Rayna cleans up at the CMAs much to the jealousy of her future husband while Avery and Juliette's relationship and confidence in their future parenting grows stronger.

Nashville S 3 E 8 type TV Show network CMT

Some of country music’s biggest stars stopped by Nashville for the series’ fictional version of the CMA Awards, where Rayna and her hair dominated the proceedings, much to the jealousy of her soon-to-be husband. It was a night all about the couples as Ruke tackled issues about their financial and emotional future, and meeting Avery’s parents actually helped secure his and Juliette’s confidence in themselves and each other as future parents to their little baby girl. That’s right they’re having a girl. But more on them later.

We also finally saw big strides in pretty much every other couple on the series. The couple-driven plotlines were not a surprise this week as “You’re Looking at Country” was written by playwright Geoffrey Nauffts, who made a name for himself for writing the brilliant show Next Fall, about a relationship between two men, one being religious and devout and the other an atheist. Unfortunately unlike the play, most of the relationships addressed on Nashville felt incomplete long after the last fictional CMA Award was given out. But I guess that’s the price you pay when writing for a series.

Most of the episode flipped between the goings-on of the awards show and Deacon and Scarlett’s living room as the uncle-niece combo watched the telecast (despite Deacon’s initial unwilling attitude). From the word go, Rayna and Luke’s tension was obvious. While getting ready for the awards show, Rayna discovered Luke’s prenup; and despite his noble efforts to ignore talking about the important marital document, Rayna kept bringing the subject back up from their limo ride, to right after their red carpet interviews, and even during the awards show itself. In her opinion, the prenup is unnecessary, in Luke’s he just didn’t want to get taken for everything like he did with his first wife. (Plus, isn’t a prenup standard with celebrity couples?)

Before stepping onto the red carpet, Rayna and Luke decide together that everything either one of them earns is 50/50 between them, but that notion doesn’t necessarily stick the first time it’s said. Is anyone else worried that if Rayna and Luke actually go through with the wedding, that Luke will take Rayna for everything if they get divorced? His actions later in the episode sure seem that way. But we’ll get to that in a bit.

The new makeshift family of Gunnar, Zoey, and Micah also faced some stressful moments while getting ready for the awards (Gunnar was nominated) as Gunnar revealed he still hadn’t heard from Kylie and was trying to reach out to her parents. But while Zoey was still uncomfortable with her new role as replacement mom to Micah, Gunnar sure seemed pretty comfortable with the idea of keeping Micah on a much less temporary basis.

And finally Will gave Layla a much-needed pep talk before their trip to the CMAs, but the mood was definitely still tense when Will and Layla stepped out onto the carpet answering questions about their reality show and Will’s nomination. Layla, clearly still distressed and angry about being portrayed as an idiot on the couple’s reality show, overcompensated for her supposed stupidity by attempting to fix a red carpet reporter’s word choice in his question to her. Yeah, because now you sound quite scholarly Layla. That’s what changed everyone’s minds.

NEXT: Teddy’s “Pretty Woman” returns while Sadie is quickly becoming the best

As Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood took on their fake opening monologue for the fake CMA Awards (they’re CMA hosts even in a fictional world), Teddy proves to viewers that he will never stop making idiotic decisions with women by attempting to talk to his prostitute friend, who is on a professional date with another man, who, according to Teddy’s lady of the night, is very well-connected. Even the Anti-Christ Jeff Fordham tells Teddy that talking to his prostitute friend at this public of an event is a terrible idea. And when Jeff says something is terrible, he would very clearly know. Despite the prostitute in this relationship pushing back from guaranteed action, Teddy still gets his woman in a backroom (if you know what I’m saying, and I think you do) at the awards ceremony. I think it’s time we place bets as to when Teddy’s naughty/illegal little secret will be revealed.

Teddy has certainly become a more likable character since Nashville‘s early days, and a huge part of that might have something to do with his lessened screen time this year. “You’re Looking at Country” was no exception though the reason might be different as Eric Close also directed the episode. Thankfully more focus is put on the characters with the most intriguing story lines, including coolest new entry, Sadie Stone. Rayna’s newest addition to Highway 65 hasn’t had much to do yet besides ogle Rayna’s life, but that changed when Sadie’s ex-boyfriend texted her saying congratulations for her CMA nomination and asking for his cut of the money she received from writing a song about their scarring relationship. Luke and Sadie talk about her dilemma and Luke utters a line that clearly has additional meaning to him, “Don’t let that joker take anything away from you.”

