Episode Report Card Drunken Bee: A+ | 3 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Don't Think Twice
By Drunken Bee | Season 4 | Episode 6 | Aired on 06.11.2010
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Once again, recapleting through tears. I need to come up with something else to do on Friday nights!
The Lions prepare for and play a televised game against the undefeated McNulty. Coach tries Vince out in quarterback position, and the Lions nearly pull off the huge upset. Vince teeters on a razor's edge between his new life as upstanding young football player and his old. In the other minor story lines, Jess slaps Landry when he blabbers on to her about not being sure whether or not he wants to date her, and when Vince shows up to her father's barbeque stand, we get a better sense that something bad went down between those two in the past.
But the heart of the episode belongs to two heartwrending farewells. Lyla comes back to town just long enough to remind herself how much she loves Tim Riggins and how much it won't ever work between them. They spend three days in his trailer and, oh, if only the whole world were a ochre-lit Airstream trailer in the warm early Texas fall....
Julie and Matt take off to Austin to go to a music festival, causing Tami (who explicitly said no to this plan) to spend two days freaking out. But no parental anger will even register against what's going on in Julie's heart as she and Matt finally realize that him staying in Dillon is not working. Julie blurts out that she doesn't want the responsibility for making him stay, Matt asks her, perhaps too hopefully, whether she wants him to leave. Julie tells him no, and she truly doesn't want him to leave, but she also can't bear to make him stay. When he drops her off back at home they say goodbye, as if it's for the night, but it's obviously for much more. Julie walks in and instantly dismantles her mother's anger by crumpling in sorrow, realizing that Matt's going to leave. And leave he does, as we end on a shot of Matt driving a long road in his beat-up Taurus, his very slight smile only making us cry harder because the only thing more poignant than teen heartbreak is Matt Saracen inching toward happiness.
Want more? The full recap starts right below! The East Dillon Lions are set to play undefeated McNulty this Friday in a televised game, Slammin' Sammy tells us in voice over. Luke sprints down the side of a rural road, Vince is at the barber shop with Bad Gold Chain Kid, listening to Sammy's coverage. Bad Gold Chain Kid laughs about the only thing worse than being on a bad team is being on a bad team on TV: "Everybody watchin' you?!" Vince isn't having any of it.Lions coaching staff meets. Staub's feet are bouncing, the other guy whose name I've already forgotten, goes down the list of the ways McNulty is better than the Lions. Coach Taylor declares they're going to keep it simple and distributes sheets. Staub mutters that these are "offensive" (pronounced as in "rude") players while the other guy rubs his face tiredly and corrects him: "OFFensive, OFFensive." Coach just steamrolls over their "Who's on first" routine and says that McNulty is undefeated, the game is televised, this is a "game changer" and he doesn't like it. Staub, apropos of nothing, smiles, "That's what I'm talking about!" Coach says they're going to go down to the field with the media to talk briefly with the reporters. Staub jumps up and says "Alright let's keep it simple!" and walks off. Coach: "I'm not finished." This is a somewhat confusing scene, like it's gesturing toward some Staub storyline which remains rather muddled, honestly.
At Fran's Hamburgers drive-in, Julie and Matt are making out in his car. Julie pulls away and says she just remembered something. Matt deadpans, "Oh, no, what? You're pregnant aren't you?" Julie's lip gloss is all over Matt's lips, which makes this scene supremely squee-y. Julie laughs and plays along, saying that, yes, she is pregnant...with twin...aliens. What an awkwardly dorky teenaged thing to say. Julie tells him that she got tickets to the Austin Indie Music Festival (read: SXSW) as a surprise but then....his father died. She offers to give them away but Matt thinks they should go. He's full of pluck when he jokes that someone gave him a "griefing" handbook and Chapter 2 says "when your dad dies you should most likely go to a music festival. Preferably in Austin." Julie asks Matt if he's sure he'll be okay and he assures her: "He's dead. I'm alive. Let's go."
Lions football field. Coach meets with the media, replying to their dumbass questions ("How do you intend to measure your success?" with smartass answers ("Well, we're gonna use the scoreboard to measure that success." He tells them he wants the score to reflect that they left everything they have on the field. A reporter asks "Are you saying you're going to win this game?" but before Coach can get an answer out Staub starts grinning and smiling behind his left shoulder and says "We can win and we will win!" The reporters shift to him and ask if he is guaranteeing a victory and Staub replies, "I am guaranteeing a victory!" The other coach forcibly removes him from the media while Coach just stares straight ahead. Again-- I'm just not totally getting this storyline yet. Who really cares about a loose-lipped assistant coach? Is this a big deal in sports circles? The whole "guarantee" thing seems kind of contrived.