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Remember when Coach broke down a few episodes ago and said that he needed something good to happen? Well, some good things happened tonight. Coach agonizes over whether to start J.D. in the game, worried that if he does so, he'll kill Matt. Tami almost loses her shirt when she sees how dreamy Coach is when he agonizes, telling him that his conscience is sexy, and then also advising him that he doesn't need to make a hard and fast decision now, to take the issue game by game. And so Coach develops an "unorthodox" offense for the game: Matt and J.D. will trade off quarterbacking during the game.
Tami tries to throw her hat into the old boy's network, but the results are as mixed as that metaphor. One "accidental," "casual" run-in with the school superintendent doesn't hold a candle to Buddy's years of jostling with the guy on the golf course, and she realizes that she's going to lose the fight against the Jumbotron because they are all in agreement against her. So, she swallows her pride, and smilingly breaks ground for the new scoreboard with the boosters.
Matt's mom Shelby shows up in Dillon, anxious to help Matt out. Grandma isn't too happy at first, and it seems like mom's offer to help is just another load being thrown on Matt's shoulders, but they come to a rapprochement when Grandma tells Matt that maybe she's too hard on Shelby, and Shelby assuring him that she isn't looking to play "mom" but that she couldn't let him go on managing everything all alone.
Tyra gets smitten with a mudbug of a cowboy, which causes Landry more pain than getting his wisdom teeth pulled.
And, finally, we knew it was time, and we've known it was time for a while. But, it's still bittersweet to see Smash leave us. The still hesitant Smash is skeptical of the walk-on at A&M when he finds out that Coach has set it up through a front office guy. And, his skepticism is borne out when Coach and Smash show up in College Station only to be told that they want to reschedule. Coach sets his jaw and marches onto the field, interrupting practice, selling bacon to the pigs, telling the head coach that Brian is the best there is. Coach's audacity pays off, and Brian gets a chance to show his stuff, and it's all great and beautiful and like Coach says, just like "God put you here at this exact moment" and Smash does great and goes home and then they call, and he's going to college. But not before one last heartwrenching frolic on the deserted football field with Matt, Tim, and Landry. Man, what a Field of Tears.
Look back at the best and worst moments. Come back week for the full detailed recap.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Rodeo! Billy, Ole Sis, Tim, Lyla, Tyra, and Landry are at the rodeo, having a grand time. Notable detail: Tyra's terrible perm has been brushed out and she is looking hot, which means it's time for Landry's heart to get rebroke. Landry comes back with cotton candy for the group, but none for him; he explains he's having his wisdom teeth removed tomorrow. Tyra laughs at Landry's concern about his surgery, and Landry is like "Really? I'm having major surgery and you're laughing?" Tyra apologizes and promises that she'll come over and nurse him back to health once it's over. Billy leans over and tells everyone to shut up; "Cash is up ." And we flash down to the rodeo ring where a cute (but only just cute) blond guy rides a bronco, while up in the stands Ole Sis mutters to Tyra about him being one "fine ass cowboy." Tyra pretends she wasn't just fantasizing about riding broncos herself and says she hadn't noticed. Down in the ring, Cash stands around while his score gets announced and the crowd cheers. Pan around behind him to see his view of Tyra in the stands, and then swing around again to get Tyra's perspective on Cash tipping his hat to her. Oh, Landry. She's gonna take Cash to the bank.
Football field, night. Coach runs Smash through some drills. Smash swears he's driving his legs, Coach tells him he isn't. Smash takes a breather and asks Coach why the walk-on was pushed back a day. Coach tells him not to worry about it, and anyhow Mitch says he'll have a better chance with A&M's head coach that day. Smash wants to know who "Mitch" is; Coach trips up and gives the kid the name, "Mitch Stallman." Smash wonders if this guy he's never heard of is real tight with the coach, but Eric runs interference on the kid's question and tells him to quit worrying.
