‘Nashville’ Review: My Heart Would Know

This week’s Nashville had some really great moments and some super frustrating ones, which seems to be par for the course for this show. It just feels like certain characters take one step forward and then two hundred steps back each week and frankly, it’s annoying. So let’s talk about which characters were backsliding in “My Heart Would Know.”

I’m not sure if we can classify what Dante did as backsliding. Instead, he basically morphed into a different character. What the hell, show? I liked him and I thought he’d be good for Juliette, but he’s basically the worst. I think he may have even borrowed Lamar’s mustache twirling technique since he’s in the hospital. After sleeping with Juliette, Dante took over the show and turned Juliette into a bigger monster than she already was.

Okay, maybe there were some clues when he went all business manager in the last episode and helped her land that endorsement deal or the fact that he was willing to sleep with his patient’s daughter to begin with, but I liked him and now I feel cheated. Even worse, he made me take Avery’s side and I’m pretty sure that’s some sort of sin. Dante fractured what was left of Juliette’s relationship with her mom and Juliette rewarded him by making him her new manager.

Juliette was backsliding so hard that she might have caused an avalanche, people. I love Juliette; I even love her bratty behavior to a point because she usually learns from her mistakes. But this time she was easily manipulated by Dante and she came out looking even more foolish than she did when she fired her original manager. Not only that, but she was incredibly mean to Deacon. This one is going to come back and bite her and even with all of her man issues, I can’t work up any sympathy for her on this one.

Gunnar was also backsliding in this episode, but his was more understandable since he’s still reeling from his brother’s death. He attempted to keep his mind off of things by partying with Scarlett to celebrate her record contract. But he refused to play with her and then didn’t seem too happy to stand by and watch her and Will sing together. Once Gunnar put a drunk Scarlett to bed, he headed out with Will and his new friend took him to play chicken with a train. Wow, I can’t even get into the stupidity of this or the fact that Gunnar enjoyed it and then started playing again. Let’s hope this wild child behavior doesn’t last long because it is unbecoming.

Rayna returned to Nashville to see her father and he was pretty rude to her for a guy who just had a heart attack and wasn’t out of the woods yet. Tandy kept herself busy with the family business, knowing that was what Lamar would want. Then Rayna got a shock when Watty showed up and she learned that he was the musician that her mother had had an affair with and that was why Lamar hated him so much. Poor Rayna also felt like maybe that was why her father acted like he was mad at her all the time and she felt super guilty for having no idea.

This was the first episode in a long time where I actually felt something for Rayna, other than seeing her as the spoiled, older version of Juliette. I never watched Friday Night Lights so I don’t share the Connie Britton obsession that most people seem to have. But she was fantastic in this episode and I was really happy when Deacon showed up to be with her in the hospital.

Speaking of Deacon, he’s just the best character on the show, right? I loved watching him repeatedly put Juliette in her place and I even liked him standing up for Avery when he was unfairly fired. After everything that went down between Scarlett and Avery, Deacon easily could have looked the other way, but he’s better than that. He knew Avery hadn’t done anything wrong (other than have the displeasure of seeing Juliette and Dante going at it on the tour bus). He also gave Dante more than one piece of his mind and fingers crossed; hopefully we’ll get to see him give the man a piece of his fist in the not-too-distant future.

The Peggy/Teddy story continues to happen and I really have no feelings on the matter aside from thinking they both need to be hit by a tour bus, which is a shame because I do like Kimberly Williams-Paisley, but her character sucks. Tandy spilled the beans to Teddy about Peggy being the one to go to the tabloids so I guess they’re going to have issues coming up, but again, who cares?

I’d love to talk about the preview for the next episode, but there wasn’t one because the show is gone until May 1. Seriously, ABC, I know how TV works. I know stretching out a show from October until May over 21-22 episodes means there are going to be breaks and reruns. But it feels like Nashville goes on hiatus every other week. This was episode 17. Most shows are already on episode 19 or 20. Maybe the ratings would be better if the show was actually on a more consistent schedule.