Episode Report Card Drunken Bee: A+ | 16 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT The Work
By Drunken Bee | Season 4 | Episode 5 | Aired on 06.04.2010
Cut to Becky stocking up on junk food and beer at the convenience store. She thrusts it all at the sales clerk who asks her if she's got ID. She deepens her drawl and says that it's for her momma who isn't feelin' too good. He insists on ID and then WELL HELLO. A shirtless Luke comes shuffling out of the bathroom telling the clerk that he's almost out of soap. And remember that stuff I said up there about being okay with being a responsible woman and not a reckless girl anymore? STRIKE FROM THE RECORD. Seriously. Matt Lauria. Where did you come from? He gives the clerk the bathroom key back and says "Hey, Becky right?" She remarks on the red welt from the paintball shot, and the clerk tells him he needs to buy something. Luke smoothly says that Becky's stuff is his, shows his fake ID and gives him some money. They leave the store and she thanks him. He introduces himself and she's like I know who you are. Becky walks off but Luke calls after her, "Hey, you want to go to the car wash? I gotta go to the car wash. I mean look at that thing." And he is just so charming and boyish standing there like he doesn't know that he is everything good and terrible about being a teenager (or, well, being a twenty-something playing a teenager) coming together in a ginormous supernova of carefree-lust-smelly-feet-goofy-jokes-confusion-late-night-bonfires.
Knock at the door while Tami and Eric clean up in the kitchen, the clock behind them reads 10:30. Julie jumps up to answer it and finds Matt, clammy and sweaty and all apologies. He knows he's late, he still can't quite make eye contact or focus. He walks in and immediately apologizes to Tami, but she won't have it, she's all generosity, telling him that it's fine, they saved him a plate and will have dessert with him. Coach asks if he drove and Matt quickly says no, sir, he had a nice walk. And can we pause for a moment here and talk about the scripting of this show? First of all, that line takes care of any nagging that might occur later, when Coach offers to walk Matt home, so it does some practical work in the story line. But, secondly, it economically shows that Coach is already onto Matt's extreme emotional state-- whether or not Matt is still tipsy from drinking, or whether he is too shaken to drive. There's a fatherly sternness, but also deep concern. All from three words that come out as two: "Didju drive?"
So, cut over to the table where Matt pushes the food around on his plate. Julie tells him he doesn't need to eat if he doesn't want, but he says he's hungry, and Tami asks if he wants something else, hun, and Matt is making all these noises of apology and finally blurts out that he doesn't like carrots and he doesn't like when they touch the meat and Tami reaches over to take the plate and says she'll just take it away. But Matt pops up from his seat and says "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" over and over and then says that he's being rude and he doesn't like being rude. Tami, standing across from him, tries to soothe him and says that he isn't being rude and everything's okay, but Matt apologizes some more and then just says "I think I'm having a moment here. I think I'm having a moment here. I don't think I'm okay." And we get a longer shot of all four of them at the table, and this shot completely nails how when terrible things happen they never happen like you picture they will in your head. Like when you picture a tragedy in your mind, there's always a cinematic quality to it, but when something bad really happens, you're just in your regular house with the crappy lighting and standing or sitting at your regular old kitchen table where you sit every day except now everything is different but so completely and utterly and frustratingly the same. Once Matt finally confesses that he doesn't think he's okay, Julie tries to reach out to him, and he starts crying. Without looking at anyone, Matt lets it all out. He confesses that he hated him, and he doesn't like hating people, so he just put all his hate onto his father so he wouldn't have to hate anyone else, so he could be a good person, to his grandmother, to his friends, "to your daughter." Tami and Eric look at him, their faces full of pain and compassion. Matt says that all he wants is to tell his father that he hated him to his face, but now he doesn't even have a face. Saying that is too much for Matt, and he thanks the Taylors again and turns to leave. Julie sort of shrieks in distress that he doesn't have to leave, but Tami calmly tells her that it's okay. Julie turns and yells "You're just going to let him go like that?" Coach has followed her down the little hall to the front door, gives her a kiss on the head, puts her in her mother's arms, and follows Matt outside, telling Julie that he's going to be alright. While Tami strokes her daughter's hair, Julie snuffles that she has to do something, she can't let just let him hurt like that. There is simply TOO MUCH LOVE in this house right now.