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Once again, recapleting through tears. I need to come up with something else to do on Friday nights!
The Lions prepare for and play a televised game against the undefeated McNulty. Coach tries Vince out in quarterback position, and the Lions nearly pull off the huge upset. Vince teeters on a razor's edge between his new life as upstanding young football player and his old. In the other minor story lines, Jess slaps Landry when he blabbers on to her about not being sure whether or not he wants to date her, and when Vince shows up to her father's barbeque stand, we get a better sense that something bad went down between those two in the past.
But the heart of the episode belongs to two heartwrending farewells. Lyla comes back to town just long enough to remind herself how much she loves Tim Riggins and how much it won't ever work between them. They spend three days in his trailer and, oh, if only the whole world were a ochre-lit Airstream trailer in the warm early Texas fall....
Julie and Matt take off to Austin to go to a music festival, causing Tami (who explicitly said no to this plan) to spend two days freaking out. But no parental anger will even register against what's going on in Julie's heart as she and Matt finally realize that him staying in Dillon is not working. Julie blurts out that she doesn't want the responsibility for making him stay, Matt asks her, perhaps too hopefully, whether she wants him to leave. Julie tells him no, and she truly doesn't want him to leave, but she also can't bear to make him stay. When he drops her off back at home they say goodbye, as if it's for the night, but it's obviously for much more. Julie walks in and instantly dismantles her mother's anger by crumpling in sorrow, realizing that Matt's going to leave. And leave he does, as we end on a shot of Matt driving a long road in his beat-up Taurus, his very slight smile only making us cry harder because the only thing more poignant than teen heartbreak is Matt Saracen inching toward happiness.
Want more? The full recap starts right below! The East Dillon Lions are set to play undefeated McNulty this Friday in a televised game, Slammin' Sammy tells us in voice over. Luke sprints down the side of a rural road, Vince is at the barber shop with Bad Gold Chain Kid, listening to Sammy's coverage. Bad Gold Chain Kid laughs about the only thing worse than being on a bad team is being on a bad team on TV: "Everybody watchin' you?!" Vince isn't having any of it.Lions coaching staff meets. Staub's feet are bouncing, the other guy whose name I've already forgotten, goes down the list of the ways McNulty is better than the Lions. Coach Taylor declares they're going to keep it simple and distributes sheets. Staub mutters that these are "offensive" (pronounced as in "rude") players while the other guy rubs his face tiredly and corrects him: "OFFensive, OFFensive." Coach just steamrolls over their "Who's on first" routine and says that McNulty is undefeated, the game is televised, this is a "game changer" and he doesn't like it. Staub, apropos of nothing, smiles, "That's what I'm talking about!" Coach says they're going to go down to the field with the media to talk briefly with the reporters. Staub jumps up and says "Alright let's keep it simple!" and walks off. Coach: "I'm not finished." This is a somewhat confusing scene, like it's gesturing toward some Staub storyline which remains rather muddled, honestly.
At Fran's Hamburgers drive-in, Julie and Matt are making out in his car. Julie pulls away and says she just remembered something. Matt deadpans, "Oh, no, what? You're pregnant aren't you?" Julie's lip gloss is all over Matt's lips, which makes this scene supremely squee-y. Julie laughs and plays along, saying that, yes, she is pregnant...with twin...aliens. What an awkwardly dorky teenaged thing to say. Julie tells him that she got tickets to the Austin Indie Music Festival (read: SXSW) as a surprise but then....his father died. She offers to give them away but Matt thinks they should go. He's full of pluck when he jokes that someone gave him a "griefing" handbook and Chapter 2 says "when your dad dies you should most likely go to a music festival. Preferably in Austin." Julie asks Matt if he's sure he'll be okay and he assures her: "He's dead. I'm alive. Let's go."
