Nashville - Leap Of Faith - Review

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  SEASON GUIDE
  
  5.01 "The Wayfaring Stranger"
  5.02 "Back In Baby’s Arms"
  5.03 "Let’s Put It Back Together Again"
  5.04 "Leap of Faith"
  5.05 "Love Hurts"
  
  

Rather than a review, this will be more a list of my ramblings & some short thoughts on the episodes.

— Oh Will. I was pretty upset with him after the season premiere and he still behaved like a jerk in Leap of Faith but I think I get what the intention was behind this sloppily done break-up. Will just isn’t in the right point in his life to be in a relationship. It hasn’t been all that long since he came out, so he hasn’t really had a chance to live as a gay man and experience everything that entails.

He is insecure about what he wants and that is absolutely okay but lying about it and stringing Kevin along just completely overshadows Will’s confusion and undermines the impact Kevin has had on his life. This break-up should have been approached differently and the relationship should have been treated with more respect; Will and Kevin should have split amicably, leaving the door open for Kevin’s eventual return.

But instead, Will is antagonized and turn into someone who hides from his boyfriend when he comes knocking on the door. I mean, how pathetic was Will that scene? And then he doesn’t even have the common sense to put his phone on silence. Here’s hoping this newly-found singledom will bring back the Will we have come to know and love.

— Juliette starts her physical therapy which in itself is a grueling undertaking and an even harder one since she can’t alleviate the pain with medication. Although her doctor says she can take the pain meds she still doesn’t. And it’s not just due to her history of drug abuse but also to regain a modicum of control over her own life. She’s always been a very independent person and someone who didn’t like relying on others.

She is in a very precarious situation right now and doesn’t like that, so she takes matters into her own hands by strapping into a device she isn’t ready for or cancelling her psych appointments to focus on the physical aspect of her recovery which will probably just end up slowing her down rather than accelerate the progress she makes, especially now that she is showing first signs of PTSD.

So as much as she doesn’t wanna admit it, she needs help. She is lost and broken and needs someone in her corner she can rely on. I expected her to reach out to God but was not prepared for how much she did the same with Avery. Not only did she finally open up to him but they also reunited as a couple which I was sure wouldn’t happen for at least a few more episodes. But I’m glad I was wrong and that Juliette broke her habit of pushing people away.

— Not much progress was made on the stalker subplot. For now, we can rest easy, or at least I can rest easy, that Maddie is not the target after all which seemed like a possibility when Randall took that keepsake from Rayna’s desk last week. I think we can also remove Zach from the pool of suspects.

The show is trying to make it look like he is the stalker with Rayna receiving a call from "Unknown" the moment she opens the letter and with Zach mostly behaving like an overzealous and excitable boy with a shitload of money but I still think its Randall. Also, did anyone pause to read that letter? There was a lot of crazy going on in there. I’m probably starting to sound like a broken record but this is not going to end well.

— Does anyone else feel like Zach is almost too good to be true? Maybe watching thousands of TV episodes has conditioned me to immediately doubt characters like him. I mean, there’s gotta be a catch with him, right?

— That Damien George is quite a character. His pitch for the music video was so out of touch with the song. I pretty much had the same horrified look on my face as Scarlett.

— Weekly Daphne Watch: Nowhere to be found in this episode.

— How great are the songs this season? Will’s "Burn To Dark" was so beautifully somber. I'm totally on board with accompanying the montages at the end of each episode with an original song.

Thanks for reading my review and feel free to share your
own thoughts about the episodes in the comments below!