Nashville doesn’t really look much different without Rayna and it gives all the characters more room to grow without her there, especially Deacon, Maddie and Daphne. This is the first time I’ve seen Daphne have her own true storyline. We have so much more to learn about this young Conrad.
We no longer have our Rayna and Deacon but we may still have our Scarlett (Clare Bowen) and Gunnar (Sam Palladio). At first, I was so mad because it’s not his baby. I thought, how can we lose the Nashville couple and not have the other Nashville couple. In reality, Rayna and Deacon never had it perfect. Yes, Maddie is his but he didn’t even find out until recently and Rayna had a whole marriage with Teddy. So, this isn’t perfect for Scarlett and Gunnar but I’m happy that they’re giving it another go.
Avery was more in the background this episode being the inspiration. He gave some great advice to Gunnar. Avery is always great for giving advice but so is Gunnar. He gave it to Will (Chris Carmack). It was so cute seeing Will so nervous. I get that his boyfriend is this big powerful person but as Gunnar said, Will can make a crowd feel something and his boyfriend can’t do that.
We were also treated to great performances. It’s great that Nashville is back and I’m excited to see where the writers take us in the second half of the season.