Rodeo afterparty. Just like R. Kelly sings about. Tyra and Cash drink and chat about how he just won ten thousand dollars. Cash tells her that Billy never told him that Mindy's little sister turned into a goddess, and she bows her head, her thankfully straight hair falling forward and making me cheer for the return of the bob. She asks if he's going to be in town for a while, and he totally evades the question (SUSPICION NUMBER ONE!). Then he asks her what happened the guy that was with them before. Tyra, incredulous, "Landry?!" Cash wants to know if he's her boyfriend and Tyra assures him they're just friends. They both pause kind of awkwardly, and then at the same time say "Let's go dance?" And then they do, and they look good on the dance floor together, bathed in light, Tyra's long arm thrown around his neck. The twangy country music fades out, as pondering atmospheric guitars fade in; doesn't Tyra look so happy in this scene?
Credits. Which I have straight up gone from feeling were just fine-- they did the job-- to absolutely loving. What was wrong with me that whole first season? That clip of Tami doing that slow turn, her arms raised above her head swaying back and forth? Perfection.
We return and we're at the Saracen's. Matt is fixing his grandmother's breakfast and engaged in the interminable discussion of what day it is; what day it is determining, of course, what foodstuffs she will eat. Grandma wants it to be Milquetoast Tuesday, but instead it is Oatmeal Thursday. Matt, in the kitchen, crushes up her blood pressure medication and sprinkles it into the oatmeal. He hands it to her, and she doesn't want it. Matt is in a hurry, and as he's leaving, Grandma wants to know who this "J.D." they're talking about on the TV is. Matt tells her not to worry, that it's just a bye week and they need something to talk about. He leaves, and Grandma promptly leans over and scrapes the oatmeal into the trash can to her. I don't know if I'm going to be able to handle it if Grandma Saracen dies this season.
Football field. Buddy is over by the scoreboard with some guys, directing them to take some measurements. Tami comes striding out in a pencil skirt and heels. And right there, she's already doing about twenty-five things that Buddy would never be able to do: wearing heels in the grass? She sweetly asks him what he's doing, and when he tells her that he's just taking some preliminary measurements in case his side wins the Jumbotron issue, Tami trills with a smile, "You know you don't have that kind of authority." She whips her sunglasses off and gets serious, telling Buddy that she knows what he's doing, just trying to bully the issue through, but she isn't going to let him, that she is going to make sure that "Superintendent Dunly" hears what she's sayin'. The problem here is that "Superintendent Dunly" is "Paul" to Buddy, who slimily lets it slip that "Paul" really does want to hear Tami's side. "Paul" told Buddy that at the country club this weekend. Tami's face falls. "You played golf with Paul Dunly this weekend?" Buddy is like, sure I did, "I've known him forever."
Landry's mom guides a loopy Landry out to the car after his wisdom teeth extraction. Loopy Landry is the best. He doesn't know why it's so bright outside, and is so glad that his mom is always saving his life, and that she picked him up in the mini-van, because he loves the mini-van, it's a sign of comfort. His mom, all the while, is just murmuring and humoring him. Cut over to Tyra, in school, answering her phone. It's Loopy Landry. Oh, dear. Landry's in the front seat of the beloved mini-van, his sweatpants-ed legs sort of curled up near his chest, and he's feeling pretty fine. Tyra asks how it went, and Landry tell her it was great, "They were playing Lionel Richie. 'Lady.' I love that song." Good thing it wasn't "All Night Long" by Lionel Richie, one of those songs that can kill a party dead because when it comes on, everyone is all "Yeah! I love this song (ironically)!" but then it goes on for twenty minutes, and by the end no one is jammin' in the streets, but rather examining exactly how they got to this sad place, a little more drunk than they want to be, having declared their love for this song that they now realize is actually an aural scourge, and then there's a mass movement for the door, party over. The party is NOT over for Landry, though, as he continues looping to Tyra that he's thinking "Me, you, Repo Man, a bunch of Cherry Garcia, my house." Tyra laughs and tells him that sounds great, and Landry responds by telling her that she's the best girlfriend anyone's ever had. Tyra emits a sharp, no nonsense "Landry." Landry loopily backpedals saying that he knows that she's not his girlfriend but he loves her anyway, and just then his mom reaches over and grabs the phone from him and says goodbye to Tyra for him. Landry asks why, why would she do that? And she just coolly says, "You will thank me later."
