Jason and Lyla try to get back together the old-fashioned way: by falling into bed together. Er, by falling onto the floor together. Jason's parts aren't working quite right yet, though, and so there's some angst over how he can't satisfy her like Riggins did, but that angst passes quickly and rather undramatically. No Kurt and Courtney, these two. Matt Saracen's dad comes home from Iraq on leave for two weeks and really acts the jerk. He refuses to come home permanently, even though it would be an option for him given that his son is over his head trying to take care of his senile legal-guardian grandmother. Instead, he proposes that Matt move to Oklahoma to live with his aunt. Matt tells his father to go to hell and camps out in the Taylor backyard trying to figure out what to do. Coach Taylor has gotten a call from the University of Texas, offering him a position as quarterback coach year, which I can't imagine how he'll pass up. A Big 12 salary AND Trudy's Tex-Mex down the street? Sign me up. For queso!
Finally, Tami is worried about Tim Riggins not doing his own homework, and so foists the dreamboat onto Landry for some literature tutoring. Landry reads Tim Of Mice and Men and helps him make some "my dreams, too, have been crushed" connections between the novella and his own life, insights that get Tim a B-minus on his oral report. Tim repays Landry by showing up to see Landry front his Christian speed-metal band Crucifictorius. The awesomeness speaks for itself.
Viewer discretion! Woot!
Jason Street snaps awake at a few minutes to six in the morning, looking pretty surly. Tom Petty snarls on the soundtrack. Jason struggles out of bed and into his wheelchair, and we cut inside the garage as Jason wheels himself in and begins an awesomely gritty workout in the early morning light. Cut to Jason sitting in the shower, exhausted; cut out to the living room where Jason is pawing through a shelf of CDs while his mom gets ready for work. This kid is ramped up. He yells at his mom about where his Nevermind CD is. She suggests that it's in his room. Jason snaps back that it should be "here with the rest of Nirvana." This whole scene is like an early birthday present for me, assuring me that turning thirty-one doesn't mean I'm old if the kids are still doing the Nirvana-angst thing. ["Or that the show is kind of behind the times with what the kids are listening to today. Of course, this is coming from the guy whose high school class worshiped at the feet of Pink Floyd and Bruce Springsteen. In 1997. So enduring Nirvana love is certainly plausible." -- Joe R] Meanwhile, Jason is really starting to lose it, throwing CDs on the floor and spitting with anger. His mom asks why he's getting so upset, and Scott Porter swings around and shouts, "Cuz I'm CRIPPLED and I want to listen to NIRVANA!!" Can't really argue with that reasoning. Jason declares that he's just going to go get another CD and his mom pleadingly reminds him that the record store is four miles away. Jason just matter-of-factly says that he'd better get going, then.
Cut to Jason wheeling down the overgrown and rarely-used sidewalks of a small Texas town, sweating and out of breath. The camera zooms by him, and he looks small and insignificant, like he's a character in a Frank Norris novel. He stops to pour water from his water bottle over himself. Cut inside the record shop where Jason expertly wheels himself down an aisle and then does this totally awesome flip-turn sort of roundabout to get himself facing the rack of CDs. Beautiful detail, which I'm sure took some work on Porter's part, to develop the character's increasingly natural bearing without his legs. He quickly finds the CD and raises it triumphantly over his head. Some new pop music fades in in the background as he notices Lyla walking down another aisle in the store. He gets a glint in his eyes and it seems all the testosterone of the morning is coalescing into one very good/bad idea.
He quietly wheels behind Lyla and tosses off a joke, "You can find Clay Aiken under 'A'." Lyla gets a slow, flirty smile, and responds "Like he's not your boyfriend." Jason reminds her "Hey, America loves him and so do I." What an awesome line. I wish I had written it. Lyla wants an invitation to the wedding, but Jason tells her that "It's just going to be me, Clay...and...a harpist." He looks pleased with himself and then continues, joking that Ryan Seacrest is going to perform the ceremony. Jason wheels himself around so he's facing Lyla, she turns toward him and cutely cutes, "Hi" and the two just stand there looking at one another, sparks practically bouncing off both of their hot asses. Two girls call out from the background that Lyla needs to come with them or they'll miss class. I love this early morning trip to the record shop. Jason says she needs to go, and Lyla responds, "Unless I don't." Meanwhile, Spoon's "I Turn My Camera On" starts up in the background. Oooh, the hated Britt Daniel. Such an Austin jerk, such good pop songs. Cut to a close-up on Minka Kelly's face as she sexes, "I know we have a lot to talk about..." Her delivery of the line is so, so good, all urge and knowingness and want, and for the moment we all forget all about her Rehab Perkiness. Jason quickly responds that they should "go somewhere."
