NASHVILLE continues on ABC tonight with a whole new episode finally after a long hiatus. Tonight’s episode is called, “I’ll Keep Climbing.” On tonight’s season 2 episode 11 Kelly Clarkson guest stars as herself. Someone lives, someone dies, Juliette is under fire and Rayna is under increased pressure to succeed with Highway 65. Did you watch the last episode before the break? We did and we recapped it here for you!
On last episode before the hiatus Juliette was the main act at Teddy’s first annual Music City Festival, but the blowback by the fans and press over the Wentworths threw her for a loop and dragged down the event. She demanded that Glenn find out who leaked career-killing gossip to the tabloids so she could get ahead of the bad press by calling them out. Rayna was determined to buy herself out of her Edgehill contract once and for all, even though Tandy and Luke counseled otherwise. Should she risk all her assets on Highway 65? Deacon and Gunnar found themselves marginalized at the Festival and teamed up to to put on an unauthorized show, and Scarlett was freezing out Zoey and Gunnar but drawing closer to Avery.
On tonight’s show in the aftermath of the death of someone in their circle, lives are changed forever in the world of “Nashville,” and a new mystery arises. Kelly Clarkson guest stars as herself and makes Gunnar and Scarlett a once-in-a-lifetime offer. Juliette’s reputation takes another body blow as creative video editing seems to show her proclaiming there is no God, further fueling her detractors. Rayna’s bought herself out of Edgehill, but the the pressure to succeed is greater than ever, and Deacon struggles to write during his sobriety and relative stability and finds help from Maddie and Daphne.
Tonight’s episode looks like it is going to be great and you won’t want to miss it, so be sure to tune in for our live coverage of ABC’s Nashville at 10:00 PM EST! While you wait for our recap hit the comments and let us know what you think of Nashville, so far? Check out the sneak peek of tonight’s episode below!
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page for Updates
Juliette’s sings in a rehearsal. The police take Peggy’s body from the scene of the shooting. Rayna walks away with Teddy. They sit with their girls on the sofa grieving. Rayna lays in bed holding Daphne. Avery is there because it’s the song he wrote with Gunnar – he applauds her and she excuses herself awkwardly.
Teddy is holding a press conference about Peggy’s shooting and says the perpetrator killed himself and the shooting was intended for him. He says that the man blamed him for his chronic unemployment. Teddy struggles to regain his compusure. Rayna watches with the girls.
Avery waits for Juliette and says he wanted to check in with her. She says she’s been swamped. He tells her he’s been busy with his dirty glasses at the Blue Bird. Her new assistant is there (a former employee) and she’s all caught up and ready to go. Avery leaves.
Layla talks to Brent and he’s surprised to learn she hasn’t heard from Will since the concert and that she’s never met his roommate. He’s missed an appointment and Brent is concerned. She says she doesn’t know him that well. She goes to do the radio interview solo.
Deacon is talking to a producer who tells him the new material isn’t good enough – he tells him to tap into that emotional well he had when he wrote with Rayna. Deacon says he can do it.
Gunnar is writing and doesn’t get the door. Zoe is annoyed with him. Brent is there looking for Will and Gunnar says he’s not there. Brent tells them he missed an interview and he says no one has heard from him. Gunnar says he hasn’t seen him. Zoe asks if they need to call the cops and Brent says he’s probably overreacting. He says if he doesn’t turn up for the tour he’ll be dropped.
Scarlett is waiting for Avery when he comes in and he tells her the new song sounds good. She asks if Juliette came by about the song at 2 a.m. And he says he doesn’t know why stars do what they do. Scarlett gets a call from her publisher who tells her to sit down. She does but then stands back up in shock. They tell her Kelly Clarkson wants to record Fade Into You. She freaks and hugs on Avery.
Rayna talks to Tandy who is still at the spa and not coming home yet. Bucky tells her they’ve almost got the Highway 65 train rolling with the new website. He shows her a press release and news story about her breaking loose from Edgehill. Bucky says that they need to do some market research on what to release first and she says she has the material from Edgehill.