Matt scrolls down a computer screen for Smash, they're looking for Mitch Stallman on the A&M website. They find him, and find out that he's "Director of Group Sales." Smash shakes his head, "I'm gonna work at Alamo Freeze till I die." Oh, Smash. Landry breaks in-- they're at Landry's house, we find as we pull back-- and mumbles that he's glad to supply them with beverages and wi-fi, but Tyra is going to be over any minute. Meanwhile, we notice that Landry is watching "Deal or No Deal," the harbinger of the currently going-strong Howie Mandel Renaissance. Which is really just so far from the one we had with Michelangelo and company. Smash reminds Landry that Tyra broke up with him a long time ago, and Landry, chipmunk-cheeked, with ice packs on either side of his face, tells him that his facts are not correct, that Tyra is a complicated woman. Smash tells Matt that he has to leave, "It's getting sad and weird in here." Matt takes off, too, telling Landry that if Tyra doesn't show up, he can call him. Landry swears that she'll show up.
Meanwhile, over at the Collettes', Ole Sis and Billy sway around drunkenly to music at the center of the room. Tyra and Cash sit on the couch talking. Cash taps out a few pills from a bottle into his hand and tells Tyra it's Cowboy Candy, he busted his shoulder in Minneola last week. (SUSPICION NUMBER THREE!). Mindy hears this and is like a moth to a flame made of Vicodin, "Oh, that's so weird? Do you remember? When I busted? My shoulder in Minneola?" Oh, Ole Sis, you would be an uptalker. It's perfect. Cash denies her, so she just self-medicates by inappropriately tonguing Billy right to Tyra. Cash asks Tyra if she wants to get out of there and leave them alone. They get up, and Tyra takes a look at her phone, seeing a bunch of texts from Landry. She tells Cash that she has to take a pass on tonight. She explains about Landry and his wisdom teeth and how she said she'd help. Cash just says, "Yeah, well, I got a pretty good idea about that" and then just french kisses the conscience right out of Tyra. She's like, "Hmmm. Mmmmm. Hmmm. Alright" and they leave together.
Tami and Katie are powerwalking around Tami's neighborhood. Tami is talking a mile a minute, (btw, Connie Britton's body is ridiculous), about how pissed off it makes her that Buddy plays golf with the superintendent. Katie brightly tells her to take golf up, it's fun! Tami continues ranting, saying that this is just a boy's club and she can't break into it, and, and, and. Katie breaks in, first asking Tami to not be mad at her, "Cuz I didn't invent the world," and then goes on to tell her that nobody likes an angry woman. Tami busts out that she is NOT ANGRY, NOT ANGRY!!! She says she has dealt with the situation with dignity but they have been riding roughshod over her. Katie tells her that she's angry "underneath" which is just a waste of time. Katie tells her that she has to play the game, and then tells her to find out where the superintendent has his coffee and go "run into him" there. Then, hilariously, she tells Tami to "Wear your hair down! Wear it down!" What a neat little encapsulation of first wave, second wave, AND third wave feminism. "Get angry" or "play the game," indeed. We're still trying to figure it out.
School. Landry finds Tyra at her locker where she just lies and lies like a sad, guilty rug. She tells him that she had to be with her mom last night, she got bad news. It wasn't her, no, but her aunt. "Just some medical stuff." Oh, girl. You don't go there in a lie. That is so jinxy! Tyra tells him she has to go to read the entire book of Julius Caesar in forty-five minutes. Landry, mumbling, "Technically, it's a play."
Football field. Coach is firing the kids up for practice, telling them they've got a big game week. Then without making a big deal, Coach informs them that they're going to rotate snaps between Matt and J.D. You can see Matt's face totally fall inside his helmet, J.D. starts to look sharp. Practice starts. The boys go one-for-one on completions, Matt totally holding his own. Until, that is, J.D. throws way down the field, and then Matt tries to do the same, all the boys watching it spiral going "Whooooooaaaa!" but then, pow, his toss just a tad bit off and the receiver misses it, and everyone cries. Or maybe that was just me.
