Nashville - Recap: This We'll Defend

I say this because it seems as if the show is going all-in on the dramatic fallout of the Juliette (Hayden Panettiere) and Jeff Fordham (Oliver Hudson) hook-up. By this, I mean that the incremental plot movement we got this week was mostly centered on how that hook-up will shape both Juliette's career and her personal life going forward. Make no mistake, there's almost no way she doesn't end up pregnant from this thing, since this is, after all, a soap opera. But to make matters worse, it's also implied at the end of the episode that Jeff is now blackmailing her to get her to come back to Edgehill by threatening to reveal their hook-up to Avery (Jonathan Jackson). I can sort of see where the writers are coming from in thinking this is good drama, since it puts a protagonist in an untenable situation with no immediate or obvious solution. But where the story falters is in how completely it undermines the Juliette Barnes character, as well as undoes all the growth she's made.

Credit: ABC

Maybe it'll sound judgmental, but there really isn't any other way around this, so here goes: the show wants me to feel sorry for her, but I just don't. She made a stupid choice, and maybe she wasn't in her right mind at the time, but it was her own paranoia and refusal to actually accept Avery's affection that resulted in her putting herself in a position where the hook-up with Jeff could happen in the first place. I suppose it's kind of sad that Juliette sees sex as the only real way of communicating affection, as she took Avery rejecting her advances so hard, and then plunged into full-on depression when she overheard his conversation in the hospital with Scarlett (Clare Bowen). But Juliette is a grown woman who made the choice to sleep with someone she hates. Drunk or not, that's on her. And that's the saddest part of all: after a season spent slowly outgrowing the need to have her life and career defined by her relationships with men, she's right back to a place where she doesn't even exist as a character without the men in her life.

Credit: ABC

Granted, the Juliette storyline isn't enough to derail the episode for me, any more than it derailed last week's stellar hour. But it was still a major black mark on an episode that was mostly very enjoyable, with Kellie Pickler and Michelle Obama dropping by, the Maddie (Lennon Stella) and Daphne (Maisy Stella) getting to perform a song off of the Nashville Season 2 Soundtrack (which is pretty damn great, by the way), and features Deacon (Charles Esten) and Rayna (Connie Britton) coming to an understanding about why it was so necessary for Maddie's true paternity to be kept a secret all these years. The episode also revealed to us some key tidbits about Juliette we didn't know, through the delivery mechanism of the main plot: after Luke (Will Chase) is injured by an IED explosion in Afghanistan en route to perform for the troops, Rayna comes up with the idea to have a make-up concert at the local military base, featuring any and all country music stars who want in, including Juliette. Luke, however, still doesn't like Juliette, feeling she isn't respectful to country music, and is only performing for the troops for selfish reasons. However, it isn't until he overhears her talking with one of the troops that he changes his mind: in the talk, Juliette reveals that her father was a serviceman, and she spent her early childhood on a military base. Unfortunately, her father was killed in action, which led to her mother's tragic downward spiral. She thanks the soldier for his service and for his sacrifice (even sharing with him the Army slogan, "This we'll defend"), while noting that her father always made her feel safe. It's a touching moment, and it moves Will to the point where he apologizes for kicking her off the show, and pleads with her to do a duet with him. So they perform "Don't Put Dirt On My Grave Just Yet" and it ends up being one of my favorite music moments of the entire season.

Credit: ABC

But there's a lot more going on than just the concert itself, as Luke is worried that Rayna doesn't feel about him the way he feels about her, telling her that the only thing he thought about when the IED went off was his kids and her. Rayna assures him that she's all-in, even going as far as to tell him she loves him. But when she performs "A Life That's Good" (my favorite song from this season, dating back to when Maddie and Daphne first performed it) alongside Deacon and their daughter, he has a bit of a jealous look on his face. As does Teddy (Eric Conrad), who continues to worry he's losing Maddie, even though she assures him that she loves him. For her part, Daphne is starting to get worried too, feeling that Maddie is ditching them for Deacon. But Deacon actually wants to be respectful of the relationship Maddie already has with her family, telling Rayna that while he'll still never forgive her for keeping Maddie a secret from him, he now understands why she did it, and he doesn't blame her. He's even grateful that she kept it a secret. It's a lovely moment that caps off a terrific episode for Charles Esten, who has a fantastic scene in which Deacon confesses, at an AA meeting, his real whereabouts on the night Maddie was born: he has no idea, since he was too drunk to remember. Deacon is someone haunted by all that he's missed, which is what motivates him to ask Teddy what it was really like when Maddie was born. Teddy tells him the story of Rayna going into labor, looking back fondly on how Maddie came out screaming ("She had a set of lungs on her. Still does."), and you can just see Deacon's heart breaking, realizing he missed something truly beautiful and irretrievable. Esten has just been fantastic the past few weeks.

Credit: ABC

However, not everything can be a slam dunk. In addition to the Juliette/Jeff plot, I wasn't that crazy about the story in which Will (Chris Carmack) bails on the reality show and gives in to the temptation to hook up with a personal trainer named Tony. It's clear that his behavior will catch up with him eventually, and it's a tragic story, as Will can't change his sexual preferences any more than he can change his skin color, but it just all feels so standard. For a plotline such as this, I just kind of expected more than Will giving into temptation and his wife, Layla (Aubrey Peeples), crying outside the bathroom door. It just feels very Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. But it's still better than Zoey (Chaley Rose) being all gung-ho about telling Avery about Juliette and Jeff, only to renege once she gets a job as Juliette's newest backup singer. Her reasoning to Gunnar (Sam Palladio), who initially spilled the beans to Zoey about what he saw, is pretty sound, since they'll both have to be working with Juliette in the future. But it just smacks of a lazy way to keep the plot moving. But then, I guess the plot kept us up to date on what's going on with Scarlett, as she goes back to being a waitress at The Blue Bird for one night before getting recognized by customers who tell her it's a shame what happened to her. And this is devastating enough for her to decide it's time to leave Nashville for good. Ah well, it's as good a thing for her to do as any, I suppose.

Credit: ABC

"All Or Nothing With Me" really is more good than bad, despite how I might make it sound. It's just that the bad plotlines make for a genuinely rough sit. That said, just from watching the preview for next week (embedded below), I have serious confidence that the finale will end things on a high note (well, save for the Juliette/Jeff stuff, which...ugh, I can't even). All in all, Nashville is still a damn fine soap when it wants to be.