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Jason and Tim are wandering around in Mexico, waiting for an appointment with a doctor who performs experimental spinal surgery. Involving shark blood. Even Tim can see through the beer cloud that this does not sound even remotely like a good idea, and he calls Lyla to ask her to come down to Mexico to talk some sense into Jason. She's skeptical until Tim tells her that he's certain Jason will die if he goes through with the surgery, tomorrow. Lyla better get into her time machine and hightail it down there!
The police pull a body from the river, which causes a number of shit-your-pants moments for both Landry and Tyra. Tyra gets called down to the police station and figures the murderous jig is up, until it turns out that they just wanted her to confirm that the guy they found is the guy who attacked her. While she's there, Landry's dad sees her, and something about the thick black mascara streaks running down her face strikes him as suspicious. And indeed, Tyra seems to have taken a turn for the evil; her ceaseless urging of Landry to keep his trap shut is starting to smack more and more of animal self-preservation.
Lyla has started counseling kids in juvenile detention about Jesus. When one of them challenges her Little Miss Christianity act, saying she wouldn't give a guy like him a second glance on the street, she tries to show him that she can walk the walk, too, by haranguing her parents into helping him get a job.
Coach Taylor returns to Dillon and there is some confusing mess where New Coke McGregor at first refuses to get fired but then ends up agreeing to be fired but still makes Coach feel really guilty for having a hand in Buddy Garrity's machinations. At home, the Taylors seem to be on the mend; Coach is back, which helpfully cuts the estrogen a bit, and Julie actually listens to her mother's warning about those cold-hearted-snake older guys. Tami's words echo in Julie's ears as she looks around The Swede's dirty hovel the day. She turns down his offer of beer and gets the hell out of there -- good girl! Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Jason and Tim are in Jason's presumably tricked-out red pick-up, making their way to a scrappy Mexican beach town while what I think is a song by '70s group Los Dug Dugs (more cowbell!) plays in the background. Jerky Spring Break/Impending Spinal Surgery Cam woozily follows them as they wander the streets. Tim trails Jason along the streets, asking him to slow his wheelchair down so that he can grab a beer out of its back pocket. Suhweet. Inside the Clinica Espinal a receptionist tells Jason that there's been a mix-up and the doctor is out of the office for a week. Jason is pissed, Tim tells his friend to calm down, the receptionist just hands Jason a card and tells him that they'll fit him in week. "Fit him in"? For spinal surgery? Okay.
Game night, Dillon Panther Stadium. MacGregor is effing up; his running game (Smash) is going nowhere. In the stands, Grandma explains the game to Carlotta. On the field in the huddle, Matt wants to do a different play than the one Smash is calling. Smash is calling plays now? Smash insists that they stick to the script; Matt laconically notes that the other team obviously knows what to expect (a running play) and that Smash isn't getting anywhere without Tim Riggins there that night. I guess that little detail -- Tim's indispensability -- helps explain how Tim won't get kicked off the team after this little Mexico stunt. They try to run the ball again, Smash gets tackled, Panthers lose, Slammin' Sammy provides commentary, Buddy Garrity looks on with a smug grin.
Cut to MacGregor telling Buddy to stop pissing on his shoes and telling him it's raining. I guess Buddy is firing him. How did Buddy get his booster credibility back after the Drunken Barbecue incident? Buddy -- leaning back in his armchair, legs crossed, one loafered foot dangling in extreme evil relaxation -- tells MacGregor that they just decided to take the team in a new direction. MacGregor gravels "After two games? Two games?!" Buddy tells him they're paying him for the whole season and also offering a severance package. Buddy tries to shake hands but MacGregor declares, "There ain't no good will in this room."
At TMU, Taylor answers the phone up in the coach's sky box or whatever you call that place the assistant coaches watch the game from. Eric wants to know how Buddy got the number to the phone in there, and Buddy shrugs him off and says, "Listen. The eagle...has landed." Taylor is like "wha?" Heh. Buddy tells Eric, "It's a done deal, we fired him this morning." And so Dillon's time without Coach Taylor's hair appears to be coming to an end.
