thankfully enough to turn Gunnar from the edge. However, back at home, things between Gunnar and Scarlett remain cold...until later that night when neither one can sleep. Gunnar gets up to talk to Scarlett, only to open his door and find Scarlett there waiting. Scarlett confesses that her affection for him wasn't pity, and he similarly confesses that what happened between them wasn't a mistake. After spending more than half the season beating around the bush, they finally affirm their feelings for one another by leaping into one another's arms and taking it directly to the bedroom like any hot-blooded, passionate youths would in their situation. Unfortunately, things get complicated the morning after, as Scarlett awakes to a phone call that Rayna loved her performance, and they want to sign her to the label as a solo artist.
Credit: ABC
I really enjoyed the Scarlett-Gunnar story this week, as it was structured beautifully. What I had feared would be a multi-episode arc of Gunnar grousing and Scarlett pouting instead went from the point A of Gunnar being inconsolable about his brother's death, and lashing out against those trying to help him, to the point B of his acceptance of Jason's death, and his embracing Scarlett's love. That final twist is also a genuinely compelling complication to their romance. Instead of Gunnar's despondency over his brother's death serving as the obstacle to Gunnar and Scarlett's budding relationship, it's the music that brought them together in the first place that threatens to tear them apart. It's the best storyline this week, and Clare Bowen and Sam Palladio do terrific work with their roles.
Meanwhile, the other storyline developments this week, while not nearly as compelling, go a long way in setting the stage for the remaining episodes of the season. Juliette (Hayden Panettiere) is still working out her issues with her relapses mother, Jolene (Sylvia Jefferies). When Juliette proves less than forgiving, Jolene's counselor, Dante (Jay Hernandez), takes Juliette to task for her failure to take responsibility by aiding in her mother's recovery. He details the difficulties of recovery from his own experience, having been a slave to his addictions for years before sobering up. Dante allows Juliette to overhear one of his sessions with Jolene, in which Juliette learns that Jolene's addiction stems from a feeling of failure as a mother and as a human being. This taps into Juliette's sympathy, as she starts being honest with her mother about her own past embarrassment with, and avoidance of, the woman who, for better or worse, brought her into the world. Juliette encourages her mother to come on tour with her, and for Dante to accompany her as Jolene's sober companion, and if this doesn't end with Juliette and Dante getting nasty, I'll eat my hat.
Credit: ABC/LOU ROCCO
Yet things aren't all reconciliation and potential hookups for Juliette, as she tweets about a secret show which results in far too many fans showing up. This leads to a near riot as fans try to get closer to the stage to be closer to Juliette. Maddie (Lennon Stella), who earlier had lashed out against Rayna in an expression of her pain at her parents' divorce, lies to Teddy (Eric Close) to get around her grounding so she can go to the show. (Maybe if Rayna had told Teddy that Maddie had called her a "bitch", he would have been less likely to even allow her to "go do a group project" at her best friend's house, although I guess Rayna was somewhat busy herself with the Katie Couric interview -- because Katie Couric has a talk show, apparently? News to me) Naturally, when the riot breaks out, Maddie is caught in the crossfire, with a shelf falling over onto her. The storyline works in how it brings Rayna and Maddie closer together, while bringing Rayna and Teddy into more direct conflict, as his absentee parenting results in Deacon stepping up to save the day, rationalizing that Maddie "is like family" to him (which might as well be another bit of foreshadowing that Deacon is Maddie's father). The storyline also pits Rayna against Juliette, as the latter's refusal to take responsibility for the near-riot, and for the six people that got hurt, leads to Rayna railing against Juliette to "wake up" and start taking responsibility for her lousy decisions. Coupled with her realizations about her mother, Juliette recognizes how her actions affect people, and she offers to pay the hospital bills of all the people who were hurt at her show.
Though Deacon gets to play the hero, he still has his own troubles. He tries to get over Rayna by getting under the veterinarian for his new dog. It's a sweet little storyline, as Deacon gets advice from Coleman (Robert Wisdom) about his romantic life and how Deacon doesn't seem to know how to romance a woman the right way anymore. Deacon reforms his ways and offers to take the vet on a real date, and though she proclaims to hate country music (and doesn't get the joke when Deacon reveals he's named his male dog "Sue", in reference to Johnny Cash's iconic song "A Boy Named Sue"), they seem to hit it off pretty well. That said, it is still somewhat jarring since the prevailing expectation seemed to be that the show would leap right into a Rayna/Deacon pairing. But I like that they're holding off a bit, and turning the tables, to a certain degree, by having Deacon be the one who's spoken for.
Lastly, the episode actually manages to get me rooting for Avery (Jonathan Jackson), as he decides to give up his record deal with Dominic (Wyclef Jean) and dissolve his managerial partnership with Marilyn (Rya Kihlstedt) when it becomes apparent that neither has his best interests in mind. Dominic plays a song of Avery's that he's mixing, and it's a dubstep nightmare that couldn't be farther from Avery's sound. Realizing he's losing his identity in this Faustian fame bargain, he burns the masters of the song, returns Dominic's investment and peaces out, performing a song at the Bluebird that proves to be the first genuinely affecting Avery Barkley song of the series, a piano ballad titled "Let There Be Lonely". Though it's been a long road getting there, this is the most I've ever cared about Avery, and that's to the show's credit (and to Jackson's, as he does fine work here).
Credit: ABC
"When You're Tired of Breaking Other Hearts" is a well-paced episode that develops a more holistic, interconnected narrative for the latter half of the season. This is an immensely fruitful development, as the show is at its best when there's a greater sense of cohesion between the ensemble and their disparate stories. I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the season plays out.