Lions football field. Coach meets with the media, replying to their dumbass questions ("How do you intend to measure your success?" with smartass answers ("Well, we're gonna use the scoreboard to measure that success." He tells them he wants the score to reflect that they left everything they have on the field. A reporter asks "Are you saying you're going to win this game?" but before Coach can get an answer out Staub starts grinning and smiling behind his left shoulder and says "We can win and we will win!" The reporters shift to him and ask if he is guaranteeing a victory and Staub replies, "I am guaranteeing a victory!" The other coach forcibly removes him from the media while Coach just stares straight ahead. Again-- I'm just not totally getting this storyline yet. Who really cares about a loose-lipped assistant coach? Is this a big deal in sports circles? The whole "guarantee" thing seems kind of contrived.
Tim, annoyed, goes to answer a knock at his trailer door, "Becky, come on" he mutters. But it isn't Becky, it is LYLA GARRITY!!! And if you didn't squeal when you saw that, then you are a bigger man than I. Seriously, my years of Lyla Garrity cheerleading (heh, get it?) are so completely rewarded in this episode, because Lyla is becoming a seriously kick-ass woman. Another reason why I love this show: it's super easy to take pot shots at the cheerleader character; it's not as easy to develop that cheerleader the way they have. But I have to confess that I experience a weird dissonance when Minka Kelly suddenly appears, having been gone for a while, because it's hard for me to think that she's been off at Vanderbilt being Lyla Garrity when all I can think about is that where she's really been has been off at Yankee Stadium dating Derek Jeter.
Okay, so Lyla is at Tim Riggins' trailer door. He says he thought she'd be back to school already and she explains: "Midterm break." She's stayed in Dillon after the funeral to see her dad some. The Texas wind blows all around them as they stand there. Tim doesn't know what to say so he says "That's nice" and she scoffs at him. So he changes that to "That's not nice?" Lyla tells him that he's really something, how he stopped calling and just disappeared. Her dad told her that Tim threw away his scholarship, and Tim confirms as much. Lyla emits this weirdly harsh "Wow," in the kind of intonation that you think, in the midst of an argument, is really getting your point across but later will probably make you cringe remembering it. She starts getting more pissed, sarcastically saying "I'm-a- I'm so glad I came over..." when Tim just comes out of nowhere on the left side of your screen and kisses her real smash-faced. Lyla's brow furrows in both consternation and absolute fucking pleasure: THIS KISS IS HOT. They don't even come up for air as they blindly make their way into the trailer.
Credits. Taylor kitchen and Tami is saying "No, no, no." Julie's proposed the Austin Music Festival and Tami is laying down the law. She tells her daughter that it's two school nights and Julie hasn't even gotten into college yet. Julie wonders if she HAD gotten into college whether the conversation would be moot. Tami is not caught in her daughter's trap and lays out all the criteria Julie would have had to have met to allow for this trip: taken her exams, accepted into three schools early decision. So Julie takes another tack-- "Matt's dad just died, Mom." Tami tells her that she's not even going to dignify that with a response, and good for her. Eric walks into the maelstrom and Julie pleads her case to him, but he backs up Tami, "No I don't think you'll be going to Austin with Matt" and Julie storms out: "You guys are awful."
Landry throws the football at the tire ring in Matt's tiny yard. Landry says he's sorry and Matt tries to keep things light by pretending Landry is talking about how badly he's throwing the ball. But Landry persists and says he's talking about Matt's father dying. Matt tells him that "Didja know they're giving us a death gratuity? It's like a hundred thousand dollars." Landry cracks about said gratuity coming in a tip jar and Matt explains that Grandma Saracen's now set up for life. Landry asks "What about you? How're you doing?" and Matt gets irritated that people keep asking him how he's doing. Landry says that he doesn't really know what to say and Matt suggests he not say anything at all, "It's over with, we took care of all that and now we're just throwing footballs." Oh, Matt. It isn't over yet. Landry keeps his cool and says that he doesn't know whether Matt is just looking for a fight or whether he wants Landry to give a big speech, but he's not going to do any of that, and he doesn't care what Matt does because "either way? I'm going to be your best friend, because I've been your best friend since we were five." On second viewing, this scene is a bit too telegraphed, but conceptually I like it: Landry assuring Matt that he will be there for him no matter what he does, and no matter where he goes. I can get behind that sentiment.
