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The big game this week is between two last-place teams, causing all of mean-spirited West Texas to get excited about making potty jokes: the game shall be termed The Toilet Bowl. Well, Coach Taylor isn't having any of it, and he tells his team that they no longer are playing according to the "it doesn't matter whether you win or lose" mantra. They aren't scrappers anymore, they're a team. So they practice and practice. Luke's practicing hurts a little more than others, because he got jammed between a swinging cow fence last week and the entire side of his abdomen is a flaming bruised red. He's gone through three weeks worth of pain medication in one, and goes to Tim Riggins for some help: Tim sends him to a good ole boy football-fan doctor who prescribes pain medication like a clerk in a Texas convenience store sells beer to minors. Luke pops the pills, which keep him going through the game, but only just barely. The Lions take an early lead, but squander it. Vince and Luke slowly bring the team back (Luke does so while wincing and limping and lying to Coach about how he feels) and Landry clinches the win with a final field goal. Lions win! Can you believe it?!
Landry scores some points on the field, but the ones he attempts off the field don't go quite as smoothly. He convinces Jess to go out on a date with him, but she stands him up after she runs into Vince and his disturbingly chipper and clean mom in the grocery and gets invited over for dinner. When they finally do go out-- Landry at first rationalizes this for the better because the new date night, Thursday, is better for sex than Wednesday is -- her little brothers are inexplicably in the back seat of the car and she diverts his kiss to a peck on the cheek. Ouch. But, after the game, though Vince kind of calls out to her, she goes to Landry. Seems like Landry's coming off like the safe, non-threatening choice to a girl again. I mean, who's a guy gotta kill around here to... oh, right.
Tim Riggins keeps pursuing his dream of buying some land and Texas Forever-ing it up for the rest of his life. But even the suit he dresses up in (awww) can't relieve the burn of discovering the land costs $85,000. Tim doesn't have that kind of money. That is, until he discovers that Billy's pulling in big money running an after-hours chop shop in their garage. Billy needs the extra money to pay for Mindy's pre-natal care and hospital bills. Tim resists at first, and even though I don't love Tim the Good Guy, Taylor Kitsch really injects some wonderful younger brother vulnerability into Tim Riggins in the scenes where he feels betrayed by Billy. He tries to get a stand-up job, but doesn't succeed, so ultimately ends up joining Billy in his Bad Decision Garage. Also there's some stuff with Becky including an VERY ILL-ADVISED kiss that I have not dealt with sufficiently to write about yet.
Also not dealing well is Julie, who travels to Boston with her mom to do a series of college interviews at various universities. The Taylor women outside of Texas are a sight to behold! Julie, still mourning her break-up, acts out at her mom, inventing some reasoning about how Tami is putting too much pressure on Julie about college, which Tami just calmly and repeatedly points out is not true. What is true is that Julie is freaked about leaving home, even now that she doesn't have much there for her. In the final interview, Julie has an epiphany right there in front of the admissions counselor and spins a beautiful, impromptu essay about how much she has been shaped by the town she always thought she wanted to leave. Julie Taylor Thesis Statement!
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Thanks to Joe R. for filling in for me last week, handling the return of GLENN with such flair, and actually teaching me a thing or two: it's apparently TINKER (not Tanker) and Bad Gold Chain Kid's name is really Calvin.
This week we open on Julie and her mom fussing in Julie's bedroom, packing clothes into suitcases. Her mom thinks either outfit says "College Interview" and then frazzles some at Julie about remembering to pack her toiletries in a plastic bag. Julie fusses in a different way-- "These are UGLY" she declares of a pile of clothes-- and in Gracie's bedroom Coach declares, "Gracie doesn't have any pants" while little Gracie stands still and giggles at all these crazy people acting so crazy. Tami zips by Gracie's room, briefly pausing to instruct the helpless Dad where the pants are and coo at Gracie a bit, then zips into her room to find the blue shirt Julie insists she needs. Tami claps her hands and pleads with everyone that they CANNOT miss this flight, suddenly everyone is in Tami and Coach's bedroom, Julie complaining that everything they've packed for her interviews makes her look like a realtor, Coach to give Julie a quick pep talk -- "Give 'em hell!" he suggests -- and suddenly everyone is smiling and loving each other on the way out the door. Taylors! For the win!
