An unexpected twist in last week's episode of "Nashville" Season 4 left fans reeling. Music manager Jeff Fordham was killed when he fell down the side of a building while trying to talk Juliette out of doing the same thing.
Before the airing of the episode, viewers were teased by a scene of Juliette contemplating suicide while standing on the roof of the building. She has been suffering from postpartum depression and has been addicted to alcohol since the birth of her baby. Jeff went up the building to talk her out of it but was the one who fell to his own death.
"We wanted this character who was widely viewed as a villain, to go out in an unexpectedly heroic way," said EP Dee Johnson in a Deadline interview about Jeff's death. "We wanted him to seemingly have it all, to have grown enough as a human being to care about a desperately lost Juliette, even though he was no longer her manager."
Oliver Hudson,who plays Jeff Fordham, has said that he loved how his character left the series because he had been the bad guy for some time already. Hudson started with the show as a recurring character before being promoted to a series regular. His character was brought back to recurring status after he signed on to another network series "Scream Queens".
Johnson in the same interview said that Jeff's death will no doubt have a big impact professionally and personally for Luke, Juliette but most specially to Layla . This should be the worst kind of wake-up call for Juliette to get out of her depression and addiction.
Meanwhile, Luke's son Colt saw Jeff's fatal accident happen when he stepped out of his balcony reports Christian Post. He will know when Juliette later lies about witnessing the accident. In the "Nashville" Season 4 Episode 7 promo trailer, Luke tells her that someone saw her on the roof with Jeff before the accident to which Juliette replies defensively, "Someone needs to get their eyes checked because I was in my room the entire night."
Also in the coming episode of "Nashville" Season 4 titled, "Can't Get Used to Losing You", IB Times reports that Deacon's new business venture with an old friend from AA will threaten his relationship with Rayna. She is worried about Deacon, a recovering alcoholic, having to deal with the temptation of alcohol if he becomes a part owner of his friend's bar.
Will Jeff's death be the wake-up call that Juliette needs to come to terms with her life and divorce from Avery? How will Colt use his information against Juliette? Find out when "Nashville" Season 4 returns on November 11 on ABC.
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