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The #NashvilleCMT Recap [SPOILER ALERT]

“Love Whoever You Want to Love”

After having fallen in love with a messed-up alcoholic -- Rayna’s words, not mine -- she deserved the chance to share her life lessons with her daughter Maddie on Thursday’s (Feb. 2) episode of Nashville on CMT.

Because Maddie is 17 and falling for 24-year-old, Clay. Who is black. And bipolar. But all Rayna cared about was his age.

“Are you kidding me right now? You think my reaction would be different if he was white?” she asked Maddie before giving her a history lesson about the struggles of mixed-race couples.

“But, my God, the world has changed. People can make choices that they didn’t used to be able to make, and that is an amazing thing. So if he was your age, I would say, ‘Yes! You go, girl! You love whoever you want to love. That is great with me.’ But he’s not your age.”

Maddie didn’t seem like she was listening because, again, she is 17. But Rayna’s words did cause her to have some doubts about Clay.

After Maddie admitted that, all Rayna said was, “I just hope you know you deserve to be happy.”

Rayna deserves that, too. Which is why, with Zach’s backing, she decided to make her ex-almost-husband Luke an offer on his record label. They went to Luke’s Nashville concert to talk about it. And while they were there, Zach started walking around backstage, somehow ran into Will taking his shirt off, and the two guys had a bit of a dressing-room moment.

But poor Rayna. She may not even know what she’s getting into with Luke’s label. Will and Juliette come with the deal, but Juliette has been thinking about the next album she’s going to make, and it ain’t all country.

“I want to make a gospel album, because that’s where I am at in my life,” Juliette told Rayna, who assured her that whatever she does next, she wants it to be on her label.

All of the gospel music talk was coming from Juliette’s fixation with Hallie, her literal lifesaving angel.

Hallie invited Juliette to come to her church and hear her sing with the choir and to hear her play the banjo and sing for children. (Rhiannon Giddens, who portrays Hallie, delivered the performance with her real life old-time string band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops.)

There's nothing wrong with letting a life-altering event like a plane crash change your perspective on music, but when Avery tried to gently ask Juliette about it, she accused him of not understanding any of it.

“I’m coming out of myself for the first time. I’m just afraid it’s gonna go away,” she whispered, possibly predicting that there's a chance she could go back to her less than Christian ways.

Scarlett had the same kind of epiphany about herself when she saw her new music video for the first time. She hated making it, but she loved the result.

"I'm seeing myself, but not from the outside," she told the director. "You show me from the inside -- what I look like in my own mind.”

Meanwhile, Deacon was back at the house installing security systems and getting restraining orders because of Rayna’s stalker, which he told Maddie and Daphne was just an unfortunate part of this business. (But then later in the episode, the stalker came after Daphne at school, so he’s much more than just an inconvenience.)

But it wasn’t all stalker drama for Daphne. She finally had her own romance to contend with when she admitted being interested in a boy at school. He tried to awkwardly make awkward conversation with her, and it was the stuff first loves are made of.

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