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#NashvilleCMT Recap [SPOILER ALERT]

A Journey Through Five Stages of Grief

I think everyone is already in stage four: depression.

Last week on CMT's Nashville, when Rayna died unexpectedly, her family and friends seemed to move through the grief stages one by one: denial, anger, bargaining. But on Thursday night's (March 2) episode, it was more about where to go from here.

Deacon kicked things off by reciting W.H. Auden's "Funeral Blues" poem graveside: She was my North, my South, my East and West/My working week and my Sunday rest/My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song/I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

Then one by one, they all fell down.

Deacon just disappeared during the after-burial party at his own house.

Then Tandy broke down.

Then Scarlett broke down.

Then Bucky broke down.

Then Clay split.

Then Daphne said it best when she asked, "Why can't everybody just go home? Why did mom have to die? Why are we even alive if we have to die?"

And is if the pain of Rayna's tragic death wasn't killing everyone, the truth of her unpreparedness only made things worse.

Especially because with Teddy out of prison on bereavement leave, he and Tandy started to make some decisions about Maddie, Daphne -- and Rayna's other baby, the Highway 65 record label.

Maddie tried to warn Deacon to man-up and protect what was left of their little family, but because he could see how much anxiety that was causing the girls -- what if Maddie and Daphne had to split up, what if Teddy resented them for living with Deacon, what if what if what if? -- he told Teddy to go ahead and be the guardian.

But then Teddy watched along with the whole word when Maddie, Daphne and Deacon performed an impromptu a cappella tribute song at the CMT Music Awards, and he knew he had no business breaking that trio up.

"You're a good father," Teddy told Deacon. "Truth is, I'm gonna be gone for a while, and I'd be obliged if you'd watch over them, be their guardian for now."

That settled that.

In lighter news, Zach finally officially hit on Will by explain the facts of life and that people need to go through life in pairs.

Not exactly a cliché pick-up line, but it seemed to work on Will.

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