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It's The Tami Taylor Show! Tami wakes with a start with a bad feeling about the family's possible move to Austin. She rouses a bedheaded Eric and pleads with him not to accept the TMU offer during his campus visit. But during that visit, the TMU dudes give him the hard sell -- basically, "accept now or we rescind the offer" -- and so he accepts.
Meanwhile, Landry struggles with the responsibility of keeping Tyra's secret for her. He finally tells Matt that Tyra was assaulted and Matt, always the moral compass (well, always the moral compass when there aren't rally girls involved), tells Landry he HAS to tell someone. So Landry tells Tami.
Tami goes to Tyra and is able to give the girl some small comfort, as well as taking her to the police to report the assault. And though Tyra takes it out a bit on Landry that he violated his promise, she is comforted. If small-ly. And when Tami sees what true service she provides to the kids of Dillon, she really, really starts feeling like she doesn't want to leave. So she suggests to her husband that she and Julie stay in Dillon until Julie graduates. Coach says no.
At the roast in honor of the state-bound football team, folks get up to make lame jokes (Buddy), inappropriate jokes (Tim), and poignant jokes (Tami). Tami's humor is poignant because it highlights just how much she has sacrificed for Eric throughout their marriage, and so when they get home and tell one another how much each loves the other, that doesn't stop Tami from looking straight at her obviously loving and doting and good husband and telling him, "Baby, I'm not going to Austin."
Also, when Jackie tells Tim that they can't keep sleeping together, he goes back to Tyra, insisting that he just wants to be friends. She's amenable, if suspicious, but when she shows up to the roast with him, Landry can't take it and finally snaps, telling Tyra what she's in for if she picks a man like Tim: a drunk, gas station attendant who cheats on her and treats her like crap. But before he can tell her that the better man she deserves is him, Tim comes up and stops him in his tracks.
And! God, this episode just keeps going! Lyla and Jason aren't getting married. Lyla catching Jason kissing Tattoo Girl pretty much sealed that deal. And Buddy and Pam are getting de-married, which makes those forty-eight hours or so, all in all, pretty bad ones for Lyla. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Early morning. Eric is sound asleep, Tami is awake. She quietly asks her husband to wake up. He rouses with a start, all "Who, what, where? What's dead? Where's the fish?" Tami reassures him that he hasn't missed his flight and then says that she's just woken up with a terrible feeling that they shouldn't move to Austin. Eric mumbles that it's just cold feet and she should go back to sleep. Tami persists, requesting that when he goes to TMU today, that he just not commit one way or the other. Coach: "Mrrmmph." Tami wonders if he's heard her. He "mrrmmphs" again. Pause. The alarm goes off, and Tami says "I guess it is time to get up." Coach says he's going to kill her. And it's true, one of the worst feelings in the whole world is getting woken up by something just a few minutes before the alarm goes off. While one of the best feelings in the world is waking at 2 AM, sure it's time to get up, and then realizing you've got hours -- HOURS! -- left to sleep. I think about sleep, and how I'd like to be asleep, and how best to sleep a lot, if you must know.
A pretty, folksy song -- sounds a little like Jana Hunter (associate of my nemesis Devendra Banhart) but I can't confirm anywhere -- takes us over to the house of Hands on a Hard Body. Tim and Jackie are rolling around in bed, smacking lips while a tiny little voice Sandy Duncans from the distance, squeaking that he's hungry. Jackie sort of kicks Tim out of bed (marking the first time that's ever happened to him) and they both bumble with their pants and robes and such. Tim tumbles out the first-floor window and into the bushes, while Jackie barely gets a robe wrapped around her fantastic body before going out to her son. Cut to Jackie and Little Sandy Duncan puttering in the kitchen when there's a knock on the door. Bo does his "yesss!" fist pump move and rushes to answer it, saying he knows who that will be. Jackie looks after him with concern. Bo opens the door to Tim standing in the glare of the morning light and remarks, "Tim Riggins, you're up early!" Tim answers that it's because they're going to start training. Tim kneels down, and Bo starts enthusiastically punching his upheld hands. Jackie is now super concerned.