Credits. Lyla goes through security to get into a juvenile detention center, along the way getting harassed and seeing pimply-faced thugs getting pressed up against walls and searched. Cut to inside, where she is finishing up a God-spiel. Shaky-voiced she says, "And so those are just some of the reasons why, um, its helpful, um, to make choices in our lives with, um, Jesus in our lives." The entire audience of boys groans. The chaperone tells them to quiet down and then asks if anyone has questions. Why, yes, one young prince does! "What color panties are you wearing?!" High fives all around while the chaperone sort of chuckles and then tells the kid that he just got "five points." Then comes a voice from off the side. He's got a real question. Sure he's a tough kid, but he's just had a series of bad breaks. You might even say his only problem is that he was born on the wrong side of the street. He's street smart and rolls with the punches. You might say he asks the right questions but always gets the wrong answers. One other thing you might say is: very boring. He asks Lyla if God is so great, why are there wars and stuff? Why is Tony's mom always getting drunk and beating on him? Lyla just stutters and mumbles, telling him he's asked a good question. He interrupts her and says that "you people" are always coming in and lecturing them, but the truth is, if they ever ran into the juvies on the street, they'd run the other way. Well maybe not if they ran into you, you Underwear Model Street Tough, you.
At the Taylors', Tami lays on the couch with Gracie on her chest watching the TMU game. Julie approaches her, seemingly sweet at first, and asks if her mom can take her out to practice driving. Tami mumbles "not right now" and Julie pushes, getting snottier by the second. Tami turns to her and snots right back that she's not doing it right now, that Julie doesn't get whatever she wants whenever she wants it. Julie starts in on how everything is about Grace these days, calling the baby "The Blob." Hey watch it, kid, everyone knows that moniker is reserved for Shiloh Jolie-Pitt. I think Angelina trademarked it and shit. Their voices are slowly rising, and Grace starts crying, like "Ladies! Come on! What about the sisterhood? We'll never have a female President at this rate!" Julie is off the rails now, yelling about how her mom is planning on keeping her grounded and not letting her drive and not letting her date anyone. Tami is like, "What are you talking about?" but Julie just spits that she's going to go date The Swede just to spite her mom and then shouts "I hate you!" over her shoulder as she storms off. So, so good.
In Mexico, Tim and Jason sit in their hotel room watching TV. Tim wants to make some memories (probably of the mammary persuasion). Apparently they have a bag with ten thousand dollars in it, which instantly makes me so, so nervous. Tim, looking like he's on his fortieth Tecate, gets up and declares that they're going out. Jason says they aren't but in this scenario, Drunk trumps Paralyzed and so Tim hoists Jason up off the bed like a sack of potatoes and the whole thing is quite cute.
At TMU, Eric is giving his notice. He tells the Head Coach it's for personal reasons, then nods to acknowledge when asked that he knew Tami was pregnant when he accepted the job. Eric starts in on his whole strategic withdrawal plan, that he'll split his time for the few weeks. Head Coach interrupts to say that Eric needs to make sure this is what he wants; Eric says he "has to" and his hair is looking rather muffled so it is hard to tell exactly what Eric Taylor is thinking in this scene. The head coach tells Eric to turn in his ID and he'll have Human Resources send over a termination package that night. The camera pulls back and we see Coach's hair sort of rear up and say "Whoa, Nelly!" The head coach then totally gives Taylor the FACE HARD and tells him that this isn't "IBM." He's not interested in transition plans. If Eric wants to leave he leaves now.
Tyra is having dinner with Landry and his parents and they are all just having the darnedest good time. Landry's dad is telling some story about Landry's old cat -- Mr. Puddles -- whom he endeavored to "outplace" when the cat was wrecking havoc on the house. The phone rings and Landry's dad goes to answer it. The conversation continues as Tyra makes fun of the cat's name and then Landry's mom jumps in with some details about the cat's "bladder control issues" right before Landry's dad comes back in to inform everyone that he has to go in to work because...they just pulled a body from the river. And if you pause on the right frame, I think you can see the exact moment in which Tyra and Landry graduate from bladder control issues right on up to pants-shitting ones.
At Regular Church (i.e., non-mega, non-black), Landry listens to the minister's sermon about David and Bathsheba, their carnal lust that leads to a murder and cover-up. One part of me is incredulous at the second immediately applicable sermon to be delivered in as many episodes. But another part is sort of amused by such a literal parallel between Landry and Tyra and David and Bathsheba. It's like Desperate Biblewives or something. Anyhow, Landry is markedly not amused and Landry's Pants-Shitting Count clocks in at: two.
