It’s been a while since we last saw Connie Britton’s luscious red locks grace the country stage on Nashville. So let’s go over all the craziness we were left to ponder about on the mid-season finale.

After months of drinking and weeks of trying to do the whole co-parenting-without-being-in-a-relationship-thing, Avery (Jonathan Jackson) finally came to his senses and asked Juliette (Hayden Panettiere) to marry him. He has officially locked down the world’s favorite, hated pop-star and we can’t wait to see what comes next for the two of them once the baby arrives.

Gunnar was blindsided by the paternity test that said he wasn’t Micah’s father. But, guess who is? His brother, Jason, was literally beaten to death after years of living as an outlaw.

So, just to clarify: basically, Gunnar’s high school girlfriend cheated on him, showed up 10 years later with a kid claiming it was his, and then took off, leaving a literal trail of tears in her wake.

The upside to all this? Gunnar showed up at Scarlett’s (Clare Bowen) doorstep crying, which we’ve been waiting for since, like, the moment they originally broke up. Except, maybe we didn’t imagine him crying when they rekindled their fated romance. Beggars can’t be choosers.

Meanwhile, Rayna (Connie Britton) finally realized (for like the millionth time) that she will never love anyone the way she has always loved Deacon (Chip Esten). So she embarrassingly had to end her highly publicized engagement to Luke Wheeler (Will Chase), on the day of their wedding no less. “I can’t do to you what I did to Teddy.” You just realized this now, Rayna? Better late than never, we guess, only not really, because she could’ve been married to Deacon for like three decades by now…

And just when you’re thinking all is right in the Nashville world...Avery and Juliette are back together, Gunnar and Scarlett will maybe have a shot, and Rayna can finally marry Deacon...CURVEBALL. Deacon has cancer. Fan-fricken-tastic.

Oh, and don’t forget Layla (Aubrey Peeples) and Will (Chris Carmack). Last time we saw Layla, she was face down in a pool because she somehow found a redeeming quality in Jeff Fordham (Oliver Hudson) and fell in love with him after one sort-of-date. Only since he’s her gay husband’s manager and she’s the only thing convincing the world that Luke is straight, she needs to stick with him. You can see how that might upset someone. It’s less than ideal.

So, welcome back to Nashville, people.

This week’s episode starts off with Luke going crazy and driving his truck over the wedding cake. Different coping mechanisms for different ridiculously famous country stars, ya know?

Juliette and Avery are sort of celebrating their honeymoon, as much as anyone can celebrate when they’re 7 months pregnant.

Gunnar, as always, is amazing and taught his non-illegitimate son how to sing and play the guitar. Their duet is literally adorable. Cough, cough- Scarlett. He tries, but he can’t find a way to tell Micah that he’s actually his uncle, not the father the poor kid’s probably been dreaming of since…well, probably forever. Leave it to Micah’s grandparents to force Gunnar into telling him at the worst possible time, otherwise known as their custody hearing.

The snake that he is, Jeff is more concerned about covering his guilty tracks with Teddy’s help than showing up at the hospital to see if Layla is, oh, we don’t know…ALIVE?! Music execs these days...

As you can imagine, Rayna’s girls don’t take the wedding news well. Maddie assumes she did it for Deacon and Daphne was looking forward to gaining another sister. But, we’re really more interested in the fact that Luke shows up at Deacon’s demanding to see Rayna. Spoiler alert: Rayna’s not at Deacon’s, but good try.

“You happy?” he asks Deacon. “You bet I am, now I don’t have to be civil to you for one more minute.” BOOM. Deacon tries to be all nonchalant about literally throwing Luke out of his house until Luke calls Rayna a b*tch. We think the punch in the mouth was warranted. Team Deacon! Within five minutes, the press has footage of two grown men fighting over one curly-haired, country legend.

When Will goes in to see Layla, she remembers having seen him in bed with another woman and lays it all out on the table. “Your secret is killing me.” Words every husband hopes to hear.

And remember those coping mechanisms we were talking about? When Rayna goes to look for Luke, she finds him shooting two-hundred-dollar bottles of champagne in his backyard, all on Rayna’s tab we might add.

He seems to be taking things well: “Hell, before me…you were basically a legacy artist. But now look at you. You got a platinum album, sold out tour, and all those CMA awards. I mean now that you got your six statues, I guess you don’t need my 7 carats. You can keep the damn ring, by the way.”

Ouch. Low blow Luke, we all know how hard Rayna worked on that album and no one really like Lena or Ruke or whatever anyway . You’re just lucky Deacon wasn’t around to hear you talk to her that way.

While Luke literally shoots away his pain, Deacon is taking another kind of bullet. Liver cancer. The only hope of survival is a liver transplant, so, naturally, Scarlett offers immediately, but their blood types aren’t a match. We have a feeling we know who might be a match…

By the looks of next week’s trailer, Deacon won’t be able to keep his bad news a secret for long:

image courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com

Watch Nashville Wednesdays at 10pm on ABC.