Cut over to Coach getting the tour of the fancy digs at TMU. And they are fancy -- gleaming turf, shiny white buildings, et cetera. Cut in to an office overlooking the enormous field where, presumably, the head coach of TMU first compliments the work Eric has done with the kids in Dillon and then puts the screws to him. He reminds Eric that the offer's been on the table for a week and that their second choice for the position has offers from three other universities. They won't let their second choice get away while waiting for Eric's decision. Eric has to decide now or they'll withdraw the offer. Coach's hair is quite mussed for a man in a professional meeting, seemingly foreshadowing what Eric's appearance will be after the ass-whupping his wife is going to give him when she hears what we hear right now, "Gentlemen, I accept."
Uninspiring credits. Long shot of a shabby, white ranch house set out in the country. It's the Collette house, first time we've gotten an exterior shot. Landry knocks on the door, bringing a cranky Tyra to answer it. Landry's ditching class and trying to make it seem like business-as-usual, but Tyra calls him on it: "Have you ever ditched a class in your entire life?" He admits that he hasn't. He's checking up on Tyra since she hasn't been in school the past two days. He wonders if she's told anyone about what happened, like maybe her mom, and she snaps that her mom is "out in the boonies with my aunt who's dying of ovarian cancer, so, you know, there's more important things going on." Wow. Landry keeps pushing, wondering if there's anyone else she could talk to about it, and Tyra yells, "LANDRY, there's no one, all right?" She again tells him that he can't go blabbing about it to anyone either, and he looks at her with total fear and confusion before turning and walking away. We get a shot of her moving to the window to push aside the curtain and watch him leave, her brow furrowed, clearly hurt and confused as well.
A strange posse walks down the hall in school. There's Smash, The Galoot, some other football guys, some random nerd and Waverly. The Galoot exposits that he doesn't want to have to get up and tell jokes at the roast, and another football player agrees saying that they aren't comedians. The Random Nerd says that's what makes it great, that none of them are funny. Smash tries out a joke, "When Matt was first made quarterback, he was so shy he had to email his plays in." Random Nerd basically says "case in point" and then Smash gets kind of weirdly 'roidy with him "Yo, say that to my face!" (Uh, he did.) Anyhow, Waverly pulls Smash away as the strange and contrived posse continue on. She tells him that she's not going to go to the roast with him. Smash responds by reverting to the third person: "Smash don't fly solo!" He wonders what the big deal is and Waverly just tells him to trust her, that the roast would stress her out and she needs to focus on keeping her life structured. Smash reluctantly says okay.
Jason is wheeling out of some civil building and runs into Suzie (Tattoo Girl). He laughs. (We groan.) She wonders what he's there for; he wonders likewise. (We take a quick nap.) Jason is there to fill out "paperwork" as he is now gainfully employed as an Assistant Coach for the Dillon Panthers. Great, Jason! But why are you making me think about all of the boring things for which you do have to go to Municipal Hall, not one of which would have anything to do with getting a new job? Suzie is there to pay a parking ticket and exposits with effort, "You know, getting a traffic ticket in Dillon, got to pay it in Dillon." It turns out she's staying with her sister (she of the refrigerator dropping off) for a few weeks, and Jason says they should get together, see a movie, whatever. They settle on Thursday, and Suzie says, "Sounds like a date! Er, uh, not a date, a plan, uh, an arrangement." Okay, I'll bite: somewhat charming. Jason leaves and jokes that he'll see her Thursday for their "arrangement." What is with these two and their vaguely European outings?
Just when you thought this might be a B+ kind of episode, we cut to Matt Saracen getting roused from a very teenaged Hanes-tee-and-jeans nap sprawl. Landry's at the door. Matt greets him with good humor. Matt jokes, not realizing how out of sorts Landry is, saying that he's been dying to hear how the big study date with Tyra Collette went. Matt flashes Landry a smile that makes me kick Tim Riggins right out of my bed. Landry snaps at Matt about how all he is is "comic relief for the star quarterback," and Matt backpedals, sincerely swearing that he really wants to know how it went, then asking what happened. Landry asks Matt if he swears he won't tell anyone what he's about to say -- not Julie, not anyone. Matt assures him he won't.