As if Matt didn't have enough to manage, here he is at home, having to force Grandma out of the door. She saying she doesn't understand, she thought Matt was taking her to the doctor. She says she does not like different, "And I don't like HER," pointing at Shelby, who waits by the car. Matt tells his grandmother that he's had a really hard day, and he has all this studying to do, and he needs her to do this for him. She relents and stomps off to get in the car. Shelby tells Matt not to worry, and she really is a calming presence.
Coach and Tami in the car. Tami is conducting a one-person discourse, which must be kind of a common occurrence in the Taylor household. She tells Coach Katie's idea about stalking Paul, and says that that just seems pushy to her. But then she reconsiders a bit, "But maybe that's what I need to be doin?" Meanwhile, Coach is totally silent, and then veering off the road into a parking lot. "I need a drink," he says. Tami tells him that they have wine at home and Coach clarifies, "I need a Scotch-flavored drink."
Cut inside, Coach and Tami bellied up to a bar. Oh, how I love their friendship. Coach is now unloading on Tami, weighing all sides. There's no doubt that J.D. wins out when it comes to physical skills, that he has the best arm of any high school quarterback he's ever seen. That includes Jason Street. Tami thinks that's really saying something. But then Coach says that with Matt Saracen, he knows what he's got, the team knows how to play under him. He also remarks that after all Matt has gone through, if he benches him halfway through his senior year? It'd kill him. Tami reminds him this is the stuff that happens, this is football. And, I would add, this is life. Tami tells him that he doesn't have to have it set in stone, he can take it one game at a time. Coach wonders if she understands the significance of him starting J.D. rather than Matt. Then he continues spiraling in his own personal wormhole, first about how good J.D. is, then about how he's only fifteen, and has a freak show of a father, and how it is Coach's job to make sure that this kid isn't pushed too hard too soon, that he's prepared. Meanwhile, a big grin has started to spread on Tami's face. She leans over and hugs him, and tells him that this is what she loves about him. He's like "What? That I can't make a decision to save my life?" She tells him that she loves that he would agonize over a decision like this, that he makes decisions with such a conscience. She tells him it's because he's a teacher first, "Aaand, I know you are going to say it's corny, but you are a molder of men. And I find that admirable. And I find that sexy." She leans in and kisses him and he tells her he's just going to keep ruminating, since she finds it so sexy.
That scene was like the beating heart of this whole entire television show. I'm telling you right now, this is the thesis statement. Highlight that shit in yellow.
Commercials. J.D. is practicing on the field with his private coach, when Eric walks up. He briefly greets Wade the Personal Trainer, and then turns to J.D. "Texas quick fire, H is in motion, whaddya do?" J.D. doesn't miss a beat and answers, "What's my strong side?" They continue like this, Coach rapid firing questions at J.D., J.D. answering every one of them correctly. "What've you been payin' attention or somethin'?" Coach wants to know. Then Coach asks J.D. to tell him something about himself. J.D. robots that he sets goals and he achieves them. Sir. Coach isn't having that, tells him it isn't a job interview, and asks him what he does when he isn't playing football. J.D. is seriously precious when he answers, "Uh, um, play Madden on my Xbox, or go swimmin'? Usually I'm just practicing or workin' out." Coach tells him that he needs to bulk up, eat some chicken fried steak. J.D. tells Coach that he isn't allowed to eat fried foods, his dad says it's bad for him. This guy needs to be turned into Child Protection Services. No chicken fried steak at fifteen? Coach is like, "Oh, he does does he?" and I love this storyline already. Because what has Coach not had to deal with as a "molder of men"? Fathers. Coach asks watch the kid throw a little, and J.D. goes ahead and tosses football after football, hitting his mark every time.