Quick cut to Jason and Lyla in Jason's house. She's on his lap, he's peeling her shirt off. They're laughing and giggling together; Lyla asks how they're supposed to do this, Jason says he doesn't know. Lyla tries straddling him, then suggests "what if I put my leg here" and hoists her boot-clad leg up on his shoulder. They laugh and paw at one another, and are totally both in this moment together, and the whole scene is just perfect. Jason tells Lyla to hold on, he's got an idea. She gets off his lap and he manhandles his legs outside the wheelchair and then hoists himself onto the ground, where he lands with an awkward and violent thump. He laughs, somewhat maniacally, Lyla looks on with some concern, and their disparate reactions hint that this scene is not going to end all that well. He tells her to stop gawking and get down there with him, which she does, but you can see in her eyes that all is not well. She utters the dreaded "It's okay, it's okay" and leans in to kiss him. Jason is crestfallen, asks her to stop, "Lyla, stop, I can't feel anything." Oof.
Uninspiring credits. Matt's at the sink, doing dishes, the phone cradled on his shoulder. He's talking to some "ma'am" worrying about a Medicare bill he's received having to do with his Grandmother. Meanwhile, Grandma talks to Matt like he's not on the phone, telling him to get his dad to help him fix a faucet. Matt, annoyed, reminds her that his dad's in Iraq. She keeps talking, in her senile, automaton way, but something about how she says "Go help your father with his bags" strikes Matt as unusual, and he goes to the front door. Outside, he pauses, his mouth hangs open as he sees his father getting out of a taxicab. He calls out "Dad?!" like the cutest little boy in the world and then runs across the street and practically tackles his father in a big bear hug.
Football practice is wrapping up. The boys come into a huddle, and there's some upcoming-game blah blah, and then a reminder that First Baptist is having their annual dinner for the team. The boys groan, but Coach Taylor sternly instructs them that they will be there with jackets and ties, that they will not use foul language, and that they will not make jackasses out of themselves. Aw, so sweet how he tries to rein in teenaged boys' natural tendencies toward jackassery.
Inside the school, Tami has Tim Riggins in her office. Can you even imagine what is running through this boy's head as he sits across from this hot mama? But Tami is all business, talking to Tim about his failing English class. Tim is attempting to blind her with his slow, charming smile, but he doesn't realize that Tami invented that move. She asks if he's started reading the book he's supposed to give an oral report on. I imagine Tim is busy with all sorts of oral reports. Sorry. Couldn't resist. He insists, with a smile, that he has never gotten help on his homework from a rally girl. Tami is the perkiest interrogator I've ever seen. She asks him specifically about a paper on The Scarlet Letter that she knows Julie stayed up all night to write. He assures her he wrote his paper. She perkily asks to see it. Cut outside to Tim's locker, where he hands her "Modern Themes in The Scarlet Letter" on which he got an A-. Tami "Burden of Proof" Taylor is not convinced and so asks him what the book is about. Tim looks charmingly intently, "You know..." Tami responds that she does know, and so Tim starts stuttering a bit about how it's "about...a...gal...whose name...is Scarlet, obviously." Heh.
Tami gets quietly shrill about Tim not writing the paper. Tim asks her what the big deal is, and Tami responds with the best, most succinct articulation of why we try to educate ourselves and our children: "Because it's my job to make sure you don't grow up stupid." Pause. "It's bad for the world." Cf., 2001-the present. Tim laughs. Tami goes from perky to pissed faster than you can spit and informs Tim that it is now her personal job to make sure he doesn't get any more free passes. He can see she's serious, and so he gets serious himself: "We are two wins away from the playoffs, Mrs. Taylor." She nods and tells him she appreciates that fact. He pleads with her, saying that if he doesn't pass, he doesn't play. She just stares at him impassively and says "Well I guess we'd better get you to pass, then."
