The "Nashville" Season 3 premiere was so full of emotional tears, we're surprised the episode did not float right off our TV screen. Rayna was torn between two men, Juliette was having Meltdown 5,673 over Avery, and Scarlett ended up on a soul-searching road trip home with two unexpected companions. With all the plot twists that happened on our fave musical melodrama, we're left with five burning questions...
1. Will Scarlett ever become likeable again? At the start of "Nashville," we loved Scarlett in all her airy-fairy-lacy-dressed adorableness. There was the earnest Dolly-esque accent and the endless good cheer and the ridiculously beautiful music she made with Gunnar. And then...it all went horribly wrong.
Last season Scarlett gave Juliette a run for her money in the hot mess department, with intense pressure from sudden fame, unclear life goals, and a wackadoodle mother making her completely unhinged. What was most upsetting was Scarlett had previously been the character that had more brains than most, and suddenly she made 700 horrible decisions and became an irritating, blubbering, oh-woe-is-me catastrophe.
In our "Nashville" Season 3 premiere, Avery hitches a ride out of town with Scarlett, and Gunnar's "I won't get out of the car until you agree to stay" plan turns into what he refers to as a kidnapping. No one seems too busted up about the threesome road trip, and thankfully there's not much exploration of the relationship tree to see how they've all intertwined with each other and others over the last two years.
The end result is, Scarlett realizes her problems will follow her everywhere. And sometimes being a nutcase amongst other celeb nutcases is the safest, most understanding place to be. And that Nashville maybe really is her home after all. If this leads to a kinder, gentler, less hysterical Scarlett pursuing her music in perhaps a newer, less stressful way, then I am totally on board. Give us our sweet and shiny Scarlett back, please!
2. How long will Will and Layla be able to fake it? We knew those creepy bedroom cams were going to come into play at just the wrong time. Not having a lifetime of sexuality deception in her skill set, Layla decides she wants to pull the plug on her sham of a marriage. Will agrees, but when they try to opt out of their reality show--oops, there's some blackmail on film right there. Time to pretend to be the happy couple for a year so the network can make its money.
Here's a tip for future reality stars--if there's something you don't want on camera, LEAVE THE BUILDING. Go to a lake and go skinny-dipping to remove any chance you've been secretly miked. Seriously. Be paranoid, people. Learn from Will and Layla.
3. Is there room in Maddie's life for two dads she's speaking to? Teddy makes a killer-asteroid-sized effort to be Cool Dad and tries to get his daughter to open up about her teenage angst. He's not thrilled about the whole "I want Mom to marry Deacon" information, but he takes the confession in the sharing spirit it was given. He even takes his two girls to see Deacon perform at the Bluebird, earning himself more brownie points.
We gotta wonder with Teddy possibly being back on the good list, how long will it be before Maddie finds something wrong with Deacon. Especially if Rayna really doesn't choose him after all. And how much will Teddy be laughing on the inside if Rayna ditches Deacon AGAIN for the "better" guy?
4. Is the world ready for a pregnant and hormonal Juliette? I don't even care if Glenn is the father at this point, I think the question is how much self-destructive behavior Juliette will escalate to when facing impending motherhood? Considering they only had her hack off her split ends in a desperate "breakdown" scene, I'm guessing "Nashville" is leaving her room to build up to something spectacular.
Or will Avery come back to save her sanity, along with a role-of-a-lifetime as Patsy Cline? Can Juliette have it all? Will she want it? Will it ever be enough?
5. Did Rayna make the right choice in picking Luke over Deacon? This is the biggie. It was an interesting flashback to hers and Deacon's past...all the good and bad we've seen before on "Nashville," but this time we saw that Luke was there for her when Deacon was not. Other than him being what seems like a totally jealous control freak, we gotta admit Luke seems like the more sensible choice in that context.
Which is where it causes us angst. After all, Teddy was the smart choice, too, and look how that turned out. We can't help feeling a marriage proposal should be met with an enthusiastic "YES!" rather than, "Well, there's this other guy I have history with, but with you I can make a fresh start, so yeah, that seems better." Um, consider us underwhelmed by your outpouring of love.
What do you all think, "Nashville" fans? Here's a peek at next week's episode...