Tami gets to the office and is met by her assistant bearing messages, one of which is that Julie called and said that she will see Tami on Saturday. "What was that?!" Tami needs to know. Well Julie called fifteen minutes ago and said she was going to Austin. Tami's voice goes all wonky in this great way: emotion surging but she's trying (unsuccessfully) to sound normal: "Alright" she sing songs and asks her assistant to get the door. She quickly picks up her cell phone and gets Julie's voice mail and leaves one hell of a pissed-off mom message: "Julie? This is your mother callin'. I just got the strangest message that you have gone to Austin? Which I know cannot be true, considerin' the fact that both your father and I told you you could NOT go to Austin. So you had best call me back right away thank you very much" CLICK. It's that "you had best" that really gets me.
Landry approaches Jess at her locker. Jess greets him, "Hello, stranger." Landry launches right into it and says that he thinks the best way to deal with this is to be completely mature. Cut to Jess whose face has gone poker. Then Landry starts babbling: kissing Jess was great, she's great, she should know that, bottom line, and there's a part of him that thinks they should just see where this goes but there's another tiny part of him that's still hung up on this other girl, Tyra, whose like embedded in the back of his mind-- he helpfully illustrates where by pointing to his head (LANDRY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!)-- and he thinks that the mature thing.... THWAP!!!! Jess reaches out and slaps him across the cheek, to some "ooohs" off screen. She walks away and Landry spins around stunned, "Well, I really didn't see that coming."
Lyla puts her cowboy boots back on, which okay I realize that that simply cannot be as sexy as her taking them off but still. Tim asks if he'll see her again and the camera cuts over to him lounging like Manet's Olympia on his trailer bed in boxer briefs. She smiles and says "Like when?" and he suggests "Like five minutes? Or maybe three?" She tells him that she goes back to school in three days, phrasing it in a sort of "what's the use?" intonation. She saunters back over to him and sits on the edge of the bed. He tells her that he's a moment-to-moment kind of guy and three days? "I can work with that." She flirtily asks what "work with that" means and he leans in really close and whispers in her ear, "I could probably tell you..." and then grabs her and throws her onto her back on the bed while she explodes in delighted cackles. He launches a thousand dreams when he says that he's going to show her what it means and they pause, face to face while he tells her that he's going to miss her. Right then, a knock at the door and a familiar "Tim Riggins?" Lyla's jaw drops open amusedly, "You totally have a girlfriend!" He insists that he doesn't and gets up with a sigh, while Lyla rolls onto her stomach, cowboy booted feet swishing in the air behind her and props her chin on her hands to get ready for the show. This right here is what I mean by a woman. And this totally happens, too. It only takes a few months of college to change girls and boys into women and men, and you can read that in this Lyla Garrity. She was well on her way at the end of last season, but there isn't any high school bullshit drama here, there's just grown-up hearts trying to make their way in the world. Tim answers the door with exasperation while Becky blabs outside about how he can't ignore him and she promises she won't be jumping on him every time she sees him. But her blabbing stops when she sees Lyla inside looking totally secure. Tim quickly introduces them and Becky hightails it out of there without really asking for the ride to school that she wanted. Tim sits back down and explains: "The landlord's daughter" and Lyla just gives him a knowing "Mmm hmmm."
Cut to the East Dillon football field, where the Lions are each getting their chance in the director's chair, getting interviewed by "the media." They all have different styles, there's the grinning kid's "Thrilla in Manilla" aphoristic style, there's the Landry style-- to analogize his high SAT Math scores to the team's chances-- there's Staub's complete disciplined silence, there's Vince's "total package" brag, and Tanker's hysterical laughter in response to the suggestion that they might win. Then there's Coach, in sunglass hat lockdown, fielding questions about his "history of quitting": "Didn't come out here to waste my time with this."
Julie and Matt lay on the hood of his car laughing and enjoying a post-lunch siesta. Matt says that the setting is romantic, Julie approves of the sandwiches which Matt says he poured his heart into making ("It's hard making peanut butter!"). He tells her that her phone is ringing, she picks it up, sees "Home" and lies that it's just Devin. She tells him they're having their romantic picnic, she'll call her later.
