Nashville “Nobody Knows But Me” and “The Storm Has Just Begun” 

A ton has gone down in Music City! I watched these last two episodes of Nashville back to back because life really got in the way of my TV watching over the past couple weeks. I am sorry my priorities were so out of whack! But I have to say that watching two episodes in a row was pretty great. I really prefer to binge my favorite shows. Confession: last year I watched all seven seasons of The West Wing over a couple of months. You know what—when I do the math on that, that’s just embarrassing. Don’t tell my mom how many hours I spent in front of the TV in April/May 2014.

But anyway, back to Nashville. Christina Aguilera heats things up right off the top with her guest starring role as Jade St. John, the Queen of Pop. Layla decides she wants to open for Jade’s Nashville arena show and asks her manager/lover to make it happen. But the backstory is that Jade was someone Jeff used to know. Although he doesn’t want to see his former fiancé, Jeff sucks it up and agrees to the ask. Jade decides to use the opportunity to get something out of Jeff and asks that he set up a meeting between herself and the King of Country, Luke Wheeler. Are we about to see the merging of two music heads of state? Yeehaw!

The mayor of Nashville (or wannabe Kingpin), Teddy Conrad, has fully escalated his plan to embezzle money from the city in order to pay off hooker Natasha who is being investigated by the FBI. Because you know what makes perfect sense? Stealing $500K from your constituents to give to your call girl girlfriend who you know is being investigated by the FBI even when you know that they were already watching her WHEN YOU WENT TO HER HOUSE. OMG, Teddy. You slay me! As I suspected early on (yea, from the very MOMENT we found out Natasha gets paid to do the wild thing), a wiretap was taped to our gal and the feds see the whole briefcase full of dollars get passed off in the no-tell motel. Teddy managed to make it thru his huge “Note by Note” fundraiser (I kept waiting for the cops to bust in in front of everyone in Nashville), but when he tucked sweet Daphne in for the night and she asked to move in with her dad permanently, I thought UH OH. Sorry, Daph—daddy’s going to prison just like Grandpa.

Over at Juliette & Avery’s house, baby Cadence has arrived and motherhood is just as overwhelming for Juliette as it is for, well, for anyone who has had a baby ever. Avery’s band is taking off and she feels like everything has stalled for her. Add some post-partum hormones to that and you have the old Juliette back! When she figures out she can throw money at her problems, she hires a nanny behind Avery’s back and takes off for Los Angeles to do a little work on the Patsy Cline movie. When she comes home, she finds out Daddy fired the nanny and called in for reinforcements—her mother-in-law. Avery’s mother turns out to be more of an ally to Juliette than I expected, telling Avery to communicate with his wife and see what’s happening from her perspective.

Will Lexington’s new love interest is a hot songwriter with a constant five o’clock shadow. For the first time, Will steps out of the closet and seems to be looking for a relationship instead of just a hook-up! The question is how long until this up and coming sex symbol of country music is outed to all his screaming female fans? And if he is, how will conservative country music react to the news? I think we may find out before the end of this season.

Over in Deacon and Rayna’s world, things have been a little shaky since they told the girls about his liver cancer. Maddie has been particularly standoffish. But it turns out she is really just going full teenager, and hiding her budding relationship with Kolt Wheeler from her mom. Rayna sees the two kissing at school and finds out the two almost step-siblings have been hanging out at the ranch. Furious, Rayna confronts Maddie about her deception and grounds her. As a result, Maddie cancels her date with Kolt for the Jade St. John concert, and Luke decides to tag along with his son instead. Lucky for Jade! Luke had turned Jeff down when he asked him to meet Jade, but Jade was kind enough to let Layla open her show anyway. When Luke sees the sultry Jade St. John on stage, he changes his mind and with that I think we will be seeing more of Xtina on Nashville.

Fast forward a couple of days, and anyone who is anyone is going to the mayor’s “Note by Note: Music in Education” fundraiser. Luke Wheeler shows up on the Red Carpet with Jade St. John on his arm, and when a hormonal Juliette sees her, she reverts right back to her old catty self. Deacon, Rayna and the girls get to the fundraiser, and right before they find their table, Deke gets a call from his oncologist (and Scarlett’s new beau) saying they’ve matched him to a liver. The whole episode is a roller coaster of emotions for the family, but ultimately, Deacon doesn’t get the transplant because the donor had cancerous lesions.

Back at the fundraiser, Juliette is on edge because she’s been promised that her label will bid high enough for her to perform, and she’s counting on this to somehow be her “comeback.” Clearly, hormones are ruling her brain right now. She’s rude to every female she comes across, including Jade St. John. Juliette poked the wrong bear because the Queen of Pop has money to spend; Jade outbids the label and pays $500,000 to have Layla Grant sing instead of Juliette. A furious Juliette later humiliates herself in her attempt to ridicule Jade. Why must the ladies always compete with each other? Where’s the sister love? At least the cattiness got some cha-ching for charity.

A crushed Jade, feeling pretty rejected by country music, has one country friend in Luke Wheeler, who takes her to the Blue Bird Café. There she performs a cover of one of Luke’s songs in front of a live audience. Of course, she nails it, and when Luke walks her back to her hotel, he takes it upon himself to kiss and make up with Jade on behalf of all country music.

On this next Wednesday’s episode, it seems Jade St. John is heating things up even more with Luke Wheeler and all of Music City is feeling it too. Who knows what will happen with Deacon and Luke’s tenuous truce when their teenagers’ round what appears to be third base! Oh please don’t let it be a home run. The mother in me can’t deal with that!

Nashville airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on ABC.