We go driving around Dillon with Buddy Garrity while listening to Slammin Sammy exposit about this week's game, which pits the league's two last-place teams, the East Dillon Lions and Campbell Park Timberwolves, against one another in a game that some have dubbed "The Toilet Bowl." Buddy drives by an "Awards and Trophies" store in a shabby mini-strip mall and sees an employee topping a gold-painted toilet with an East Dillon Lions helmet with a plunger stuck on top. Slammin' Sammy tells us that Coach Taylor must see this game as an opportunity to get a "W" on the books.
Transition with a toilet flush (oh, come on now!) over to Luke Cafferty in his bathroom. Close up of a pill bottle that reads "something codone" and has the driving precaution printed on the label. He downs a couple and asks his mother, who is in another room, whether he has a follow-up with the doctor. He raises his shirt to examine a huge swath of raw bruised flesh all along the right side of his abdomen and hip. His mom says that the doctor didn't need to see him unless it was still hurtin, "It's still good, right?" Luke lies that he's good.
Cut to Tim at a realtor's office. And holy continuity, it is the same realtor lady who came on to Tim Riggins in the first episode -- "I don't know what a blitz is, it sounds a little sexual" -- and showed up again in Season 3 when she sold Buddy Garrity's house to the Riggins boys for their flip scheme. Anyhow, Tim goes to her now to express interest in the property at which he closed the last episode gazing. He has donned a heartbreakingly ill-fitting suit for this meeting. The realtor -- Missy, if I remember correctly -- tells him that the property is a still at $85,000. Just 75 if he can pay half up front! Tim's face immediately falls, he shakes her hand, and goes outside, loosens the uncharacteristic tie and gets in his truck. Oh, poor, naive Tim Riggins!
Landry and Jess hoof it up to school. Jess walks with abandoned force. It's cute. Landry wants to go on a date; Jess says they hang out all the time, why do they have to call it a date? Landry parses the difference: "I will be wearing a nice, button-up shirt... and it will be nighttime!" Jess pauses and wonders if Landry, when he says "nice shirt," means the one with the periodic table. Landry scrambles to say he has many nice shirts! She still hesitates, but suggests maybe Wednesday night, which she has off. She giggles her way up the stairs into school while Landry stays behind to give a slow arm pump of victory.
East Dillon locker room. Coach marches in and asks if they've heard the phrase "It doesn't matter whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game." A bunch raise their hands, and Coach tells them that the saying doesn't apply to them anymore. He tells them to be proud of how far they've come, but they've got a hell of a football team now. "We're not scrappers anymore. We're Lions." The boys slowly start to smile and get psyched for themselves and, on Coach's word, go tearing out of the locker room to practice. They whoop and holler but are brought up short as they get to the field. They all stare at something, their smiles fading, and the camera slowly swings around to show a toilet that's been placed in the middle of the field. Jerks!
Credits. Jangly guitars, location shots of Boston. It's true fall there, and the Taylor women take in the sights, looking like hot southern babes with their long blonde hair and black heeled boots and surprisingly appropriate fall coats. Shot of a clock that reads "Boston University" on its face. It is so unexpectedly pleasurable to see the Taylor women out and about in a city! Tami makes Julie cringe by stopping a man on the street to take their picture, but Julie puts a smile on her face for the shot. City montage ends and we cut to an English class on Chaucer, taking place in a real hallowed-halls kind of classroom-- wood paneling, old-fashioned chalkboard, auditorium seating. The camera is behind the students, and it's a nice detail that on the pause one sees at least one laptop open to a game of solitaire. The professor talks about the contradiction inherent in the fact that Chaucer is the founder of modern poetry, but also uses words like "ass" and "fart." Tami, up towards the back giggles. Camera cuts over to Julie, who is also fresh-faced and attentive. But as the professor continues, spinning out a discussion question about Chaucer's use of bawdy language, the camera ranges around and shows ALL YOU COLLEGE STUDENTS OUT THERE what you look like to us professors: gape-mouthed, staring at their phones, texting, playing solitaire. Nobody will answer her question -- "Someone? Anyone?" -- and Tami starts gesturing to Julie, who sits a few rows in front of her, miming that she should raise her hand. But the professor takes Tami's mime to Julie as a hand raised. Another completely true classroom detail: ANY MOTION AT ALL causes the professor to jump at you with the extreme hope that maybe, JUST MAYBE you have a thought. So the professor calls on her, but Tami says she's just observing. But the professor pushes her, saying that's okay, please share her thought! So Tami says she thinks maybe Chaucer's language has to do with context, with who's speaking. The professor says that's exactly right and continues on her lecture. Tami smiles to herself, Julie squinches up her face in mortification.
