Nashville - Recap: Barnes and Noble
Recap and review of Nashville - Season 2 Episode 13 - It's All Wrong, But It's All Right:
Nashville has a lot going on this week, and just about all of it is interesting. Seriously, I wasn't bored by anything that happened here, not even the attempt by Rayna (Connie Britton) to find shelf space for her album by meeting with an executive of a superstore mega-chain, a storyline that's mildly ridiculous in the digital age (although country fans are generally among the few groups that still purchase physical copies, as evidenced by the #1 Billboard 200 chart performance of Garth Brooks's recent physical copy-only, Walmart-exclusive boxed set, Blame It All on My Roots: Five Decades of Influences). The industry side of the series can often cast an interesting light on the characters, and it's no different here. "It's All Wrong, But It's All Right" is an episode that focuses on how business often affects the emotional and psychological bottom-line of these characters, and in this sense, it's one of the more engrossing installments this season.
Credit: ABC
Juliette (Hayden Panettiere) is being inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, and Jeff Fordham (Oliver Hudson) has scripted an elaborate, obsequious apology for her to read, essentially pleading for the forgiveness of her fans for the things she's done over the past several months, and basically just throwing herself on the altar of their mercy. Faced with losing her career otherwise, Juliette agrees to go through with it, prompting Jeff to triumphantly declare, "The filly has finally been broken." Yet his celebration is a bit premature, as Juliette ends up getting pep talks from just about everyone backstage at the ceremony: Deacon (Charles Esten), who comes to Juliette to ask if she'll sing on his album, only to get rejected when Juliette insists she'd only end up rubbing off her bad press on him, tells Juliette that she still has fans who love her, a sentiment echoed by Avery (Jonathan Jackson); meanwhile, Brad Paisley (guest starring as himself) tells Juliette that he's been misquoted more times than he'd care to recall, and that the public inevitably forgets the bad stuff. But it's the pep talk from Maddie (Lennon Stella) that sticks, as the teen tells Juliette she has nothing to apologize for. Maddie basically tells Juliette that she shouldn't give in to the hatred of others, since "bullies should not win."
Credit: ABC
And so Juliette offers a gracious acceptance speech upon being inducted by Paisley, only to go off-script and declare that the only opinions she cares about are those of her fans, and not the media, the concert venue directors or the record executives (Jeff) who've threatened to hold her down. And it segues into a pretty potent kiss-off song that brings Juliette's character arc to its logical apex, as she just stops giving a damn about her bad reputation. And in a wonderfully unexpected touch, she doesn't suddenly become popular again for this stunt, as cliche would dictate. The Grand Ole Opry audience doesn't seem to know what to make of it, and we don't really hear about any kind of media response to the induction afterwards either, although we learn later from Glenn (Ed Amatrudo) that concert venues are still trying to get out of their engagements, implying that Juliette is no better off now than she was last week. Well, except for her peace of mind, as she now no longer has to worry about what Jeff Fordham thinks, since he officially drops her from Edgehill after her Opry performance. Yet Juliette makes a great point on her put-down, telling Jeff that he's likely to end up on the unemployment line himself, now that he's now lost Edgehill's two best-selling artists inside six months.
But even with that peace of mind, Juliette recognizes there's something she simply can't do without. Or, rather, someone: Avery. She finds him at his hotel room and confesses her feelings, saying that she can let go of the music business, but she can't let go of him. They finally kiss and move towards the bed, finally sealing the deal on one of the most unexpectedly poignant pairings of the series. I mean it. If you had told me last season that Avery and Juliette would end up being my favorite couple on the show, I'd have taken you to the pharmacy to get a professional opinion on what pill would be best suited to your dementia. Yet here we are, and I'm loving Juliette and Avery together.