Cut over to a dive bar/BBQ joint where Herc and Jason sit watching some football. Herc is busy shouting weird man stuff at the game on the television until Jason sort of blurts out, "How do I have sex?" Herc teases Jason that "my boy is growin' up" but Jason is serious, and just says he needs some information after "a mishap." Herc wonders if he was alone or with a girl, and Jason says the latter. He clarifies, with some embarrassment, "I was having trouble...staying at attention." Herc first tells Jason he's proud of him and then asks, "Where'd you find her?" like Jason will respond that he found her out back of the Big Boy or something. When it becomes clear that it was Lyla, Herc goes nuts, "Nooo! Booo!" and then, "Of course your ding-dong went soft! It was tryin' to protect ya!" Herc keeps at it until Jason tells him how unhelpful he's being. Herc says he knows what Jason was doing, "You wanted to grab her and do her. You wanted to bang the bejeezus outta her," to make her forget about Riggins. Jason has to admit that, yes, this was exactly what he wanted to do. I have a feeling Lyla's hot fuck-me boots had a little something to do with it, too. Herc tells Jason that it's not going to happen, at least not for a while, that Jason is "like a newborn baby, you don't know how to do anything." He tells the ParaNewbie that he needs to figure out what turns him on because what worked before might not anymore. Jason wants to know if he'll ever "be able to...you know." Herc: "You mean fireworks? Super, happy, fun time?" Luckily the Jason Street Bad News Train stops here as Herc assures him he will. The train sort of lurches forward a bit, though, when Herc qualifies, "Just maybe not every time." Herc finally adopts a sensitive tone as he tells Jason that nothing is the same anymore, and that there's more to life than just "hit it and quit it." Well, now, I guess Herc didn't see Lyla in those boots, then.
School library. Tami approaches Landry, who looks at her with suspicion, and rightly so. Because Tami's brought Tim Riggins with her. Tami steamrolls Landry, telling him that Tim is looking for an English tutor, talking over any of his objections and then leaving them be.
Out on the football field, Matt keeps his eye on the sidelines as he practices, because his father has come to watch. Coach notices Matt wanting to impress his father, and makes sure to tell him that he's doing a nice job. Meanwhile, Anonymous Assistant Coach (seriously, can anybody keep these portly men in blue straight?) walks up to Taylor and asks if he's seen the latest issue of Texas Football, where apparently Coach Taylor has been named one of the ten best high school football coaches in the state. Coach is modest, doesn't want to talk about it, but the assistant coaches murmur about putting this info on t-shirts, the radio, et cetera. Coach calls a three-minute break to get away from their clucking.
Matt walks up to his father and shakes his hand and then brings him over to meet Coach Taylor. Coach Taylor is, as usual, smooth as silky panties as he small talks with Henry Saracen. Coach is all nice words about Matt; Henry, in response is all ass words about his own son. "I didn't know he had it in 'im." Coach pauses, hopefully considering what an ass face Henry is already being, before reminding the man that, yes, his son has plenty in him. Henry: "Just hope he keeps doing okay under pressure." Matt looks confused, as any son would when finding out that "war hero" does not translate into "good dad."
Outside school, Julie tries to reassure Matt that his dad is just having a hard time expressing himself. Julie's all about the skinny jeans (thanks, Delia's!), and she looks cute. Landry, helpful as ever, suggests that his father is "war crazy" and "all messed up." Landry is, meanwhile, putting posters up around school campus. Julie asks Matt if his father is going to help figure out home care for his grandmother. Matt says that of course he is, that his coming home now is perfect timing to help out on that front. Landry, again so helpfully, says that what Matt's dad needs is "to come see my band, Crucifictorius" ["...Awesome." -- Joe R] and then calls out across the totally-not-paying-attention football field, "Anyone? Show's at eleven. Gotta get there early, it's gonna be pretty packed." As Julie and Matt walk off, she asks "We have to go to that, don't we?" and Matt says that if they don't, nobody else will show up.
Jason lies in bed when Lyla knocks on the door. She says she's brought "Dirty. Dirty. Dirty...quad porn," and then we cut to the television screen on which a librarian-looking woman lectures the viewer about precautions to take before engaging in sexual activity. I don't know what Lyla's been watching up until now, but I don't know that this tape merits the three "dirties" she gave it. If I were reviewing, I'd probably go with "institutional" or "dick-withering" over "dirty, dirty, dirty." Lyla is back in full-on Helper Bee mode, our least favorite mode for her to be in. Bring back the fuck-me boots, girl! When the word "masturbation" comes out of the Dorothy Hamill-looking lady on the screen, Jason speaks for us all and begs Lyla to turn the tape off. Lyla acknowledges that maybe this isn't the porn he was expecting, but that there's lots of useful stuff in the video. To illustrate her point, we cut back to the tape, where it appears that some frizzy-haired blonde woman is mounting Keith Hernandez in a wheelchair. Jason decides he's had enough and fumbles with the remote. Lyla whines at Jason for turning the tape off, and then proceeds to talk over their problems, assuring him that they'll get through this, and saying "a lot of couples have a lot of luck in the shower." I'm afraid this show is giving off the impression that becoming paralyzed gives teens a free pass to just have sex wherever they want. "Don't mind us, mom, we're just a mature couple with a bit of sexual dysfunction to work out. We'll wash the kitchen table down when we're done." Jason finally puts a stop to Lyla's "helpful" "suggestions" by blurting out that if she "want[s] to get laid so bad, call Riggins." Ouch.
