Nashville season 5 episode 16 review: Is this family?
We know that there were many other important threads in the hout, but the main event was rather simple and emotional: Daphne and Maddie realizing that they need each other, and that the two of them going at each other’s throats will get them nowhere. The chaos began formally when Maddie realized that Liv was the origin of what happened with the meme, and Daphne at first tried to protect her. Maddie threw her out, and the situation unraveled from there.
In not bringing Live back to the house, the writers made a realistic move — why would she trust them again? Clearly Liv is the sort of person who doesn’t want to be hurt because that has happened so many times before; in going back with Daphne and Maddie, she allows that to happen again. Also, you can argue that Daphne was looking towards her as a means to mask some of her own pain; now, there is a chance that she may need to face it further, despite however difficult that may be for her.
These two getting along at the end of the hour (and Maddie letting Daphne use her phone, no less) was the biggest relief of all to deacon, who spent the bulk of the hour fretting over what he was going to with these two given their sheer inability to get on the same page about anything. In the end, them coming back together is the best way that all of them will be able to move over. This was emotional, but effective — especially in terms of how the show does continue to bring back up Rayna James. They make it clear that she is not just some often-forgotten memory in their lives.
Nashville hates the media more
Does this show fashion itself as the sort that lives to burn the media to the ground? They’re certainly doing a good bit of that these days, and this episode was no real exception given everything that it touched on when it comes to Scarlett. First, Access Hollywood was hating on her; then, she opened up to a journalist at lunch who took advantage of her in order to figure out that Damien was likely the father of her child. All of a sudden, the talk of the town was that she was a cheater and her affair was costing her entire future with Gunnar.
We’ll say that this was marginally entertaining as far as a story goes, given that giving Scarlett an enemy outside of the relationship is nice. Nonetheless, this entire plot is still far too disconnected with everything else that is going on and we’d like to just see her as a mom now so that everyone can start to move forward a little bit.
What’s going on with Juliette?
It’s so strange that she is the most notable character that Nashville has, but she also has the strangest story. Tonight, the whole story of her acting upset at Hallie for getting close to Avery came almost out of left field. Why did it happen, and was it really about that? We want to have the theory that this was all musically inclined and in some way, Juliette is puppet-mastering and does not really want Hallie to succeed. Therefore, she wants to create opportunities where she will be lost in the mainstream or doing something outside of her style. She may just have not liked Avery bringing her closer to her full potential.
Overall Take
This was a good, but uneven episode where the smallest story with Maddie and Daphne was probably the best. While Nashville may be a soap, it fares better separate from some of those conventions. Grade: B.
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