Nashville - Review: Mixed Signals

Recap and review of Nashville - Season 1 Episode 18 - Take These Chains from My Heart:

Until the last ten minutes or so, "Take These Chains from My Heart" was probably the most boring episode of Nashville in ages. We spent an inordinate amount of time on things that are pretty difficult to care about, this close to the end of the season. There was Teddy (Eric Close) confirming that Peggy (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) was the tabloid leak and giving her the kiss-off. We had Lamar (Powers Boothe) renouncing Tammy (Judith Hoag) while embracing Rayna (Connie Britton) as his true daughter. Then there was Tammy meeting up with Coleman (Robert Wisdom) to help him undermine Teddy's authority as mayor by implying that there's something in Teddy's past that Coleman can use to his benefit (likely Teddy's embezzlement with Peggy). I imagine these plots will pay dividends somewhere down the line, but that doesn't really help this week's episode, which felt strangely devoid of purpose for three-quarters of the run. But man, were those final ten minutes great. It's enough to retroactively salvage the entire hour, as the episode proved to be one of the most substantive of the season, in terms of straight-up plot developments. In many ways, it was the perfect late-season episode, keeping the momentum going as we push towards the finale.

Outside of the political developments mentioned above, the episode was mostly about the confused love lives of our characters. On an impulsive whim, Rayna hooks up with Liam (Michiel Huisman), and the fling escalates in rapid fashion, to the point where Liam is proposing they take a trip to St. Lucia together. It isn't long before Liam is onstage with Rayna during her concerts, performing one of the classics she wrote and performed with Deacon (Charles Esten) years ago. Deacon, for his part, had believed himself to be over Rayna. Or, at the very least, he genuinely believed he was well on his way to overcoming his hopeless attraction. But the sight of Rayna and Liam together sends him into a fit of jealousy and melancholy, and he retreats backstage, leaving his girlfriend Stacy alone. Stacy confronts him backstage and asks him, point-blank, if he still has feelings for Rayna. Surprisingly, Deacon says "yes," the words escaping from his mouth in a burst of impulsive honesty. Stacy holds back a meltdown while Deacon insists that he simply wanted to be honest with her. He declares that he's been working on getting past Rayna, and tells Stacy that he only wants to be with her. But the words ring hollow, and Stacy storms off.

When Rayna witnesses the blow-up, she and Deacon have a brief conversation in which he confesses his lingering feelings, only for Rayna to rebuff him by advising him to win Stacy back. She then leaves with Liam, having agreed to go to St. Lucia with him. However, Deacon gets a late-night visit at his house from Rayna, who declares that it didn't feel right packing for St. Lucia. In an instant, what's been building for eighteen episodes now finally happens, as Rayna tells Deacon that she loves him. After a brief fit of frustration at Rayna waiting so long to tell him, Deacon returns the favor. He stops her from leaving by telling her to wait up, at which point they rush into each others' arms and get to consummatin'. It's a development that was well worth the wait, given the fact that the moment felt authentic despite the overtly melodramatic dialogue. And let's face it: it was time. The narrative had spun its wheels for far too long, to where it made no sense for them not to be together after having waited for so long. The entire Stacy relationship felt too impulsive to ever be real, in retrospect. It's as if he didn't want to hurt her feelings by admitting it was simply a one-night stand, so he turned it into a romance, when what he really wanted was Rayna. And given her availability, there was no reason it shouldn't have happened sooner. But I guess it was too early in the season for it, so here we are, getting it now. And thank God, because I don't think I could take the teases any longer.

Credit: ABC

Meanwhile, Gunnar (Sam Palladio) decides to go to open mic night with Will (Chris Carmack), and together, they play a song that gets Gunnar noticed by a studio exec who wants to lay down the track as a demo. Will is ecstatic for Gunnar, but he's never around very long once good things start happening, since he's always off chasing some girl who's just given him (or Gunnar) her phone number. Which is what makes the next bit surprising: Back at the house, as Gunnar emotionally confesses to Will that his brother was the talent of the family, having written the song that Gunnar passed off as his own, Will makes a move -- and kisses Gunnar in a fit of passion. Confused and shocked, Gunnar kicks Will out of the house, despite Will's best attempts to apologize. Though Gunnar is clearly angry with Will, I don't think we're meant to read it as Gunnar being intolerant, but simply that he's perturbed that his friend would make a move like that, knowing full well what would happen and how it would affect their friendship. Although I guess the ball is in Gunnar's court, as far as how it ends up affecting their friendship, since Will seemed keen on pretending it never happened. Guess the skirt-chasing was a cover, and in that case, Will becomes something of a sad character: too scared to be himself in public, because he's part of a scene/culture that might not take kindly to him if he were to be himself. Of course, he has no way of knowing for sure, unless he comes out, but the prevailing cliche about attitudes in the South and expected mores of masculinity are likely convincing him to keep it in the closet. It's an interesting development, and one of the more shocking in recent weeks, simply because I never would have seen it coming.

