To celebrate Nashville Winter Finale this week (December 10, 10/9c) we asked fellow fans to share their favorite moments from season 3 so far. Amy (@amygeurden) chose Rayna and Deacon and their complicated love during the last episode – 3.09 – ‘Two Side to Every Story’. Since Rayna is about to tie the knot (or is she) tomorrow it also helps prepare us for ‘Nashville Winter Finale’. So is the Rayna and Deacon ‘Us’ is over? 

The interesting part to me of the scene between Rayna and Deacon in Rayna’s doorway and also outside Deacon’s house is that they both used the word “us” to describe what they have.

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Except for a mere few weeks right before Deacon found out about Maddie, they have not been a couple for 14 years, and yet they will always be an “us”. Their lives are so tangled together that it’s like pulling on the end of a ball of yarn. The harder you yank, the tighter the knot gets. Rayna has been frantically yanking at the end of that piece of yarn all season, and the closer it gets to the wedding, the more tangled up in it she seems to find herself. She didn’t just throw Deacon under the bus with that magazine article, she threw what they HAD under the bus.

The look Deacon gives her over Maddie’s shoulder…he’s read the article, he’s ticked, and she knows it. He doesn’t have to say a word for her to know it. Theoretically she could have just let him walk out of her house angry, and it probably would have completely closed their “us” chapter for good. I can see Luke wanting Deacon to become the dad who waits outside, who relays messages through Maddie, who keeps the ex at a safe distance. But she gave Luke the excuse that she had to go talk to Deacon to “make it right”, and what she really needed to do was make it right with her own conscience. Deacon’s opinion matters more than anyone else’s to her, whether she wants to admit it or not.

For More : Episode 3.09 – ‘Two Sides to Every Story’: Christmas, Rayna, Deacon and the Truth

The first thing she basically said when she saw him outside his house is “you’re still important to me,” because she desperately needs him to know that. His obvious contempt for her new lavish lifestyle is going to sit in her mind, and the closer she gets to the wedding, the more her doubts are going to grow. We see her come off as getting angry at him and walking away, but I think what she really is, is scared to death that he’s right and she’s making the wrong choice by marrying Luke. (And BTW did anyone else notice how much her hands are shaking in that last scene?! It was the same when she was talking to the Rolling Stone S reporter in her office.)
A little while later we saw Deacon break all our hearts by symbolically ripping Rayna’s picture off his guitar case, as if it’s as easy as removing a band-aid, but I think removing her from his heart is a lot more difficult. Finding your soulmate is not supposed to be easy. It breaks all the rules. It’s hard, and messy, and complicated. It’s a love so pure and strong it consumes you, and you get lost in each other time and time again. But it’s worth it. We have seen this with Rayna and Deacon. They are meant to be an “us”.