"There was an attack." Matt's face goes slack and he starts mumbling, "Wha-wha-what do you mean?" Landry explains that some guy attacked Tyra and "tried to do stuff to her." Matt first asks if Tyra's okay, and Landry pauses -- because she isn't okay, but she is "okay" -- and says that she fought the guy off. The second thing Matt asks is what the cops said. And we cut to a close-up of Landry's pained face because he knows that the second thing that should have happened -- going to the police -- didn't happen, and he feels guilty. Matt wants to know who they've told, and Landry stutters that she swore him to secrecy, and that he can't tell anyone, and "What am I supposed to do? You gotta tell me what am I supposed to do in this situation, Matt." Matt looks right at Landry and doesn't hesitate: "You gotta tell somebody. Landry, you gotta tell somebody." This scene is an absolute gutter, these two young boys trying to figure out how to act ethically in a shitty-ass world that's always pulling you in multiple directions.
Coach walks in the front door. Tami is on the phone and calls out to him as he shuffles down the hall from the door -- "Hey babe! I'm just on the phone trying to reach Tyra, she's been M.I.A. Can't wait to hear how it went!" He shuffles over to her and starts making out with her. Oh, the make-out of guilt. Followed by the champagne bottle of guilt. At the sight of this, Tami asks, "You didn't say yes yet, did you?" Her face is open toward him, though, and so he tells her how it went down. Kyle Chandler's delivery is fantastic. He speaks super quietly and super charmingly, pantomiming himself being like "let me think about this for a min-- YES!" and then going on to tell her with boyish excitement how awesome the whole day was. The stadium, the city, the everything. Tami smiles at him, but her teeth are clenched behind that smile. God these two are good.
Angst-y Explosions in the Sky has begun in the background -- that part of "Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean" that is super tense little shimmery guitars -- and we cut to Eric and Tami walking into Julie's room together. She keeps looking down at her homework. She knows what's coming. Coach: "I took the job in Austin." Tami reaches out to her daughter's face. Julie cries to herself quietly and doesn't say a word even when her father asks if she wants to talk about it.
Cut to Julie slowly walking up Matt's steps, her face a complete sorrowful mess. She peers through the screen door until Grandma notices her and tells Matt that Julie's at the door. He comes to the door -- second time that night a happy Matt Saracen greeting gets met with tears and desperation -- and the minute he sees Julie's face asks her what's wrong. She blurts out, "I'm moving" and then explains, "My dad, he took this job at TMU." Matt doesn't say anything, just pulls her close and hugs her, and even I, through my tears, can take a moment to admire those arms of his (seriously, Tim Riggins, get out of my bed!). We close on a close-up of Matt's face as he stares into the distance, trying to process the fact that his first love is moving, taking with her his mentor and coach and guaranteed place as QB1. If he were to take some advice from the middle-school me, after a night like this, he should probably sit in his room and play "Wind Beneath My Wings" over and over again. And it that doesn't work, might I also suggest a little ballad by Extreme?
day, Jason knocks on Coach's door and gets met by a prickly Eric. Jason is all smiles, but Eric bitches at him for being fifteen minutes late and snaps at his former protégé not to talk back to him. Jason is kind of taken aback, but gets into it when Coach calls Matt into his office to pay the bitch-fest forward. Matt tells them both that he feels ready for the championship game, but Coach and Jason immediately jump all over that self-assurance like the participants in a somewhat abusive male culture they are. This scene is here to sort of set up the new "chain of command" that exists now that Jason is an Asst. Coach. Jason echoes everything Coach says, and with a little, cruel smile. Which I like. Coach tells Matt he has to do everything Jason says, and then Coach leaves. Jason informs Matt that he needs to finish his weights and then meet him in the film room for lunch. "And get used to that, cuz we're gonna be eating a lot of meals together." Matt stutters that well, actually, he usually eats with Julie. Jason informs Matt that he'll call Julie to tell her "there's a new girl in town and that girl is me."
Landry is in Tami's office, telling her about this problem his "friend" has. Tami proceeds carefully, suggesting that Landry's "friend" might not want to tell anyone "for fear of reprisal, or, or, or judgment." Landry wonders if there is a law that says Tami would have to report the assault if he told her the student's name. Tami pauses and then hedges her bets, telling Landry that she doesn't want him to be offended, but that if he is the one who was assaulted, he should feel safe in telling her about it. Landry -- tears in his eyes -- insists that he isn't talking about himself. Tami still doesn't seem to buy it and pauses. Jesse Plemons is simply bringing it in these scenes, as he finally, and totally guiltily, confesses, "I'm talking about Tyra." Tami obviously puts it all together in a split-second -- Tyra's absences and refusal to answer the phone -- and sits back in her chair, stunned.
