Nashville: Will Rayna Return for the Series Finale? Charles Esten Weighs In!

Nashville's series finale is right around the corner, and one thing fans are desperate to know is whether Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton) will, in fact, appear in the show's final episode.

Promos for the final stretch of episodes as well as the series finale have hinted that she might be back, with a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of a very blurry but very familiar figure in a scene with Deacon (Charles Esten). The theories about this potential return range from dream to hallucination to flashback to miraculous resurrection (but we wouldn't hold our breath on that last one if we were you), so we took the question to Esten himself to see what he could tease from that scene we all want answers about.

"There's a nebulous shot that people aren't sure what it is, but they think they know. They may, they may not," Esten told TV Guide. "I will just say that in some form or another, there would be no way to have a final episode that didn't in some form have Rayna looming somewhere through the storyline... It would have felt like, 'Well, we finished, but not really.'"

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With a show built entirely around Rayna, her loved ones and her place in her industry, it's truly impossible to imagine the show coming to a close without paying tribute to her in some way. How Nashville will end up doing that is something fans will have to watch and find out for themselves!

Nashville's series finale airs Thursday, July 26 at 9/8c on CMT.