Nashville Exclusive Sneak Peek: Deacon Confronts His Dad

One of Nashville's greatest untapped storylines has been Deacon's (Charles Esten) childhood and the abuse he and his family suffered from his father. It's always been referenced but never deeply explored, but it looks like we're finally going to dig into that history!

In this exclusive sneak peek, Deacon and his father, Gideon (Ronnie Cox), finally have a face to face meeting for the first time in years when Gideon shows up in town. Hugging it out obviously isn't an option for Deacon though, and the resulting fight between these two characters is explosive.

"This is one of the first things I wanted to do when I first took over the show," says showrunner Marshall Herskovitz of Gideon's inclusion in the final season. "We realized that there had never been an exploration of Deacon's father. Here's a man who spent most of his life fighting alcoholism and self-destructive behavior and talking about how horrible his father was. It's just natural to say, "Okay, let's bring this man back. Let's see what happens if this man comes back into his life." From a dramatist standpoint, that's just pure gold."

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Deacon obviously has more than few unresolved issues with his dad, especially when you consider how much they actually have in common. We'll soon realize that Gideon's got his own set of musical abilities (brought to life by Ronnie's Cox's own prowess with a guitar) that link the two of them even further.

Ronnie Cox, who plays his father has been a hero of mine since the '80s. I love him as an actor, and when we discovered what an amazing musician he is... it was just a perfect match up. We all just adored him and it was a great experience having Ronnie on the show."

Nashville airs Thursdays at 9/8c on CMT.