This week's “Nashville” has new relationships making headway, some in the right direction, and one likely destined for a crash. Some of the scenes and writing on February 8’s sixth episode of Season 6, “Beneath Still Waters,” are worthy of being preserved in portraits and volumes. This final season of “Nashville” has a moving and lyrical quality that is a credit to the cast and showrunners. The music is memorable in this episode, too, from a rowdy, fun romp with “Love Is Loud,” featuring Jonathan Jackson, Chris Carmack, Sam Palladio, and newcomer, Rainee Blake as Avery, Will, Gunnar, and Alannah, to softer ballads, the soul is soothed.

Music is a bridge to healing, and so are honesty and horses. All those factors play a part in this installment, reminding everyone, even faithful “Nashville” fans, that we humans all have our broken places, and without them, no one could ever feel is divine love and light.

Finding a place

Scarlett (Clare Bowen) is loving her work, but still feeling inadequate in her purpose at the therapeutic horse ranch. Again this week, Lisa Banes portrays the role of the ranch director with beautiful subtlety, reminding that “we’re all healing one way or another,” and telling Scarlett not to shirk her “gift” until she's learned what it is destined to teach her. Scarlett is coaxed into singing “Raised on a Song” by some girls at the ranch, and the moment is lovely.

Scarlett wants to shed stardom, but her songs will never leave her.

Scarlett witnesses a painful exchange between Sean, portrayed by Jake Etheridge, who is a music contributor to “Nashville,” and his wife. There is doubt about how long she will “hang in” with the situation, and there is a young daughter involved. Clare Bowen exquisitely captures her character’s empathy in seeing Sean’s invisible wounds of PTSD, and desperately wanting to help him.

When she finds him one night in Nashville, very inebriated, she takes him in for the night, to sleep on her couch, but he doesn't want to share much about why he stays away from the beautiful songs she heard on his Facebook page, until he tells her that his friend in the videos was killed in Afghanistan, where Sean couldn't save him.

She asks, “Who does it help to give up what you love?”

Daphne (Maisy Stella) would rather not have a place in any world with Jessie (Kaitlin Doubleday) and doesn't hide her feelings when she is coerced to come along on an art walk stroll. She retorts that “I wish my life had other plans” when Jessie talks about giving up dreams of professional photography.

Deacon tries to talk to his daughter, but she evades him, finding comfort in wearing her mother's necklace.

Alannah is winning great reviews, if not the band. Will is not at ease, more worried about his missing “vitamins.” The new singer invites Gunnar over to hear more of her singer-songwriter fare. She is ready for more once the music ends.

He follows the guidance of “don't be an idiot,” for all of a minute, until he gets to his car, and then comes back for an undressed nightcap. It only takes one performance for his bandmates to feel the revved-up relationship between the two. Jessie’s sleazy ex-husband, Brad (Jeffrey Nordling), makes a pitch to be Alannah’s manager. Time will tell if she keeps that card.

Mending moments

Ever the unifier, Deacon (Charles Esten) hopes that a family dinner will break down the icy walls between Daphne and Jessie. When Daphne describes every single element and organ of frog dissection, then leaves the table when dad dresses her down, Jessie sits on her bed for a talk. Jessie gets very honest about living in fear, and how no one can make good choices from that vantage.

She also tells Daphne that she would never dare to try to be her mother-- that no one could be. That assurance does the most good for the youngest daughter. Deacon doesn't fare so well downstairs with Jake (Myles Moore), so time will tell if these parents survive in a melded family.

The ranch manager reminds Scarlett of the beautiful Leonard Cohen lines that describe how only through the cracks can light come in—and then, she and Scarlett witness a breathtaking “cracking.” Sean is singing and playing his guitar in the barn. The look on Scarlett's face alone makes the entire episode worthwhile. This is a season of real issues in real people, with real emotion on “Nashville.”
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