Grid Effect

Last Wednesday’s Friday Night Lights could best be described as a transitive episode, nothing was settled and a series of of new character arcs were introduced. Every featured Dillon character was given a certain predicament and approached it with sound logic, resorted to the irrational, then reverted back to conventional wisdom (with the exception of one case). And we are left spinning in the wind as to how everything will be resolved, as is introspective storytelling’s wont. Onto the recap…

Julie this week is in categorical spoiled teen mode over her parents announcement to potentially move to Austin, something she would have wholly embraced two and a half months ago. Its never really explained, but neither of her parents can’t quite figure out that Saceran is her basic reason for pining to stay in the po-dunk town she at one point rejected. Naturally, this information is disclosed (though we are not sure who Buddy has and has not told about psuedo-PI job with the notepad) and is unable to level with Matt about the prospect of moving to the college town. If she doesn’t want to go, then I am more than willing. When it comes to comparing the women at OSU to the women at UT, UT wins in a proverbial landslide.

Anyhow, this famlial quandary happens to fall in the throws of the supposedly annual Dillon Father-Daughter dance. After supposedly days (DAYS!) of the silent treatment, the story reaches its climax eith an excurciatingly painful scene where Julie announces that “she has dreams to”. I think I just figured out why my friends mock me for watching this show. They level with each other, then eventually head inside with all the enthusiasm of a lamb at the slaughter. Taylor ends up telling TMU (the fictional university that offered him a head coaching position) that he’ll have to think on it.

Riggins, in prospective tawdry love affair news (something he excels at, apparently) Tim goes from being reprimanded by his new mid-thirties single mother neighbor for fixing her storm drain to being asked for a favor, that is, to pick her kid up from school. It wreaks of poor single mother victim hood, what with all the “they won’t give me time off work” business. Yeah, it must be rough baiting your high school neighbor who lies steadily in a constant drunken stupor to do it for you. Surely this won’t give her something else to begrudge. And second of all, why isn’t Riggins in school? Is he skipping? Is this something that happens regularly? (See, you can dissect even the better series on television and make them seem cheap and poorly edited).

When Mildly Attractive Mid-Thirties Single Woman Next Door (If it hasn’t dawned on you yet, we do not have a name for this women. So if your wondering why the first nine words of this paragraph are capitalized, its because I am turning her into an acronym: MAMTSWND) asks Tim for the favor that she doesn’t want but needs as a result of how evil The Man is, she stressed puncuality, apparently the kid has trust issues. Low and behold, Tim arrives late to him being bullied by four kids. All of which, tower over him like Greg Oden over Joey Dorsey (NCAA Tournament reference, sorry). Riggins interferes and causes one of the antagonistic kids to wet his pants.

MAMTSWND arrives home elated to see her kid bonding with the borderline socially dysfunctional Riggins, but is flummoxed to discover her neighbor is teaching her baby boy how to fight. Turns out MAMTSWND is a pacifist. Wow. A single mother in west Texas is also a pacifist… talk about a social pariah. I should really stop making fun of her, she must have a really hard time. Riggins and MAMTSWND actually engage in an endearing conversation about what’s best for her son, as they both have nothing but the best of intentions for him.

Of course this all ends with Riggins making a move on her after she throws every possible non-sequitor his way, her throwing him out proclaiming he is “just a kid” (doesn’t really seem to stop anybody nowadays, MAMTSWND, what makes you so special that your above sleeping with a high schooler?… Oh, right, its torrid, bizarre and illegal. Gotcha.). Then naturally she goes all Debra LaFave on us and reciprocates his advances. She even gives the obligatory predatorial “No one can Know” whisper in his ear as she readies herself to mount the All-Conference fullback. Obviously this doesn’t end until she’s in a fetishistic cheerleader’s uniform.

Street did not make the Quad-Rugby national team and is sulking over it until Herc snaps him back to reality. When Street explains, “I really needed this”; Herc informs him, “It’s competition, not therapy”. And it needed to be said, even though Street realizes this and his knee-jerk reaction stemmed directly from a kid whose entire life revolved around competitive football and is still adjusting to life without functioning legs.

Because Herc must stay in Austin for the remainder of practices/tryouts, Street is stranded there as well. Until the blond tattoo artist offers to escort him back to Dillon (she is going that way anyways) and they end up making out at a replica stonehedge. Few can resist the romantic setting of replicated historical sites, and clearly these two are no exception. Him and Lyla are on the rocks.

In what’s arguably the best scene in this season (and the saving grace of this episode), Jason goes to buy some Champion Beer (What the hell? Is this a localized Texas thing? That looks like the RC of beers) which was probably an acceptable feat when he was QB’ing The Panthers, now that he is the “town cripple” suing the football team (which he alludes to earlier), he doesn’t have a prayer. Riggins coincidentally walks into the same place and presents a fake ID for the purpose of plausible deniability. Ends up he is with Saceran and Smash, the four of them go out the field of misguided glory (the football field) and proceed to get hammered and work through Matt’s trepidation about the pending state playoffs. In the process, Jason and Riggins make amends, Street finds his possible nitch in coaching (which is seethingly predictable, but I enjoy it none the less) and prepare the QB for the upcoming playoff game. It’s beautifully shot and reminded me why I have so much respect for this series, because I almost forgot in the first 45 minutes.

Other plot points:

-Tyra’s mom is still the suffocating underacheiver that wants her daughter to be wallowing in the mire when Tyra reaches her forties. After some stern, relentless insistence from Tami, Tyra has now decided to clean up her act. After some pushing and pulling, the two agree to help and be there for each other… This all happened like a couple months ago.

-Waverly has been diagnosed as bi-polar and Smash is conflicted. And by conflicted, I mean scared shitless. No telling how he plans on carrying it, if at all.

-Buddy puts forth a horrendous effort to get his wife back. He enlists Lyla to help with a photo album despite her protests, offers it up to his estranged spouse as amends. She rejects it and her mother spills the beans that he has been unfaithful throughout the union. Up until that point Lyla had been sympathetic towards her father (for obvious reasons), but this newfound discovery leads her to direct her anger towards her fathers car dealership to beat the hell out of four of the lot show pieces before driving through the glass wall that car showrooms are infamous for. For me, this crosses the line from vindictive to psychotic. Next time I get into an argument with a girlfriend, I am going to break all of her car windows, just to see how everyone reacts.

Sorry I was late to this, couldn’t find the time at work and had to finish the second half of it afterwards. Anyhow, new episode tonight at 8pm et.