Back in Landry's bedroom, he sits on his bed with rumpled post-church clothes talking to the pacing and clearly-not-having-attended-church Tyra. Landry tells her that it's been completely stupid of him to think no one would find out about this, that he needs to turn himself in and just hope they take it easy on him. Tyra interrupts him and bosses that he can't do that, that he's not in this alone, that he's going to spend the rest of his life in jail. She's like a caged animal, there's no morality in any of her reasoning. Actually, there's not even much reasoning in any of her reasoning. Landry, on the other hand, is nothing but clear-headed. He snarks that so what he'll spend the rest of his life in jail; the alternative is spending the rest of life "like this" -- and if that's the case, those pants-cleaning bills are really going to start adding up. Not to mention the bill the devil will come collecting on, you know, the one that can only be paid for with his soul? Tyra's last-ditch effort is to grab Landry's hand and tell him that they are in this together, that "it's us." Sly, very sly.
Lyla drives out of the juvenile detention center. She pulls up alongside the Underwear Model, the guy who I think might just Save the Last Dance for her, and makes an exceedingly lame joke to him. As he walks along the road, she tells him his "escape plan" isn't very well thought through. Then she tells him she's just kidding, that she heard he got released. He snarks that, "congratulations," he's still on parole. She tells him that she's putting her money where her mouth is and tells him to get in the car. He looks confused. And rich white chicks are often very complex and confusing. (I'm being facetious.) Cut to Lyla driving along, giving her new friend the third degree. He doesn't have any plans other than needing to get a job. She wants to know what his parents think. He tells her that she asks a lot of questions and then asks if she'll shut up if he tells her. Mistake Numero Uno, amigo! White girls never shut up! God, all of a sudden I got filled with joy over the possibilities of this Crazy/Beautiful storyline but then got sad because here the white chick is not coke-addled, but instead just Lyla Garrity. Anyhow, he explains that his parents got deported two years ago (thanks, AMERICA) and left him to stay in the states with his uncle, pretending to be his son, his cousin, his "homey." Uncle Homey makes him sell weed (I'm wiping a tear away as I type) to white people, which is how he came to spend two years in juvie. He tells her to pull over in front of the entrance to a trailer park. Lyla tries to drive him to his (mobile) door, but he tells her not to bring "this car" into the park. Incidentally, I believe Lyla drives a Ford Escort. This trailer park is more ghetto than you can ever beee-leeeve, man. Lyla asks for his number. Okay, you can color me amused by this storyline.
Tami hears a car horn honk, peeks out the window, and calls to Julie. They both go running out, super excited to greet Eric. At least they have that much in common. Eric takes Grace into his palms and starts babytalking her just as another car drives up and honks. Tami: "What's Buddy Garrity doing here?" Buddy walks up, all smiles, and Eric calls out, joking about the little baby he's got in his hands: "Hey look what I found sitting in the road!" Oh, I loved that so much. I love baby-in-peril jokes in the presence of babies. I also love dreaming up various delicious dishes that could be made of baby thighs. For example, a tasty baby thigh sandwich on whole wheat with sprouts. Mmmm. Anyhow, Tami is not pleased that Buddy is there and she puts on her Texas wife trill, telling him repeatedly that Eric just got home, so don't keep him long. Tami and Julie go inside, Eric is all smiles and jokes with Buddy: "Whaddya got me under surveillance?" Honestly, there is no more likable man on television than Kyle Chandler. Especially when he gets all happy and boyish. Swoon. Buddy cuts my reveries short by cutting to the chase: "MacGregor's gonna fight us on this." Eric's face falls as he wonders if Buddy is saying he doesn't have a job. He tells Buddy that he signed a no-compete, that he can't coach for any other colleges for two years. If he doesn't have Dillon, he doesn't have anything. Eric reminds Buddy, "Done, done. You said 'it's a done deal'." Buddy just hems and haws, tells Eric this is just "a little hitch in our get-along."
Lyla and her mom are in their kitchen. Lyla is asking her mom if there aren't any odd jobs around the house her spicy new friend can take on. Lyla's mom says no and then acts, like, totally privileged when she points out that the boy is an ex-convict. Lyla's mom is looking about twenty-eight in this scene. No wonder Rice Dream is all up in her holistic grille.