Cut to Tyra answering a knock at the door. First, I'd like to commend the storyboarding in this episode -- no long interruptions between various actions and their associated re-actions. And second, I am never answering my front door again! When Tyra finds Tami there, she knows the jig is up. She catches a glimpse of Landry sitting and waiting in Tami's car in the driveway before telling Tami, "Look, it's not that big of a deal." Tami answers quietly, "Yeah, it is, sweetheart."
The voice of the intake officer takes us to the police station, where an officer is asking Tyra again if she remembers leaving a notebook behind. She says "no" and rubs her face in weariness. She realizes the shitty cultural position she is in, having to bear the burden of proof, and she snaps at the officer that she already told him that she doesn't remember leaving a notebook behind. When he asks, seemingly not for the first time, if the notebook the guy was waving looked like her notebook, she snaps, "Are we done here?" He says he thinks he's got it covered, and then says they have to take some pictures first. Tyra's face goes blank, Tami tries to remain nonplussed and just says "Alright, let's go do that, then, quickly."
Cut to Tyra standing in all her Amazonian majesty but looking like beatdown hell -- which makes me real mad at that scumbag that thought he had a right to this. She's in front of a female officer wielding a camera. She follows the officer's directions, and we get close-up shots of her body as she turns to the side and lifts up her hair, revealing a bruise on her neck, lifts up her shirt and reveals a bruise on her side, a bruise on her arm. Ooof. Tyra walks down the hall, alone, and holding herself like she doesn't want anyone to touch her ever again. She comes out into this beautiful Texas day where Landry is sitting on a curb waiting for her. He tries to apologize, but she breaks down into tears and lashes out at him, telling him she should have never trusted him and calling him "a pathetic, smelly geek." Landry visibly recoils. So do we. There is no wrath hotter than a hot girl's for a geek. Heh. Who am I, Aesop?
Julie sits on the couch and dejectedly tells someone on the phone that she guesses she'll talk to him or her later. Her mom walks over, climbs over her daughter's coffee-table resting legs and flops down on the couch to her, one leg draped over Julie's. Julie moans that now Tyra isn't even returning her calls and posits that she just must not be cool enough anymore. Tami tells her daughter that one never knows what's going on with other people, and not to take it personally. Julie says that the move is like a bad dream on repeat for her. Tami reaches out and strokes her daughter's face gently. Coach comes rushing in and telling his ladies, "C'mon, let's go celebrate." A slight mis-match of tone to situation, I'd say. He kisses each of them and tells Julie that she gets to choose wherever she'd like to go. Julie gets up without a word and storms off. Coach, hands on hips, says, "I know what's going to happen , door's gonna slam." Pause. SLAM.
Tami asks Eric to come sit to her. She jangles a little bit as she pushes her hair back. She looks at her husband, then doffs his cap for him, saying, brightly, "Hi!" Coach starts chuckling and she chuckles with him, asking "What?" Eric anwers, "I don't know...I don't know," and my recap can simply not capture the fairy dust essence of Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton in action. Perhaps Peter Berg can pitch a series based on the heartbreaking reality of a recapper not being able to accurately recap the beauty and perfection she sees on the screen. Perhaps you think that is not an issue that bears looking into, but let me remind you that we are watching a series about high school football. Follow me around with handheld cameras and set it to instrumental indie rock. You've never seen the discovery that there isn't any more wine placed in such poignant light. ["Dibs on the soft-spoken but unexpectedly soulful editor!" -- Joe R]
Okay. So basically, Eric knows Tami is about to launch something big at him, but he's behind the curve with her as usual, and he's terrified of what it is. Tami just grabs his arm and cuddles in. Might I suggest this technique in our dealings with hostile nations? She tells him that she just wants to make a proposal, and doesn't want him to jump into any immediate decisions. She begins carefully, saying that she was thinking that maybe she and Julie could stay in Dillon while Coach goes to Austin to start his job just until Julie graduates. Her reasoning: it would allow Julie some closure and would allow her to keep working with some of the kids with whom she really feels she is starting to make a difference. She points out that the commute would not be so bad. It is, I believe, supposedly like 200 miles. Which really isn't bad. Says the woman currently living 800 miles away from her husband for the sake of completely unglamorous research. But Coach just pauses for a moment before looking up and saying "No" to this woman just as quickly as he said "yes" to all those men in that earlier scene. Tami looks confused at his outright refusal to even consider the option.