Credit: ABC

Gunnar and Scarlett (Clare Bowen) have their stories bound together by, of all people, Avery (Jonathan Jackson), who appears in both subplots. In Gunnar's, he runs into him at Tootsie's, the bar where Gunnar has just performed open mic. There, the two rivals discuss Scarlett's record deal, which Avery apparently didn't know about. Though Avery is initially stunned, he continues to do his best to reform, saying that he's happy for Scarlett. He then apologizes for how he acted the time they came to blows, saying that he was out of line. The saga of Good Guy Avery continues when he runs into Scarlett backstage at one of Rayna and Juliette's shows, as she learns that he's a roadie now and that he's miserable in his job (though Avery swears otherwise). Later, by the empty stage, they share a sweet moment in which Avery admits that he's trying to get back to being that good guy he once was when Scarlett met him in school. He then brings her up onstage with him so she can experience, firsthand, what it's like to stand front-and-center in a huge arena.

While I don't feel as though Avery is necessarily a valuable character just yet, I do feel he's becoming a much more enjoyable presence. At the very least, I feel like he's someone for whom we can feel sympathy. He wants to change, and he really is trying. And Scarlett, for her part, remains as likable as she's always been, though her good intentions often go unrewarded. In a meeting with Rayna, Scarlett is able to get Gunnar a second audition with the record label, but he refuses the audition, having just gotten the deal to record a demo. He appreciates Scarlett trying to help, but he doesn't know if music is something the two of them can do together right now. It's a mature solution to the narrative issue of comparing Gunnar and Scarlett too strongly with Rayna and Deacon, although the comparison is made overt this week when Scarlett tells Rayna that Gunnar is to her what Deacon was to Rayna. I've always enjoyed the parallel, but I like the idea that Gunnar and Scarlett have separate paths for now, even if they are, ultimately, better together.

Lastly, Juliette (Hayden Panettiere) continues to escalate her relationship with Dante (Jay Hernandez) to an alarming degree. Not only did she make him her manager not long after they began sleeping together, and despite the fact that he had no demonstrable prior experience in the entertainment industry, but she also makes the leap to buy a house with him. In many ways, it's a mirror of her reckless behavior with quarterback Sean Butler earlier in the season, and one wonders if the show isn't trying to illustrate how Juliette is damaged by her upbringing to such a degree that she doesn't know how to take it slow. It feels as though she simply tries to lock people into an attachment with her as quick as possible, to prevent them from leaving her. Unfortunately, everyone still leaves her, just the same. Jolene (Sylvia Jefferies) accuses Dante of cheating on her daughter with the cute real estate agent, Esme (Jennifer Jostyn). Infuriated, Juliette accuses her mother of stalking Dante, and she admits that she was, indeed, tracking him in order to have a moment alone to discuss their former sober companion relationship.

Credit: ABC

However, it all goes to pot from there, as Dante finds drugs in Jolene's purse and Juliette kicks her out, with Dante vowing to put her back in rehab. Juliette is devastated by her mother's perceived lies, until she realizes that the drugs were pills to which Jolene is allergic. In effect, they couldn't have been hers, meaning Dante planted them. By the time Juliette realizes this, it's too late. Dante has made off with the money intended for the band and to purchase their house, and we see that him disposing of Jolene's cell phone while comfortably relaxing on the plane next to his partner-in-crime, Esme. Juliette has been scammed, which I suppose is what she gets for bestowing that level of confidence in someone she hardly even knew. Worse, it was expertly-planned by Dante, as he knew Juliette wouldn't report it to the police for fear of how it would damage her reputation. Dante gets away with it, but Juliette decides to purchase the house they'd settled on anyway, as a reminder never to trust anyone. While I feel bad for Juliette, I sincerely hope this is the last we see or hear from Dante, because I found the character utterly insufferable. To a near channel-changing degree.

Ultimately, "Take These Chains from My Heart" turned out to be a fairly outstanding episode for Nashville, based simply on the strength of those last ten minutes, when everything starts to unravel in delicious, soap operatic fashion. The show would be wise to stay on this track, as it makes the show compulsively, addictively engaging, in its best moments.