Tami walks into a coffee shop, hair down, wearing a low cut coral halter top. Jeez, Tami, Katie told you to play the game, not show up looking like a stripper. She takes a seat, directly across from where Superintendent Paul is sitting, and then a bit later makes like she's just noticed him. "Oh, hey, Paul!" He seems a bit nonplussed to see her, and tells her that he's just finishing up, needs to get to a meeting. She takes the plunge, "Well, I'm lookin' forward to our meeting this week" jumping up to slide into his booth. She tells him she'll be quick, and starts rattling off some information about what the Jumbotron money could get the school. He stops calling her Tami, saying, "Principal Taylor, I don't think this is the proper time." Tami tries to breezily drop that she realizes that, but she knows that he's been talking to Buddy Garrity on the golf course. Pauls's eyebrows raise, and he tells her there's no reason to get angry. And what happens here is so infuriating, because how do you respond to an accusation that you are angry? Well, you feel a little irritated at the implication, irritation that shades into anger. As Tami assures him she is NOT angry, she starts to get angry, and as he gets up to leave he tells her that he wants more teachers and supplies, too. "But those people gave that money for a Jumbotron." Tami realizes exactly what is happening. This meeting is a kangaroo court, everyone's minds are made up. Paul leaves, giving her a sort of finger gun, telling her that he's real interested in hearing what she has to say at the meeting, and then leaves her there, her mouth opening and closing like a fish.
Landry and Matt sit at the Peach Pit like place the kids hang out in (does this place have a name? I can't remember). Landry is trying to get Matt to talk about his mom being in town, Matt is resisting. Julie walks up in this kelly green tank top with a bow on the front that I'm really coveting. She and Matt start chatting about an upcoming midterm, as Landry notices Tyra and Cash walking up to the restaurant outside. Landry gets up and goes outside. Tyra's puppy love grin fades from her face as she sees Landry; Tyra tells Cash that she and Landry have to have a little conversation. Landry has put things together: "I'm really starting to think that by 'aunt' you really meant 'Cash.'" Tyra apologizes, Landry is not accepting it. She tells him they broke up two months ago, Landry wants to know what's changed since then. Tyra raises her voice, shouting, "What hasn't changed?" Landry shouts over her about how she holds his hand, and calls him her best friend. Tyra shouts that she held his hand in Cloverfield, it was a scary movie. Damn straight that movie was terrfying! They're both red in the face and screaming at each other. Oh, it's hard to see teenaged heartbreak. It hurts, it really does. Landry screams about Tyra wanting to choose a guy who rides horses and drives a truck. Tyra's like 'Yeah, he rides horses, so?" and then finally puts a nail in it: "YES I'M CHOOSING HIM."
Julie and Matt sit in Matt's house studying for midterms. Grandma's in her recliner reading the paper. Shelby comes to the door with two big bags of groceries. Matt asks her what she's doing, and she says she just picked up some things at the store. Leaning in, she calls back to Grandma, "Vanilla creams, right?" Grandma ignores her, gets up and storms back to her bedroom, slamming the door. Shelby comes in, and Matt introduces her to Julie, who is wide-eyed and trying to roll with it. Matt mutters that this is "my mom." Shelby says she found some baby pictures of Matt, and Julie eagerly says she'd love to see them. Matt interrupts them, "You can't do this." Shelby immediately gets quiet and says she knows she can't just come around like this. Matt tells her that he doesn't need her help. This shot of Matt is beautiful, in close-up on the right side of the screen. Zach Gilford is bringing it this season; his awkward adolescence being slowly eclipsed by this forceful personhood. He tells her that he needed her help ten years ago, but he doesn't need it anymore. Shelby is completely abashed. Matt thanks her for taking Grandma to the doctor; "you wanted to help, you helped. Now please go home." Shelby quietly says, "Sweetheart, I didn't mean to--" but Matt tells her, just as quietly, "No. Don't call me that." She leaves, Julie stands there, once again witness to something totally personal in the Saracen house, Matt goes to check on his grandmother. There are so many terrifying things about intimacy, about really being a part of another person's world so fully, and its the most terrifying the first time you do it, in high school. Watching these teenagers try to manage such moments makes that sensation just so real again.
