Tonight on ABC Nashville starring Hayden Panettiere continues with an all new Wednesday December 3, season 3 episode 9 called, “Two Sides to Every Story,” and we have your weekly recap below for you. On tonight’s episode, Rayna [Connie Britton] does a Christmas show with Luke [Will Chase] and the kids from her home, but it takes an awkward turn when she invites Deacon [Charles Esten] to join them. Elsewhere, Winterfest brings lots of performance opportunities for folks; and Scarlett mentors Terry.
On the last episode, it was country music’s biggest night of the year at the 48th Annual CMA Awards in Nashville. Up for a total of 11 awards between them, Rayna and Luke’s evening began with an unfortunate hitch when Rayna stumbled upon Luke’s pre-nuptial agreement documents, causing for some friction between them. Later, Avery’s parents were in town for the show as Avery was nominated for a CMA Award. What should be a lovely reunion took a turn when Avery introduced them to Juliette. Meanwhile, Gunnar and Zoey’s relationship was tested and Deacon and Scarlett watched the awards from home. Did you watch the last episode? If you missed it, we have a full and detailed recap right here for you.
On tonight’s episode as per the ABC synopsis, “Rayna continues to pull out all stops in self-promotion, this time by agreeing to do a televised Christmas special from her home, for charity, with Luke and the children. When Rayna invites Deacon to join the filming, things get awkward fast – her magazine cover story has reverberations for her personal life. Meantime, it’s Nashville’s Winterfest, and Zoey, Gunnar and Avery have an opportunity to perform. With Scarlett’s coaching, Terry (Mykelti Williamson) sings for the crowd and blows them away but cannot handle the limelight. Will and Layla go to Winterfest and each find solace but separately.”
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!
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Rayna shoots a Toys for Tots PSA with Luke. They’re doing a Christmas special and the kids complain about the fake stuff in the fake house. Deacon puts up a sad Charlie Brown tree and tells Scarlett he has to go give Maddie a lesson. Zoey lies on the sofa conked out. Gunnar co-writes with Sadie and they exchange in mutual flattery. She tells him he should meet her manager Noel and offers an introduction. She asks him if he knows a cool producer. He nods.
Juliette waits for the doctor and goes to get Avery and hears him on a call that sounds like he’s setting up a date. He ends the call without explanation. Scarlett tells Zoey she has to wake up. She says she’s broken up and unemployed and has no reason to wake up. Zoey looks at terry’s heads hot and tells Scarlett maybe she can manage him too. She says she’s helped him a lot. Gunnar texts Zoey they have a band meeting.
The kids are in the Christmas special. They stop filming when Deacon shows up to see Maddie. He says the last time he saw her she was juggling six CMAs. He asks about the show and she says it was for charity and Luke wanted to do it. He asks to drop Maddie off a travel guitar tomorrow. He waves at Luke and heads to see Maddie.
Layla and Will come home and she says Gina texted that their ratings are higher than ever. They each have a beer and Layla says she’s tired of being us. He says he agrees and says there must be a place where no one cares who they are. Zoey comes by for the meeting and Gunnar says he didn’t cancel the Winterville gig and says he thinks they should play it. He says it may not be a one off and says Noel Laughlin wants to see them.
Avery is hesitant but Gunnar says his and Zoey’s break up doesn’t mean the band has to break up. Bucky shows up with an early copy of Rolling Stone. He says it’s mostly good – there’s no mention of Maddie’s antics but says they made a bigger deal of her relationship with Deacon. Rayna calls Deacon but he won’t get it and tells Scarlett she can’t either. Rayna leaves a message and asks him to call her before he reads the article. He has because it’s sitting on the counter in front of.
Deacon yells at Scarlett, tells her he’s 10 different kinds of pissed and says to leave him alone. Layla and Will are at Winterville walking around dressed like hipsters. He says none of this crowd will know them. They agree to split up, do their own thing then meet back later so they can enjoy their anonymity. Jeff’s assistant gives him Layla’s CD to listen to in the car on the way to Winterville but he says he’d rather ride in silence.
Terry is interviewed and says he’s there because of Scarlett. The reporter asks about him living on the street and asks why he was homeless for so wrong. He says he’s had some depression. The reporter asks about his family dying and Scarlett jumps in and ends the interview then tells the reporter she specifically asked her not to mention his family. Zoey shows up and finds Mikah with Gunnar. Mikah says he missed her and they hug.
Zoey asks Gunnar if he thinks they have a chance with Noel and he says yes. Juliette lurks outside of Avery’s place with Emily who calls her a stalker. He comes out and J slumps down in her seat. Emily says she’s putting his guitar in his car. He drives away and J tells her to follow. Guess that makes her a celebrity stalker. Will is drinking a beer and the bartender offers him a bourbon stout. He drinks it down and the bartender and his BF kiss. That gets Will’s attention.
Luke and Rayna are shooting their special and Luke asks her to give her phone a rest. He says the only thing worse than the Deacon story coming out two weeks before their wedding is her obsessing about it. She says she wished she never did that article. He tells her it was just business and says to let it go. Emily rents J a hover round and they cruise through Winterville. J says that is makes her even shorter than she already is.
Avery chats with Sophie and J walks. She says he’s with a skinny, gorgeous CMA winning musician. He thanks her for sending Noel. He tells her that he’ll still produce her and says nothing will distract her but then sees Emily and then Jo on a scooter. J back sup the scooter right through a tent then drives off dragging half of it. Avery says – Juliette? He comes over and asks why she’s following him. She says she’s there for the music.
She accuses him of being on a date. She says she heard him calling her hot and says that’s better than her being a big fat whatever she is. He tells her she just blew a deal with Sadie when he’s trying to provide for their child. Will talks to the gay bartender and asks how he can stay in a place that’s not accepting of his lifestyle. The guy says it’s not a lifestyle and says he’s mostly accepted and those that don’t accept him aren’t his problem.