Obviously he’s referring to Rayna as later, after Luke consumed a few more barrels of alcohol and lost a few more awards to his fiancee, he yells at Rayna and says “The only reason your album went gold is because I proposed to you the day you released it.” That was way harsh, Tai.

Clearly Luke can’t actually believe this is accurate, but the pent-up jealousy from losing awards to his wife, her thanking of both Liam McGuinness and Deacon in two of her speeches of the night and her annoyance of the prenup caused him to finally burst in a fit of rage and whiskey… as one does. Rayna somehow still stood by her man and showered him with gratitude when she nabbed Entertainer of the Year (making her CMAs tally 6 for 6). Rayna’s speech is literally perfect: After dedicating the award to her daughters, Rayna says this about Luke and competition between men and women: “To all the female artists out there who are paving the way for generations to come. And to my man, my love, Luke. I share this with you babe. What’s mine is yours. And to all the men out there, just remember we’re never trying to take anything from you, there’s plenty of sunshine for all of us.” For a show that was marketed as female-centric, it’s nice to see that revisited in full strength here.

NEXT: Deacon’s sense of purpose returns? And Gunnar’s relationship triangle ends.

Deacon and Scarlett made for great awards show watchers as the uncle and niece rejoiced when Deacon’s song for Rayna, “This Time,” won Song of the Year, cheered for every Rayna win, and loved that Luke received next to nothing. Scarlett realizes during Sadie’s CMA performance that there are definitely parts of performing that she sorely misses, and Deacon reminds her that Gunnar basically owes his career to her. With these moments of regret combined with Scarlett’s hands-on efforts to revive Terry’s career inspire her to get back onstage? This is Nashville, people. The answer is obviously yes. Deacon sends Rayna a text at the end of the telecast congratulating her on the big night and the twinkle of determination in his eyes returns as it seems pretty obvious he’s once again going for the woman he loves.

Meanwhile Gunnar’s relationship with Zoey falls apart when her desire to potentially sign a deal with the Devil (a.k.a. Jeff Fordham and Edgehill) hinders her from taking Micah to the restroom, where he promptly gets lost and goes missing for about 30 minutes of the episode. Gunnar wins his CMA for writing “Ball and Chain” but doesn’t make it up to the stage for his speech as he is frantically searching for Micah and freaking out at Zoey about her negligence. Finally, Micah is found by some officers, and later that night Zoey realizes that despite loving Gunnar, he can’t make her choose between her and Micah. She decides to make the choice for him and leaves.

And now to a couple who won’t quit: Juliette meets Avery’s parents at the CMAs, and while Avery’s mother is nothing but kind, his dad is a real jerk. From cutting Avery down at every turn to making cold and callous remarks about Juliette despite getting to know her, he quickly makes Juliette doubt her motherly abilities. In this episode those fears were manifested through Juliette’s flashback after flashback of her childhood with her mother, complete with the traditional druggie mom problems like leaving Juliette by herself for hours to get high and basically forcing Juliette to grow up much more quickly than he deserved.

Juliette defends her bad mother worries to Avery by telling him that she learned everything about being a mother from her mother, and everyone knows how well that turned out. But Avery is determined for him and Juliette to forge their own path. “Here’s the thing,” he says. “We’re not gonna be just like them. We got this.” Avery also stands up to his father and tells him he does have a plan for raising his child despite his snide remarks: “I’m gonna love my child unconditionally no matter how many choices they make that I don’t understand.” Plans don’t get much more perfect than that.

Back at Juliette’s place, we see the soon-to-be parents in a more confident and united mood, which then turns more intimate than they imagined. As Juliette asks Avery for help to unzip her dress so she can pass out on the couch (good call), Avery’s hand lingers on Juliette’s neck before they look into each other’s eyes and Avery looks like he literally has to tear himself away from Juliette’s gaze to leave. When they’re finally reunited, it’s gonna feel so good.