Nashville “Move It On Over” Review/Recap [Spoilers]

Kristina Carroll ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff

In last week’s episode, we saw a lot of the classic “Nashville” drama, but with little of the music that defines the show.  In this episode, however, we had it all.  In fact, it was the music that the entire plot revolved around, and for once the songs were not just an added bonus.  “Move It On Over” focused on each character as they mended their problems from the previous episode.  It seems as if things are looking up for everyone, but we soon find out that that is not the case.
The episode begins with Deacon and Juliette in the recording studio, singing the song “Yellin’ on the Rooftop”.  Despite the fact that their recording is as close to perfect as it can possibly get, Juliette is not satisfied, and demands that they keep rerecording.  The whole point of releasing this song is so her publicist can show that Juliette has returned back to her old self, and is now out of trouble.  However, the situation with Juliette’s mom, Jolene, is only getting worse, and her refusal to go home to face her in person is her main reason for working so hard in the studio.  In a desperate attempt to cure his exhaustion, Deacon approaches her and tells her that she needs to talk to Jolene, and offers to help, since he has experienced exactly what Jolene has gone through (remember, he was a drug addict at one point in his life as well).  He assures Juliette that they can help Jolene as long as they get her into rehab, but Juliette refuses to allow him to involve himself with her life.
Back at Rayna’s house, she is trying to figure out her life after the episode she had with Deacon, in which she ended their friendship and fired him as her partner.  As she is trying on a new dress, her manager tells her that he wants her to do a greatest hits album, but she responds by saying that she wants her next album to be new and original.  She seems offended by this suggestion, because she associates greatest hits albums with artists who are old, and who are trying to gain back the fame that they once had.  She also tells him that she needs a new guitar player and collaborator, which proves that she truly does believe that her relationship with Deacon is over, even as just a friend.
Remember how we found out last episode that Teddy has some sort of relationship with a woman from his past named Peggy?  We left last week’s episode not knowing what type of relationship they shared-whether it was business related, or something romantic.  Now, we learn that they are involved in something that could potentially send Peggy to prison…and she is freaking out about it.  When they meet to discuss their “problem”, she frantically explains to Teddy how the auditors want to question her.  Then, she reveals to the audience that the two of them borrowed over 2 million dollars.  Although they managed to return the money, it is still considered embezzlement, and she wants Teddy to go to the feds with her so that they will cut them a deal.  Teddy refuses, and tells her to relax, saying that if she gives him just one more day he will find a solution to this mess.
We are brought back into Rayna’s world, and she is busy filming a commercial featuring her self-written song “American Beauty”.  After she finishes filming, her manager approaches her with a very concerned look on his face.  He proceeds to tell her that Deacon’s lawyer has contacted him, and told him that Deacon refuses to give Rayna the rights to the song.  Deacon co-wrote the song with her, and is upset with the changes that Rayna has made to the first verse.  Rayna’s manager tells her that the only solution is to call him personally, but she refuses, telling him that that is exactly what Deacon wants her to do.
Next we get a look at where Gunnar’s life has progressed to, and we find that he is still involved with Hailey, and it is clear that things are starting to get serious.  However, apparently Gunnar’s feelings for Hailey are stronger than her feelings for him.  She tells him that she does not want to get in the middle of anything (obviously hinting at his relationship with Scarlett), and she wants to keep it “not complicated”.  Gunnar tries to tell her that there is nothing for her to get in the middle of, and that he and Scarlett are just friends.  But no matter what he says, Hailey just is not interested in taking their relationship to the next level.  Not yet anyway….
Speaking of Scarlett and Gunnar, their career has really skyrocketed.  They are scheduled to perform for the managers of Lady Antebellum, in an attempt to sell the band some of their demos.  Scarlett’s manager wants to add another guitarist, and it just so happens that the show’s signature guitarist was just fired by Rayna.  Later on, Avery walks in on Scarlett talking to her mother on the phone.  He overhears that they are thinking about bringing in another guitarist, and suggests that he fill the role.  Scarlett is overjoyed by this, and they kiss, something that they definitely have not done for a while.  However, when they play in front of Lady Antebellum’s managers, Avery notices the obvious chemistry between Scarlett and Gunnar, and tries to steal the spotlight.  After the performance, Gunnar and Avery get into an argument, and Avery ends up taking off.  Unfortunately, it looks like things have just gone back to how they were a few weeks ago for this couple as well.
When Juliette gets home, there is something about the extreme silence that freaks her out.  She calls for her mom, and starts to panic when she does not receive a response.  She frantically runs around her house in search of her mother, and ultimately finds her passed out in bed with another man, and a handful of empty bottles of alcohol lining the bed.  Juliette throws the stranger out, yells at her mother, and tells her that the embarrassment she has caused her has reached its boiling point.  She finally realizes that her mother needs help.  However, her mother retaliates with a comeback, accusing Juliette of being the embarrassing one, for stealing a bottle of nail polish.  She refuses Juliette’s offer to get professional help, and Juliette seems as if she is stuck in a constant whirlwind of problems.