Eric is taking Julie out driving. Which means it's the perfect time -- with the inexperienced sixteen year old at the wheel -- to bring up stressful subjects like boys and moms. Eric asks "So what's with this Swedish kid?" Julie thinks that he's been coached by Tami but Eric says he's asking her on his own time. Julie tells him the only reason Tami doesn't like him is because he's older. Eric: "How much older?" Julie dodges and then tells Eric to quit worrying about her and worry about his job. He tells her to watch the road, his job is none of her business. Then he decides to put his life in even more peril by asking his daughter about the doomed make-out session: "What's this about you and this kid....carrying on in the driveway?" Julie has the BALLS to turn to him and say, "Oh, we were carrying on?" I mean, really! It was like three hours past curfew and she was in The Swede's sweaty lap, her tongue halfway to China. Eric tells her that he doesn't like her tone and then starts telling her to get in the other lane for a turn coming up. She swerves over and cuts another car off, which causes lots of honking and gesturing and screeching on Julie's part. Eric tells her "Just stay right where you are, right where you are." Oh, the driving instruction life metaphor. It always is apt.
In Mexico, Dr. Evil looks Jason over and tells him that they can do the operation on Thursday. Because "those Texas doctors nailed your fusion we can skip decompression and go right to the injections." Tim looks up at all this medicalese nonsense, but Jason is on board; "The stem cells?" The doctor blows some more smoke up his ass: "Technically they are embryonic stem cells but the, uh, sharks don't seem to make the distinction." Sharks also don't make much of a distinction between bloody chum and nicely-manicured toes. Tim finally interjects, saying "Wait, you are injecting him with something from a shark?" You know that Jason has fallen completely off the sane wagon when he doesn't get the hell out of there after the doctor makes a joke about him "going all Jaws on us" after the surgery. "Uh, flowers, ma'am." "Flowers for whom?"
Landry and Matt are eating at the Alamo Freeze. Matt is going on and on about Smash. Landry keeps his eyes darting between two cops on one side of the joint and Tyra on another. Tyra is sitting with Ole Sis and the other downmarket Dillon strippers, getting yelled at by them for not paying enough attention to their plan to start a business where they get paid for walking around people's lawns naked. Move to the city, ladies, you can do that for free! Wait, that doesn't make any sense. Tyra watches the cops approach Landry and Matt's table and we have Pants-Shitting Moment Number Three for old Landry. The cops loom for a bit, just long enough for Landry to get a second squirt out (I'm sorry) before teasing Landry and Matt for not being at football practice. Ha, ha, ha. Matt asks Landry why he looks like he's about to throw up, and Landry just stutters about his hamburger being off.
Emergency board meeting with MacGregor and his lawyer. The lawyer avers that there was no cause for MacGregor's termination. The board lawyer brings up Tim Riggins collapsing on the field, but MacGregor's lawyer is a no-nonsense gal: "Please. It was Tim Riggins, he was probably hung over." She says that reason was just an excuse to justify "the lynching of my client." Nice word choice in the all-white room, lady. Finally, Buddy speaks up. He says that MacGregor has changed "our tradition here in Dillon" and then goes on to list all the ways in which he has done so: ruining the state championship offense, closing practices, fostering tension amongst the players. There is some implication here that we are supposed to be viewing Buddy as talking out of both sides of his mouth, and certainly his interest in getting Eric back is self-serving. But there are lots of weird shots of faces around the table peering guiltily, like they are sitting back and letting Buddy do their dirty work for them. But the work isn't actually that dirty. MacGregor was fucking up. His termination was probably a bit premature, but I'm sure football programs all over Texas are run similarly. I just don't really get the tone of this scene, I guess, on second viewing. Anyhow, Buddy does a good job, he says he speaks for everyone at the table and nobody disagrees with that statement, but still there's this weird tone where we're supposed to think he doesn't. But why? Eh.
Tami and Eric are in bed with Grace. Tami is complaining that Eric is undermining her with Julie. She tells him how horrible Julie has been to her, and Eric says that he knows he doesn't know what's going on, but he wants to be a part of it again, starting now. They call Julie into their room and greet her brightly. She greets them teenagerly. Eric says, "Mother has something she wants to say to you." Tami tells Julie that they have, together, decided tentatively that she is not grounded. Julie is psyched and runs away from them as fast as she can -- pausing only to tell her father congratulations, "It's all over the paper." Eric wanders out to the kitchen to get the paper -- cutely bashing his elbow into the doorjamb on his way and muttering "Ow! Jesus." He picks up the paper and the front page reads "MacGregor Fired -- Taylor to Replace Him." I guess that's that!