Juliette walks out and sees protestors picketing her over her rumored romance with Charlie. Her assistant asks if she wants her to call the police and J says they’re just exercising their first amendment rights and that she will too. She rolls down her window and gives them the finger.
Gunnar finds Will’s hat and says that means he wasn’t thinking straight. Zoe wants to check his search history but he stops her because he’s worried about “guy stuff” – aka gay stuff. They find a web search about Echo Ridge in the mountains.
Liam shows up to see Rayna and tries to kiss her but she tells him she’s dating Luke Wheeler. He says that why she’s looking miserable and she says actually it was the market research that has her down. He tells her to not second guess herself and trust the vision. He tosses the reports aside.
Deacon has writer’s block and is cleaning his piano and guzzling coffee when his GF Megan comes in. She has a gift for him and hands him something she picked up from a music store. It’s a special songwriting notebook. He tells her he missed her and she reciprocates. She says she doesn’t want to be a distraction but he’s already distracted.
Daphne and Maddie finds Teddy staring at some stuff of Peggy’s and they tell him it’s okay to show them he’s sad. They offer to cook dinner and Daphne goes to the kitchen. Maddie tells her dad that Peggy was nice.
Juliette finds Layla giving autographs to the protestors and yanks her away. One of the protestors tells Juliette that her mother is in hell and that’s where she will be too.
Gunnar finds Will’s bike parked in the Blue Ridge park that was on his search engine. He finds Will sitting and crying and yells at him not to take off without telling him. Gunnar asks if he’s all right and Will says he’s not and that he’s disgusting and runs off in tears.
[10:41:39 PM] Rachel Rowan: Scarlett comes looking for Gunnar but is rude to Zoe who tells her she’s done feeling guilty. She says she fell for Gunnar for the same reasons Scarlett did. Scarlett just walks away.
Juliette’s assistant gets a Google alert of her saying “There is no God.” Juliette says it’s out of context and they didn’t show the rest of her sentence. Her assistant goes to work on damage control.
Rayna and Bucky watch the Cadillac Three appreciatively. She cheers and tells them they’re great. She’s interested in them for her label and tells Bucky they’re good. He gets an alert that says her duet with Luke has hit #6 on iTunes. She tells him that the market research says there is no good single on the album but she says that she has to think about more than what she wants as an artist.
Gunnar sits freezing by the fire when Will finally comes back. He asks if it’s about Brent. Will doesn’t want to talk but Gunnar says he knows how he feels. Will asks if he knows what it feels like to want to kill yourself. He tells him about standing on the train tracks but how he couldn’t do it at the last moment.
He says he hates being what he is. Gunnar knocks him over and tells him to talk to him rather than thinking about offing himself. He tells Will that he is his friend and tells Will to look at him. He tells him promise that he will call him. Will promises.
Deacon works on a song. Megan brings him a sandwich and he refuses it. He gets snippy with her and tells her to stop bothering him. He tells her to quit being nice and that he’s not a kid doing homework and his work can’t be forced. She says she gets it and he says she doesn’t understand. He tells her she’s bugging the hell out of him and she walks out.
Gunnar tells Will it’s okay for him to be gay. Will says he can’t in his line of work. Gunnar says Will is too good to give up. Will says that something has to change and tells Gunnar to go on home. He says he’ll be fine out there alone.
Teddy calls in the detective that investigated Peggy’s shooting. The cop tells him not to dig into it and Teddy says that it doesn’t make sense. He says the guy lost his job five years ago and that he has only been Mayor for a year. Teddy is worried about his family in case it’s not over.
The protests are getting worse on Juliette and someone throws black paint on her when she’s headed into work. She was telling Glenn that she doesn’t understand why this is news and he drags her away from the angry crowds.
Gunnar tries to get cell signal on the mountain and finally hears the message from Scarlett about Kelly Clarkson. Will is surprise he’s still there and asks what the call was about. He tells him about Kelly and Will congratulates him. He throws his stuff into Gunnar’s truck and Will tells him he’ll see him later because he’s got to catch a plane for Pittsburgh.
