Nashville - Recap: Papa, Can You Hear Me?
Recap and review of Nashville - Season 2 Episode 15 - They Don’t Make ‘Em Like My Daddy Anymore:
With its second season now comfortably into its second half, Nashville is finding new pairings and recommitting to old ones. It's a smart move for the narrative, since so much of the season has been about changing our perceptions of each of the central relationships, whether it was Rayna (Connie Britton) and Lamar (Powers Boothe), Avery (Jonathan Jackson) and Juliette (Hayden Panettiere), or Gunnar (Sam Palladio) and Scarlett (Clare Bowen). "They Don’t Make ‘Em Like My Daddy Anymore" binds the ensemble through Lamar's death, but also shows just how separated they all are, segregated into their own troubles, their own joys, their own lives. It's an episode far more interesting for what it tries to do with its structure than anything it actually accomplishes, since the focus isn't as tight on Rayna's emotional journey as it might have been, due to the inclusion of an out-of-place subplot or two. But even while I didn't think this was the best the show has been in the second half of season two, I was still thoroughly entertained.
Credit: ABC
And one of the big reasons I was as entertained as I was? Juliette finally seems to have some measure of control over her life once again. She's no longer beholden to some guy, or to the whims of a record executive. Sure, her storyline this week involves her being wined and dined by a world class producer who's attempting to take her to the top of the charts again, at the cost of her country sound. But the resolution to the storyline comes when she recognizes that she's tired of being manipulated by the machinery of the industry. She's in a rare position to call her own shots. She hates the producer's new, orchestral arrangement of the song she produced with Avery? Well, she doesn't have to take it now! Doesn't like that Glenn (Ed Amatrudo) decides to resign in order to allow Juliette -- who is like a surrogate daughter to him -- to finally flourish on the world stage? Well, Juliette doesn't have to accept his resignation!
In essence, Juliette is her own boss until she decides on a boss that suits her better. But whichever record company she goes with, whichever manager, whichever producer and song arrangements -- those will all be her choices. And as touching as the goodbye scene between Juliette and Glenn turns out to be (especially considering how little we've gotten from the Juliette/Glenn relationship in recent months), it's twice as satisfying to see her declare later that she's not going to give up her manager or her country sound. Panettiere sticks the landing on making Juliette a far more unapologetically assertive character, and the change is refreshing, marking just how far the character has come.
Credit: ABC
But it's not the main story of the episode. In fact, the main story -- the death of Lamar Wyatt and the resulting reactions -- are what bind the other stories together. Juliette learns about Lamar's death and wants to be there for Rayna (showing the remarkable development of that relationship), while Deacon (Charles Esten) wants to help Rayna and the girls through their grief. Even Teddy (Eric Close), who admits his own culpability in Lamar's death to Megan (Christina Chang), is feeling pangs of regret over how things ended with his former father-in-law. But it's Rayna's reaction around which the episode revolves. To the horror of Tandy (Judith Hoag), as well as just about everyone else in her family, Rayna doesn't react with grief -- not when Teddy breaks the news, not when breaking the news to Tandy, and not even during the service. As she explains to Tandy, it's not that she doesn't feel anything, it's that what she feels hasn't changed just because Lamar is dead. For all Rayna cares, they can bury him in a pine box far away from her mother's plot. Yet it's clear her feelings stem from the unresolved tension that remained between she and Lamar right up until his death, as she recounts to Deacon how guilty she feels about her last words to Lamar being her wish that he'd drop dead. However, she does resent Deacon's insistence that while Lamar was a bad man, sometimes "people do the wrong things for the right reasons," which is just not something you should ever say to a woman who just told you her father killed her mother.
But Deacon silliness aside, this leads to the conclusion, as Rayna goes to visit Lamar's office to have a drink of his whiskey. And it's here that all her conflicting emotions come rushing out. Yet it's not just tears, it's pure, cathartic rage. She trashes his office, breaking everything she can get her hands on, letting it all out in an outburst that rivals the classic room-trashing theatrics of Charles Foster Kane. When it's all said and done, Teddy and Tandy come rushing in, only to find Rayna in a heap on the ground, mascara running down her face, as she declares that this family cannot have any more lies between them. It's a powerful performance from Connie Britton, and it was a moment that the episode had been building towards, and I appreciated that it was a slow burn, and not a moment the story rushed through. It felt honest and organic, and felt very much like the culmination of all that had been building between Rayna and her father since the series started. The fact that they never found resolution in life is sad within the world of the show, but it's almost the perfect note to end that particular relationship from a narrative standpoint, as it was a relationship typified by its love-hate nature. If Lamar's death is what's necessary to stop the funnel of lies in Rayna's family, then it will not have been a wasted death.
Credit: ABC
As for the rest of the episode, some of the stories work better than others. I enjoyed Deacon getting a makeshift band together for a gig at the Blue Bird, as Avery, Gunnar, and Zoey (Chaley Rose) offer to be his backup. I'd actually love for those four to become a regular act, since Avery, Gunnar, and Zoey already have tremendous chemistry from their awesome performance in their living room near the start of the episode, and Deacon could provide the necessary star quality to make them a big deal. However, while I enjoyed the plot with Deacon/Avery/Gunnar/Zoey, it did feel a bit out-of-place within the context of the episode, beyond Deacon's involvement in Rayna's story. But it was still leagues better than the Scarlett stuff. Her hook-up with Liam (Michiel Huisman) was inevitable from the moment they started working together, and I had hoped when Scarlett initially shut down his advances in the first half of the episode, that the show would follow through on bucking convention and keeping it strictly professional for once. But nope, Scarlett changes her mind and makes a move all because she gets jealous and depressed when Deacon praises the musical talents of Avery, Gunnar, and Zoey. She feels her work is all she has left, and so she finds a kindred spirit in Liam, who's similarly addicted to work. But hey, at least "Black Roses" came out sounding excellent.
Credit: ABC
"They Don’t Make ‘Em Like My Daddy Anymore" is a solid episode of Nashville, one that takes the structure of charting all the different reactions to Lamar's death, and using that to tell a story about taking inventory of what really matters in one's life. But while I appreciated the structure, I felt the execution would have been better had the episode focused even tighter on Rayna's grief, in particular. Scarlett's story is still going to be there next week, but I felt this was a unique opportunity to dig even deeper into Rayna's character. With that said, I still was entertained by the episode, and I don't really have a higher standard than that. So I trust Nashville will continue to be a dependable source for solid primetime soap drama.