Nashville Season 5 Episode 15 Review: A Change Would Do You Good
Tiffany Staton
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Changes are coming to Nashville.
Some are good and some are bad, but all are entertaining.
At least to me, Scarlett is definitely not impressed.
On Nashville Season 5 Episode 15, Highway 65 hired a Chief Strategy Officer, Hallie began her music career, Scarlett tried to move on from Damien and Maddie faced the consequences of last week's altercation.
First meet Alyssa Green, Highway 65's newest interim employee. You may recognize her as Summer Roberts from a little show called The O.C. She's back and just as cute as ever.
She's been hired to increase profits and find new revenue streams for the label. She has a very impressive resume and already has some ideas, but does anyone want to hear them? Not really.
She talks about writing songs for brands as an example. She even jokes that their first assignment is for toilet paper but nobody is amused. They're better than that; they're artists. Although, Avery reminding every one he used to write jingles was pretty hilarious. There is just nothing entitled about that man.
I've never worked in the music business, and I know zero about country music.
Alyssa Green
It's too soon to see who will resist Alyssa the most but it definitely won't be Will.
He was convinced in seconds when Zach childishly refused to tell him who called the label about him. The writers really aren't helping Zach win anyone over.
In this episode alone, he asked Will to convince his friends to go along with Zach's plans for the label, hired Alyssa without consulting Deacon, and manipulated Will into accepting a brand sponsorship.
Ok, it was just dinner, but still.
Why does he have to be so slimy about everything? He just never seems like he's being straight with anyone. He sure as hell doesn't listen to anyone or value their opinions. It's obvious he thinks he's the smartest guy in every room and maybe he is, but what gives him the right to act like that?
I honestly don't see what Will sees in him. I still don't even know how they got together because the writers didn't show us. All of a sudden they were just together.
Personally, I think Will needs to go back to playing the field. Isn't that why he broke up with Kevin in the first place?
Things are just going to get more complicated between them. That's why you're not supposed to mix business with pleasure. Deacon and Rayna barely made it work and they had like a hundred years of practice.
Speaking of mixing business with pleasure, Hallie has a lot more going on than we knew about.
She's involved with a married man for crying out loud!
True, we don't exactly know how intimate their relationship is. We know that she may be in love with him because Juliette thinks so but Hallie says it's more than that. He makes her feel safe. Sounds pretty serious to me.
Not only is he married but he also has kids!
I was very surprised to find Hallie in this situation. The show has always portrayed her as innocent and pure. It feels very true to life though because nobody is perfect, even if they appear so to the outside world. Nobody is immune to falling in love.
Life will deal you some strange hands.
Deacon
Juliette appears to like being a manager, because she officially has her second client -- Hallie.
Her voice is beautiful, but seriously, what are the odds? The woman who saves Juliette from a plane crash just happens to have an amazing voice and ends up signing with Highway 65? It's a little too coincidental if you ask me.
I know that people come to Nashville for the sole purpose of pursuing music so it makes sense that there would be great voices everywhere you turned, I just don't see Hallie as one of those people. Although to be fair, Juliette kind of forced her to do it.
Hallie performed at The Bluebird and her lyrics were telling. The song -- titled "Wrong Kind of Right" -- seems to be about her illicit affair. It's not bad though. It has a catchy blues feel to it.
Scarlett finally confided in someone about her feelings (or lack thereof) for Gunnar. It's no surprise that person was Deacon. He's gotten very good at doling out advice.
She doesn't understand why she can't just love Gunnar, especially when he's being so loving and committed and perfect. I still think it's the hormones combined with the mixed emotions of being in the position she's in. It honestly doesn't even feel like she's excited about the baby.
Which is fine, but she needs to figure out how she feels about that before she can figure out how she feels about Gunnar. Not to mention, how she feels about the father of the baby not being in its or her life. Her emotions are a mess, and although that's pretty normal for Scarlett, now it's actually understandable.
The rest of the episode focused on Maddie trying to deal with the fallout from her brush with law enforcement. She's in a very precarious situation that involves race and law enforcement. It's almost impossible to speak about it without pissing someone off.
You're like me. You're a survivor.
Juliette [to Maddie]
She got conflicting advice from all sides. The label wanted her to make a public apology. Deacon said he will support whatever she does. Juliette thought she had nothing to apologize for.
Bucky is the only one who took the time to explain her options to her. This is just more evidence (along with last week's talk with Deacon) of why he's still valuable to Highway 65.
He knows how to talk to people in a way that is honest and direct, but also compassionate and unbiased.
The music industry can be pretty unforgiving.
Bucky
I was worried Maddie would speak with the reporter who came by her work. He said all the right things, but you can't always trust the media. A lot of times they're just looking for quotes to supplement whatever version of your story will get the most views.
I was proud of the way she ultimately handled it -- going live on her own laptop with the help of her little sister. There was no right way to respond, no words that would make everyone happy, but it was a very mature, well thought out response. Rayna would have been proud.
Speaking of Daphne, she has some explaining to do.
In a moment of cluelessness, she agreed to let Liv post a meme of Maddie online. The meme involved the hash tag "White Girls Matter Too" and spawned a lot of hateful duplicates. She obviously didn't think though the decision to post it, but she'll still suffer the consequences, and Maddie's wrath, when it comes out.
Side notes:
- Love that Scarlett, Gunnar, Avery and Will went out for beers and shot pool together. Who knew Scarlett was such a shark!
- Was it weird or cute that Scarlett talked about her and Gunnar's sex life with Deacon? That's not a conversation I'd have with my uncle.
- Juliette had to sing the song she stole from Maddie right in front of her and she still nailed it. That probably doesn't say too much about her conscience.
- Will is being courted by Budweiser. Do we really believe they would want to be associated with a gay country singer?
- Clay packed up his car and left. Will he be back? I was really starting to like his character. He had so much potential!
If you missed this episode, you can always watch Nashville online via TV Fanatic.
Tiffany Staton is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.