Deacon gets a call from Joey the producer and he tells him he has a meeting in two days. Deacon says it’s perfect but he’s sitting outside a liquor store looking rough.
Juliette tells her assistant that the crowds hate her. She’s in shock. Avery calls and Juliette doesn’t take the call. Her assistant says they need the whole footage and J says they would accuse her of doctoring it. Juliette says that no one would believe her and she asks if they might believe Layla since she witnessed it.
Teddy tells Rayna that they may not be out of danger. He wants her to keep the girls so they aren’t at risk. He says the evidence doesn’t add up and they guy may not have been acting alone. She agrees.
Juliette has Layla over to her house and asks her to tell the media what she really said. Layla digs in and doesn’t want to help her. Layla asks why she would put her reputation on the line for her. Juliette reminds her it’s the truth and if the scandal doesn’t go away the tour will be done with and she says she’ll owe her one. Layla smiles.
Scarlett and Gunnar perform their song for Kelly Clarkson. They look at each other pretty intensely while they sing. Kelly is digging the performance. Seems like the lyrics really mean a lot to them. Kelly applauds and says it’s incredible. She asks if they have any more material. She asks if they would consider writing with her. She tells them they have a special connection and sound great together.
Kelly tells them they are lucky. She asks them to lock themselves away and write some more for her but Scarlett says she can’t work with Gunnar right now. Gunnar tries to smooth it over and Scarlett says she won’t get the kind of songs she would want from them right now and walks out. Gunnar tells Kelly it’s complicated.
asks where he went and he says he needed to get away and she asks if he means from her. He says no. Rayna talks to Liam and says she sent out the single to some associates and says that it’s not the single to launch the album. He tells her she’s playing it safe and she tells him she’s leveraged everything on this opportunity and she can’t make any mistakes. She says she has to think about her daughters first. Liam tells her she’s right and that she’s sexy when she’s right.
Scarlett tells Avery that she can’t work with Gunnar because she wants to punch his face. He thinks she still has feelings for Gunnar and she thinks he has feelings for Juliette but he denies it. She says they’re like old slippers and they tried to step back into their old relationship but they’re not the same. He agrees they’re not.
Gunnar rails to Zoe about the meeting with Kelly and he says he hoped he could be friends with Scarlett again. Zoe says it won’t happen and Gunnar tells Zoe he’s sorry. She says she’s not sorry because she loves him and Gunnar says he loves her too.
Megan comes over to talk to Deacon and he apologizes for being a jerk. She asks how it’s going and he says it’s not great. He says she’s partially to blame. He says that he was at the liquor store thinking a bottle might be the answer. He says he knows how to write songs from pain, chaos and heartache but the problem is he’s happy now and that’s her fault. He tells her because of her, Maddie and the music he’s happy and it will take some getting used to.
Layla tells Juliette her management team is against her speaking up on behalf of Juliette. Glenn tells her if they dump her that he’ll manage her himself. Layla tells the press conference that she has deep religious beliefs that she would never betray. She says the whole quote that Juliette actually said and J is relieved and says if they don’t believe Layla, J’s career is dead.
Rayna gets applause when she comes in and Bucky tells her that her duet with Luke hit number one. She says that Jeff must be thrilled. They also talk about Juliette’s gaffe. Bucky tells her to write a new single for the album and says she used to knock out great songs with Deacon fast.
Brent waits for Will and Will gets angry at him and say she doesn’t need him there minding him and that nothing will ever be the same again between them.
Rayna comes to pick up Maddie from Deacon and they play her a song they just wrote together in just 10 minutes. Maddie sings it for them and Deacon looks so proud. He sings with his daughter.
Scarlett comes to the tour bus and walks on alone.
Rayna is stunned by the song.
Teddy works late and stares at photos of his family and Peggy and bursts into tears and collapses into his chair crying.
Daphne joins in harmonizing with her sister and Deacon.
Avery calls Juliette and tells her he’s watching the stuff about her on TV and wants her to know he’s there for her if she wants to talk or come by anytime day or night.
Juliette watches a story about how the anger against her is growing and sees people burning her CDs and photos. She cries and closes her eyes.
THE END!
