S04.E03: How Can I Help You Say Goodbye

[scra22]

You'd be surprised. Much if the time, at least in Tennessee, men are massively discriminated against in family court and cheating, crazy wives can often be nicely rewarded for their behavior.

And I can see Juliette using all her money and power to keep her baby just because.

 

Well as of right now Juliette wants nothing to do with her baby because of her PPD/mental illness/however they're going to explain this, so Avery is right in the present when he says she won't fight it. As crappy as she has been, Juliette is not at heart an evil person. The crux of her character has always been that deep down she doesn't see herself as worth anything, and I think it would be more in character for her to believe Cadence is better off with Avery. If we see a custody fight down the road, I would think it would be because after Juliette is treated for her issues, she wants joint custody and Avery doesn't trust her enough to agree to that. 

[KaveDweller]

Well as of right now Juliette wants nothing to do with her baby because of her PPD/mental illness/however they're going to explain this, so Avery is right in the present when he says she won't fight it. As crappy as she has been, Juliette is not at heart an evil person. The crux of her character has always been that deep down she doesn't see herself as worth anything, and I think it would be more in character for her to believe Cadence is better off with Avery. If we see a custody fight down the road, I would think it would be because after Juliette is treated for her issues, she wants joint custody and Avery doesn't trust her enough to agree to that. 

 

Part of me thinks Juliet wouldn't fight for custody right now, but part of me thinks she might do it for show.  She's been beaten up by the press a lot in the past, but seems to be doing better now.  She wouldn't want to sabotage that by being called an absentee parent in the tabloids.  She dragged Avery and Cadence to that event when she heard there was talk of her not seeing them.

[Clanstarling]

I thought all of the storylines were well served in this episode, the Rayna-Teddy scenes with the girls in particular. The showrunners need to give Eric Close meatier storylines. He was so good in the prison visit scenes.

I know. I thought it was the best scene he'd been given in the entire series, and he knocked it out of the park.

 

Why does that baby cry all the time?  I guess so they can drag out Juliette's lullaby and make people think she ever gave a hoot about the kid.  

I wondered if they'd put out a special casting call for a baby with colic. That child was so clearly in distress most of the time, I had a hard time watching it - and not just from mommy flashbacks. Maybe that's why it seemed to be a different baby - they needed one with a different temperament (at least that's better than thinking they somehow made the baby cry.) She seemed to calm down with the actor who plays Gunnar - but whether that was luck, or whether he's just good with kids, who knows?

 

I can't believe there was not one person at the bar with a cell Phone recording Juliette.

There was at least one, someone was holding their phone up horizontally while Juliette was singing. I noticed it and figured it would come up again sometime.

[Bringonthedrama]

. As crappy as she has been, Juliette is not at heart an evil person. 

No, but she is a jealous and vindictive one. I think it would absolutely be in character for her to see the paparazzi shot of Emily with Avery and Cadence and react both with that nasty phone call to Emily and by suing for full custody of Cadence (then turning her over to a nanny) to hurt Avery for her own perception that he's getting over her and 'moving on with Emily.' I could totally see her doing that after -maybe -finding the divorce paperwork and saying hey, here's my proof that you're done with me and you want Emily. Well fine, you can have her but you can't have my daughter.

[MaryMitch]

Here is a FAQ about child custody issues in Tennessee:
http://cordellcordell.com/resources/tennessee/tennessee-child-custody-questions/
 

Do courts favor the mother over the father?
No, in Tennessee gender is not a factor in awarding custody. In years past, the court favored awarding mother custody if the children were of tender years. However, the “tender years presumption” no longer exists in Tennessee.

Of course, this is a television show, so anything goes I guess.

[Sandman]

I think the lawyer wasn't talking about legal presumptions as much as ingrained bias; gender may not officially be a factor in deciding custody, but judges are sometimes still reluctant, in many jurisdictions, to award custody away from mothers.

Edited October 12, 2015 by Sandman

[tennisgurl]

Random note: I got super excited to see them in Indianapolis, my home town! They actually used real places too! We never get mentioned on TV, so I got really dorkishly excited. 