Out in the empty football stadium, Landry is finishing the novella up, "...Now what the hell you suppose is eatin' them two guys?" Tim is contemplative and when Landry finishes says, "Damn. Guy shot his best friend." Landry's kind of psyched that Tim is having some sort of emotional reaction. Tim continues, "Now he's become the kind of man he never wanted to be." Landry is great here, he's like walking on eggshells to try to keep the words coming from Tim, but he can't resist an "Exactly! Without Lenny, George lost all his humanity. Okay, so, oral report..." Tim clams up when Landry asks him how the themes of the book relate to him. Landry is incensed, but when Tim tells him to just do it for him, he loses it. "Man you really are ridiculous. Do you have the rally girls do everything for you? Chew your food and wipe your butt?" Don't ask for information you don't want to get, my man. Landry insists that Tim has to have something to say about this book. Tim shouts back "I don't know! I don't know!" Landry starts gesturing wildly, "This is a book! About two best friends! Whose dream! Gets crushed! There's not something in this head of yours that you can relate this to?!" Landry throws the book down at Tim and storms off. Holy Edward James Olmos! "The only thing I ask from you is ganas. Desire." Love it.
Jason rings the Taylors' doorbell. Tami answers and addresses him in her only-dogs-can-hear high pitch. She tells him that Coach isn't there, but invites him in anyway. Inside, Tami asks Jason when he thinks he might be ready to go back to school. She tells him he can come back whenever, expositing that he only has a few credits back. Jason hesitantly tells her that he's just not sure he's ready to get back in the middle of the Dillon High Rumor Mill. Tami asks if he's talking about the thing with Lyla and then does the Head Tilt of Just Try Not to Confide In This Woman. And Jason succumbs: "I'm just so confused" he says, and the simplicity of the statement is surprising and affecting. Jason starts confiding, interrupts himself to ask Tami not to tell her husband and she sympathetically assures him she "would never." Jason tells her that he and Lyla are sort of trying to get back together but he just doesn't know how to go about it. Tami just listens and listens until she says "It's a hard, hard thing. But I will say, there's no weakness in forgiveness, if that's what you decide." She is just so unbelievably confirming. I wish she'd come live with me and confirm me a little bit.
Commercials. Henry walks into Matt's room and offers his son a tie that "mom gave me about a hundred years ago." I'm still totally unclear on what the deal with Matt's mom could be. Matt fiddles with the tie as his dad drops a bomb, telling Matt that his Aunt Peg in Oklahoma said he could go live with her there. Matt is annoyed and tells his dad that he can just keep living there, taking care of Grandma, like he has been doing. His dad says he found a home for Grandma. Matt inarticulately stutters about her not even knowing anyone there and when his dad approaches him to help him with the tie, Matt shrugs him off and leaves the room.
Church dinner. Praying, football, barbecue. Coach Taylor sits down to Riggins, who is in the most perfectly ugly jacket, shirt, and tie combination. No Ben Sherman on this show! Coach sort of quietly asks Riggins "I don't give you the impression that I only think of you as a football player do I? I bring this up because as usual my wife is always right." Heh. Coach continues, telling Riggins that he's going to be keeping an eye on Riggins's midterm grades. He tells him in no uncertain terms, "No pass. No play."
Over in the buffet line, Julie asks Matt where his dad is. Matt stutters around about his dad having had something come up, but when Julie keeps pushing, he snaps at her. She asks if he's okay, and he tells her no, and that her picking on him doesn't make anything better. Julie is chastened and walks away from him. Tami sees it all go down. Cut to Matt, later that night, in his untucked white dress shirt, throwing footballs at his rigged-up tire, sounds of a cheering crowd fading into the background.
