By Potes
The Rayna Jaymes/Juliette Barnes "Red Lips White Lies" tour has gone through two weeks of previews and is now ready to open in the big markets. Press tours happen and reporters are very curious to know about A) Juliette's status as a runaway bride; and B) how Rayna feels about playing without Deacon. We spend the episode exploring both questions. On the latter, it turns out that Rayna is having trouble with her new guitar player, just like she had trouble with the new guitar player before that. Stating that he has no idea what Rayna wants and she can't be pleased, the second new guitar player quits, just like the first new guitar player before him. Rayna cajoles Liam into doing three shows with her, even though he's there to record and isn't down with the idea of performing Rayna's old twangy hits. She thanks him with a pair of cowboy boots, and he repays the favor by telling her that she can't turn anyone else into Deacon and needs to get over her fear of being onstage without him. (In sum: he does not wear the boots.) In addition to this bit of truth-telling, Liam also tells Juliette to stick it when she hogs the sound check, making him essentially the best band member ever.
In other Rayna news, Teddy wins the election! Without Lamar even having to buy it for him! This all comes as a shock even to Teddy, I think. Despite heavy ambivalence, Rayna flies home for election night. The celebration is married by Cole's acceptance speech, in which he makes it clear how much he and his wife are in love, which is really the only thing that matters. This creates an awkward moment for Teddy and Rayna, who is probably thinking that it's going to be way harder to divorce Teddy now. After everyone has gone home, Peggy shows up at Teddy's… mayoral suite? just to tell him how happy she is for him and remind everyone that she's a creepy stalker. Still, Teddy almost kisses her. Almost.
And then there's Juliette. Sean hasn't signed the divorce papers that she had drawn up, because he wants an annulment. And neither Juliette's fake-sweet interview with CMT nor her stalker-esque showing up at one of his games will change his mind. Sean wants her to take responsibility for what she did, which was defiling his maidenhood. At the big "Red Lips White Lies" show, Juliette initially doesn't want to sing "Love Like Mine," but eventually does and somehow this convinces her to agree to the annulment, which entails admitting that she entered into the marriage fraudulently. She finally apologizes to Sean, telling him that she'd never be the wife he deserves. He agrees and also hates her, in part because the re-virginization process is going to be a bitch.
And then there's everybody else. The Revel Kings are playing a date in Austin, where Gunnar happens to be driving for rather suspicious-seeming reasons. Scarlett, oblivious to all of his hints that he'd like to fly solo on this one, invites herself to tag along so she can see Deacon and go to the show. It turns out that Gunnar has an older brother, Jason, who's just getting out of prison after eight years. Said older brother kind of raised Gunnar, and Gunnar was with him when he robbed a convenience store at gunpoint, but fled the scene. Gunnar then didn't visit Jason in the clink for the entire eight years, so Jason is a little peeved about that. Jason is a guitar player and singer too, and the brothers have great harmony on an old Merle Haggard number. Though Gunnar has made arrangements for Jason to go to a halfway house, Jason has other ideas. While Gunnar is out getting Chinese food, Jason hawks his guitar and uses the profits to buy a new gun. He takes off, leaving Gunnar to be even sadder than usual.
Meanwhile, Cy, the skeevy Revel Kings lead singer, is jealous of all the attention that Deacon is getting from both the press and the ladies. In response, he takes quite a shine to Scarlett, shuffling her off to a skeevy private party (while distracting Deacon by shoving him in the direction of a kid with a wheelchair). While Scarlett's looking at artwork, skeevy lead singer has the room cleared and starts getting VERY rapey with her. When Deacon realizes what's going on, he essentially turns into the Hulk, tearing through a giant security guard and Cy himself to ensure that Scarlett is unharmed. This gives him the perfect excuse to quit the band and/or be fired, depending on which way you look at it.
And then there's Avery. He's still sleeping with Marilyn, who thinks the deal that Dominic offered is a bad one. Avery goes to talk to Dominic on his own and is persuaded to believe his claim that the offer is standard by taking a drive in his sweet antique Mustang. The morning, Avery has signed the contract, gotten the sweet car as a signing bonus and told Marilynn where to put it. Methinks this is not going to end well.
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