Nashville - Recap: Sister Act
Recap video and review of Nashville - Season 1 Episode 16 - I Saw the Light:
Nashville takes the opportunity, with "I Saw the Light", to veer more directly into overt soap opera territory for half of its storylines, while keeping things relatively straight-and-narrow for the other half. It's not necessarily a new approach for the series, since Nashville has often had trouble reconciling its salacious sensibilities with its more high-minded ambitions, but "I Saw the Light" makes the two halves part of a more seamless whole, so that the entire episode feels like a cohesive unit, and not simply like two halves glue-gunned together. Ultimately, it's a fine episode that contributes to the overall sense that Nashville is picking up steam in the home stretch.
Credit: ABC
One of the early highlights of Nashville was the duet at a school talent show between Rayna's daughters, Maddie and Daphne (played by real-life sisters Lennon and Maisy Stella), in which the girls did a low-key take on Juliette Barnes' "Telescope". It's a version that, for the most part, surpassed the original in every way, and was one of those key sequences in the early going that helped Nashville feel more substantive than it might have appeared on the surface, as it was apparent that the show had every intention of embracing its country music leanings. The prevailing fear for some, at the time, was that the show might back off into more of a country-pop route in order to prevent alienating viewers who perhaps aren't fans of straight-forward country music. While the show has featured its fair share of musical genres, and interpretations of what "country music" actually entails, the series has remained firmly within the context of the vibrant country music scene in Nashville, employing real country singers/songwriters to help craft the sound of the show. This becomes important in episodes like tonight, where that countrified aesthetic makes the show feel different than your standard soap -- more intimate, and more authentic, even though it's demonstrably about a business that often traffics in inauthenticity. This is all a very long-winded way of saying that Maddie and Daphne's version of "Ho Hey" by The Lumineers", performed during a soundcheck for one of Rayna's (Connie Britton) shows, is a marvelous moment for the series. The drama falls away in the face of two girls getting a taste of what it might be like to live their dream. The thrill is infectious.
Credit: ABC
But beyond that, it serves as the capper to one of the more relatable storylines of the series so far, as Maddie announces to Rayna that she intends to be a famous singer, and Rayna curbs her ambitions out of fear of what the business would do to her at such a young age. It's a story that I imagine is relatable to anyone whose child wanted to follow their footsteps into a worrisome profession, yet it's handled with equal parts delicacy and maturity here, as Rayna acknowledges, with coaxing from her sister, Tandy (Judith Hoag), that she doesn't want to step on the dreams of her children the way her own father stepped on hers. Tandy compares Rayna to their father, Lamar Wyatt (Powers Boothe), and while Rayna takes it as a low-blow, Tandy insists that Rayna is the daddy's girl, of the two of them. This observation dovetails directly into the cliffhanger of the episode, as Lamar, having a celebratory scotch after a day full of scheming, has a heart attack while on the phone with one of his political contacts. He's been trying to get a new stadium built, and blackmails Peggy (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) to convince Teddy (Eric Close) to sign off on it, lest he reveal to his son-in-law that Peggy is the one responsible for leaking all those divorce rumors to the tabloids. Lamar implies that Peggy used similar "persuasive" tactics to get Teddy involved in her embezzlement scam years ago, and whether it's true or not, Rayna's father certainly knows how the political game is played far better than her ex-husband. However, not even Lamar can manipulate mortality. Maybe they'll kill him off, maybe they won't. But there's a point to be made: you can spend your life shoring up influence and becoming as powerful a figure in the public spectrum as possible, but, at the end of the day, we're all just flesh and bone.