Ray's Bar-B-Q. Vince saunters in and takes a seat and immediately starts harassing Jess: "'Scuse me, Miss? Can I get some service over here?" Her father notices; she comes over and tells Vince to leave that "it don't make no sense you being here." Her father comes over and Vince tries to play innocent, like he's just there for the delicious ribs. Jess's father looks at him -- and if fatherly death stares could really kill -- and tells him he can get the ribs from the counter to go. When Vince expresses a preference for eating there, Jess's father pulls the seat out for him and tells him to get his ass over to the counter. Vince finally takes his cue and leaves.
At school, Luke walks up with a smile to Becky, "Hey, it's the girl who loves her candy." An unfortunate side effect of last week's episode is that I will forever be disappointed whenever Luke walks in from off screen wearing a shirt. He tells her that he bought her some gummy bears. Becky immediately lays into him, saying that their little thing the other night was a big mistake and she doesn't want him treating her like a girl friend or buying her things and especially doesn't want him to talk about her with his football friends. Luke insists that he didn't say anything to his buddies; Becky believes the worst (even when confronted with the most convincing of evidence: Luke's incredibly honest looking face) and tells him to cut the crap. Luke: "I'm sorry, I just thought you're cute and I'd love to go out with you again, but I guess I was...yeah..." and then turns around to leave. Becky's face has, in the process of Luke speaking, totally crumpled. IT IS SO HARD BEING A TEENAGER. And I swear to you, I am not being sarcastic there. It really is hard. This whole episode is completely brilliant on the transition between teenager and adult and how many missteps you make in your relationships, and how even when you don't make missteps, when you do everything right, you still have to leave shit behind when you make that transition because teenaged love and teenaged screwing around are not the same as adult love and adult screwing around. You can't take it with you. Becky and Luke, however, are not even in the transition stage yet because they're still in teenaged screwing around, where you don't know how to trust yet, and girls think the worst of what boys want from them and boys are completely and totally adrift in the face of all that analysis and distrust.
Taylors. Tami is leaving another frantic message for her AWOL daughter, which includes another perfect "You HAD BEST turn around right now." Gracie gives some editorial commentary: "Uh oh" and Tami tells her that she is her favorite daughter.
Jess leads dance/cheer team practice. Everyone else wants to just do the old routine, but Jess wants to liven it up a bit for their televised game. Behind them, the guys finish warming up for practice and Coach tells them that today they're going to play 11 on offense and 13 on defense: "Cuz if you can punch a hole into 13, you damn well oughta be able to punch two holes into 11." Hard rock guitars start up as Tim and Billy Riggins stalk onto the field in full uniform, Billy asking the kids if they've ever played a couple of state champions. Tim screams "HERE WE GO!" as he puts his helmet on and practice begins. Tim totally psyches the kids up, screaming "Here we go!" and "You feel good?!" But being psyched up isn't enough for them to bust through Tim and Billy's defense, and Luke and Vince struggle to get the ball anywhere. They get frustrated, "Guy's all over the place, he's so fast." ""Like playing against a brick wall over here." Off to the side, Staub thinks the kids aren't ready for this, but Coach lets it play out. Vince takes a snap, tosses it to Luke, who finally breaks through and runs for a touchdown. Score!
Tim and Lyla are out having beers with Billy and Mindy at a bar with a mechanical bull and Texas two-stepping. Billy is going on about how awesome he'd be if asked to play a football game right now. Mindy asks them to stop talking football and Lyla tries to switch the topic to pregnancy, but Billy has lots to say on even this topic. Mindy tells him that she knows he's got the belly and all but she's the one that's pregnant and Lyla asked her. Mindy takes a moment to sigh and wax nostalgic: "Y'all know what I miss? I miss ridin' the bull." Lyla declares that she will ride that bull. Tim declares that that's not a good call, but she's set on it with Mindy backing her. She skips over to the guy running it and he says "Sure, lil lady" and Lyla hops on the bull, grabs the saddle with one hand and raises her other above her head. The bull starts rocking and we switch between close-ups of Minka Kelly not really riding a bull and a body double who is actually riding a bull. But none of that matters because what we're really watching is Tim Riggins watching her-- totally in love . . . and like . . . and lust. The trifecta! She gets tossed and Tim comes over to her smiling. She, tipsy, giggles, "You miss me" and Tim leaning in for a kiss confesses, "You have no idea."
