‘Nashville’ Season 5 Spoilers: Deacon And Rayna Fight About The Past In Episode 7 [RECAP]

Working together makes relationships much more complicated. For Deacon and Rayna, it means revisiting their painful past. Elsewhere in “Nashville” Season 5, episode 7 of the CMT drama, Scarlett and Gunnar have to worry about other people trying to interfere in their relationship.

Writer’s Block: Deacon (Charles Esten) and Rayna (Connie Britton) are going ahead with writing their duet album together. Deacon is trying to focus on happy memories, like their first kiss. However, Rayna wants to explore all of their past, even the parts that hurt.

Rayna feels like it’s taking them forever to write songs, but they used to churn them out so fast when they were young. She realizes that they have very different experiences. Deacon felt like she was always there when they were separated, and Rayna felt like their breaks were “just a catastrophe.”

Gene, a documentary maker, isn’t making the process any easier. Rayna agreed to let him film the making of the album, but she and Deacon don’t actually let him do his job.

Eventually, Rayna and Deacon get too frustrated, and Deacon decides to just drive somewhere. They don’t have a plan until they realize Gene is following them. Deacon drives like a maniac to ditch the cameraman, and then he takes Rayna bowling.

While they go out, Maddie (Lennon Stella) and Daphne (Maisy Stella) start baking. Of course, Maddie has to invite her new boyfriend Clay (Joseph David-Jones) over, and Daphne forgets to take the cake out of the oven. Deacon and Rayna are making out in an alley when they get a call from the security company telling them that the smoke detectors are going off.

When they get home, the fire department is already clearing out. There was no fire, just smoke. Rayna is irritated that Clay is there, and Maddie doesn’t think a burned cake is a big deal. Clay stops Deacon on his way out and compliments Deacon on his solo music.

Deyna’s Fighting: Daphne talks to Gene about her mom and Deacon’s relationship, despite Rayna specifically saying that the documentary can’t include her children. She says marriage looks hard. He tries to ask her about the hard times in their marriage, but Daph doesn’t want to talk about it.

Meanwhile, Deacon suggests that he and Rayna should write separately for a little while, but his wife is offended by the idea. Rayna says he’s too good at quitting. “When things get real, you get gone,” Rayna says.

The country veteran wants to be able to talk about their pain without hurting each other, but Deacon isn’t sure that can happen.

Their fighting and Maddie and Clay’s drama makes Daphne ask her sister about falling in love. She thinks it looks painful, but she wonders if that’s just what it’s like for her family.

Rayna and Deacon spend some time in separate parts of the house, but they come back together later. Rayna admits that she thought this would be easier, but she believes everything happened the way it needed to for them.

Amazingly, Deacon’s plan actually worked. Rayna has some lyrics and he has some music that go together perfectly. They create a duet called “My Favorite Hurricane,” the first song for their album.

An Amiss Kiss: Scarlett and Gunnar’s career is taking off due to Damien’s music video. The clip is going viral and they start promoting it with Damien. While talking to Kathie Lee and Hoda, Gunnar starts to get jealous of Damien’s compliments to Scarlett. He senses that the director has feelings for Scarlett, and he isn’t wrong.

Damien and Scarlett go out to dinner together to celebrate the music video’s success. Damien apologizes and Scarlett doesn’t seem to hate her director anymore. Damien says he saw something “raw and real” within Scarlett, and the dinner seems a bit too intimate for coworkers.

The singer goes to Rayna for advice. Scarlett tells Rayna that she and Gunnar are having trouble because of Damien. Rayna and Deacon still haven’t exactly figured out how to be the perfect band mates and lovers.

Later, Damien says goodbye to Scarlett. He’s heading out of town and gives her a kiss. Scarlett certainly didn’t seem to turn away from the affectionate gesture. f

She decides to be honest with Gunnar that she is confused about her feelings. She says that he left, so she’s not going to do anything about her feelings. Gunnar isn’t sure he believes it’s over, but Scarlett apparently thinks he should be able to easily digest this information. The tension grows when fans recognize Scarlett from the video but not Gunnar.

“I need you to grow up. I’m with you, does that mean anything to you?” Scarlett says.

The two end up in bed together that night, so it looks like Damien hasn’t come between them ... yet. While Scarlett is getting intimate with Gunnar, Damien is blowing up her phone with text messages about how he isn’t leaving because he needs to see her.

“Nashville” Season 5 airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. EST on CMT.