Nashville fans were shaken to their core after last week’s devastating episode, which left main character Rayna Jaymes lifeless after a car accident.
The country music drama’s latest episode mostly took place at the hospital where Connie Britton’s character, Rayna Jaymes, was recovering from a horrible car accident. She had to undergo emergency surgery and was recovering just fine, until she wasn’t. The doctors rushed her to the ICU because her organs were failing and she ultimately passed away surrounded by her husband, Deacon, and her daughters, Maddie and Daphne.
Before the premiere of the 5th season on CMT, TV Guide reported that Britton had only signed on for 10 of the season’s 22 episodes, leading fans to believe she would be killed off somehow. However, Britton herself addressed those rumors, not confirming or denying them, but she did say, “I don’t know where that stuff came from. It’s kind of crazy the things that come out.”
Unfortunately, the rumors were true and her exit served as the most heartbreaking episode of Nashville that we have ever seen. Britton took to Instagram to say goodbye to her character she played for 4 1/2 years and to thank the actors, creators, crew, songwriters, producers, and fans.
Making her very first public appearance since the shocking episode, Britton stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to chat a little bit about it.
“Is your character really dead?” Colbert asked the redheaded actress.
“She’s really dead,” she told him, much to his disappointment. “I’m sorry! I gotta tell it like it is.”
Colbert couldn’t stand her answer, so he suggested Rayna come back to life as a zombie, or the writers could introduce an evil twin character, which Britton actually enjoyed.
“I think the twin sister idea is not bad! It’s Nashville, anything could happen. What if the long lost twin sister comes back, oh, and she’s just a devil. She’ll come back and be such a devil.”
Colbert really got to her! Although she says that it’s time to creatively move on from Nashville, we think there’s a good possibility we will see Rayna’s evil twin. We even have a name – Shayna!
She ended the segment by giving her fans a message.
“I would just like to say to my fans that I love you so much. The show loves you so much, and that Rayna will live on forever. I feel so fortunate that I was able to play that character, truly with all my heart, I loved that character so much. And just like when we lose somebody in our lives, the spirit lives on. And there’s always re-runs!” she said.
Watch her interview with Colbert below.