Recap/Review: Nashville "My Heart Would Know"

Alicia Carroll ’16/Emertainment Monthly Staff

ABC’s Nashville had another show stopping new episode this week, and I am honestly at a loss for words to describe how I feel about it. There were some points where I was so wrapped up in the story; I stopped taking notes for all you lovely readers. But don’t worry, I reached it and have a recap for those of you that missed it!
We left off the last episode with Rayna’s father, Lamar, drinking a swig of some form of hard liquor, choking slightly; shaking, and then his hand went limp. Now, to any average viewer, those are usually the signs of death right? His hand went limp. Well, nope, Rasputin lives. He had a heart attack, which is especially confusing because they didn’t do all of the recognizable signs for heart attacks, and they also had him drink before it happened. If you drink scotch or something and then suddenly convulse and appear to die, that means you were poisoned, not that your cholesterol levels got the better of you, basic semiotics.
Anyway, as predicted, Rayna and the girls all go home to Nashville, in the middle of the New York leg of the tour. Rayna cancels her half of the show, leaving Juliette to flounder in the full set possibilities. Juliette consumes everyone’s time with trying to expand her set to take advantage of the extra stage time. She adds 10 new songs to her set, previewing her new album, but the band is not 100% on board with the changes.
Deacon gets pissed and tries to talk some sense into her, which obviously did not work. She gets upset and goes to her bus, where she just so happens to find Dante. Her and Dante engage in scandalous activities (sex) while Avery, new on the roadie circuit, goes into her bus to look for her earpieces. Avery sees them in the act and immediately flees the scene. Dante sees Avery and finds him later to fire him, before he can say anything to anyone. Dante and Juliette decided to keep their relationship on the DL for her mother’s sake, which does not work out too great.  As Avery is leaving, he runs into Deacon and tells him why he was fired (of course), and Deacon is furious. He confronts Dante and tells him that he has no authority to fire roadies, which really ticked Dante off.
Juliette’s mother confronts Dante because they have not had a therapy session in a long time. She took a bottle of alcohol from the hotel bar, and told them that she needs to go back to Nashville to continue therapy. Neither Dante nor Juliette is happy with this plan. When her mother confronts Dante she also kisses him, because she felt there was a spark there. Juliette scolds her mother for kissing him, and Dante for kissing back, she is scolded by her mother, Deacon scolds Juliette, Juliette scolds deacon-everyone is scolding each other until Juliette declares that Dante is the only one on her side. Deacon has had enough and decides to leave.
Juliette and her mother fight over what happened with Dante. Her mom really just wants to get better, and needs therapy. She is more focused on that then wanting Dante as her boy toy. Juliette ultimately has her mother go home to Nashville, like she wanted, and fired Dante as her sober companion. She does, however, hire him as her new manager.
Deacon goes to visit Rayna in her time of need. He is just there as her friend, but he realizes how much he still cares for her, like a family member.  Rayna is in the midst of learning more about her mother and father and the complicated relationship they had. Watty White comes to visit the hospital and tells Rayna that he was the musician that her mother had an affair with that made Lamar so angry and bitter towards music.
Meanwhile, Gunnar and Scarlett are living the life, and could not possibly be any cuter than they are. They are in love, Scarlett is getting a record deal, they get along with their new neighbor, and everything is great. This acts as the “upper” storyline for this episode. Scarlett prepares to meet at Edge Hill Records after signing her contract. Gunnar fully dedicates himself to making her happy and supporting her. Scarlett is happy, but can’t help but notice that Gunnar hasn’t written music since his brother died. She confides in Will and tells him this and Will takes it into his own hands. After Scarlett goes to sleep, he takes Gunnar to play chicken with a train, playing with death in an attempt to help him work through his issues with his brother. Gunnar loved it a little too much…I can already sense the “addicted to adrenaline” daredevil plot that is coming for Gunnar. It helped get his creative juices flowing, and he began to write again.
The episode ends with Tandy going through Lamar’s personal projects in order to get the business and order and she learns that Peggy, Teddy’s mistress, is the woman that leaked lies to the press about Rayna, during the divorce.
So basically this episode was great. I would give it an A-. It only gets a minus because some very predictable plot points developed or are development, but it is well written.  The Dante plotline is interesting, and had some collateral damage that I did not expect, but overall it was very predictable. What I didn’t see coming is that Gunnar and Scarlett did not fight once. The past few episodes leaving them unvaried and predictable characters. I have mixed feelings, but maybe just because of the success their characters have been having, I feel like into the next ream of television. They are too perfect. They don’t fight, or whine, or have a heart to heart. They are just an adorable, successful couple, which really contrasts with the couples in the other story lines. Gunnar and Scarlett are so interesting, as characters. They add the “feels the rush” as the wedge that breaks them apart for only a short people. No character of substance has any issues with the significant other. No one is that happy for that long! These are just my preliminary thoughts, but for now let us see where this takes us.
MVP: Deacon