She tells him that she really needs him to hear her, the same phrasing she used when she had the sex talk with Julie. Coach says that he is hearing her and that he's listened and decided no. And now the scene gets really demanding because they're both talking over one another. Coach declares that the "commute" is not a simple commute but represents a separation that he doesn't want to happen in their family. Tami insists that their relationship is mature and loving and that they can handle that and Coach replies that "in that case, I'm not mature, I can't handle this." Tami tries telling him that the kids in Dillon need her, and she needs that, but Coach is not hearing this and just keeps saying that it isn't going to happen. He starts rubbing his face and hair and wonders aloud "Why is this happening now?" and Tami just keeps insisting to him that she will feel awful if she leaves the kids she works with in Dillon. Coach gets up, walks out, and slams the door behind him. Tami is left on the couch. Wow, is this a knot of a problem. Tami's work is obviously and unsurprisingly being devalued. She is clearly dealing with the surprising-even-to-herself realization that the work she does is actually worth something (a difficult realization for women who work and work and work their whole lives without getting much monetary reward for it, i.e., mothers), but at the same time you can't fault Coach for not wanting to get cut out of two years of his family's life, however brief a time that may be. God, show, way to be a sociology seminar disguised in low-cut tops and good hair!
Cut so Smash flirting with a gaggle of ladies in the hallway. Waverly comes up and asks Smash if she can "holler" at him for a second. They walk away from the gaggle, with whom Smash insists he was just talking. Waverly announces that she's going to give him "a hiatus." Basically, she's telling him, I guess, to go ahead and eff other girls during these two weeks of championship stuff? Whatever, Waverly. You need to call up Tami Taylor and get some lessons in feminism. She tells him to "have the time of your life." Smash is hesitant, reminding her, "We gonna be partyin'." She says it's all right, that he can hang out with other girls, whatever. God, girl. You are bi-polar, not spineless. She walks off, telling him to enjoy himself, "be the Smash." Smash calls after her with a holy-shit! grin on his face "Okay, I can do that!"
Tim is getting out of his truck when Jackie runs over. He's all smiles, telling her he was thinking about tacos for dinner. You do not know the kind of restraint I am showing here letting that remark slide. She interrupts him and says that they can't have any more dinners -- especially no more taco dinners -- and when he asks why, she tells him that she can't let Bo get hurt. When Tim says he didn't think he was hurting the kid, Jackie says, "well you aren't now, but, well, you know" indicating that she did, not, in fact envision a lifetime of picking up Tim Riggins's beer cans. She says that she loves Bo too much, "I love him, he's mine," and just can't put him in that situation any longer. She walks away and leaves Tim, head hanging down, in his truck.
At the Garritys' house, Buddy and Pam have gathered everyone around their fabulous Texas hearth to show that just as the fireplace is made of stone, so is their father's HEART. Or, put more simply, they're getting a divorce. Lyla looks at her father with disgust as he babbles on how it'll all be the same, just he won't live there. He says he'll see them on weekends, and Pam -- little lawyer devil popping up over her left shoulder -- snaps, "You'll see them every other weekend." Lyla can't take it and storms off. Her mom insists she come back, but Lyla just swings around and says, "He can leave, and then I'll come back, how 'bout that?" I guess there's no addressing the one-woman demolition derby she held at her father's dealership the other night?
Jason and Suzie meet awkwardly for their "arrangement." She's not wearing her glasses, despite my advice to the contrary. Jason compliments her awkwardly. She stands awkwardly. I awkwardly end this paragraph.
Fade to Jason and Suzie sitting in her truck and awkwardly talking about how "fun" Jason is. He tells her he's fun only with her. Actually, I consider myself something of an FNL expert, and I'd say he's only ever fun with the boys. Jason Street is clearly one of those guys whose brains and fiery personality simper out when in the presence of women. Suzie confesses that she likes him, and when he pauses, she giggles and says she's getting embarrassed. He tells her that he likes her, too, and then he reaches out and touches her hair before leaning in for the kiss. Which happens at the exact moment that Lyla pulls up behind their truck. She gets out and walks around to the passenger's side. Jason asks if they can talk, telling her to go inside for a minute -- which is just a brutal detail, him asking her to go inside so she doesn't have to see Suzie helping him out of the truck and into his chair. She just shakes her head and tells him she's done, then pulling her engagement ring off and flinging it at him. She storms back to her car and before she gets in, screams at the top of her lungs, "SCREW YOU!" which is just quite the inadequate riposte, which, of course, somehow makes it all that much better on screen. I bet Kevin Williamson is kicking himself for spending all that time writing wordy teen dialogue trying to "get it right" when, really, having teens grunt, shout, and stutter is pretty much the only way you can get it right.
