‘Nashville,’ Season 1, Episode 7, ‘Lovesick Blues’:

It has been two weeks since we last convened in Nashville so let’s get right to it. Juliette and Sean Butler are getting cozy with their lips at Juliette’s house when her manager breaks the news that football fans and tabloids are blaming her for Sean’s poor performance in recent games. At the label, she gets more bad news—they only want her to sing one song at the Edgehill anniversary concert at Ryman Auditoriam and moreover, they want her to do a duet with Rayna. Juliette Barnes is not amused.

Avery is feeling kind of sad even though his career is taking off. His new manager has booked a gig at a fancy venue but he can’t really enjoy his change in fortune because he knows Scarlett won’t be in the audience, staring at him adoringly. Avery made his bed but he sure doesn’t like having to lie in it.

At the Bluebird, Deacon is performing a mournful song and Scarlett can barely hold it together, crying silently, wiping the tears away. The break up has left her a bit of a mess. Gunnar sidles up to her, tries to make sure she’s ok, and suggests she writes her tears away but she says, “it’s just not there.”

In a late evening meeting just between candidates, Coleman tells Teddy he learned a lot from Lamar about playing to win and gives Teddy until the weekend to withdraw from the mayoral race. Teddy gets indignant, particularly when Coleman hands him the pictures of Teddy in a questionable embrace with Peggy.

There’s also plenty of indignation to go around at Juliette’s house as she talks through all the reasons why she doesn’t want to perform with Rayna. Unfortunately, her manager disagrees and yet again, she might not get her away. She cannot seem to stop her star from falling further still.

Lamar, Tandy, and Teddy are scheming at Lamar’s home, trying to find a way toexplain the photos of Teddy and Peggy. Teddy, “of course,” doesn’t want to subject his wife and daughters to the scandal but Lamar and Tandy insist Teddy can explain the photos without disclosing his credit union embezzling misdeeds so long as they get rid of Peggy. It’s not clear if they mean to rid Nashville of Peggy permanently or temporarily but knowing Lamar, either option is possible.

Deacon is leading the house band for the anniversary show so he runs into Rayna  at rehearsal and they fall into an easy rhythm real fast. You can’t fight chemistry. They’re interrupted by Marshall, the head of the label, who tells Rayna she’ll have to perform a duet with Juliette. Rayna says hell no, and insists she doesn’t take orders while Marshall says he’s not asking. He walks away with the threat of releasing her greatest hits album, immediately, lingering in his wake. A little later, Rayna has a change of heart after talking to Liam. She tells Buck to tell Marshall she’ll do the duet so long as she gets to make her own album, with her music, produced by Liam. Looks like Rayna is learning how to play the game.

Hailey, Gunnar’s girlfriend, tells Scarlett the best way to get over a man is to get under another. At some point we’ll have to talk about how this is not really true. In the meantime, Scarlett gets all gussied up and when Gunnar sees her at the bar, all he can say is, “Wow.” Not a moment later, a man has asked Scarlett to dance.  After, she and the guy are kissing and Gunnar ruins the moment by pulling them apart and acting all offended and puritanical.

It’s a diva showdown at the anniversary show rehearsal. Juliette cuts right to the chase by letting Rayna know they can skip pretending to like each other. Rayna smirks and shrugs it off but not for long. It’s clear they can’t agree on a song, neither woman offering the other an ounce of respect. Rayna cuts Juliette right down to size by talking about how she helped make the label and how Juliette hasn’t earned her place. Juliette is quietly stunned and stalks out. Deacon, ever her knight in shining armor, sets Rayna straight and reminds her that once upon a time, Rayna was told her sound wasn’t country enough. He leaves her with his cold disapproval and a copy of Undermine, the song he co-wrote with Juliette, telling Rayna the younger singer has it in her to be a great songwriter. Rayna stares after him, quietly stunned, too.
At the hallowed Ryman Auditorium, Juliette is trying to gather herself and stay in the moment. Sean Butler shows up with flowers and all kinds of romantic talk about how much he wants to make love to her but won’t because he respects her too much and wants to get to know her. Millions of eyes roll, such cynical hearts.

Right before they go on stage, Rayna and Juliette agree they never want to perform together again which is television foreshadowing for, They’re going to be performing together all the time now. Turns out, they wrote a song together, a tough girl, put a man in his place anthem. Together, they make some magic, bringing funk and sass. From the audience, Marshall says the song is going to be huge. They strut all over the stage and flirt with Deacon and then Liam and Deacon even get into some guitar dueling. It’s all very exciting. By the end of the song, the crowd goes wild. Liam and Deacon fist bump. Even Rayna and Juliette give each other careful smiles. There’s gonna be some change coming to Nashville. You can just tell.