Marcus Keen makes demands on Rayna as she struggles to tend to those around her. Layla and Jeff get into a lover's quarrel. Jeff arranges for a journalist to shadow Juliette on tour, but after another emotional setback, she leans on pills and alcohol to get through her days. Zoey returns to see Scarlett.
"The Slender Threads That Bind Us Here" goes through the mourning stage of Beverly's death. Her passing was needlessly dragged out this season. The characters are just now dealing with life without her in it. And yet, she wasn't that important of a character except in the abstract. She was the crazy mom and sister who rolled into town once a season to create chaos. She did the right thing by donating her liver. The family did great along during her final moments of life. But now, the story has gone into being pure soap. It's creating a conflict between Scarlett and Deacon. They are both lingering on this emotional decision and the devastation that happened afterwards. They both have people to rely on. But this kind of emotional turmoil can't really be dragged out in an entertaining way. Here, it's already kind of stretching the limits of what's entertaining and compelling to see with the characters.Deacon and Scarlett have always been close. They have always been there for each other no matter what. That makes this story feel especially story driven in order to create the highest amount of drama possible. The show has always struggled with Deacon's over-the-top and melodramatic reaction to things. At times that works very well. Him not being able to get through his eulogy was actually very heartbreaking. But him continuing to be angry at Scarlett just doesn't feel that great. Plus, he reacts by breaking a lot of objects at his house. That shows how frustrated he is but it doesn't create a compelling character study. It's just him lashing out in a way that can't be seen by other characters - though it ultimately is by Maddie. Scarlett internalizes a lot of her feelings. She does push away from Caleb a little bit because she can't listen to a doctor react to the situation. She needed a friend. She's lost her mother and her uncle. Of course, Deacon is only gone because he's mad at her. She still thinks she made the right call. She may not want to tour and handle music right now. But she's willing to try to move on. Deacon just wants to mope around in this moment. Watching him contemplate taking a drink again has stopped being interesting. The show needs to stop just going there just in order to establish the severity of the stakes in the story.
Rayna really isn't allowed a lot of time to mourn. She is hurting from Beverly's passing too. But she is focused on taking care of Deacon as well as making sure a performance at the Opry goes off without a hitch. She is thrown off by the sudden arrival of Markus Keen. She made such a big deal out of getting him on the label in the first place. But now isn't the best time for her to be dealing with him - which makes it the perfect time for the show to bring him back. He complicates her life in a way that he isn't immediately aware of. He has put his trust in her and her passion for the business. And now that the two of them are working together, he inserts himself without a lot of care of the people he is stepping over. It's kinda ridiculous seeing how little he cares about Layla. The episode only makes it okay for him to step into her spotlight because he later chooses Avery as his producer instead of one of the bigger names in the industry. That's just wonky plotting that seems erratic - which means Rayna may be regretting signing him very soon.
It's also very laughable just how upset Layla gets when Markus steals the spotlight from her. Her arc this season seems to be getting cast aside in order to fulfill the needs of bigger stars. She is an artist that Rayna cares about a lot. And yet, she keeps getting upstaged by more pressing matters. That is starting to get to her in a way that feels slightly immature. From what little the audience sees of it, she has a solid performance as her Opry debut. Everyone is proud of the show she just did. But then, Markus steps on her spirit which sends her spiraling. It all ultimately boils down to her not liking that she has to keep her relationship with Jeff a secret. That story isn't that great. Jeff isn't as bad as he used to be. But he's still not a character who shouldn't be happy in a relationship right now. Right now, he is just trying to do his best for his two clients. That's simpler than the role he was in previously. But it still doesn't feel all that compelling once they do kiss in a public. In fact, it plays as just another scandal that Rayna will have to deal with or risk losing all credibility with her label. That could be interesting but only because it effects Rayna.
And then, there is Juliette who is continuing to become self-destructive. She's starting to go past the point of no return. This story has been compelling in the past. But now, it's getting more and more tragic which makes it play somewhat more repetitively. She's no longer having fun while on the road. Right now, she's abusing drugs and alcohol to not feel anything at all. That creates a situation where once again she yells at Emily for no concrete reason whatsoever and ultimately pushes Avery into declaring that things really are over. Avery has been saying that this entire season. And yet, he keeps finding new hope that one day Juliette will return and everything will be alright with their lives again. That's not going to happen though because the darkness is only taken more and more of Juliette with each passing episode. How much further is she going to go before something big happens. She needs help. The show can't just keep pushing her down. There's only so much farther she can go. Something needs to happen to shake this story up. It needs to happen as soon as possible too.
Some more thoughts:
- "The Slender Threads That Bind Us Here" was written by Monica Macer and directed by Joanna Kerns.
- Layla is able to come to her senses a little bit thanks to a pep talk from Will. For once, the show remembered that they are apparently still friends even after getting that big divorce and public humiliation.
- It's also abundantly clear that Will will soon find his way to Highway 65. It's entirely because Rayna is the one person in country music business not afraid to take a picture with him.
- Zoey's return was completely unnecessary. She appeared solely to be someone Scarlett could talk to. Plus, it has been made painfully clear that Gunnar is still into Scarlett. It didn't need to be stated again by Zoey who accuses him of being in love with Scarlett the entire time they were together. It was just really bad.
- Markus isn't the type of person who can instantly recognize Avery as Juliette's baby daddy. There's just no way. That was way too ridiculous. And yet, it's still okay because he still chose him in the end.
- The Juliette story also featured a reporter following her around all day. It was suppose to make the situation tense because she was trying to get drugs while this person was around her constantly. And yet, all of that was for nothing because the article was still filled with sweet details about her stardom and nothing about her real life.
- Who else forgot that Maddie and Luke's son were still dating?
