‘Nashville’ Recap: Blonde Ambitions, Tense Reunions and Dirty Looks
In an episode titled “I Can’t Get Over You to Save My Life,” it’s not surprising to find our friends in Music City nursing old wounds and stumbling over their various insecurities.
Luke and Rayna are both trying to adjust to the whole “Ruke” phenomenon, going so far as to suggest that their respective teams push “Layna” as the preferred portmanteau for the supercouple instead. (OK, so it’s not ideal, but at least it doesn’t rhyme with “puke.”) But when Rayna sits down with Team Wheeler to go over both artists’ respective tour schedules, it’s obvious their impeding union has everyone but the happy couple salivating at all the marketing opportunities that lie ahead: “Layna” TV specials, Christmas albums, bath soaps, his-and-her handguns…. Rayna bristles at the idea of a quickie wedding, but she’s pretty much the only one objecting to it.
Juliette, meanwhile, is rehearsing for her Inside the Dream Tour, which should probably be renamed Inside the Crypt, since she looks less pop-country princess and more Walking Dead reject during her rehearsal. Juliette lays the blame on Zoey for the rehearsal going badly, but that’s just the start of Zoey’s downward spiral when it comes to her self-esteem.
Deacon and Maddie have a “moment” after he leaves her with her “other” dad, Teddy. For the first time, she calls Deacon “dad.” (Stay tuned for the Nashville spin-off starring Maddie, Deacon, Teddy and Luke in My Three Dads!)
Rayna tells Maddie and Daphne that the wedding is on and Maddie is pissed. “Shocker,” Daphne wisely observes. In the annals of excuses, however, Maddie’s protest that it interferes with her fishing date with dad (Deacon, not Teddy … or Luke) isn’t exactly airtight.
When Rayna finds out that Deacon told Maddie he proposed she too is pissed. In any event, Deacon wanted Maddie to know he tried. (If he’s as skilled at landing fish as he is at landing a wife, Maddie will probably wish she’d gone to the wedding). When Rayna suggests to Luke during a phone call that they consider pushing the wedding to a later date, Luke says, ‘That’s kind of the tail wagging the dog.” Because Luke apparently can’t go one episode without coming off like he’s auditioning to be Mark Twain. Or Dr. Phil. Rayna should have hung up on him — but he beats her to it.