Nashville - Let’s Put It Back Together Again - 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.

— I’m so excited about where they are taking Avery. They weren't kidding when they said that there were going back to the musical roots of the show. When we first met Avery he was an aspiring artist who only cared about becoming famous, so much so that he became involved with an older woman for the sole purpose of furthering his career. Since then he has evolved into a completely different man.
Now, he's compassionate and caring, he has a family and is a kind soul rather than the brash jerk from the first season. I felt so bad for him when he was trying to get through to Ashley and hit a dead end but good for him for taking none of her bullshit and getting the hell out of there. At the end of the episode, Avery puts pen to paper which means it's only a matter of time until we hear a new song from him and maybe even a duet with Juliette? I sure hope so.

— Juliette finally meets Hallie who is one of the three new characters we meet in this episode. As soon as I saw Hallie get in her old car I knew where this was headed. Juliette might have been well intentioned but the decision to buy Hallie a car was ill-advised because it just made a wrong impression. It made Juliette look like someone who thinks that money is the solution to everything. But that little mishap was quickly made up for during their second encounter when Juliette opens up and Hayden Panattiere gets to show off her powerhouse acting chops.
It’s heartbreaking seeing Juliette admit that she doesn’t feel she deserves to get better. What makes it even more powerful is that her thoughts aren’t fully fueled by survivor’s guilt but are informed by her history of being a horrible, selfish and ego-centric person. Just like Avery, she has come a long way from the person she used to be when the show started and to quote her beautifully sung song at the end: She might have a long road ahead of her but with her newly found hope and friend, she’s on her way.

— Maddie takes center stage this episode in what I hope is only the beginning of her character makeover. Not only does she receive a new love interest in Clay but "Let’s Put It Back Together" also introduces a more annoying and less talented version of her in the form of Ashley who is a self-aggrandizing "influencer", whatever the hell that means. Maddie might have been out of place snapping at her but it wasn’t entirely undeserved; But that moment wasn’t so much about how Ashley was treating her as it was about Maddie projecting her frustrations about not being able to record music.
When she wasn’t with Clay, Maddie was her usual grating self throughout most of the episode and it wasn't until the very end when she apologized to Deacon for all the shit she pulled last season that her character starts to take a turn for the better. I’m actually looking forward to what they will do with Maddie, now that she presumably won’t be written as a rebellious teenager anymore.

— Yikes, the stalker storyline hasn’t even properly begun yet and I’m already terrified for Rayna and now Maddie. When Randall took the box with Maddie’s picture on it, I cringed so hard, I could feel it in the base of my throat. This is not gonna end well and I want this to be over with. Maybe I’m reading too much into this but I really, really hope they don’t turn Maddie into a victim, just so the audience sympathises with her.

— Weekly Daphne Watch: Still no own storyline in sight! But I loved her telling Maddie she is becoming a bitch.

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For an episode that features Maddie a lot, "Let’s Put It Back Together Again" turned out surprisingly good as it did some long overdue course-correcting. The new characters breathe new life into the show and most importantly, Juliette and Avery find their way back to music.

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