When viewers return to the capital of country music, we'll see the characters of "Nashville" dealing with comas, jail time and complicated love lives. One character will also struggle with his sexual identity.
"Nashville's" Chris Carmack plays Will, a country music star who struggles with the truth that he's gay. He keeps his true sexual orientation under wraps due to the difficulty of being a gay man in a conservative-leaning music industry that focuses on trucks, booze and girls.
Next season features Will trying to figure out his true sexual identity, which leads to him becoming very promiscuous. Although Will had an awkward encounter with Gunnar (Sam Palladio) on the couch last season, showrunner Dee Johnson confirmed that Will does not try to come on to Gunnar.
"They worked through it, shockingly and admirably," Johnson told TVLine. "I don't think we're in a situation going forward where he's going to be pining for Gunnar. They're friends. Genuine friends."
As for Rayna (Connie Britton), her situation at the opening of season two is much more dire. Rayna is in a coma after getting into a car accident with struggling alcoholic Deacon (Charles Esten). The season opener will flashback to the happier days of the two on-again, off-again lovers, then will come back to Deacon's much darker present day. A second video for the season opener shows a scene where Scarlett (Clare Bowen) visits Uncle Deacon in jail. Deacon vents his anger to Scarlett, leading to a dramatic and heart-wrenching scene.
Connie Britton spoke to TVLine at the 65th Emmy Awards about what the main "Nashville" character will face in the second season. Britton at first joked that "it's not looking good" for comatose Rayna, only to later admit that she comes out of the coma early on in the season.
The star of the countrified soap also spoke about Rayna's love interests in season three. She said there are "some amazing new fellas who may or may not be love interests." (Translation: Some of them definitely will be.)
Britton also revealed that she spoke to real-life coma survivors to find out what life is like after coming out of a coma. She said that the near-death experience will lead to "Rayna 2.0."
The second season of "Nashville" airs on Wednesday, September 25 at 10 p.m.
Check out Connie Britton giving a "Nashville" scoop on the Emmy red carpet, below.