That said, there are plenty of other developments this week beyond the life-or-death struggles of Lamar Wyatt. A month has passed, and Scarlett (Clare Bowen) still hasn't signed the contract for Rayna's record label because she feels that Gunnar (Sam Palladio), much like Avery (Jonathan Jackson), resents her success. She doesn't want to make it in music without Gunnar since, as she rationalizes, she wouldn't have even started writing or singing if it hadn't been for him. He saw a music artist in the poems of a starry-eyed girl, and she feels she owes it to him not to leave him behind. Of course, Gunnar does nothing to disabuse her of the notion that he's resentful of her success, spending the whole day grousing and getting drunk with his handsome cowboy friend, Will (Chris Carmack), with whom he jams on a pretty catchy original tune titled "Tough All Over". Will is the perfect model of gentlemanly conduct, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if we wound up with yet another love triangle between Scarlett, Gunnar and a third party, even though Will ultimately proves instrumental in snapping Gunnar out of his funk, as he indirectly helps his friend realize that he's not upset that Scarlett achieved success without him. No, apparently Gunnar is upset because Scarlett didn't respect what existed between them enough to tell him about the record deal for a month. He tells her that he's not Avery, and that he's not going to be the guy who resents her success, he's going to be the one who supports her, and is excited for her. Gunnar tells Scarlett that he loves her, she reciprocates, and it's all flowers and sunshine, until the next complication comes. Honestly, if the implosion of their relationship leads to as many good songs as we've gotten from them during their courtship, then I hate to say it, but I'm totally up for that.
Credit: ABC
As for Juliette (Hayden Panetierre), things are also heating up in her love life, as she hooks up with Dante (Jay Hernandez), her mother's addiction counselor, at the end of the episode. It's a fairly straightforward arc, with Juliette seeing a billboard of Rayna in Times Square, resulting in her own campaign to secure a sponsorship deal with an electronics company so that she, too, will grace billboards nationwide. However, Juliette's mother, Jolene (Sylvia Jefferies), hates how Juliette privileges money and fame over all, and completely laces into her daughter with an emotional tirade in her hotel room. Shaken by the confrontation, Juliette puts in the effort to earn another chance, dedicating a performance onstage to her mother (though, strangely, we don't get to see the performance. Doubly strange, it's apparently an uptempo number. You'd think a dedication that charged with emotion, complete with Juliette calling her mother an "inspiration", would be followed by something more emotionally resonant. But then, T. Bone Burnett and the other fine folks in charge of Nashville's music would know better than I would about this sort of thing). Mother and daughter's fractured relationship is mended again, for the time being, and Juliette gets to hook up with a good-looking Spanish guy, making this the rare all-around win for Juliette in a single episode.
Unfortunately, one guy who isn't piling up wins is Avery, who's pretty much out on the street in the aftermath of his decision to burn his masters and ditch Dominic (Wyclef Jean) and Marilyn (Rya Kihlstedt), peacing out on a six-figure record deal on creative principle. Now that Marilyn is no longer his manager, none of Avery's old haunts will give him a gig, since they need to maintain an amicable relationship with the lucrative Marilyn, while roaming the streets as a troubadour isn't exactly raking in the big dollars either. Haley (Chloe Bennet) explains to Avery that he needs to either get a new deal or pay back the advance he was given on his previous publishing deal, which is not possible, given that he's not employed. Luckily, his former bandmate/best friend JT (Nicholas Strong), who gives him the card of someone who can get him a job as a roadie. It's a step down, but hey, at least he doesn't have to move back home and work for his father. I imagine this storyline could place him on the Rayna/Juliette tour, since the roadie gig is in New York, which is where Rayna and Juliette's latest leg of the tour takes place. However, I've been waiting for weeks for some sense of relevance to enter into our weekly dose of Avery, and I'm just not seeing it yet.
I'm also not exactly feeling Deacon's (Charles Esten) storyline with Stacy (Susan Misner), the beautiful young veterinarian who introduces herself to Rayna as Deacon's girlfriend. This creates all sorts of complications, as Rayna tap dances around her issues of jealousy by simply not addressing them beyond the occasional pained glance. Meanwhile, Stacy feels she's been lied to, as Deacon obviously has history with both of this tour's headliners. Deacon apologizes, and over the course of the episode, he comes to realize that he doesn't really want to be on tour anymore. He tells Stacy that he's ready to settle down, adding that the road is no place for a new dog (gesturing towards Sue, in his crate on the hotel room floor), or an old one. They kiss and that seems to seal it, though I find it hard to believe that this isn't one last hurdle between a climactic, long-building Rayna/Deacon hookup.
Credit: ABC
"I Saw the Light" is an episode that is busier than most, yet it still manages to feel substantive and worth pouring time into, as the series builds its stories for the end of the season.