East Dillon practice. Serene music plays and things are plugging along nicely: Vince taking instruction, plays getting run, punts getting kicked. Luke gets tackled on one play and gets up limping. Tim is watching and calls him over: "Fours, c'mere" (because Luke's number 44, so, "fours"). Tim asks Luke if he's okay, and Luke insists that he is. Tim plays a dirty trick and says "Alright then" while reaching out and giving an encouraging slap to Luke's injured side, which he winces at. Luke runs back onto the field. Meanwhile, Buddy approaches, and Coach receives him drily. Coach wonders if Buddy needs a toilet, and Buddy declares the whole thing a bunch of malarkey. Love that word! Buddy stands to Coach and declares that he wants to be someone for the Lions the way he used to be someone for the Panthers. Coach just looks off into the distance from behind those Coach sunglasses of his and says, "Aright."
Jess is trying to manage her little brothers, who are running shouting around a grocery store. Over in the aisle, Vince picks one of the kids up and carries him back to Jess, big smile on his face. Jess's jaw drops. Vince tells the kids to run a post route and sends them running for a bag of pretzels he spins down the aisle. Jess scolds him for teaching them to throw food in a grocery, but she's smiling the whole time. Vince's mom comes around the corner and makes Jess and Vince go on edge. She's still looking good and she greets the boys warmly and then declares that she's cooking dinner week and she wants Jess to be there. Jess protests weakly, she wouldn't want to impose, but Mrs. Howard insists and then walks off with Vince, who looks like he'll take what little his mom can give right about now.
Back in Boston, Tami and Julie stroll a campus with an official woman who remarks to Tami that before Tami was guidance counselor they never got any applications from that district to Boston College. Tami was just happy to put a face to the school name when BC came down to their college fair a few years ago. The woman tries to loop Julie in, who's been lagging behind the older women as they walk and chat. All Julie can say is that the school looks exactly like the brochure. The woman asks if she's sat in on any classes and Julie taciturnly says she sat in on an English class and it was "good." Tami expounds: "Oh, it was great!" and the older women coo and sigh over how great reading is, it's just like being at a fabulous cocktail party! Julie remains silent, and Tami keeps ventriloquizing her -- "Jules loves to read. I think she got that from me."
And now for the scene we've all been waiting for. Tim Riggins. A puppy. A beer can. Tim Riggins fake interviewing a puppy using a beer can as a microphone! I repeat: Tim Riggins fake interviewing a puppy using a beer can as a microphone! He asks Skeeter: "You got a big game coming up this weekend, what do you have to say about it?" Skeeter only whines a bit (apparently not prepped by his PR guy) when there's a knock at the trailer door. Tim sort of lurches over to answer and finds Becky, bitchily saying some crazy lady named Mindy is on the phone for him. Tim takes the call and we cut over to Mindy, amped up and lying in a recliner in a pink bathrobe. The toilet is backed up over at the Riggins Ranch and she can't get hold of Billy. She needs Tim to take care of it; only Tim tells her that he's had too much to drink and can't drive. Mindy reminds him that this isn't about him and his drinking problem, it's about her baby and how it's getting an amniotic noseful of toxic fumes every time she goes to the bathroom. Alright then, Mindy. Tim suggest she just go in the bathtub but Mindy is shocked (as if she has never peed in an inappropriate place before; isn't that, like, one of the initiation rituals for becoming a Landing Strip stripper?). Mindy screams at Tim and hangs up; Tim drunkenly looks at Becky and asks if she can drive stick. Cut to them lurching along the road, Tim trying to teach her from the passenger side how to manage the clutch. I bet she wishes he'd teach her that. They stop at a light, and Becky asks why Tim was in a suit earlier. Tim declares that, well, some guys are meant to be in a suit and some guys aren't.