Tami has Julie practicing parallel parking in an empty parking lot. This, understandably, causes a lot of stress. It must have been the same for me, because I don't remember one second of anyone teaching me how to parallel park. But it must have happened because it is one of my most spectacular skills; seriously I'm like a parallel parking savant. Which is a great thing in its own sad little way. Anyway, Tami is getting frustrated at Julie, and Julie is yelling at her mom not to yell at her. Finally, Tami tells her they need to take a break. They sit quietly together for a minute until Tami takes a deep breath and tells Julie that she needs to talk to her. A Tami Taylor Talk! Yes! A Tami Taylor Talk!
So Tami launches into it. She tells Julie that when she was around her age there was a guy named Doug Odem, and he was a lot older than her. Julie is totally grossed out and tells her mom not to start in on this, but Tami demands that Julie just listen to her. Tami explains that she was obsessed with this guy and went to a party "with him and his fancy friends" (aw!) one night. Pause. "Anyway, I slept with him that night, and that was the first time I ever slept with anybody." She thought they'd be boyfriend and girlfriend, but the day he treated her like she didn't matter, like what happened didn't really matter. She tells Julie that it's just that she's been spending all this time with this boy that doesn't seem to have a name (mystery: solved! His nickname is SYMBOLIC of namelessness!) and that she knows Julie likes him and that she thinks he likes her. Julie interrupts to say that his name is Anton and he does like her. But this ain't no Julie Taylor Talk, it's a Tami Taylor Talk, and Tami shoots back, "Well, he doesn't love you. And that's the difference." So true. The camera pulls to the side and the concern on Connie Britton's face is really moving. Looking at her daughter, knowing what the wrong decision is for her and how likely she is to make it.
Buddy is outside his old house dropping the kids off. Pam comes out to ask him to deal with this Lyla Crazy/Beautiful situation. Buddy is clearly feeling virile after his MacGregor coup, and he promises Pam that he'll take care of it.
scene, Buddy is interviewing Lyla's new friend, who isn't really making a great impression. He doesn't know anything about cars. Lyla pipes up that he had a job last year washing dishes. Buddy sort of raises his eyebrows when, finally, the Stand and Deliver moment comes: the kid declares to Buddy that he knows he doesn't have experience, but that he has to get a job and keep it to stay out of State, and because of that he will try to do his best not to mess anything up. Buddy tells the kid that he appreciates his honesty and says that since Lyla's vouching for him, he'll give him a job in the parts department. Lyla leaps into a big hug with her father, a little rich white girl move, I'm sure Lou Diamond Phillips here loved that.
Now for my favorite scene of the episode. Julie walks up to The Swede's door. She glances down and notices a big plastic tub spilling out all its empties. She knocks on the door and The Swede answers, chomping on a bowl of cereal. He looks surprised and then sucks in air, "Ohhh, we're supposed to hang out aren't we?" He motions her in, and she takes one more glance at the empty beer and liquor bottles and then catches a glimpse of him in his boxer shorts and dark socks as he rounds the corner of his kitchen. She follows him, and we cut to her sitting on the couch. A toilet flushes and manages to sound like the grossest sound in the universe. Julie's jaw gets tighter and tighter. His cell phone rings. The Swede comes out of the bathroom, beer still in hand, at least now wearing pants. She bitchily tells him his phone was ringing. He tells her it was probably just "Jonesy," who's excited because The Swede mentioned they were going to Dry Creek. Julie wonders what Dry Creek is, and The Swede enthusiastically replies that its this place with foozball and two-for-one-beer night. He sits on the arm of the couch, chucking a pair of socks to the ground and keeps rattling off all the names of people who are going to be there -- Jonesy called Spike and Spike called Spencer, and on and on. He tries to hand Julie a beer which she doesn't take. He asks if something's wrong and she tells him, through building tears that she's just feeling really sick and she hightails it out of there.
Okay. I loved that scene. It isn't that Julie didn't notice before that The Swede was a twenty-something boy with the beer and the bongs and the novelty t-shirts, and the weird, cheapy Christmas-light-strand-intensive art installations. In fact, I'd bet that all of those things are what made him so attractive to her. I can remember so vividly having that same exact experience around older boys. It was so exotic and seemed so much like freedom. And there is something about her making the right decision in that scenario -- because I know I never did, and I bet real girls usually don't -- that makes me feel so happy. Oh, Jules. I'm clearly working out some issues through you.
