Courtesy of ABC
Finally! This week is the week where we finally get some answers about Teddy (Eric Close) and Charles Esten really comes in to his own as Deacon. We have quite the episode to discuss!
Let’s bitch it out…
Well, I for one can never get enough Kimberly Williams-Paisley, and her role as Peggy finally brings about the big reveal we have been waiting for since the pilot: the truth about Teddy and the finances. It’s hard to tell who actually came up with the idea of embezzling funds, since Teddy claims it was Peggy having a thing for him, but Peggy says she was just doing him a favour. I’m inclined to believe that it was Teddy’s idea, and that’s mostly because he’s just so shady all the time. But he went to daddy (in law) dearest to save his butt and when Lamar (Powers Boothe) says he will take care of everything, he takes care of everything. So Teddy is riding high thinking this scandal is in his rear view and he’s sailing on to a win as the next mayor of Nashville.
I think the guy secretly taking pictures of Teddy and Peggy’s clandestine bridge meeting will probably have something else to say about that.
Okay – moving on (mostly because Teddy just bores me and there was so much other excellent material this week). Wow, Deacon! His struggles with addiction and women really give Charles Esten some great material to deal with this week. I just find him so raw and vulnerable and… human this week (there’s even a glimpse into what he might’ve been like in the past). It’s an overall win for Charles Esten tonight as he kills it from beginning to end. It is an absolute pleasure to watch. I’m not sure if this is possible, but I am actually siding with him over Rayna (Connie Britton) tonight because I am that drawn-in by him. Plus we get a beautiful song that can only be about Rayna, and I will jump at any chance to hear him sing. It’s the icing on the cake for such a great episode.
Courtesy of ABC
A few other observations:
- Is anyone surprised when Avery (Jonathan Jackson) tries to steal the spotlight playing “backup” for Scarlett (Clare Bowen) and Gunnar (Sam Palladio)? … Oh? No one? Yeah, that’s right. ‘Cause we could see that coming a mile away. What I can’t understand is why on earth Scarlett stays with him when he’s such a jerk about her success and she so clearly has insane chemistry with Gunnar! Memo to Gunnar: Get rid of that other tramp Hailey (Chloe Bennet) and make a move Scarlett!
- Words cannot express how happy I am with the scene on the porch between Deacon and Juliette (Hayden Panettiere) – and that’s only partly because he lives in my dream home. When she tries to kiss him and he brushes her off saying that they’re friends and she doesn’t need to repay him that way, I was ecstatic. Finally, can we be done with this icky love affair between the two of them?? He is fantastic and all, but let’s not forget – he’s also old enough to be her father.
- It’s no secret how much I love the Rayna/Deacon scenes. And I stand by that. But this week, it feels like something shifted. Other weeks, they’ve had these great interactions that always have an undercurrent of “will they/won’t they” and we can tell they’re fighting the love they feel for each other. But this week, it’s a real separation. She’s replacing him in her band and as her writing partner. He has trouble helping her out even when she needs the money. Then she declines the midnight phone call from jail (that one is a shocker for me). It seems like they’re breaking the pattern already…but I’m not ready to let go yet! They’re separating, but that’s not where they should be!
Seems like we have lots to look forward to next week. I need more from Rayna and Deacon. I need them to start coming back together!! I can’t be alone in feeling this, am I? Who would you choose if you were Scarlett? (I think we all know who my choice would be!) And do you find Teddy as boring as I do? Sound off below!
Nashville can be seen Wednesdays at 10pm EST on ABC
Avery is an insecure prick who Scarlett needs to cut loose
Agreed! And based on the commercial for next week, it looks like he gives her even more reason to cut him loose… but I’ll believe it when I see it. She seems to blindly follow him around and last night was the first time she actually stood up to him at all. So I feel like we have a long road ahead of us before she actually leaves him.
I want to be a supportive reader, and so I will agree with you that Teddy is insanely boring, you can just about hear Powers Booth hissing through his scenes and I am completely relieved that Deacon and Taylor-Swift-Wannabe are over, at least as far as LOVE is concerned. But I think that Deacon and Rayna are the Great Inevitable here, the relationship that we are supposed to be tuning in for and rooting for and praying for. Each of them is trying to move on and look at their relationship as what was, not what is. That’s a beguiling place from which to start again. As for (insipid) Blondie and her Supercreep–yuck! But Gunnar is not all that much better…
I think that my main problem with Teddy is that I think he was cast wrong. I think there’s tons of potential for the character but I just don’t think Eric Close is doing it for me as Teddy. So I tend to cut him down a lot but I feel like with another actor, it could have been much different you know?
I know Gunnar’s not much better.. but I just feel like 1) anything is better than Avery! and 2) Gunnar seems so doe-eyed and innocent like she does so they’d be a good match. Plus, when they sing together, I think the chemistry is out of control!