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
In the locker room, Coach, hair kind of loosey goosey with expectation, tells his boys that they have nuthin' to be ashamed of. Luke grins at Vince. Coach tells them to quiet down a minute and take a knee. They do so, and Coach brings the room down a bit-- telling them that a lot of them probably know Matt Saracen, and some have even played with him, so they've probably heard that his father has passed away, and the funeral is in a couple of days. He requests that they say a word for him and his family and then calls on "Lance" to lead a prayer. Now, last episode, he knew that Landry's name is Landry, not Lance-- so what's with the regression? If he was just teasing, he could probably have picked a more appropriate time. Anyhow, Landry leads the team in the Lord's Prayer.
Cut to Matt Saracen sitting in his room watching a video his father sent him from Iraq for Christmas. His father is on the screen in fatigues and a Santa hat, speaking rather stiltedly and formally to the son he doesn't seem to know very well. Shelby knocks on the door and tells Matt he has company. Landry and Julie walk in, forcing some quietly awkward cheer about how Matt doesn't have an option, it's bad movie night. Can you imagine Landry and Julie coming up with this plan? Too sweet. Matt just looks blankly, keeps twirling this pencil in his hand and asks how the game was. Julie tells him it was good and that "twinkle toes over here kicked two points." Landry stutters objection to that nickname saying he thought something more like "Golden Foot" than Twinkle Toes. Landry switches the subject and tells Matt that he likes one of the twenty or so sketched hands Matt has tacked on the wall above his desk; Landry picks the same sketched hand that Matt's artist mentor Richard told him "didn't make me puke." Landry sort of remarks on all the hands on the wall -- which hang there as a nice visual reminder to us of Matt's sometimes hidden intensity. Julie asks him what's on the computer and Matt starts playing the video again, with his father still overly serious, telling Matt that he sent him something in the mail. Matt scoffs a bit and remembers, "Fifty bucks" His father mentions that they're doing a good job over there, and will be finished soon. This was three years ago. The video finishes playing and Julie quietly says it was nice. Matt grabs another sketch and asks if they like it. Landry wonders, "Is that a hand?" This sketch looks far more angry and abstract than the others. Matt sort of chuckles and then gets up and tells them to come watch the movie with him.