SEASON GUIDE
4.04 "The Slender Threads That Bind Us Here"
4.05 "Stop The World (And Let Me Off)"
4.06 "Please Help Me I’m Fallin’"
4.07 "Can’t Get Used To Losing You"
4.09 "Three’s A Crowd"
4.12 "How Does It Feel To Be Free"
4.13 "If I Could Do It All Again"
"4.17 Baby Come Home"
"4.18 The Trouble with the Truth"
"4.19 After You’ve Gone"
"4.20 It’s Sure Gonna Hurt"
"4.21 Maybe You’ll Appreaciate Me Someday"
"4.17 Baby Come Home"
(Directed by Jet Wilkinson, written by David Gould)
Rating: 7/10 (B-)
Well, that happened. And by that I mean Layla/Avery. Yikes! But I’m gonna talk about that later because I don't really feel like starting out this review on such an awful note.
Let’s begin with Will who has a showcase coming up to which around 50 radio programmers have been invited. But attendance turns out to be unsurprisingly low as they are apprehensive of the consequences of putting an openly gay artist on the radio. It’s really great seeing Luke advocating for Will despite the potential damage it could do to his brand. Promoting him on GMA while throwing the radio stations under the bus and calling them out on their bigotry was a bold move. It shows that Luke is genuinely invested in Will as an artist and is disposed to put his ass on the line for him.
That being said, I’m starting to get wary of Ken who doesn't seem so fond of Will. I understand that he’s worried Will might hurt Luke’s reputation but I can't shake the feeling that he’s going to do something to sabotage Will in order to protect Luke and himself.
Maddie persists to give teenage daughters on TV a bad rep and plans on moving forward with her emancipation. It’s nice to know that she still genuinely cares for Daphne and that she showed up to sing the song with her but that doesn’t compensate for how shitty she has been to Daphne ever since Cash emerged and that she is putting her through hell with this whole ordeal. But Deacon bonding with her was a sweet and heartwarming moment. She's felt a little on the outside lately, so I was pleased she got to connect with her stepdad.
Cash, Cash, Cash. She needs to vacate the building, leave Nashville and never return ever again. I wasn’t sure why she was this invested in Maddie’s life but this episode made it clear she’s projecting her past failures and missed opportunities onto her and is trying to get into the music business through Maddie. She’s gonna get what’s coming to her and I’m gonna be fist pumping when her lies and deceit eventually catch up with her. I can’t wait to find out what kind of manufactured story she told Maddie about her meeting with Rayna and for it to blow up in her face.
To nobody’s surprise, Scarlett and Gunnar got back together. The only surprise here is that it happened in this episode. With the way last episode ended, it was a good thing Scarlett’s passive-agressiveness towards Gunnar wasn’t dragged out. In fact, the story moved pretty quickly overall. All it took was being stuck in an elevator, an entire bottle of Scotch, another cover of The Civil Wars’ "If I Didn’t Know Better" and a trip down memory lane about how they first met. While it’s nice the two of them rekindled their romance, we all know that drama is inevitable, especially with these two lovebirds. Let’s just hope it’ll be more interesting than the Layla travesty that occured.
Look, Layla deserves to be happy. After everyting she has been through, I’m rooting for her to be happy, I am. But I just really don’t like her as a character anymore, you know? I’m trying to cut her some slack due to Jeff’s recent death but she’s making it so hard to side with her. Only a few episodes ago, she asked Glenn to stop her in her tracks if she starts to act like Juliette, and unbeknowst to her, she truly has become a lesser version of the old Juliette: She’s self-absorbed, quick to assume and thinks the entire world revolves around her.
She’s going after a guy who is recently divorced, has to take care of a baby and is hung up on his ex-wife. And for her to meddle in all of that is just selfish. And additionally, he’s also her producer which is just one of many reasons why this is not a good idea.
Layla might be shacking up with Avery now but she’ll never have his heart the same way Juliette does. It was heartbreaking seeing her beg for his forgiveness and for him to give her another chance. Avery confessing he still loves her as well but that he can’t bring himself to let her into his life again due to his fear that history will repeat itself was equally moving. They still love each other but Avery’s trust in Juliette is gone which is understandable with everything that happened between them.
There are still remnants of Juliette’s old self in her, so I hope she doesn’t do anything impulsive to win him back, as that would probably only achieve the opposite and push him further towards Layla.
Other thoughts/stuff/remarks/observations/whatever you wanna call this section:
- I probably sound like a broken record at this point… Sorry for missing so many reviews yada yada yada. They will be posted weekly now for what might be the last batch of episodes of the entire show.
- Do you think they will follow up on Vita with everything that’s going on? I was looking forward to Rayna digging into her case before all this Maddie mess.
- Teddy was brought back into the fold. I didn’t really care much for his appearance, to be honest.
- I relished Glenn’s no-nonsense attitude towards Juliette. I’m glad he’s being stern with her instead of enabling her to slip back into old habits.