We then get a look at Teddy’s mayoral debate, and watch as his opponent fires accusations at him.  The most powerful, however, is definitely when he says that Teddy most closely resembles his father, “a man who fails repeatedly”.  It is very apparent by Teddy’s facial expressions that there is something that affects him about this statement.  After the debate, Teddy talks to Rayna’s father Lamar, and we find out more about the “Cumberland Project”.  Teddy expresses to Lamar that the problem will not go away, and Lamar says that the only way he can help with the issue is if Teddy tells him everything.  Then, he spills.  We learn that Teddy ran out of capital while he was waiting for the permit to come through for his project.  When the market crashed, taxes came due, accounts payable piled up, and he ended up floating his funds to protect his investors.  Peggy, who was his business partner at the time, found the money for him, and he did not ask any questions.  When Lamar asked about his relationship with Peggy, he asserted that it was strictly business, and that there was no romance between them whatsoever.  He also assures Lamar that they paid back all of the money, but the federal audit is what they are worried about.  Somebody knows what they did, and he is not sure what they are going to do about it.  Lamar promises that he’ll make sure Peggy stays safe, and demands in return that Teddy keeps his head in the campaign.
Juliette has reached a point of extreme desperation, and has one last option in terms of fixing the mess that her mother has made with her life: Deacon.  She calls him and asks if he is still willing to help.  Before we know it, Deacon is at Juliette’s house staging an intervention with Jolene.  It takes a lot of effort, but he is final able to convince her to go to rehab, by making her think about how her current state is affecting Juliette’s career.  He accompanies her and Juliette to rehab, the same place where he went when he was struggling with his addiction.  As Jolene is entering the facility, she begins to break down, and a bottle of pills slips out from her pocket onto the ground.  Clearly, Jolene has hit rock bottom.  When Deacon picks up the pills, Jolene turns around and slaps Juliette in the face, screaming and yelling at her because she has apparently ruined her life.  Juliette is surprisingly silent for once, and does not fight back at all.  It seems as if she is in complete and utter disbelief.  Deacon has a final conversation with Juliette before they go their separate ways, in which he tells her that she should spend some time by herself.
When Rayna shows up at Deacon’s house, we automatically get the sense that something bad is about to happen.  This is the first time that they have interacted with each other since their argument and decision to split up as musical partners.  And obviously, Rayna is still upset.  She confronts Deacon about his refusal to give her the rights to the song, and begs for his help.  Deacon explains that he was hurt by her decision to change the words, and sticks by his original word, refusing to stoop down to Rayna’s level.  If you did not think so before, it seems as if now their friendship has been officially demolished.  When Rayna goes back to the studio, her manager tells her that he is trying to get a hold of singer Vernon Black, but that he’s booked for the next three weeks.  He suggests that Rayna write the song herself, and she thinks that it is a terrific idea.  She is eager to show Deacon that she does not need him to be a successful artist.
Scarlett runs into Gunnar at the bar picking up their paychecks, and brings up the fight that happened the other night between him and Avery.  She wants him to know that she and Gunnar are just friends, and that her relationship with Avery is very important to her.  Gunnar almost laughs at this, and tells her that he is in a relationship with Hailey (yes…eventually she agrees to be more that just friends).  Scarlett comes off as overjoyed, but secretly it is possible that she does not feel as happy as she wants us to perceive her to be.  When she goes back home and sees Avery, she tells him that he ruined the performance, and that Lady Antebellum’s team was put off by his attitude and performance.  She begins to cry (again), telling him that she loves him and does not understand what it will take for him to realize that.
Back at Rayna’s house, she is working on writing her song, when Teddy comes into the room.  There is definitely something distant between them, which is strange since Rayna has made such a conscious effort to repair their relationship by helping him with their campaign.  Teddy finally tells her what is on his mind, by asking if she slept with Deacon.  She is very disappointed that he would even think of this, but when he asks if she ever wanted to, all she says is that they should “put the past behind them.”  So…I’ll take that as a yes?
Deacon is sitting at a diner with his friend Beau, who is also a friend of Juliette, and who accompanied them to the rehab facility earlier in the episode.  Deacon tells him that going to the facility was extremely hard for him, because it brought back so many bad memories.  Beau tells Deacon that Rayna saved his life, and it is time to let it go.  Then, Deacon pulls out the bottle of pills that Jolene dropped, and says that he was looking at them all night.  He counted them a million times, and said that there were 7 to start out, and that there are still 7 today.  Apparently Deacon still does not trust himself with these types of things….so will he fall back into some problems with drug abuse in the future?  Later on he is playing at the Bluebird Cafe alone, singing the song “Sideshow”.  A drunk man yells out during his performance, asking where Rayna is.  He tells Deacon that he likes it better when Rayna’s there, and Deacon calmly responds by saying that most people do.  However, when Deacon is exiting the café, the man approaches Deacon in an attempt to apologize for his drunken state, and Deacon turns around and punches him in the face.  Unfortunately, as a result, he gets beaten up himself.
In the middle of the night Rayna gets a collect call from Deacon in jail, but just hangs up.  When Teddy asks who just called, she says that it was “nobody”.  Apparently, Deacon is now nonexistent to her.  However, Deacon finds another person to bail him out, and that person is Juliette.  She drives him home, and soon after Rayna receives word from her manager that Deacon gave them the rights to the song.  As if this was not good enough for her, her manager is also in love with her new self-written track.  It looks like Rayna’s career is not falling apart after all.  However, the same cannot be said for her husband Teddy.  He takes Lamar’s word about him being safe, and when Peggy tells him that the auditor just packed up and left, he believes that he has no more problems.  However, somebody is taking pictures of the two of them talking from a mysterious car.  It looks like the two are not as safe as they think…
Overall, this was an excellent episode.  It proved that it can feature several songs while still providing extremely dramatic and complex storylines.  However, I think it will be hard for future episodes to live up to this.  It will be interesting to see which character’s remain on stable ground, and which ones take a turn for the worse…yet again.