Nashville Review: After You’ve Gone

This was slightly less depressing than Nashville’s recent fare, especially on the Juliette front. I’ll admit, much as I love her and Avery together, it was a nice to see her smile, and if Noah does that for her then I’m happy to see them pursue a relationship. I think she and Avery need a breather from each other if their relationship is ever going to work, and Noah is the perfect guy to give her that.

On the other side is Layla, who I think genuinely does care about Avery, but also has no problem using him in her quest for success, as she did here. She didn’t do a great job of hiding her surprise over the leaked pictures, and I knew as soon as I saw the flash that she’d set it up. It’s true that their relationship was going to come out eventually, but I really wish she hadn’t lied to Avery about the reason it did. Also, they still haven’t released Layla’s album? I feel like that thing’s been in the incubator forever. And can we please see Avery sing solo more often? I’ve missed it too, dude!

It was great to see Juliette kind of subtly look out for Maddie, sending Glenn ensured that Maddie would have a watchful eye on her without tanking their friendship or making Maddie feel controlled. Basically, it was the exact opposite of Cash’s “mentorship.” As soon as Rayna started talking about that sketchy label from New York it seemed obvious that it was the one Maddie would choose. Much as I’ve disliked Maddie’s choices lately, I don’t want to see her taken advantage of any more than Cash already has.

Tandy and Daphne’s connection over being the sisters left at home made total sense; I may not love the emancipation storyline, but I’m glad they’re at least doing a nice job of showing the parallels to Rayna as a teenager. It was also really sweet that Daphne was more concerned about Rayna being sad than her own feelings about Maddie leaving. Sometimes I feel like Tandy and Daphne are the only nice/sane people left on this show. Elsewhere in the James’ family, I was beyond glad for Rayna’s impeccable timing with Deacon at the end; I don’t think any of us are eager for another Deacon-falls-off-the-wagon storyline.

We also had Will heading home for his mother’s funeral after he found out about her death from his aunt rather than his father. That storyline was seriously brutal, from Will’s dad telling him that his mom died “of a broken heart” to insisting that he wasn’t welcome at the service. I was glad that Will went anyway, and while it was nice to see his dad stick up for him in the smallest way possible at the end, it in no way made up for how terribly he’s treated his son. However, back in Nashville, Luke continued to make up for not standing by Will originally by firing Ken for continuing to tell him how bad Will is for his career.

As for Scarlett and Gunnar, the less said the better. I’m getting tired of their “if it’s good for the band” mantra, whether in regards to Scarlett doing a commercial solo or Gunnar writing and performing a song with Autumn. I’m standing by my theory that they’ll get back together for real in the finale, but they sure aren’t headed there yet.