Tim pulls up in his truck. Bo is waiting in the front yard with a football. Bo asks Tim if he wants to hang. Tim crouches down and asks Bo if his mom had talked to him yet. Bo says that she did mention that Tim would be busy with football and school and wouldn't be able to hang out so much anymore. Tim tells Bo that his mom is right. Bo says that he figured, though, "since we're obviously buds, you can, like, make time for me. We're like...brothers!" Tim says that he agrees, but that he does have a lot going on. Bo won't take "scram" for an answer (possibly the root of some of his schoolyard troubles?) and tells Tim that he'll come around later. Tim gives in and says all right. As Bo leaves, Tim calls to him, "Hey, who pushes you around?" and Bo, on cue, shouts, "Nobody!" Shot of Tim, crouching down, all alone, in front of his seedy house.
Transition to a shot of Tyra, sitting on her stoop, all alone, in front of her seedy house. Art Direction! How I love you! Tim pulls up and walks toward her, his hotness amplified by the hot, hot setting sun blazing behind him. The Natural World! How I love how you understand Tim Riggins's hotness! Tyra snarks, "Lemme guess: old lady you were gettin' with dump you?" Tim wonders where she heard, and she replies, "Small town, Tim." She tells him that, in case he's wondering, "the ex-girlfriend is not here to screw your brains out." He insists he's just there to see if she wants to hang out as a friend. Tyra looks at him quizzically. She asks if he even knows what a friend is, and then tells him that a friend is "someone who's there for you, who helps you do what's best for yourself, who asks you to go out and do things." She pauses. "I have a friend." That's pretty irredeemably cheesy. Tim asks her to go to the roast with him and requests that they stop overthinking everything. I was not aware that "overthinking" was a problem that ran in either the Riggins or Collette families. Tim asks sweetly, "please?" and Tyra looks back at him, obviously won over for the moment.
Cut to a wood-panelled room, the kind in which all sorts of spaghetti dinner fundraisers and roasts would take place. Buddy gazes at his subdued daughter across the way. Coach catches Matt gazing at his dejected daughter. Tim and Tyra eat sausages together. Smash practices his "email" joke. Buddy gets up to the microphone and shouts "Hey everybody! We're goin' to State!" Master of the obvious as well as the home perm, apparently. He calls Eric up to the microphone to get the roast going. Shots of both Matt and Julie doing some hardcore eye-rolling.
So to recap. Tami takes the microphone and says she wants to start by telling them what he has taught her "as a human being." She pauses and pretends to think for a moment and then lists those things: "the nickel defense, the three four, the four three, and, of course, the spread formation." The crowd chuckles. Eric seems to breathe a sigh of relief that his calling her "absurd" right before she took the stage didn't send her into some sort of lunatic freakout. She continues, joking about Eric Taylor "the family man" and how they all spend so much quality time together watching game film, and then, watching some more game film. She shrugs her shoulders cutely when she tells the crowd about the romantic dinners he takes her on during which they can commonly be heard shouting, "pick up the blitz!" or "go for two!" The crowd claps, clearly deriving so much pleasure from what they perceive is the Taylors' very pleasant relationship. Tami continues, getting serious and in the process getting me seriously to cry: "Eric Taylor is a kind and decent man. And he's strong, and he has vision. And he's passionate. And he's real good at imparting that passion into the people around him. And he loves y'all kids. Every single one of ya." The camera ranges around and shows all the kids taking this to heart. "I just want to tell y'all kids how important you are to us. How deeply we care about you. So thank y'all, from our whole family." She leaves the podium to a standing ovation, kisses her husband, and goes and hugs Tyra. And because a woman acting nobly and charmingly and wonderfully can never go unpunished, Buddy Garrity leans over and tells Coach Taylor, "You've got a good one, Coach. A real good one." I cannot convey how disgusting I find that "good one" sentiment. CRAM IT, Buddy Garrity. Or just tell it to your lawyer. Your divorce lawyer. God.
