The “Nashville” Season 3 finale didn’t deliver much good news. While Juliette (Hayden Panettiere) continued to be in denial about her postpartum depression, Will (Chris Carmack) wanted to deny his sexuality to the public. One person who couldn’t be in denial was Deacon (Charles Esten). He was finally getting his liver transplant, but it didn’t go smoothly.

Deacon was having dreams about death. He’d see himself flatlining on the table and being buried in the ground. It was really freaking him out, but he seemed to be happy around his sister Beverly (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson), who made the decision to donate her liver last week.

Beverly was considering staying in town after she finished surgery, and the idea obviously made Rayna (Connie Britton) uncomfortable. Beverly later told Rayna that the million-dollar check put her in a horrible position where she had to donate her liver. Either she would be the person who needed that much money to save her brother or the person who didn’t think a million dollars was enough to save her brother. Rayna bit her tongue and thanked her for deciding to help Deacon.

At the hospital right before surgery, Deacon proposed to Rayna. She knew he was just worried about dying. He told her about the dreams he kept having about dying. She said that he had to get through this, and they would spend the rest of their lives together. Yet, she wasn’t willing to have a quickie wedding in a hospital bed.

“But I will tell you this,” she said. “I, Rayna James, take you, Deacon Claybourne, to be my husband.” They exchanged vows, and even though it wasn’t legally official, Rayna told Deacon not to make her a widow. He might not be able to grant that wish.

While in surgery, a monitor was shown flatlining. Since both Beverly and Deacon were in the operating room at the same time, it wasn’t clear whose heart stopped.

“I have some bad news,” Caleb (Nick Jandl) told Rayna. Then the episode finished. We won’t know who died until the show returns for Season 4 in the fall.

While that was the end of Deacon’s story line in the “Nashville” Season 3 finale, plenty of other singers in Music City had their own drama. Juliette was still in denial about her postpartum depression. She made an album in 36 hours, but Rayna wasn’t ready to put Juliette on the road. Rayna was worried about Juliette’s health, but Juliette just stormed off again.

Glenn (Ed Amatrudo) followed her out and said that he just wanted what was best for her. “What’s best for me is what’s best for my career,” Juliette said. She fired him.

Avery (Jonathan Jackson) went to a doctor to talk about Juliette’s symptoms. He said he wasn’t even sure where Juliette was, but it turned out she went to see Jeff (Oliver Hudson). She wanted to hire him as her manager. She figured he would help since Jeff didn’t care about her well-being.

Juliette came home and slept on the couch. Avery tried to be encouraging like the doctor told him to be, but he quickly grew frustrated when Juliette wanted to immediately go back to the studio. He said he didn’t understand why she couldn’t just hold her daughter, so Juliette told him to give her the baby. Avery didn’t want to hand their daughter over just to prove a point.

Juliette got frustrated and threw a snow globe at Avery when he wouldn’t give her the baby. The glass object missed him and the baby and shattered on the wall. She seemed freaked out, but she still went to a meeting. Jeff played her album for Luke (Will Chase), but the country star wasn’t sure he wanted to steal Juliette from Highway 65.

Apparently, Luke was easily swayed. He announced at his concert that night that Juliette was on his label.

Juliette came home and replaced the snow globe. She tried to brush off the incident, but Avery wouldn’t let it go. He was also hurt that she went to Jeff, who was the reason they once broke up. “You’re sick, Juliette, and you need help,” Avery said.

His wife refused to go to any sort of treatment. She said she needed her career and Avery asked if she needed that more than her family. She didn't respond, so he walked out and took the baby away.

Meanwhile, more people were finding out about Will’s sexuality, thanks to some paparazzi. Luke came in to yell at Jeff for hiding Will’s sexuality. Luke worried that he wouldn’t have a label after his heartthrob was outed. Luke called Will in and told him about the tabloid photos. He wasn’t dropping the young singer, but they needed to figure out how to approach this story. Will claimed that the photos weren’t what they looked like.

Will went to Kevin (Kyle Dean Massey) and asked him to deny their relationship. Will wanted to protect his career. Kevin understood, but he wasn’t happy about it. Will went back to Luke and said the rumors wouldn’t be a problem. Luke still wanted to drop Will as his opening act for a while.

With his father (Rex Linn) in town, Will decided to warn the conservative man about the rumors. Mr. Lexington seemed to believe that his son had “changed” and was now straight.

At the press conference, Kevin spoke first and denied dating Will. He claimed their relationship was only professional. As Will got on stage and saw Kevin walk out, he realized he couldn’t hide in the closet any longer.

“I’m not…I guess what I’m trying to say is it isn’t true. What he said isn’t true. Because the truth is, I’m gay and I’m not ashamed of it,” Will told reporters.

His father left, but Will was more worried about Kevin. He told his boyfriend that he finally felt like himself now that they were together and open about it. “I love you,” Will told Kevin.

Elsewhere, Jeff was keeping Layla (Aubrey Peeples) off the Internet. He claimed the Internet trolls could get to her with their comments about her weight. Eventually, she broke Jeff’s rules and went online to find that no one was calling her fat.

She also looked up photos from Jade’s party and realized that she was passed out on a bench at the end of the night. Jeff was pictured with her phone, so he was the one to post the picture that got her kicked off of Jade’s tour.

Layla attacked Jeff’s car with a golf club and started screaming at him. Jeff admitted that his plan to isolate her was awful, but he claimed he feared her leaving. “I couldn’t lose you, Layla,” Jeff said. “I can’t.”

Elsewhere in this episode:

  • Scarlett’s boyfriend Caleb asked her to move in and she agreed.
  • Kylie (Alexa PenaVega) asked Gunnar (Sam Palladio) to go to Austin and see Micah (Gunnar Sizemore) with her. Gunnar agreed to be moral support but asked her to forget about their kiss. However, they seemed to get closer throughout the episode.
  • Gunnar visited Scarlett at the hospital and they sang a song. They almost kissed, but audiences didn’t see if they actually went through with it.
  • Teddy’s deal to spy on one of Lamar’s old deals fell through. He realized that Tandy was involved. She could be indicted, and she may have used some dirty money to help fund Rayna’s label. Once Teddy dropped out, he was arrested on the spot. Word of his arrest hit the news while his daughters Maddie (Lennon Stella) and Daphne (Maisy Stella) were in the hospital waiting for news about Deacon.

“Nashville” Season 4 premieres in the fall on ABC. Do you think Deacon is dead or will he survive? Sound off in the comments section below!

RELATED STORIES