While last week's episode hit us heavy with the Deacon/Jessie romance, this episode cools down on that in order to focus on other storylines. An article from CMT reminds us that each of the new couple's kids absolutely abhors the idea of their parents dating. Darius's disturbing methods are continuing to impact Juliette, and how are former exes Scarlett and Gunnar (along with Will and Avery) doing in their fields of choice? Let's begin:

Daphne and Jake work together

Maddie tells Deacon that Gunnar, Will, and Avery are playing in a show and Daphne wants to attend.

Deacon says that Jessie will be there, and then she quickly rescinds her offer to join them. That day at school, Daphne and Jake (Jessie's son for those who need reminding) are, of course, paired together to work on a science project.

Jake gets nauseous when he sees Daphne dissecting the frog, and he exits the class. Daphne follows him and Jake admits his dad will be livid about this, and how hard he is on him. Jake says that his dad's a "Nazi" while also insulting Deacon, something that Daphne doesn't take lightly. They then get caught out in the hallway by a teacher.

On the way home from school, Daphne rants to Maddie about how weird Jake's behavior can be at times. Later, she asks her father if he's still mad about their whole court ordeal (from season 4), but he assures her that it's in the past, but he does seem concerned about what Jake is telling Daphne. He subsequently calls Jessie, and she reassures him that it's all good.

Jake is mad at Daphne because he thinks she told her dad about what Jake said, but she reveals that she told her sister who probably did tell her dad. The two clear the air between them and establish a little friendly repertoire. Maybe these two will finally learn to tolerate one another, something that they'll have to inevitably do if they become step-siblings like they fear.

Avery, Gunnar, and Will try group cohesiveness

At the concert, the newly formed band consisting of Avery, Gunnar, and Will puts on a fantastic performance filled with high energy and catchy beats, but Avery notes that their performance was decent but needed work, after the show when he calls Juliette. Juliette quotes Darius when telling Avery to keep at it with his performance with Gunnar and Will, and it sends them into yet another debate about Darius and his legitimacy. It ends up chasing Avery off the phone and frustrating Juliette.

Avery gets back to the team after talking to Juliette, and we have a fun scene that involves the trio, Jessie, and Deacon.

She fits into the group rather well (despite her Timberlake obsession). Deacon tells them to figure out what their sound is as a group instead of three different solo performers, and they may get an opportunity sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, the boys (well, Will) is debating with the guys about changing Gunnar's song because it sounds "too emo." Gunnar notes that between his spotlight hogging and his hyped up personality lately, he's getting annoyed by him. Gunnar will hopefully put two and two together and remember what he saw Will taking last week.

Finally, Gunnar and Will blow up at each other over the song, and Avery plays mediator to try to get the guys to calm down. Avery asks for advice about the boys from Gunnar before changing the topic to Juliette and how she seems.

He confides in Deacon about how spooky it is that Darius has got such an emotional and mental grip on Juliette, and how it reminds him of a former classmate who joined a cult and was never the same after he eventually got out, and is afraid that Juliette is headed down the same path. Deacon tells Avery to give it a little more time to truly see what's going on, and he reluctantly agrees to do so.

He also gives the boys a pep talk once he sees them again (he's pretty good at giving advice this week). The boys decide to do a cover of N'Sync's "It's Tearing Up My Heart," much to Jessie's happiness, and all seems right with those three - until Will checks himself out in a mirror, and is more than likely tempted to continue using his steroids.

Darius probes Juliette's mind

The International Business Times stated that Juliette's mind was going to be probed by Darius in this week's episode, and they weren't joking. On her way back to Darius's, Juliette overhears someone crying and questions what it was. Darius indirectly answers the question and tells her he wants to re-explore her childhood's happy moments again - only that this "happy" memory looks to be her mother using herself and a nine-year-old Juliette to "entertain" a man she refers to as her "uncle" and he gives them money as a result. That turned dark fairly quickly. Juliette wants to stop, but of course, Darius encourages her to do otherwise. Juliette meets with Hallie (hey, Rhiannon Giddens!) for lunch and voices some concerns about how she may have to re-live dark experiences in order to overcome them.

We get to see a beautiful performance from Hallie and Deacon at The Bluebird where Avery reunites with Juliette for the evening. After, Juliette tells Deacon how amazing her time with Darius has been but quickly leaves when Avery goes to meet up with the two. The next day, Juliette is told that she's going to be "witnessing," the term Darius used in reference to the crying woman she overheard earlier in the episode.

This is easily the most cult-ish scene so far, as Juliette looks as if she's about to go through an exorcism (and maybe she is since Darius wants to extract past memories out of her).

It's then revealed that Juliette is subsequently raped by the man who she called "uncle" (after being allowed to do so by her mother) and has an emotional breakdown. It's a truly traumatic and heartbreaking scene that Hayden Panettiere nails perfectly.

Juliette takes some time to process what happened to her, and Darius replies that now that she's "changed her life," she has all the time in the world.

She says that her mother has taken everything from her and still manages to even though she's dead. Darius tells Juliette that she deserves to be loved and happy and that with his training, she'll be a completely different person when it's over, which is just what Avery was afraid of.

Scarlett works at an Equine Therapy Ranch

After seeing the advertisement for Equine therapy on TV, Scarlett has decided to join the others at the ranch to help out, and just like that, she's in. She gets shown around the ranch and meets all these beautiful horses, and it's noted that the horses also help the teens who help take care of them.

It's a give and take relationship, and Scarlett's told not to interfere with the group that she's supposed to watch.

The obstacle of today involves the kids getting the horses to jump over a fence. One of the kids gets mad at Scarlett after thinking she's laughing at her, but she tells the teen otherwise. Her boss then tells her that their work is sensitive and she isn't allowed to say things like that to them. She tells Scarlett to clean the stables.

That night, Scarlett sees someone named Sean decline to try and comfort a horse. This time, she consciously does not get herself involved. The next day, Scarlett admits she hasn't felt useful yet and just wants to help. It's then when the teen from before breaks down and is finally comforted by the horse.

Scarlett watches Sean sneak in to feed the horse, but he ends up scaring him.

Scarlett stops the horse from fleeing and calms her down, and she's finally praised by the boss for helping out (and also notes that Sean is her nephew). Hmm, new love interest on the horizon? Guess we'll see soon enough!

Tonight's episode was major progression for Juliette's storyline, while Will and Scarlett's storylines are starting to progress faster. Daphne, Avery, and Gunnar's storylines are progressing well too, although Gunnar's seems to be the most filler-y right now while Avery will ultimately deal with the fallout from what happens when his and his wife's storylines collide. Catch Nashville every Thursday night at nine on CMT.
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