 

As to the episode, I thought the actors did a great job this week. It actually makes me wish that they had given Teddy more to do, other than his random shady plots. I am also glad Rayna acknowledged that he was a good father and husband. That was just a really nice scene. 

 

I don't think Avery will officially divorce Juliette. I think she is going to come back to her senses, either when it hits the press that she has become a deadbeat mom, or that she hits some kind of rock bottom. I hope it happens soon though. 

[kassa]

Part of me thinks Juliet wouldn't fight for custody right now, but part of me thinks she might do it for show.

 

 

Oh, yeah.  She knew exactly how to play the "I'm so sad being away from my husband and child" card to the press, No way is she going to roll over and be painted as a deadbeat/crazy.  She will join WiIl in the frozen tundra of corporate country music if she has a baby and walks away from it within weeks of birth, signing it over to the father without a backwards glance.  

 

Now, they COULD use it as a storyline where she reveals her brave struggle with PPD to the national media, telling how her cruel husband used that opportunity to seize their child, all the while not REALLY dealing with it at all, taking Cadence, storing her with a nanny, etc.

 

Might take some effort, though, and not the sort of complete plotline you could play through in 25 mins, which is about the average plotline length lately.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I have no words for the Scarlet/Deacon situation because I didn't like the mother at all.  I'm kind of shocked that Scarlet was so emotional over her death given the way she treated her for her whole life.  Deacon definitely does feel guilty.  Scarlet was right to pull the plug.

I get Scarlett being emotional over her mother's death. Having a difficult relationship makes dealing with a death really complicated. When it's someone you have a good relationship, you miss them and you're sad about their death. When it's someone you have a difficult relationship with, you miss them and you're sad but you're also still angry about the bad parts of the relationship and then guilty about feeling angry.

 

Adding to the guilt is the fact that Beverly apologized for being a terrible parent right before her aneurysm so they were just beginning to repair their relationship and now Scarlett will never be able to have the happy loving relationship that she always wanted to have with Beverly. Despite all the things that Scarlett's mother did to her, Scarlett is still the little girl who wants her mother's love and approval. It makes me sad that now that Beverly is gone, Scarlett will be stuck with so many kinds of guilt (not just for being the one to decide to pull the plug but also for feeling guilty that she "wasted" so much time being angry with her abusive bitch of a mother).

 

I get what Dr. Boyfriend said to Scarlett about how this had to be her decision, but if he had followed it up with some version of what Gunnar then she wouldn't have been so upset with him. I do sympathize with him though because he was trying to both be a boyfriend and be a doctor who was asked a difficult question that wasn't his to answer.

 

I understand Deacon's guilt as well as being upset with Scarlett's decision, but I agreed with Rayna that he should have been there to say goodbye to Beverly. That's just one more thing to put on his list of things to torture himself with and berate himself for.

 

Gunnar's creepy stalking bothered me the previous week but this week I appreciated that instead of trying to push his romantic agenda onto her or use this as a way to get close to her, he was just trying to be there for her at a difficult time. I had a similar situation where a close friend and I had a pretty significant falling out but when his dad became very sick (and very unexpectedly), I called him immediately to see how he was doing. When shit happens, you put a lot of that other stuff aside because it pales in significance. The Gunnar who talked to Scarlett at the hospital was the kind supportive Gunnar from S1 who listened to her, not the Gunnar we've been seeing lately.

 

Since Gunnar became Sad Sack Gunnar and Creepy Stalker Gunnar, I have only enjoyed him with Will and Avery. This week did not disappoint with his baby juggling pancake making morning.

 

I loved Rayna going Tami Taylor on Daphne when she asked if Daphne wanted to tell her what happened and Daphne said no. Do not sass Tami Taylor, especially when you just got suspended!

 

As predictable as Daphne's storyline was this week (getting into a fight with a girl who was talking smack about her dad, embracing Teddy and then hating him all in one scene, and then forgiving him later), it was really nice to see her get some material other than "Maddie's little sister."

 

I'm not interested in a whole season of Cadence crying, but I get why the writers want to show her crying all the time so that we see how frustrating it is for Avery to deal with alone.