At the Riggins Ranch, Tim fixes the toilet while simultaneously taking a hammer to Mindy's heart. When Tim asks where Billy is, Mindy is surprised that Tim doesn't know that he's at the shop working on a job. Mindy wonders if this is a big deal, you know how Billy's always working late now, and he seems tired and distracted and doesn't answer his phone. You know, that doesn't mean he's having an affair, does it? Tim looks at his sister-in-law and kindly says "Minds, what you're saying is not happening." I'm kind of a big fan of Tim Riggins' penchant for endearing nicknames (Minds, Fours). Mindy busts out that she doesn't even want to know if Billy's cheating on her; she feels like a total mess, stuck in that chair in that bathrobe.
Commercials. Coach lingers in a hallway cringing as he listens to Buddy try to convince the Spanish-language radio station manager to let them broadcast the Lions games. A younger man translates between the two of them, but things are getting lost in translation. The station manager thinks Buddy wants free time, Buddy insists that he's offering the station a new demographic: football! The station manager is like "Football? Football?! Futbol Norteamericano!" Somewhere in Dillon a lone vuvuzela bleats. Coach calls Buddy over and wonders whether all this is worth it, Buddy tells him to look at it like an investment. If they get on the radio, they get a voice, they can stop all the trash-talking and toilet-bowling. Coach is getting fed up waiting for these negotiations, but Buddy goes back to working his magic.
Early morning, Billy finds Tim sitting on the couch in the garage. Tim cuts straight to it: "Are you messing around on Mindy?" Billy scoffs and says no. Tim wonders what's up with all the working late, and Billy tries to punt, saying he's just doing some after-hours work. But Tim keeps pushing, he wants to know exactly what kind of after-hours work Billy's been doing. So Billy comes clean. A couple of guys came to him with a proposition: they come to him a few times a week needing a car cut down to its component parts, and they need it turned around before -- "Chop shop," Tim interrupts. Tim's face is suddenly confused as he sort of half whimpers, "So stupid!" Billy asks if Tim has a better plan, and Tim runs his hair through his hair to connote "wit's end" and says "Yeah, Billy! We had a plan! We just had a party and raised buckets of money!" Billy can't believe how naive Tim is: that money went to two trips to the pharmacy and one meeting with the specialist. The money is gone. Billy asks again if Tim has any other plans, and Tim turns to his brother and bravo, Taylor Kitsch! You are no bloody-handed Matt Saracen burying his own father, but I think there's some true emotion here. He seems so wonderfully young as his voice cracks and he pleads with his brother: "Yeah, Billy! This was our plan. Riggins' Rigs!" Billy assures him that it's temporary, and that he's doing this for his family, so he doesn't go bankrupt, for his baby. Tim just shakes his head and walks out of the garage.
Tami sighs about how much she loves this college. You know, this one, whichever Boston school it is. I never got bit by the Boston bug, apparently. Who wants to go to school there? Tami and Julie sit down on a bench with their coffees, Julie exasperatedly says she knows this is Tami's favorite school. Tami asks if she ever told Julie this was her first choice, and Julie brats "Only, like, a million times... but no pressure or anything, right?" Tami gets confused and wonders what Julie's talking about, and Julie -- getting the sort of atonal sarcasm just right in her voice -- declares that Tami would have disowned her if she didn't apply to this college. Tami's brow is furrowed. Julie says that she feels like her mother has been staring over her shoulder during the whole college application process; Tami won't stand for this revisionist history! She says she has been trying to help her in the process, but the decision is Julie's. Tami just wants to support Julie, "Ya get me?" she asks. Julie just shortly replies, "Yeah." I've gotta say, I'm with Tami here. Julie's sudden complaint has too many of the hallmarks of a teen looking for something to get dramatic and martyred about.