Commercials. Outside East Dillon, Tami waylays Landry, wondering whether he's talked to Matt and Jules since they've gone to Austin. He says no and Tami tells Landry that she's just going to be straight with him: she tells him that she doesn't know where Julie is and if he could shed any light on where they are and when they're going to be there, that would be a big help. Landry is totally caught between responding to authority (which is always more palatable when it comes in the form of Tami Taylor) and realizing he should protect his pals and tries, very cutely, to walk a line in between. He sort of stutters that he doesn't know much but he thinks they were planning on seeing the Heartless Bastards at Emo's tomorrow night. Tami nods and wonders where he knows where they're staying and then Landry goes over the line and wonders whether Tami is, like, going to go to Austin? She clearly hadn't considered it, but something flickers across her face before she assures him, "No, no. But...I'm a mother." She smiles her thanks at him and turns to go, and Landry is left, as usual, in a muddle.
Becky practices her pageant walk on the lanai out back of their ranch house when Lyla walks up. Lyla asks if Tim is around and Becky says she hasn't seen him. Lyla turns to go, but Chatty Becky won't let this opportunity go to waste! She asks if Lyla's in college and whether it's cool and Lyla says yes to both, but admits she's been a little homesick lately. Becky can't believe anyone would be homesick for Dillon, which Lyla says was a surprise for her, too. Becky wonders if Lyla came back because she missed Tim and Lyla very sweetly says "No." She pauses and then goes on to explain: "You know, I don't really know what I'm doing here. You go away to college and you think you're getting over the whole thing but...now I'm here and here we are." Becky says she'll tell Tim that Lyla stopped by and Lyla turns to leave. As she walks away Becky calls out, "You're so lucky." And then adds, in a smaller voice, "So pretty." Oh, Chatty Becky is really growing on me this episode! What a broken little girl! Lyla looks at her with compassion, but Lyla's hurting too, which Becky obviously doesn't realize because she doesn't know how many more years of heartache she's in for, like she's so young that she still believes that it one day you get to a place where it ends.
Coach gives Luke and Vince some game tape to watch. They stand there a minute and Coach looks up at them like they're doofuses. They don't know where to watch the DVD, and Coach tells them he doesn't care where, just not there. They head out and we cut to them in the electronics section of Sears, sitting on folding camp chairs with mall sodas in the cup holders. They worry about getting killed on TV this week when J.D. and his army of lame walk up. They mock Vince and Luke for watching game tape in Sears and then J.D. turns to Vince and says he's surprised that Vince hasn't stolen a TV. Evil to his rotting Son of the South core. Vince gets up to challenge J.D. and J.D.'s eyes try to go "tough" but really go "about to shit my pants." Staub walks up from behind and asks if he can help the boys, but then immediately orders J.D. and company out of his store. J.D. wonders "for what?" and Staub gets in his face to say that it's because he's just one jackass comment away from doing some serious damage. "And if that happens, I'd lose my job. And I like my job." That is some hilarious middle-aged trash talk right there-- "Oh, you wanna know what's up? I LIKE MY JOB THAT'S WHAT'S UP." J.D. and company leave and Vince and Luke are totally tickled, "He's from the east side! Coach, I didn't even know! What's up!" Vince grins.
Julie and Matt are in their hotel room overlooking the Texas State Capitol. Matt flops on the bed and Julie freaks out and tells him to get off the bedspread, "They don't wash it, there's like bugs that live in it!" WHY DO GENDER STEREOTYPES SO OFTEN HAVE TO BE TRUE? Ahem. It's just that I may have done the same thing Julie just did a few times in my life. Matt puts the clock radio on and asks Julie to dance. She wonders if he's serious and he declares "It's pretty music!" (It's Patsy Cline's "Crazy"). They act cutely awkward as they come together to dance: "Wow, Mr. Romance!" "SHUT. UP!" "This is very romantical."