Layla sings and plays a song in a tent at the fest. Jeff hears her singing but doesn’t know it’s her. He comes over and sees it’s her in her hipster disguise. He notices how the crowd is vibing on her. Her song finishes and everyone claps. Jeff comes over and tells her it was really good. He says he feels bad for being surprised by it and says he is.
Noel comes over to talk to Zoey, Avery and Gunnar. He compliments them and says there’s the makings of a huge band. He says he can put them on the road starting next week. Zoey and Gunnar snipe at each other and Avery tells them not to do this now. He walks off and says he’ll see them backstage. One of the PAs on the Christmas special asks Rayna to sign her Rolling Stone. Deacon shows up with the travel guitar for Maddie. He says he has to go and tells her Merry Christmas.
Rayna chases Deacon down and asks to explain. He asks how she can explain that he hung out 20 years of their dirty laundry. She says she traded their story to protect Maddie. He’s angry that she sold their private relationship to a magazine. He says he doesn’t know how she’s living her life this way. He walks out. Terry tells Scarlett he likes the small shows better. He’s nervous and Scarlett tells him he’s going to do great. He heads out.
He sings while she watches. Zoey rants to Gunnar and he says he can’t abandon Mikah and go on the road. She says he manipulated her to try and get her to play mom to his kid than music. She says she doesn’t want to be tied to his responsibilities. She walks off and says she won’t do the show with them. Rayna and Luke end their day of shooting. He goes to take a shower while she goes to check on the girls. Daphne burns herself baking cookies.
Rayna says she knows it’s a weird Christmas and says they’ll do it all in Australia. Daphne says you can’t bake cookies in a hotel room. Rayna says tomorrow they’ll bake cookies and dig out all their own Christmas stuff. Terry kills it on his set. Scarlett goes wild applauding him. He looks out at the crowd and then has a panic attack. He runs into the crowd and Scarlett goes running after him.
Rayna puts the girls to bed and says they were breaking cookies. She says they’re not doing well with the idea of being away from home for Christmas. He says his kids do fine traveling to different places all the time. He reminds her the honeymoon tour was her idea and says they committed to dates and have sold tickets. He tells her he loves her and has been trying to navigate her difficult past with Deacon. He says they have to get past them.
She says she needs to go talk to Deacon to make it right and he tells her to do what she has to do. Scarlett finds Zoey and asks if she’s seen Terry. Scarlett begs her to help her find Terry then she’ll take her home. Zoey says she doesn’t have a home. Zoey says she’s getting a home. Jeff and Layla bond over shared Joni Mitchell music. She asks him to play her something after he says he tried music himself. He strums the guitar for her.
Scarlett finds Terry drinking with some bums and asks if he’s all right. He calls her a little pixie and says he belongs there. She says feeling good makes him feel bad. He says she doesn’t know what it’s like to be him. She says his family wouldn’t want him to be afraid of being happy. He tells her she’s the one that’s afraid and that she really wants to be on stage. She cries. He calls her a coward and tells her to go on. She runs off.
Gunnar and Avery try to figure out how to cover the set. Scarlett tells them she can fill in for Zoey. They ask if she wants to and she says she does. J calls Sophie over and tells her she hopes what happened doesn’t affect her decision to use Avery. J tells her she’s a fool if she doesn’t let him produce her album. Sadie says she doesn’t want it to get weird. J says her hormones went crazy earlier. She says it’s the best move for both their careers and she’ll stay out of the way.
She says she and Avery are just friends now. Will comes over and helps the gay dude carry a keg. He loses his balance and falls over. Will tries to kiss him and offers a little hook up. The guy says he’s in a relationship. He tells Will that there should be more to it than that. Will says if he knew who he was he would know it wasn’t possible.
Scarlett is having a little panic attack but once the music starts, she sings just fine. It goes great. Zoey hears the song across the lawn and sees Scarlett singing in her place on one of the large screens. Terry tells the other street dudes to go on ahead and says he wants to hear Scarlett sing. Scarlett laughs – she’s fine now. Will calls Layla and gets her voice mail. He says he can’t find her so he’s heading home.
Layla tells Jeff not to give up on being a serious musician. He says it won’t happen for him but says she still can be. He offers her a ride home and she says everyone sees he as the girl curious about robot voice. He says he doesn’t any more. Rayna comes to explain to Deacon why she had to do it. He says he was upset because what she said was true. He says he’s never let her go because he loves her and that’s it – he says he always has and it won’t change.
She says the article was a good thing. She says it needed to be said. She says she’s moved on and he has to as well. She walks away. Rayna comes home and tells Luke that she spoke to Deacon. She says it wasn’t great and he says that doesn’t surprise him. He seems relieved. Mikah plays the drums badly when Gunnar gets a call from Noel. He says he was blown away by them. Noel says he’s better with Scarlett in the group and says he can make them huge if they can hit the road.
Gunnar says he can’t go on the road right now because he has family to take care of. Avery goes to tell J thanks because he got the gig with Sadie. She says putting in a good word was the least she could do. He says it’s okay but she says it’s not. She says he’s going to date people and knows that it’s inevitable and she’ll try to handle it better like a real friend should. He says it was kind of cute that she was so jealous. She says it was cute that he stopped by instead of calling.
Luke and Rayna are shooting the end of their Christmas special. Luke says Johnny Cash and June did a Christmas special every day. Will wakes to see Layla isn’t in their bad. She’s in Jeff’s spooning him. Zoey heads to LA. Deacon restrings his guitar and looks at the Rayna sticker on his guitar case. He peels it off. They wrap the Christmas special. Rayna watches as they break the set on the fake Christmas stuff.
The End!
