‘Nashville’: I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive
The beating heart of Nashville has always been Connie Britton’s Rayna James. She’s the character creator Callie Khouri built this series around: a strong yet sensitive artist; a music-industry survivor working in a genre that alternately reveres and discards middle-aged women; a creative soul with a strong business sense; a fierce mother, lover, and maverick. There’s a reason why Charles Esten’s Deacon Claybourne cries more easily than Rayna: She’s the strongest person in any situation she’s handed. (And Esten really is a first-rate crier — for years now, he has teared up much more quickly and convincingly than any other cast member.) WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW FOR THE FEB. 23 EPISODE OF NASHVILLE.
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Only fans who hadn’t read that Connie Britton was signed for 10 of the fifth season’s 22 episodes could have been shocked by what happened on Thursday night. Another big clue? The episode’s title: “If Tomorrow Never Comes.” The only song title more on the nose would have been to swap out that 1989 Garth Brooks hit with Hank Williams’ more profound “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive,” from 1952. The car accident Rayna was in last week caused a chain of medical events that ended in her death. The episode, directed by creator Khouri with great care, was constructed around what proved to be Rayna’s hospital deathbed: All of the show’s major characters were given a scene with her, to say goodbye even at certain points when it was not at all certain that Rayna was indeed dying.
It was interesting to see how the new CMT-, Marshall Herskovitz-, Ed Zwick-produced Nashville has streamlined the cast to its essential personalities. Thus, beyond Deacon and Rayna’s daughters Maddie and Daphne (Lennon and Maisy Stella), the show found a way to bring Hayden Panettiere’s Juliette Barnes stumping down the hospital corridors. (A secondary revelation that would have been the climax of an ordinary episode: Juliette walked without crutches!) Scarlett needed a final benediction that she is worthy and talented, even if it seems as though every character Scarlett encounters eventually has to get around to telling this trembling rabbit that she’s a brave soul.
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(Couple of random parenthetical questions here. Did no one think to contact Rayna’s sister Tandy before the former’s demise? And was the tech billionaire Zach Welles’s storyline just a red herring, or something that didn’t pan out once the season progressed? Don’t tell me he’s now going to go predatory, buy out Highway 65, and fire everyone. Bucky needs a pension.)
The most surreal moment — and if I’m being honest, the moment I laughed out loud at, from surprise and great pleasure, I assure you — was the magical appearance of Rayna’s late mother at her bedside to speak soothing words to her. She was played by no less than Carla Gugino, looking glamorous, showing a lot of leg. Yup, Rayna’s hallucinations are first-rate ones; why did we never see more of them?
Frankly, I’m not that invested in the rest of the series from this point on. Those coming attractions, featuring the return of Eric Close’s Teddy and his control-freaky parenting mode, is exactly what I always liked least about this show. But of course I’ll keep watching. Yes, I’ll watch Deacon try to cope with both his sadness and with Maddie and Daphne, even as I dread the Maddie aspect of that, because you just know that for this all-too-believable young woman, it’s all about her. Her melodramatic emotionalism is enough to drive a grown man to drink, which I hope does not happen to Deacon. (Well, I sorta do: I still cling to my longtime fantasy of the alternative-world Nashville, the one in which Deacon is a wild-man, alcoholic, self-destructive genius who goes out in a blaze of glory. See Rip Torn in 1973’s Payday for what I wish Chip Esten had been handed as a reward for all his good work.)
Anyway, back to the Nashville we have. Scarlett and Gunnar? Could not care less about their old on-again, off-again. Juliette and Avery? They’re good for squabbling comic relief, but I’m so not into The Ministry of Juliette Barnes, Gospel Star. Nope, without Rayna, it’s going to be one long slog through the back end of the presumably final season. And, Lord, as much as I’ve enjoyed this noble effort, please let it be the final season. Britton is already out there, picking and choosing between new series pilot scripts, and booked on Colbert’s Late Show next Monday. Deacon, write the “tag” on that final song, release the collaborative album that’ll give the world The Ballad of Rayna and Deacon, and then we can all let Nashville go.
Nashville airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on CMT.
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