People file out of the roast. Smash, holding a little foil package in his hand -- aww, leftovers for Waverly -- is approached by the girl he was flirting with in the hallway. She says, "We're getting ready to hit a party, wanna come?" Smash thinks for a minute and then says that he's going to rest up for the game. "Leftovers for Waverly." I feel there is an ABC Family movie in there somewhere.
Landry sits alone and sad. Tyra catches a glimpse of this and goes over to him. Her dress at first seems a bit too fashion-forward for Tyra Collette, but then I notice it seems to be made of matte stretch jersey, which pretty much puts it squarely in the high school zone, cute gathers at the bottom of the 3/4 sleeve or no. She sits down with Landry and begins to apologize. Landry looks at her angrily and says, "What other day?" She asks him to cut her some slack and says that she doesn't think he's a geek. Landry isn't taking this apology lying down, and he replies, "Nah, just the pathetic, not having any friends..." Don't forget the "smelly!" Tyra says she didn't mean any of it. She tells him that she was just pissed, and Landry interrupts, asking if she thinks he wanted to tell someone. She tells him that she knows why he did, that she was upset about all of it and took it out on him. "I'm trying to be better...about a lot of things."
But Landry is a tough customer. You can bet that Tyra would normally get away with saying mean things if she just winked cutely after saying it. But Landry isn't just pissed, he's geek-pissed, the kind of pissed that doesn't feel like it has much to lose were it to stay pissed. So he snarks after her heartfelt apology, "So I guess that's why you're getting back together with Tim Riggins?" Tyra is shocked and swears that they're just there as friends. Landry keeps going, "But what about the after-party, when the beer is flowing and Tim comes in with his cute, but tragic, 'Texas forever' thing, what about then?" Tyra repeats that she and Tim are just friends. Landry, now not only just geek-pissed but geek-empowered by his anger, goes ahead and starts speaking his mind. He tells Tyra that he knows it isn't his business and that she's a big girl, "But, do you really want to spend the rest of your life with someone who cheats on you, who drinks all the time, who's just going to end up working at a gas station and, you know, puking up his paycheck..." And he keeps going, imagining when Tyra has a couple of Tim's "not-so-biologically-gifted kids." Correction, Landry. Not-so-intellectually-gifted. Those children would have more biological gifts than Shiloh Jolie-Pitt. Tyra interrupts him and wonders if he's trying to make her take back her apology. Landry is moving toward something, though, and he tells her that "there's a guy out there that'll show up sober, and will listen to you, and take care of you, and recognize you for the smart and beautiful and caring woman that you are, Tyra. You know, a guy that, a guy that --" and during this, Tyra looks like she's rising to the occasion, and Landry is definitely rising to the occasion, but one other person rises dumbly to the occasion, and that is Mr. Tim Riggins who comes up at the exact wrong moment to say "What's goin' on, Lando?" and then ask if he wants to come out with them to a party. Landry says he can't and then gets up and leaves. Tyra is shocked, tears in her eyes.
Jose Gonzalez's "Storm" will take us through the last few storylines of the evening.
Smash goes to Waverly's and gives her his little Leftovers of Fidelity. He tells her that he missed her and she invites him inside.
Jason sits on the Garritys' front stoop. Lyla comes out and Jason says they just really need to talk. She says that they don't, that she's not upset, that she's just happy that she knows "the truth about us." She coldly tells him that he was too chicken to tell her the truth himself, but at least now she knows. She goes back inside and leaves Jason behind.
Eric stands behind Tami with his arms wrapped around her. It seems like they are in front of a mirror in their room or something. We're seemingly watching them looking at themselves in the mirror. Eric asks if they are done fighting. Notice Tami just "hmm"s in reply. Eric tells his wife that he loves and respects her. Tami "hmmm"s. He continues, "I am proud of you. I am in love with you completely. I'm sorry for the way this all happened. I'll tell you what, though, Austin is going to be good to this family." Tami finally speaks. "I know it is." Pause. Pause. "But baby, I'm not goin' to Austin. I can't leave here now." She asks him to come to bed with her, turns, and leaves the frame. We're left on Coach, staring ahead, his hair telling him that it told him so, unsure what he'll do , and then he turns out the lights. BUT DO NOT USE THAT FINAL PHRASE TO MAKE ANY NON-RENEWAL PUNS ABOUT THIS SHOW, MISTER REILLY.