Back in Dillon, the sun sets gorgeously on the Airstream trailer. Inside, Lyla and Tim lie in bed facing each other. Tim thanks her for coming back and she quietly says "You're welcome."
Across town, Vince and his mom come out of the corner store with some bags of groceries. She can't believe her son is going to be on TV. Vince clarifies that he'll be on TV getting his butt whipped. She says that she has to find something to wear, and Vince's face registers distaste at the glimmerings of this plan. "For what?" "For the game" she tells him. He says she doesn't need to go all the way to McNulty but his mom says that she'll get a ride from a friend. She stops and tells him seriously that she needs to see him play. They continue walking and she puts her cigarette-holding hand on his back and assures him that she won't make any scenes, she'll be cleaned up. In a gesture that speaks volumes, Vince sort of shrugs away from her hand as they walk back to their house.
Tami finishes brushing her teeth while Eric is in bed. She declares that she's going to Austin tomorrow. Eric is like "What?" Well, Tami does not care that Julie is seventeen, the girl bold-faced lie when they told her, expressly, not to go to Austin. Seriously, how can Tami Taylor EVER feel angry, or mad, or sad, with hair like that? Look at it bounce around her agitated face! Such body! She keeps going, she's sick to death, Julie hasn't answered one single phone call, she doesn't know where she is. Tami climbs into bed, says that she can't think of another thing right now, can't focus, so she's just going to go to Austin and find her. Coach takes a breath and tells his wife that he supports her decision.
Nighttime. Tim and Lyla are still in bed, but now Tim is sitting up talking excitedly. He says that Riggins Rigs, in six months, is going to get busy. Tim'll be doing his thing-- "Handin' out cards, all this kinda stuff." Handin' out cards? Bestill my heart that is precious. It's going to get so busy, Tim's going to be under the car all the time, and that's where Lyla comes in, "Miss Garrity." Lyla looks at him with sweet incredulity as he tells her that they're going to need someone to manage it all when they get super busy. "Granted it's a simple life, but it's kind of a great life." Lyla asks if that's his pitch, swallows, and breaks into a smile. "It's a hard one to walk away from." And Tim's voice lowers to a more serious register as he says "So don't. I'm serious." Lyla looks at him and asks what he wants, and he responds immediately, "You." Her face goes through a series of pained motions and she asks "What else do you want" and he pauses this time. Then answers, "You." There is no way this would work, and it is just so sad. If Becky's and Luke's teenaged confusion is the first relationship lesson this episode gives us, here is the second: sometimes it won't work no matter how much you love each other. Love doesn't conquer all. Damn, show.
Coach wakes up to the sound of Tami weeping quietly to him. He reaches over and embraces her, while Tami wonders why Julie would do this, scare them to death like this. Coach tells her to shhh, that he trusts Julie and he trusts Matt, they know she's safe. Tami says they do not know that at all, she hasn't returned even one phone call. Tami doesn't know why Julie would do this, and Coach declares, "Because she's seventeen years old that's why" which Tami says just breaks her heart. Coach pulls her in and says that the more they try to hold her close the more she'll stray. Tami sobs that she knows this but she doesn't want Julie to go. Which sounds to me like a different problem than not wanting Julie to rebel and lie like she just did. Tami's quieted down and Coach wonders whether she's going to Austin, and Tami says no, it seems kind of silly now. "I'm just going to beat her ass when she gets home." God bless the un-Botoxed furrow in Connie Britton's forehead, which Coach right now kisses and smoothes away.