Credit: ABC
But things are a bit less sunny for Rayna. Sure, her relationship with Luke (Will Chase) is going swimmingly, with the country megastar presenting Rayna with her own official Nascar, emblazoned with Rayna James decals. However, Rayna's big story here is not her decision to go public with Luke, but her determination to secure a wider distribution deal for her new album, which releases in a few months. And so she tries to get in good with Sam Boone, the executive behind a chain of Walmart-like mega-stores. Jeff, having released the potential mistake he made in letting Juliette go, makes a move to block Rayna's album from getting in stores, but Boone's decision to back Rayna is likely to render Jeff's plotting ineffective. However, Boone's catch in agreeing to the deal with Rayna gives her pause: in deciding to carry Rayna James albums, Boone is making the call to drop Juliette Barnes, a decision that has Maddie disappointed in her mother. Ultimately, Rayna decides she doesn't want to do business like Jeff, and it's illustrating Rayna's growth, as she's really been galvanized by the entire Highway 65 business, and is far less consumed by her personal life now than she has been in the past.
Credit: ABC
However, Rayna remains oblivious to how things are falling apart for her family: Tandy (Judith Hoag) is arrested on a material witness warrant, having fled from the jurisdiction after promising to testify against Lamar (Powers Boothe). The D.A. is threatening to rescind the promise of immunity for the crimes she perpetrated along with her father, meaning serious jailtime. But Tandy is terrified that her father will have her killed, and has no intention of spending the rest of her life looking over her shoulder. And so she comes up with a clever loophole with her lawyer -- apparently, the documents she turned over to the Feds were stolen, since she swiped them from the Wyatt Industries computers after she had officially been terminated. Since the documents were stolen, they're no longer admissible in court; and since the documents were the entirety of the state's case against Lamar, the charges must be dropped. This stuns Teddy (Eric Close), who, when faced with the knowledge that Lamar will likely never face charges for his (alleged) role in Peggy's death, takes comfort that at least Lamar will end up going to prison for something. But all that is off the table now, leaving one to wonder just what Teddy will resort to in order to deliver justice to his ex-father-in-law. It's an interesting enough subplot, though it's been treading water waiting to tie into the rest of the show, as it still feels like a plot out of a different series altogether.
The rest of the episode varies in interest, but at the very least, things of consequence are happening. Gunnar (Sam Palladio) attempts to give songwriting lessons to Layla (Aubrey Peeples), and things go pretty disastrously when Layla comes to the realization that she has nothing to really say in her songwriting. As she later tearfully explains to Will (Chris Carmack), all her life she's just done what her parents wanted her to do, from pageants to music. And so she doesn't really have any experiences she can really own as her own. Her struggles with identity mirror Will's, as Gunnar advises Will to break things off with Layla before somebody gets hurt. But that's not the full extent of Gunnar's advice this week, as he also offers to continue helping Layla, despite the way things ended the last time (with Layla accusing Gunnar of being a jerk for attempting to give her an honest critique). He advises Layla to keep a journal to write down her thoughts and observations, telling her that the best songwriter he knows started with a journal, a clear reference to Scarlett (Clare Bowen), whose journal provides the catalyst for her side of the episode this week.
Rayna pairs her with Liam (Michiel Huisman), who swipes her journal when it becomes apparent that Scarlett has no idea who she is as an artist. And so he combs through her journal without Scarlett's permission, in order to get to the center of her hidden pain. Finally convinced by Liam's insistence that she's far more interesting than she leads on, Scarlett explains one of the half-finished songs in her journal, "Black Roses", about the tumultuous relationship she had with her mother. It's actually one of the loveliest original songs the show has put together in a while, probably since "A Life That's Good". And it really exposes the darker underpinnings of the Scarlett character, about whom we still don't know nearly as much as we should. I really could do without the "caffeine pill addiction" storyline that the series appears to be building, but I still like the show enough to give it the benefit of the doubt.
Credit: ABC
"It's All Wrong, But It's All Right" is a solid episode that illustrates the effect of attaining and maintaining a career in the music industry on these characters. Whether it's Deacon musing on whether or not he actually wants to be famous, or Rayna considering whether her deal with Boone would compromise Highway 65's reputation as a "safe haven" for artists, it's clear that business is front-and-center here, even above personal matters -- since "business" and "personal" go hand-in-hand here. They're inextricably linked, and it makes for a much more substantive episode. Nashville has had a bit of an uneven second season, but an episode like this represents a significant building block in a stronger foundation for the show, moving forward.