“Nashville” Season 5 Spoilers: Rayna’s Death Leaves Uncertain Future For Series, Connie Britton Teases “Return”

Fans of “Nashville,” the CMT series about competition for country music superstardom, dreaded last Thursday’s episode when Rayna James, played by  Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated Connie Britton, tragically died due to complications from her car accident injuries.

Series producer Marshall Herskovitz, discusses the upcoming episodes before the show’s midseason finale. He told TVLine, “The next episode is the funeral and the aftermath. It’s really one of the strongest episodes I’ve ever been involved with. It’s so remarkable and so emotional and full of grace and elegance and connection and love. The next week’s episode is life without Rayna. Everyone is still completely overcome by grief, but it’s at least beginning to look ahead to what stories might be, and it’s actually worked out from a creative standpoint really well. It’s the love and connection that holds this family together.”

Following the episode, Britton’s co-stars shared their various reactions on social media, including Charles Esten, who plays Deacon, and Maddie (Lennon Stella) and Daphne (Maisy Stella), who plays her daughters.

Britton said she’ll still be with the show, albeit at least for one more episode. She has yet to confirm if she’ll make more appearances in the show.

“I do pop back in in after Episode 9. And Nashville‘s always going to be important to me, so I’m totally open to whatever as time goes on. But it is really hard to say goodbye to this character,” she added.

But it has been believed that Juliette (Hayden Panetierre) could very well ease herself in as the new country queen and try to fill in Rayna’s shoes. But Stephen L. Betts wrote in Rolling Stone that she and the rest of the characters might need to be in mourning mode a bit longer after the funeral.

“”Nashville” is, as hard as it is to see at the present moment, about more than just one character. But when you have a character like Rayna Jaymes and an actor as profoundly skilled as Connie Britton, the loss is real. It will sting for a while and though Rayna's song is finished, but her soul will no doubt live on in the rest of the characters and the songs they have yet to sing.” he concluded.