Let’s be honest, lovelies. With the crap ton of bad news unloaded on us this week, a little trip to fake Nashville is just the little getaway we need.
Scarlett’s meddling into Sean’s life has paid off. One of her friends from the Bluebird Café wants to book him. Sean wants her to perform,too. Good idea, Sean. More Scarlett singing is less Scarlett yapping.
Now that Alannah has quit The Lost Highways, they are having trouble keeping their concerts booked. Speaking of Alannah and her bad purple dye job, Brad is shmoozing all over the place with her and has promised an opening spot on the The Lumineers tour.
When Deacon performs for a live radio show, a familiar old codger is in the audience- his father. Afterwards, his pops approaches him in the autograph line, and Deacon is visibly irritated and high tails it out of there. Just to jog your memory, Deacon has talked about his father being abusive to not his just him, but to his mother. Deacon tells Scarlett he’s in town and wants her, Maddie and Daphne to stay away from him.
Sean, who has been terrified about performing and has PTSD, anxiety and agoraphobia is now completely okay with performing in front of crowds. It’s a miracle! At his Bluebird show, he is peeved Scarlett invited his wife. He begins the show by gushing about someone who helped him through tough times and it’s not his wife- it’s Scarlett. He calls her on stage to perform with him, much to the displeasure of his wife.
As expected, Brad is already skeeving on Alannah. They are out for a drink in a hotel bar and one of his employees just happens to ditch them. He claims he keeps a room at the hotel and then finds a reason to touch her hair. Folks, I wish I could say that this is just part of fake Nashville, but no. This part of the music business is very real. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve had it happen to me. I’m not artist, but ask most women who have worked in the business. We all have a #metoo story.
Scarlett goes to Sean’s wife, Angela, to chat. Naming a character after me will not get you on my good side, Nashville writers, but kudos for picking a good one. Anyway, its obvious Angela is at the end of her rope. Scarlett thinks Angela should hang on and give their marriage a chance. Here we go again. Scarlett, that walking example of relationship wisdom, giving out advice. It’s like getting counsel on how to be a good person from Donald Trump.
While Alannah is the Queen Hoochie, she is no dumb hoocher. She goes to Avery furious over the Brad situation. She vows to talk to him about it before her dinner the next night with The Lumineers. Oh Alannah, Brad isn’t a chew toy like Gunnar or Avery. He will destroy you and not think twice about it. Jessie warned you. I warned you.
Deacon goes to visit his dad, Gideon, who is staying in a local motel. It seems Hurricane Harvey destroyed his home in Corpus Christi, Texas, and he’s looking to make a fresh start. He’s not sure if he wants to stay in Nashville, but he does want to reconnect with family and get to know his grandchildren. He’s stopped drinking and someday wants to explain why he was such an angry person, but Deacon isn’t having it.
When Allanah talks to Brad, she gets right to the point with “I just hope your interest in me is entirely about music.” It’s not, but he brushes it off and denies it. Later, when Alannah goes to dinner, one of Brad’s flunkees meets her there to explain that the tour is off. I hate to say I told ya so, hoocherino.
Scarlett takes Sean home to visit Angela and his son. He is cautious because she threw him out, but Angela is grateful and lets him stay. But, the happy reunion is short lived when Sean begins looking at a social media page that is a memorial to one of his military buddies who had recently committed suicide. Sean races outside and begins to bang his head against the wall.
Deacon tells Scarlett, Maddie and Daphne about his old man being in town and they are naturally curious and a little appalled his staying in a motel by the Opry. When they suggest he might have changed, Deacon shuts down the conversation. Dear sweet baby Jesus, thank you for not having this episode be even remotely about Maddie, Twig and the Justin Bieber clone.
The reunion with his dad makes Deacon have some upsetting flashbacks. Maddie interrupts one when Deacon is in his office. She mentions how it’s been a year since Rayna died. She also brings up the time she almost became emancipated from her parents and how bad things would be if they were still estranged from one another. Yeah, so, making Maddie the voice of reason isn’t the most believable plot point, but after this crazy week, I’m up for anything.
Not listening to Deacon, Maddie goes to visit her grandpa. He owes up to being a bad father and understands why Deacon wouldn’t want to have anything to do with him. He explains that getting old changes your perspective and Maddie starts to cry. Besides her, Daphne and Scarlett, he is the only family Deacon has left.
Gunnar and Will are making plans to write a few songs and when they invite Avery, he can’t because he’s writing with Alannah. Then, Gunnar gets pissy and storms out. Again. Lame. Later, when Avery and Alannah’s songwriting turns into making out, Juliette walks in right as her shirt is coming off. I would pay good money to watch Juliette yank every purple hair off of hoochie coochie’s head.
Maddie brings her gramps to the office to talk to Deacon. He is apologetic, saying he was a mean drunk who was pissed off at his lot in life and took it out on everyone around him. This leads to another of Deacon’s flashbacks where Deacon, just a boy, points a gun at his dad and cocks the trigger because his mom might get beaten again. It was the night Gideon left his family for good and he could see the hate in his son’s eyes. “You were becoming me,” Gideon said. “And whatever else I did, I wasn’t going to let that happen.”
Scarlett receives a panicked call from Angela and rushes over to find Sean has locked himself in the bathroom with a gun. Scarlett talks to him outside the door and he lets her in. Sean’s pal, Derek, hung himself in his own backyard from his kid’s treehouse. Sean begins to doubt he can go on if someone like Derek, who seemed to have his shit together, couldn’t. Scarlett pleads with him to put the gun down and uses a tiny moment of the breeze coming through the window- a breeze that felt nice- to explain to him that life is worth living even for small moments. It will still be bad, but will also get better over time.
On that note, Deacon brings Gideon to meet his granddaughters and to stay with them. But, we know it won’t be roses and rainbows for long.
We later see Sean, sound asleep with his son snuggled next to him. Kudos to CMT for running the number for the suicide prevention hotline immediately following the broadcast.
See also:
NASHVILLE recap: "Strong Enough to Bend" (Season 6, Episode 13)
NASHVILLE recap: "The House That Built Me" (Season 6, Episode 12)
NASHVILLE recap: "No Place That Far" (Season 6, Episode 11)