Episode Report Card Drunken Bee: B+ | 5 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Of The Souls Of Strippers
By Drunken Bee | Season 1 | Episode 16 | Aired on 02.13.2007
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Part Two of our "Mac the Greek" storyline wraps itself up with a messy little bow. While Smash, Buddy, and Tami (there's a threesome that makes me see pigs flying) all agree that Mac should get fired for his comments, Coach cannot bring himself to fire the self-professed "simple man" and takes so long hemming and hawing that Mac himself finally proffers his resignation. Which Coach refuses to accept, thus forcing the ambivalent hands of the black players. Smash's mom steps in and teaches her son a lesson about picking his battles, and the black players return to the team and head off to Dunston to play in the whatever-finals game (seriously, I'm sorry, but there's simply too much human interest for me to keep track of where they are in the post-season).
Once the team gets to Dunston, though, they find out they've actually been living in Hippie-Dippie, La-La, Peace and Unity Land over in Dillon because the mofos at Dunston are SCARY racist. After a brawl breaks out, the game is called in favor of the Panthers, who have to exit the stadium to boos and tossed debris. But it doesn't stop there, because then the team bus actually gets pulled over by two scary-ass white sheriffs who are asking that Smash be delivered over to them for "aggravated assault" perpetrated on the football field. Coach goes bizarrely speechless, allowing Mac to pipe up and tell the sheriffs that they need a warrant for that kind of Jim Crow shit. Which they don't have. So Mac sort of makes up for being passively racist for stepping in and preventing the murderous racists for having their way with Smash. God that scene was chilling.
In girl-on-girl land, Tyra continues leading Julie to the keg of teenaged rebellion. When the two stop off at Ole Sis's strip club to pick up some cash, they (along with Matt and Landry) get busted by an undercover cop and sent to the juvie clink. The Taylors, especially Tami, start to lose it with their rapidly more impossible daughter. But at the very end, when Matt gets a moment to pull Julie aside, give her an apology necklace, and officially ask her to be his girlfriend, we know they are good kids. That is, they're good...for now... Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Smash and the other boycotting black football players stand in a group outside, being interviewed by the press. An African-American reporter asks Smash, who is clearly the group's representative, if they are lodging a protest against how black players are treated on the team. Smash says that it isn't really about the treatment but about "the attitude. Look, all we want is equality and respect." The reporter follows up, expositing that there are 16 black players on the team, which accounts for more than twenty-five percent of the team. He leads Smash a little, asking him if they think black players aren't getting enough opportunity to play. Again, Smash has to say, "No, it's not about that." The camera, ranging around, finds Corinna, who looks on her son with some reservation. Smash tries to explain that they are protesting "certain people in charge making assumptions about us based on our color." The reporter asks if they want Mac to be fired for his comments, and Smash says that that "would be a good start."
Cut over to the Panther football offices where another Random Guy in a Blue Shirt takes the name placards of all the players that are boycotting off the line-up bulletin board. Everybody is shaking their heads because the picture that emerges is that they basically don't have a team to put on the field on Friday. But Kyle Chandler's Hair won't stand for this sad sack group of coaches, so it stands up tall, rubs its hands together like it's got a plan. Coach Taylor: "What we're gonna do is we're gonna dip into JV." Wah wah waaah.
Cut to the field where Coach is trying to replace 180 pounds of pure power with 150 pounds of lank hair and acne. The JV kids are messing up all over the place, Coach is yelling in frustration. "Tyler! Tyler! Tyler! Tyler!" He's so incapable of understanding their stupidity on the field that all he can do is repeat himself. He calls Tyler over and sets himself to giving the poor kid a quiz: "What's your name? What's your grandfather's name? What's your mother's maiden name?" The kid answers each question correctly. Mumbling, but correctly. Taylor shouts, "How the hell can you remember all that and not remember the route I asked you to run?" Another play starts getting staged. Timmy Riggins is stepping the fuck up and shouting at these little weasel kids -- "Get yer head outta yer ass!" Matt calls the play, and Riggins get clobbered and freaks out on poor Taylor who was not where he was supposed to be and so not doing the blocking he was supposed to.