nashville 310 winter finale recap
Scarlett (Clare Bowen) and Deacon (Charles Esten) weren't this happy by the end of "Nashville" Season 3, episode 10. ABC/Mark Levine

“Nashville” Season 3, episode 10, gave fans enough drama to survive the hiatus. The winter finale put Deacon (Charles Esten) in the hospital and Layla (Aubrey Peeples) in an ambulance. They weren’t even involved in the celebrity wedding of the year. Obviously, Rayna’s big day couldn’t happen without a million problems. Rayna (Connie Britton) and Luke (Will Chase) didn’t make it down the aisle but someone else did.

Rayna and Luke’s Honeymoon Tour had an offer to be extended by six months, but Rayna didn’t want to do it. She didn’t want to leave her kids. Luke claimed he understood, and it wasn’t a big deal. He was more concerned about their seating arrangements. Luke wasn’t sure he wanted the kids to sit at their table at the wedding reception. He’d rather have Tim McGraw and Faith Hill there.

Maddie (Lennon Stella) and Daphne (Maisy Stella) encouraged her to go on tour. They wanted to go to the same boarding school that Luke’s kids went to. Rayna was shocked by the idea, but Luke was the one who brought it up to them before consulting Rayna.

Rayna confronted him about the idea. He claimed it came up randomly, but he thought it would give them some stability. He eventually apologized, but it didn’t stop Rayna’s worries. She hated the zoo their wedding had become. People Magazine was buying their wedding photos, which turned the rehearsal dinner into a red carpet event. Luke loved it, but Rayna hated it.

Tandy (Judith Hoag) returned and questioned Rayna about her happiness. She wasn’t so sure her sister was OK with her new life.

“The worst part is I just feel so completely out of touch with my girls,” Rayna said. “I just want to make sure it’s my life I’m living.”

The night before her wedding, Rayna reread the Rolling Stone article about her and Deacon. She went to Luke the next day, the morning of their wedding.

“I can’t marry you,” Rayna said. “I want to, but I can’t. I keep making the same mistakes over and over again in my life. It’s a cycle, and I want to break it.”

Luke thought he was different from her last husband Teddy (Eric Close), but quickly realized that wasn’t what she meant. “Don’t do this,” Luke said. “I’m not Teddy -- but I’m not Deacon either, am I?”

Luke told her to get off his property and started kicking chairs over. Rayna took off her wedding ring in the car.

Rayna’s protégé couldn’t comfort her. Sadie (Laura Benanti) had her own angry ex to deal with. Sadie’s ex-husband showed up and claimed that he helped her write her latest hit. He wants her money. Pete showed up on her doorstep and Sadie told him to sue her. She claimed she wasn’t afraid of him, so he punched her in the face.

Deacon and Scarlett (Clare Bowen) tried to avoid all that drama, so they stayed in Memphis through Rayna’s wedding. Scarlett dragged him to a karaoke night. They had fun, but Deacon left early when he wasn't feeling well. When he got to his room, the hotel had a magazine with Rayna and Luke on the cover on his coffee table. Deacon threw the publications and it knocked over the bottles on the mini bar. Scarlett found him passed out on the floor of the hotel, and she couldn’t wake him up. She feared he started drinking again.

Deacon woke up in the hospital, but he wasn’t sure how he got there. He swore he wasn’t drinking, and the doctor confirmed that there was no alcohol in his system. “Unfortunately, we have something more serious to talk about,” the doctor said.

The test results showed that he could be very sick. Deacon might have liver cancer, but he told Scarlett not to tell anyone.

Juliette (Hayden Panettiere) and Avery (Jonathan Jackson) weren’t as emotional in the “Nashville” Season 3 winter finale. Juliette invited Avery to move in after the baby was born. It seemed logical, but Avery was having a hard time coping with their new friendship.

“Darling, even if you don’t have a relationship with her, you can have a relationship with your daughter,” Avery’s mom told him on the phone. “That’s all that really matters.”

Apparently, Avery didn’t agree with his mother. He wanted a relationship with Juliette. Avery went to Juliette and said he couldn’t do the friendly relationship. Juliette’s eyes filled with tears when she thought Avery might say that he wanted to leave her.

“I want you to marry me,” Avery said.

“Yes. Yes,” Juliette said.

They quickly found a white dress and got married in a small ceremony.

Other newlyweds weren’t as happy. Jeff (Oliver Hudson) told Will (Chris Carmack) to “butch it up” after a website wrote an article questioning his sexuality. After seeing them flirt, Will realized Jeff and Layla were hooking up. He confronted the record label executive about it, and Jeff claimed he was doing him a favor. After all, Jeff wouldn’t talk to the press and ruin Will’s career. Will thought Layla’s relationship with Jeff was why she turned down Will’s offer to go on tour. Will told Jeff to break it off immediately.

“There is no us,” Jeff told a crying Layla. He gave her some drugs to “take the edge off” after he dumped her.

A girl hit on Will and he tried to turn her down. However, once she brought up the rumors about him being gay, he took her up on her offer. Layla, already wounded after her break up, walked in on them together.

Layla took plenty of the pills Jeff gave her, and Will and Jeff found her floating in the pool later. Instead of calling an ambulance, Jeff called Teddy for a favor.

Teddy was busy with his own mistakes. He was still hooking up with Natasha (Moniqua Plante) the prostitute. “Maybe we should make it a more formal arrangement,” Natasha said.

She was trying to sell him a relationship. Teddy suddenly realized how fake his relationship was and called it off.

He wasn’t the only one living a lie. Micah’s (Gunnar Sizemore) grandparents showed up at Gunnar’s (Sam Palladio) house with a court order. They were taking him back to Texas. Gunnar went to a lawyer right away. The lawyer told him that he needed proof of paternity, and Gunnar was fine with doing a DNA test. His lawyer called when the results were in and Gunnar found out that he wasn’t the father.

Gunnar told Scarlett that Micah was indeed related to him, even though he wasn’t the father. He realized that could only mean one thing -- Kylie (Alexa PenaVega) cheated on him with his brother Jason (David Clayton Rogers), who died in “Nashville” Season 1.

“Nashville” Season 3 returns in 2015. Do you think Layla is dead? Sound off in the comments section below!