S02.E17: We've Got Things To Do

[Tara Ariano]

Rayna and Juliette each have their own plan on how to announce Juliette's deal with Highway 65; Will offers Deacon a great opportunity; Teddy learns Maddie is fixated with her music; Will worries about his past.

[Tara Ariano]

Here's what John wrote about it!

[formerlyfreedom]

Rayna and Juliette each have their own plan on how to announce Juliette's deal with Highway 65; Will offers Deacon a great opportunity; Teddy learns Maddie is fixated with her music; Will worries about his past.

Fairly predictable episode, I think. Did anyone else think that Juliette would be able to resist making a statement?  Maddie acting out? Teddy being shady? Scarlett being helpless? Luke offering help? Megan is an idiot? Rayna is strong and wise? Layla being annoying? Will making yet another bad choice despite solid advice from Gunnar? Shocked, I tell you.

About the only storyline that isn't completely predictable is Avery. A year ago, I was ready for him to disappear. Now, I'm actually interested in his decisions - he's not taking a typical path here...

And wasn't it Luke (played by Will Chase) who offered Deacon the opportunity?

[aradia22]

I think Zoe sounded very breathy in the opening number until close to the end. I'm surprised that was considered a good audition.

I don't like Liam because he was so annoying when he was first introduced but it still seems weird to make him this horrible villain. I felt like they were heading into a genuine romance with him and Scarlett and then they scrapped that for whatever reason and turned him into this predatory guy who just has casual hookups. That wasn't even his character when he was always flirting with Rayna.

Rayna and Juliette both had valid points when they discussed how they would handle Juliette's career at Highway 65. I think there was just too much bad blood between them and the way everything was said (tone, demeanor) created tension where they shouldn't have been any drama. While I think it isn't the best move for Rayna to be associated with Juliette right now, if she didn't want to risk it, she shouldn't have signed her. And yeah, maybe I'm still a little ticked off after that scene where Juliette basically had to crawl to Rayna and beg to be signed with Highway 65 even though she had a ton of other offers and presumably one of those labels would have treated her well. And I think at least the way it's been portrayed on the show, Juliette is right and Rayna still doesn't respect her.

I found Maddie very sympathetic through all the daddy drama (which made me hate Rayna more than I already did) but yeah, if she's getting a C in history then it's not just Teddy being irrational about her spending time with Deacon. I'm torn on the makeup thing. On the one hand, I think it's fun to experiment with makeup especially for a special event but on the other hand, it is uncomfortable to see young girls try and live up to the standards of beauty set for adult women which are problematic enough for those adult women. 

Layla/Will is so cringe-worthy now. I'm still not used to the rewrite they did on the character. I really wish they would stop rewriting characters as though we haven't been paying attention this whole time. At least they're not sleeping together anymore. But the end of the episode... It's going to be hard to like Will if he keeps going with this.

The Will/Juliette drama was contrived and didn't have any weight. I feel like the show doesn't always know when to play things as business decisions and when everyone is supposed to be super hurt and offended. 

In spite of myself, I really like Tell Me and Gonna Get Even so I was hoping for another solid pop/country song from Layla this week but it was not to be.

Why is Teddy so concerned with Deacon and not concerned at all with how Daphne has become so attached to Luke?

Avery is so great.

There was a big production on that Rayna/Juliette duet. It pretty much drowned out Rayna. It was OK but it was no Wrong Song.

I thought they were writing Zoe off the show and thought "Well, it's going to be super suspicious if a new black character just shows up" but then she didn't get the gig so.. crisis averted.