Matt answers his ringing cell phone. It's Landry, who can barely wait through Matt telling him what bands they've seen to awkwardly launch into the reason he's calling: "Hey, um, just a kind of a FYI...." He tells Matt about Tami grilling him with questions about where Matt and Julie are and says that he told her about the Heartless Bastards, "Which, thinking back maybe I might not shoulda done. It's probably nothing, just wanted to give you the heads up." Meanwhile, Matt's totally behind, all "What?" "Wait!" while Landry keeps babbling about how he's sure Tami won't really come to Austin. The minute Landry stops talking Matt asks "So she doesn't know Julie's in Austin with me?" and Landry realizes he just stuck another foot in it. "Oh, great, well I'll talk to you later!" Julie comes out of the bathroom, and Matt confronts her: "You lied to your parents?" Julie explains that she didn't lie, but she left them a message. She doesn't think it's a big deal, but Matt does because he cares about what her parents think of him and now they're going to hate him. Julie amps the shrill up a bit trying to wiggle out of the blame, doing the "I'm sorry but" explanation that she's sorry but she bought the tickets to cheer him up by getting him out of Dillon because he hates Dillon. Matt protests that he doesn't hate Dillon, but Julie doesn't accept it: "You HATE Dillon and the only reason you stay there is because of me, and maybe for once I don't want the responsibility for you having to stay in Dillon." Matt takes this all in, processes it, and puts it away in that place inside him where he keeps all the shit people lay on him marked "Deal with Later, or Maybe Never Because It's More Important to be Reliable than to be Happy" and tells Julie that he's sorry (because he truly doesn't want her to feel upset) and that he didn't mean to freak out, so let's just go to this concert. Julie apologizes too, for freaking out, and they head, heavy-footed, out to the concert.
Lions v. McNulty. Twilight, happy excited football faces, the Lions cheerleaders without uniforms just wear red and black exercise clothes. The announcer exposits that Taylor has yet to name a quarterback for the game, this monumental mismatch. Cut to an hour later, full darkness under the bright lights, the game starts. Vince takes the first snap, feints a hand off and runs for some yards. Luke takes the snap, and runs for some more yards. The Lions are making their way to the delight and surprise of all. Vince takes the snap and busts his way through to the endzone, touchdown!! The announcer tells us that this is the first touchdown McNulty has given up in four games, but even without such a statistic, the goal would probably feel as sweet to Vince and the other kids. The announcer believes that the Lions may just have found a quarterback. Cut to late in the second half, we learn that the Lions are only 7 points away from tying the game up. Vince takes a snap, tosses it to Luke, who runs it, runs it, runs it to inside the ten yard line. Coach's hair is like "THIS IS IT!!" as he shouts and instructs from the sidelines. Just seconds to go, Vince takes another snap-- his mother roots for him in the stands, Jess freaks out on the sidelines-- but he's having a hard time finding someone to get the ball to. He looks and looks but ultimately gets taken down in his own backfield and the clock winds down. Lions lose. Everything goes quiet for a minute, but the announcer declares "We have seen a team emerge tonight, led by Vince Howard, a rising star." Coach gets his face together and calls his players to bring it in, looking proud. They come in and Coach tells them to listen up: "Every single person out here respects you fellas....Helluva a job, helluva job. Take that with you, carry it with you, and we are going to build on it."
In Austin, Matt and Julie watch the Heartless Bastards at a place that is not Emo's, but sort of looks kind of like Club DeVille. Matt stands in the crowd, not really plugged into the show, and he leans over and asks Julie "Do you want me to leave?" She mishears and, into the music, barely looks at him when she says "No, they just started playing!" He says again, "No, do you want ME to leave" and she snaps her attention to him. He says that maybe she's right, maybe he should've left already, does she even want him to stay? Julie's face is too much, she's completely stunned and panicked. She says that she's sorry, she was saying stupid things, of course she wants him to stay, "I love you, don't think about it." Matt says okay, but it's clear that he's not going to be able to close the door now that it's been opened. He kisses her on the forehead and tells her that he loves her.
Morning. Tim walks into the trailer where Lyla's asleep. Oh, this looks like heaven to me, and not just because Tim Riggins is there in a muscle tee! The fall wind blows into the trailer, the cool sheets, the distant drone of planes above, the fresh coziness of it all. He sits and watches her sleep a bit until she opens her eyes. They say good morning to each other. And then we cut from the warm, golden glow of that world apart to a grey day at the bus depot, where Tim holds Lyla's head in his hands while he kisses the top of her head. She looks at him with tears in her eyes and he says, finally, "Goodbye Lyla Garrity." She gets on the bus and he stands, his hands on his hips, shoulders and head bowed. The bus pulls away, Lyla sits inside watching Tim, they share one final parting glance and then that's it. I was talking with Joe Reid the other day, and we were joking about what he has coined "The Columbus Day Massacre"-- the weekend when college freshmen come home and break up with their high school boyfriends and girlfriends. And it's totally a thing-- I did it, I know others did, too-- but I was thinking more about this phenomenon and about high school relationships in general. And about how when they come to an end, that doesn't mean they weren't something real on their own terms. It seems to me that our culture doesn't actually know how to deal with high school relationships, because they are often cast as EITHER misguided/dumb OR practice for marriage. But I don't think high school relationships are really either of those things. They are their own thing, they have a sort of unity and specificity that isn't related to where (or who with) you end up later on in life and it seems to me that it's important to maintain that specificity and not diminish or trivialize it.