Cut to the game on Friday night, where Matt is just making a mess of things, missing open receivers, making bad pitches, all to the horrible tune of Audioslave. Smash is picking up the slack though, and the Panthers are very much in the game. The Panthers steal back the ball after a block, Matt goes in and...makes a mess of it, overthrowing Smash big-time in the end zone. Coach finally pulls him and puts in the QB2, Weston, telling Matt "it's not your night, son." Matt's dad walks away from the field when his son is taken out. The QB2 gets the job done and the Panthers win, all while Matt looks on with heartbreak in his eyes.
The crowd -- everyone in blue shirts -- meanders out of the stadium joyfully. Matt meanders out mournfully. His father takes a stab at reassuring him, telling him that he'll get 'em time. Matt mutters, "You're sending me to Oklahoma." His father callously says "You can play football anywhere." Matt turns away from him and tells his father to go to hell. His father says, "What?" And Matt says it again, "Go to hell, dad!" In front of the crowds leaving, Matt tells his father to go back to Iraq. Henry acts like he's five years old, retorting, "Really? You callin' me all the time?" and then makes fun of his son feeling overwhelmed about not knowing how to take care of a senile old woman. Real nice, pops. Julie and Tami have rolled up in time to see this familial meltdown, and Matt and Henry start literally screaming at each other about who's got it harder. Henry tries to grab Matt and force him in the truck, but Matt refuses. He calls out to his dad to let him know when he goes back to Iraq. When Henry condescendingly asks where Matt's going to go, Matt says he doesn't know. Julie goes to Matt and puts her arm around him, pulling him away from his father.
Crucifictorius show at The Broken Spoke. Which is truly an Austin-style weirdo rock show. Three people stand around watching Landry eat the microphone, and I suppose we are to deduce that his inarticulate screamo is somehow having to do with the Lord. They're pretty good, as far as Christian screamo goes. Tim walks in as they wrap up one song and slow claps a bit. Landry is happy to see him. Tim tells him, "That was some intense stuff, some intense stuff, man." He then tells Landry that he showed up to tell him that he got a B-minus. Perhaps not quite as nice as showing up selflessly, but whatevs. Landry is pleased, and Tim tells him that he appreciates his help. Tim apologizes that he missed the last bit of the set, but Landry assures him that there's another set coming up. He tells him to stand right up front and then shows Tim how he's supposed to head bang. Landry is wearing a Crucifictorius t-shirt, and I beg any fan out there with access to Photoshop and some iron-on transfers to get on that shit. The t-shirt is the coolest thing I've ever seen.
Jason is lying on his side in bed when Lyla starts climbing in his window very, very loudly. Jason tells her, "You're incredibly stealthy. You could be like a glamorous jewel thief." So cute. This is the first episode where we got a hint of why these two like one another, other than the fact that they were the golden children of the town. Lyla tells Jason to shut up and then sits down to him. One thing this girl does get is that the burden is on her to try to make their relationship work again. BTW, Jason has this heartbreakingly dorky poster of footballs on his wall, four footballs printed in a square, done in a sort of Andy Warhol style. Jason asks Lyla why she's there, and she shrugs that she just can't kick the habit. He lifts himself onto his elbows, and she tells him that she knows that she can't stop it if he wants to end things, but she just doesn't want things to end on the note they did the other night. She says she just wanted to be close to him, and he responds that he's trying. She tells him that she loves him; he says he knows.
Julie sits on the couch, really down in the mouth. Outside the sliding glass door, Matt sits and talks with Coach, Matt in a desolate lawn chair under a tree, Coach standing above him. Tami asks her daughter what she's doing, and she sadly says she just doesn't want Matt to have to go. Aw. Outside, Matt -- with his hoodie of teenage angst up -- talks to Coach about being forced to move to Oklahoma. Coach says that he will talk with Henry, but Matt doesn't think that will work. Coach tells Matt that Buddy Garrity would never let Matt cross the state line before the state championship. Matt says, "I hate him. I hate my dad." Coach won't stand for that talk and tells Matt to not make that mistake, to think about what he said, come in and then Coach will bring him home.
At the Saracen house, Henry stands above Grandma as Matt quietly walks in the front door in time to see his father gently take his mother's glasses off and tuck her in. Henry turns and sees his son, they exchange a meaningful glance, Henry shuts the lights off and I take a moment to check in with myself.
Nope, heart not warmed. Henry's still an asshole.