Commercials. Tami sits on the bed, with pad of paper and pen. Coach comes in, and she tosses her pen down. Tami, tears in her eyes, says that she should never have picked this fight. Coach tells her that yes she should. She doesn't think he means that. He tells her that it is obvious that she is right and they are wrong. She asks him if he really thinks that, and Coach is like, hell yes I am. "You think we need a Jumbotron? We don't need a Jumbotron. We need more teachers. You're right, they're wrong." Tami sighs that she's going to lose anyway, and Coach responds that "Okay, yeah, they're gonna get the Jumbotron and in that sense you lose tomorrow. But you stood up for what you believe in, and in that sense, you win tomorrow." The language is corny, but this scene is a perfect companion to the central bar scene, the Taylors are coming back together. And the thing is, that much as part of my brain chafes a bit that Tami's crisis is a B-side to Coach's, my heart realizes that this show says what it has to say about gender by putting these people into real world situations, with real world obstacles like the golf course. Tami made a mistake because she is new to the job and the world is still oriented against women in the workplace in a lot of ways; if she were breezing through, her gorgeous hair flowing, that would say so much less to me than her stumbling. That said, we do need more scenes of girls hanging out with each other, not just always with the boys.
Saracen house. Matt apologizes to his grandmother for having Shelby take her to the doctor. Grandma waves the apology off and says that what she's about to say does not mean that she forgives Shelby, and that she still does not like her. But, "Your daddy, he's very difficult. We both know that. And, maybe, shoot, maybe I coulda helped her out, little bit more than I did." Matt asks her what she means, but Grandma doesn't want to get into it. "I just mean what I said, that's it. Let's not have a big ole soap opera about it." I think we all know what Matt's dad was doing to Shelby.
Coach and Smash in the car. Smash looks out the window nervously, while Coach drills him about whether he has all his gear, and then just rattled out advice, advice, advice. Smash tells him, "I GOT IT, Coach!" and then broaches the subject of Mitch Stallman being a front office guy. Coach does not respond. They keep driving.
Matt walks into a little motel coffee shop to meet Shelby. She wonders how she found her, and he smirks, "Well, there's only two motels in town, so..." Matt sits with shoulders slumped, and tells her that he knows that his dad is a jerk, he yells and throws stuff. "I guess that's why you left?" Shelby tells her that she isn't going to say anything bad about his dad, and then tells him that she was seventeen when she got pregnant, she was just a kid. She tells him that she will never forgive herself for leaving him. She tells him that she doesn't expect him to forgive her; he asks her what she wants, then. And she answers, that when she found out that he was all alone in this, that it was too much. "I just felt, like a deep-- I just felt bad." I love that she has a failure of language there, just like her son often has. She clearly feels much more than she can articulate. She tells him that she isn't looking for him to call him mom, that she just really would love to stick around for a few weeks, to just see if she can lend a hand. Matt, not looking at her: "Alright."
Texas A&M football field. Smash is suited up on the sidelines to Coach. Smash goes to take a knee, but Coach barks, "Stand up." Smash exposits that they've been there for an hour already. Just then Mitch finally shows up....only to tell Smash and Coach that they need to reschedule. Again. Coach clicks the bottom of his jaw to the side a bit -- the only show of emotion or reaction (Kyle Chandler is so good at these tiny adjustments)-- and asks Mitch if he's kidding. Mitch prattles about the Thursday night games throwing their schedule off (a little dig there at the new practice of having football games during the week for television ratings). Smash looks at Coach, and Gaius Charles also has been surprising this season so far in how well he does "vulnerable." Here he truly looks like a kid, who isn't sure what to do. Coach pauses, brain obviously revving behind those wraparound glasses, and then tells Smash, "Follow me."
Coach marches out onto the field, interrupting practice. "Hey, Vince!" He apologizes, telling him that he respects practice, but he has to tell him something: "This kid can flat out play." He sells Smash hard, telling the coach that Smash has got heart and guts. "You just ask yourself if you want to be the one who passed this kid up" and then tells the coach that he doesn't know when they're going to be able to get back down there to A&M again. The coach hard asses to Taylor, asking him that if someone had pulled a stunt like this over at TMU, what Head Coach Wood would have done. Coach looks down and then goes for it, "Well, he woulda said there's a guy with balls and a courage of convictions. Then he woulda looked me in the eye and said get the hell off my field." This wins the A&M coach over, he turns around and starts to rearrange his guys on the field so that Smash can walk-on.