Which is a hard thing to do. Because when you are a teenager one of the ways you understand yourself is in relation to those available models. So you feel really deeply in love and you kid around about what you'll name the kids and stuff like that. Even when you are smart enough to realize you probably won't marry this person, your imagined future can't disentangle itself from the marriage plot. But the fact that you don't end up with this person doesn't mean that this was a secondary relationship in your life. And I think more than any other teen relationship I've ever seen depicted, Matt and Julie are teaching us about this. This is a primary fucking relationship, and it is true and real and I think it's fantastic to be asked to, in the context of a television show, really respect what these young people have -- not as training wheels but as its own sort of emotional Mack Truck.
Matt pulls up in front of the Taylor's house, and their world apart is coming to an end just like Tim and Lyla's. Matt thanks her for the tickets and she says that it was nice to get away with him. They are quiet for a moment until Julie leans over to kiss him, and their kiss is seriously weep-inducing. Here I am again, with the tears. Matt mumbles "Love you, Julie" and she replies, "Love you, Matty." She pulls back and says she has to go. They've both got tears in their eyes as Matt says "See you later?" She says "Yeah" and quickly gets her stuff out of the car as her face starts to ugly cry. Cut to Julie walking in the front door. Tami, at the kitchen table, has her opening line ready: "That better've been a great concert, babe." Julie apologizes, and as her mother tells her how worried sick they've been, Julie just slides down the wall and moans, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry" as she breaks into sobs. Tami asks "What happened, hun, did something happen?" And Julie just says simply, "I think he's leaving." Tami comes over to her and sits to her bereft daughter, leaning her head on her shoulder.
Matt sits in his car outside of his house. Inside, he can hear Shelby and Grandma discussing the television, trying to get the picture better on this one, wondering whether they need a new one. He sits and thinks. He's already gone.
Tim gets out of his truck and finds Becky on the back patio. Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" starts to play. He sits to her and opens a beer. Becky asks how Lyla is and Tim answers, "Gone." She asks if he has a broken heart, and Tim says he doesn't know. Becky: "Was she the love of your life?" Tim looks at her but doesn't answer. Becky fiddles with the edge of the table and starts teen-babbling. She figures that maybe there's more than one soul mate for everyone. "Cuz like, say I'm born in Texas, but my soul mate is born all the way over in Sri Lanka. That seems randomly unfair!" She smiles dopily and continues (in the absence of any reply from Tim), thinking that it only makes sense for there to be more than one. Because you have your first and it's new and you feel things you've never felt before and then they break your heart. Then you cry and are sad, and then you meet someone else, and then they're you're new soul mate, because they make you feel things the other one couldn't...."and then they break your heart." Right about now, Tim interrupts my extreme surprise that I kind of agree with this silly chatty Becky by turning his head in her direction. She looks at him expectantly, and he says "Becky.....shut up.....please?" He goes back to drinking beer and looking like the saddest zombie in the world.
It's morning, and the song still plays, and we cut to Matt driving in his car. The camera pulls out a bit and we see him passing a scenic lake, a road map resting on the dash. He drives and we follow, the camera swings around and catches him in profile, staring straight ahead until....the slightest wisp of a smile turns up the corners of his mouth. Matt Saracen, on his way.
What a lovely, lovely episode, one that got me even more than Matt's mourning of last week. I don't know that I've ever seen a better, more kind-hearted, or more intellectually-demanding depiction of teen love. Sigh.
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