Tami is at home reading a book when Julie comes in quietly. Tami asks her how her night was and Julie turns toward her in tears. Tami gets up and asks what happens, whether she's all right. Julie doesn't answer, but just lets her mom wrap her in a big hug.
And now for the best scene of the episode that is incredibly, incredibly difficult to watch. Jason and Tim are in a bar, taking a shot together in celebration. Jason wants another round immediately, and says to Tim, "To walkin'." Tim replies: "To runnin'" and then we cut to a little bit later when the bar has started with the karaoke. Jason is up near the stage, dancing around in his chair. Tim is looking on with a smile. Jason swigs beer and sings along. Cut to a little later, and then a little later, until finally Jason is on the mic. He's got the microphone in one gnarled hand, a beer pressed between that gnarled hand and the other. We move into fun, drunk time, both Jason and Tim doing some singing and smiling and clinking glasses with anyone in their vicinity. But then La Cucaracha sounds in the background, and we cut to a shot of Jason pouring tequila into his mouth. He slumps in front of the microphone, singing along and then making up his own lyrics: "I'm gonna walk-a / I'm gonna walk-a / I'm gonna get outta my chair." Lord, am I dying at this point for some Drunk Cam. This whole scene is shot with an extremely clear eye, and it turns that clear eye on someone getting really sadly drunk; no distancing swirling or blurring camera tricks. It is seriously hard for me to watch. And for Tim, as well. (Soul mates! Call me, Timmy!) Because the drunker Jason gets, the more concerned Tim starts to look. By the time Jason starts slurring about walking away from Dillon, and responds to the crowd's cheers by insisting that he's "serious, I'm serious!" and then singing some more "Ima get-a shot-a / get-a shot-a / right up in my spine..." Tim is looking really worried. Jason keeps slurring into the microphone, saying to the crowd that they don't know what he's saying but they believe him. He asks Timmy if he believes, and Tim hesitantly raises his beer toward his friend.
Tyra's mom knocks on her bedroom door to tell her that the police just called and want to see them down at the station. Looks like someone thought Tyra's pants have remained entirely too clean this episode! Tyra insists she doesn't know what it could be about. Down at the station, an officer goes slowly, telling her that they pulled a body from the river and they need to ask her some questions. Tyra is playing it real cool. She stays silent until the man shows her a picture and Tyra confirms that it's the guy that tried to rape her. Her mom is immediately emotional, never having heard of the incident before. Then the officer thanks Tyra for her help. Through tears and streaking black mascara, Tyra asks if that's it, and they officer confirms it is. She sort of laughs to herself and hugs her mom as the officer tells her that case (her assault) is closed. Before she leaves the room, though, Landry's dad walks by and catches sight of her. He looks suspicious and I would be, too. Something's not right with Tyra.
Jason slumbers drunkenly (and with very clean white socks!) while Tim calls Lyla from a phone in the hall. He tries to explain all this surgery business to her but all she can say is that Jason's parents are worried sick. Lyla asks what TIm wants her to do and he asks her to come down to Mexico. She laughs at the request and then the line goes quiet. Lyla moves the phone from her ear to check to see if she's still connected (nice detail) and then Tim speaks: "I swear Jason's gonna die if he goes through with this." He says he's never asked for anything from her, but that she's the only one that can help him talk Jason out of this.
The Taylors are having dinner when there's a knock on the door. Eric answers and finds MacGregor on his doorstep. MacGregor congratulates Taylor for how things worked out just the way Eric wanted them to. Taylor plays dumb and MacGregor delivers a canned speech about how he's coached for a long time and been fired before and probably will be again, but that he's never been screwed by another coach. Taylor continues to play dumb and MacGregor tells him to stop lying to him right at his own front door. Oooh, this is tough. MacGregor tells Eric that he needs to remember that he has a family, too. He says he hasn't seen the last of him. Eric closes the door and locks eyes with Tami. I really like this development, the moral compromise of our almost infallible hero.
In case you didn't pick up on that theme, the last scene underscores it for you as Eric peeks at a sign in the Panther locker room that declares, "Character Is Who You Are When No One's Watching." That means my character is a sweatpants-clad, crazy-haired, nail biter. Eric goes into the room where his players wait and get right down to business. He asks if they've heard him and they respond "Yes, sir." But, Eric hasn't heard them. So they reply, "YES, sir." But he still has not heard them so they shout, "YES SIR!!!" Who knew I could be such a sucker for locker room clichés? Love it.