Coach grabs Smash and tells him to listen to him, "Listen to me closer than you've EVER listened to me before." Coach asks Smash to remember a particular game, telling him that he came in and took that game over, play by play, "You owned that game." Coach tells him that watching him that day, he realized that Smash was going to go all the way. "Right now, right here, God has placed you to do what you do best. Go all the way." HELL YES. Smash goes from little kid vulnerable, to self-reliant man. He is READY. Cut to scrimmage. Smash is running ball after ball, driving, cutting, and then finally, making a beautiful run into the endzone. He's doing it! On the sidelines, the A&M coach asks Eric which knee Smash busted up, "I couldn't tell." Coach: "Exactly." The A&M coach seems impressed, but doesn't show too much. He tells Coach that they'll give him a call.
Commercials. Coach Taylor's office. Matt and J.D. sit to each other outside the office, all awkward and not talking. They get called into the office and Coach gives them the plan. Matt's going to start, but J.D. is also going to play. They're going to rotate series, each getting equal time. Matt slumps a bit, this is a definite demotion. Coach tells him that he's making this decision because he thinks it'll help them win the game. When Matt is on the field, they'll run the eye, when J.D. is, the spread. Coach tells them that this is unorthodox, "The way we like things around here." He says that it isn't going to work if the opposing team finds out about this, so Matt and J.D. are going to have to "ride herd over the team." I don't totally get what that means; are they not going to tell the rest of the team? Or is Coach just instructing them that they both need to lead the team? Coach dismisses them and they file out.
By the old scoreboard, a small crowd is gathered listening to Superintendent Paul thank the boosters for the Jumbotron money, and then calling up Principal Taylor to the podium. She bounds up and is completely and totally gracious. She revs up the crowd saying that she has two words for them: "'Jumbo' and 'Tron'." They cheer. She says she knows it's really one word, but she wanted to quote their friend Buddy Garrity, it's because of him that they have all this excitement. Eric is in the crowd, watching his wife make this performance, obviously realizing that it is hard for her. But Tami takes the sting away a little bit by adding that she would also like to thank Buddy for his "generous offer to host the winter silent auction at Garrity Motors." Coach grins, Buddy raises his brows, clearly having done no such thing.
Smash's house. Phone rings. Smash answers and says "Yes, sir, this is Brian. Tomorrow morning? Yes, sir, I'll be there." His mother walks over in anticipation. He hangs up the phone and then shakes his head at his mother, saying that it was just a guy saying his new shoulder pads would be ready in the morning. She turns around, and then Smash drops the news, "Naw, I'm just playin.' I got in. I'm goin' to college momma." Corinna, and his sisters and Smash all start shouting and screaming and hugging, and my heart is warm warm warm.
Knock at the Taylors' door. Coach answers to find Smash there telling him that they called and he got in. He's on his way out that very night, "the guys are driving me." Coach's face is again so subtle, there's no wide grin, but still there is joy in every square inch of that face. But then he snaps back into role and asks Brian if he has his playbook, and does he remember what Coach told him about those dorm rooms, and he better keep his grades up, "I'm gonna be keepin' and eye on you." Smash tells him to just hold on a second. "I wanted to stop by, and say thank you. You know. For everything. I couldn't have done any of this without you. And that's for real." They look at each other, and man, how rewarding if someone told you that, in those words, in that way. Coach leans in and embraces Smash, and then sends him off, sounding a bit throaty. Smash runs out to the car (where Tim, Matt, and Landry wait) and Coach yells after him about getting him OU game tickets, fifty yard line. Tim exposits, as the boys drive off that they've got one more stop to make before they leave. Smash tells Riggins "Not another beer run, Riggs?" and Tim responds, "I'm way ahead of you." I wonder where they are going?
To the Field of Boyhood Dreams and Adulthood Tears! The foursome frolic on the empty field (ablaze with light), with beers and pure childhood happiness. Matt tosses to Smash, who catches it, evades Tim, and runs into the endzone. We end on a shot of Gaius Charles, ten million watt smile, in slight slow motion, grinning and yelling back at the boys, "Where you at, baby? Where you at?!" Oh what an exit. I feel so nice. Thank you, TV.
There's a method to FNL's madness. Consult ourFriday Night Lights: Best and Worst Plays gallery for an in-depth look.