It is Christmas time on Nashville and Rayna and Luke are doing a Holiday commercial for toys for tots. It looks like a circus and Rayna does not seem to be having a whole lot of fun while doing it, but Luke sure is. While back at Deacon’s house he has a charlie brown looking Christmas tree, but Scarlet says it is beautiful. Meanwhile Gunnar the subject of some of the heat break going on is working on a rewrite with Rayna’s new girl and she even brings up needing a fresh new producer he of course calls Avery. The bad news is that Juliette overhears it and clearly takes it the wrong way.
Scarlett finally gets Zoey up and Gunnar texts about the band playing a gig, awkward. Deacon in the meantime, heads over to Rayna’s and seems overwhelmed by the Holiday cheer going on around there but Rayna seems very happy to have him there for Maddie and he is happy to be there. Luke and he at least manage not kick each other or something. Layla and Will are getting along seems the promotion and the TV show has brought them together more then being actually married did.
Band meeting seems to be going okay in an awkward sort of way Gunnar is insistent that the band doesn’t break up while Avery looks not so sure. Rayna gets some bad news while they are doing the shoot because of how the Rolling Stone article comes out and sounds, the next morning she is calling Deacon over and over again he is clearly angry and we see that he has clearly already read it. Will and Layla get some hipster looking clothes on and head down to east Nashville, turns out that is just what they needed the festival is going well and the one person who does approach is asking about the beanie she has on. Scarlet is doing very well managing Terrance especially when an interviewer pushes too hard about his family something that she was not supposed to do.
Juliette is having a stalker issue all dressed up like a 40’s looking Lady trying to be a spy because she wants to know what Avery is doing. It is kind of laughable that he did not notice their big car sitting there and he knows what Emily looks like. Rayne and Luke are still filming while Luke looks uncomfortable with how much she is trying to contact Deacon. While at the music festival, Juliette gets herself a little buggy and follows Avery she seems to be pulling it off until he looks over and sees her. Of course she ends up reversing and going into a stand of wind chimes sending them over and causing a bit of a ruckus and possibly ruining the opportunity that Avery had because Sadie ran off.
Layla has quite the audience around her singing some of her new stuff that is not bubble gum and no one knows who she is when Jeff overhears it. He even manages to give her a compliment, saying he feels bad for being surprised but he is surprised at how good it is. The three band mates are preparing to go on stage when the manager they were excited to see arrives and says he can make them the next Lady A, unfortunately they have a little bit of an ex’s argument going on.
Deacon finally shows up to give Maddie a guitar and is about to run out, but Rayna catches up to him. She tries to explain to him why she gave them what she did that it was to save Maddie. He seems to accept it on some level, but he is still angry and he lets her know that he thinks how she is living her life currently really sucks as he leaves. Once the production team leaves Rayna’s the kids get a bit of a burn while baking cookies and she gets to see how much that it is affecting them too all these big changes and everything. Luke seems to brush Rayna’s concerns about the kids being unhappy about Australia for the Holidays. She asks for Luke’s forgiveness as she goes to talk to Deacon to try to make it right, but he says you do what you gotta do.
Scarlet gets Terrance out on stage and it is fun to watch him woo the crowd. It is a great moment until he songs ends. When the song ends and the crowd is going crazy but he runs off the stage, he is overwhelmed and having flashbacks of the family. When Scarlet runs into Zoey she tries to get her help to find Terrance but Zoey has a fit at her and storms off. Looks like everyone is having meltdowns for Christmas. Scarlet finally finds Terrance, he is drinking and has been since he ran off, he also has a massive meltdown at her. He calls her a coward and basically chases her off so he remains with the bums and the drinking. When she runs off she goes to Gunnar and Avery saying that she will fill in because she knows all of the songs. Big step for her!
Sadie and Juliette have a meeting and Juliette is trying to help convince Sadie that she really does need to work with Avery. She assures Sadie that she is going to stay out of the way and says how wrong, she was and that she was sorry. A very drunk Will goes about trying to help the guy who got him drunk with his kegs and he ends up falling, when the guy helps him up he tries to kiss him. The guy says no , Will tells him it’s no big deal, but the guy reminds him that he is in a relationship and there is more to it than anonymous hookups.
Scarlet is nervous when they first hit the stage, but thanks to the support of Avery and Gunnar on either side of her she starts to smile and get comfortable. Scarlet has found the enjoyment of music and playing again and it shows on her face. Zoey is leaving when she hears the music and turns to look seeing what is going on. Not only does it catch her attention,but it catches Terrance’s attention too. She is not a coward.
Will is looking for Layla, but he heads off home because Layla is with Jeff the bright side for her is that he is interested in helping her get her career going on a better path. Rayna goes to Deacon and explains some more, Deacon confesses that the reason he got so mad about the article was because it was true. He can’t let go and he still has not let go. Rayna tells him again that she has moved on and she is getting married and he has to move on too. When she gets back home Luke seems rather relieved that things did not go well with the conversation.
Gunnar gets a call from the big manager that he wants. He turns down the big offer because of his Son, hopefully his other two band mates don’t disagree with that. Avery stops by to thank Juliette for the good word she put in with Sadie because he got the job. Avery confesses that he thought it was kind of cute she got so jealous while she thinks its cute he came up with an excuse to come over. Maybe things will work out for them.
While Rayna and Luke sing it’s cold outside we see Layla never made it home,she instead spent the night with Jeff. Zoey is off to LA to start a new life and Deacon rips off a picture of Rayna from his guitar case. It was a drama packed episode that is one way to spend the lead into Christmas.
