Nashville

Nashville

Episode 3: Someday You'll Call My Name

By: Carlos Uribe

Nashville is a series about the country music scene and the political scene of Nashville. I will be covering this show weekly.

Spoilers Ahoy!

When you want to create good drama, you want to force characters to face their issues. Juliette's mother has been established as a drug addict and she's been trying to push her away. Her mom refuses to just leave as she sees Juliette as a source of cash. She wants to convince her daughter to give her money so that she can keep up her drug habit. Juliette knows this and that's one of the reasons she doesn't want anything to do with her mother. The other reason is that her mother's drug history meant that she was absent when she needed her the most. The show brings Juliette's mom and it keeps pushing her in Juliette's life. She shows up at the label and they're forced to give her money so that she leaves. She goes to the studio to try and talk to her daughter before she's intercepted by her producer. The third time has the mother going to Juliette's gate and trying to force her way in. She's sent away but she gets arrested with drugs in her possession. Juliette is forced to allow her mother to temporarily move in with her until they can arrange her mom's return trip to Alabama or a return to rehab. Juliette's mom has been able to force her way into Juliette's life but that doesn't mean that she has to accept it. This mother issue is so important to Juliette that she admits that the song Undermine is really about her mom. How her mother had undermined her despite her good intentions. Her return to her life, along with Deacon's rejection of her, leads Juliette to commit shoplifting and she's caught on tape. Why does Juliette steal? It's a coping mechanism for her.

The relationship between Rayna and her father is also a focus of this episode. Rayna and Teddy are having financial difficulties and they're trying to find solutions. The suggestions for Rayna to go on tour with Juliette or to accept help from her father are simply out of the question. They decide to try and create a line of credit with a bank but this looks like it's not going to happen. That's because the credit union is being forced being audited and this makes Teddy nervous. This threat of them being on the verge of financial collapse might not be the most thrilling drama but it does lead to some good tension. Lamar knows of their financial difficulties and he offers a loan. The terms required for the term require Rayna to give up her career. This infuriates Rayna as he doesn't seem to ever support her career. We finally get an explanation why: Rayna's mother had an affair with a singer-songwriter for ten years. This affair had lasted right to her death and according to Rayna's sister, it's what helped keep her marriage with Lamar alive. Adding this dimension to Lamar is a good one as it not only helps to humanize him but also for the audience to understand him better. That scene where he looks at old pictures of his wife shows you just how much he loved her. This affair simply breaks his heart and it makes him more tragic. The loan is turned down and while Rayna might understand her father better this doesn't do anything to repair their relationship. This is because Lamar is reluctant to accept Rayna's perspective.

Rayna and Juliette are both facing parental issues but they're both essentially fighting for Deacon. Juliette is trying her best to win Deacon. She records one of his songs and sleeps with him. She tries to give him a mental image of the two of them going away on the road and leaving behind of all this drama. Rayna doesn't really put up much of a fight. She doesn't want to do the intimate songs between the two. Songs that he had presumably written with her and that had begun their career. At the end of the episode, she knows that she should allow Deacon to leave. She knows that she should allow him to go on his tour. The thing is that to Rayna, Deacon isn't just a guitar music. He's music. She can't separate them. She might not be in a romantic relationship with him but she's able to love him through their music. That's what convinces Deacon to stay. It might not be the right move for him but he's still in love with Rayna. He knows that it can't happen. They can't be together as he can be with Juliette. His heart isn't with Juliette as it remains on Rayna. When Juliette personally asks him to be on her team, he rejects her and it's as if he was denying her very soul.

The parent issues and Deacon provide a unifying theme among the two main plots. The problem with the episode comes with the Scarlett story. Don't get me wrong: it was a good plot. It's just that it didn't really belong with the other two storylines. There were no parental issues. Scarlett and Gunnar are trying to record their song but Scarlett chokes. Gunnar blames Avery because he thinks that Scarlett's afraid of giving it her all because she's afraid Avery might leave her. He doesn't seem to realize that in reality Scarlett was just nervous. She doesn't think she's that big of a deal and that she doesn't really have any real talent. Gunnar might not have realized the problem but he did provide the right solution. Avery is able to make Scarlett realize that she might not be special but her music is. Scarlett is merely the way to get the music heard. He offers to be there for her but he might have another motive. A motive to use this to try and convince Watty to maybe look at his own music. Whatever his reasons, Scarlett is able to record the demo. It's an ending that is tied up a little bit too nicely. Considering how the other stories didn't have these nice endings, this plot really does feel out of place. The ending and the whole scenes therefore felt a bit disjointed compared to the rest of the episode.

Nasvhille still had a pretty good episode. Most of the plots didn't just share elements but also the same themes. The sub-plot might have felt a bit out of place but it was still a good one. This all created a whole that while not entirely cohesive made for some pretty great drama and many good scenes. The music on this show remains top-notch and the show is very much embracing it's country aspect. I'm seriously listening to the music as I write these Nashville reviews. That's a sign that it's not just the show's that good but also the songs recorded specifically by the show.

Other Notes:

Rayna's children singing Juliette's song is so great even Rayna doesn't care they picked a Juliette song.