Cut over to Landry's garage where Crucifictorius practice is under way. Crucifictorius's new song apparently involves the lyrics: "Shooby du wahhhh." Are they still Crucifictorius? In any case, Devin is trying to harmonize with Landry, but Landry just can't hit the notes. They stop playing, and Devin asks if something's the matter. I love Devin's delivery so much all the time. It's like she's a very gentle and inquiring alien to this strange planet. Landry kind of mutters for a while before Jimmy, dorkily on drums, clarifies: "He got stood up." Landry says he didn't get stood up, the date was simply rescheduled. For Thursday. "Which might be a good thing, because Thursday is a more sexual night anyway." Landry clarifies: at 7 p.m. on Thursday, your brain has clicked into "weekend," but Wednesday is closer to Monday "and no one's getting busy on Monday." Devin shouts in endearing shock "Get busy?!" and Jimmy chimes in with some flair on the drums. God love these kids.
At Vince's house, Vince's mom brings the food five feet from the kitchen to the table despite both Jess's and Vince's obvious disbelief that she will be able to pull off such a feat. Her hands shake visibly as she pours tea from a pitcher. Jess asks her how she's been and she starts kind of rattling off a lot of language. She can't complain, well, she did lose her job at the hotel, but that was because it closed, she did some part-time cleaning work, that didn't pan out, that's because of night school. Vince tries to interrupt to get her out of whatever nervous-addict tube she's sliding through, but she keeps right on going, turning to Jess and saying "Do you know how amazing you are? Do you know how amazing?" Jess is stunned and Vince's mom continues, saying that when Jess was a little girl, a light just shined through her, and now she's become a beautiful young woman. Vince's mom's weirdness turns into heartfelt and kind of nice as she asks Vince, "I mean, isn't she beautiful?" and Vince stares straight at Jess and says, "She's gorgeous." What happened between these two already? I want to know! Also, what terrible football-related tragedy befell Jess's mom that makes her widowed father so anti-football? So many important questions!
Speaking of Jess's dad, Coach Taylor and his ragtag bunch of boosters are eating brisket at Ray's Bar-B-Q. Coach, single-fathering for the time being, has Gracie on his knee. They shoot the shit, and talk turns to Buddy Garrity's attempts to sell advertising during the radio broadcast of the game. Coach moans about how annoying Buddy's being with the radio stuff, but Deacon says he bought 60 seconds, "And I'm a preacher!" Coach calls out to Virgil behind the counter that this is some pretty good brisket; Virgil deadpans, "Now I can die happy." Coach's hair seems pretty kicked back and relaxed as he jokes to his pals, "I think he's warming up to me."
Julie and Tami are in their hotel room, Julie devastated that the internet isn't working. This is truly a tragedy of immense proportions. Tami tries to engage her daughter like a human being, but Julie is mope central. Tami asks if she's okay; Julie takes a minute before coming clean: she know she should be excited about this trip, they've been planning it for so long, but it just seems like everything is happening so fast. Tami just nods and coos and confirms, and Julie says that she knows that she's letting her mom down. Tami tells her to "No, ma'am, don't go there." Julie confesses that she feels like a stupid mess, like "Hi, I got dumped!" and hanging around universities where she doesn't belong. Tami says that of course she belongs, she belongs wherever she wants. Julie thinks that all these interviews seem so fake, like telling them how great she is when she feels like such a mess. Tami gives her a hug and tells her that all she needs to do is go in and be herself, and look at it all as an opportunity. For her future. Julie, clearly not convinced, gets up to go take a shower.
Commercials. Vince is on the couch at home going over his playbook when Bad Gold Chain Kid-- ahem, Calvin comes in, grabs a Sprite and tries to tempt Vince into some Grand Theft Auto. Not the video game. This guy sure is one baby-faced, doe-eyed delinquent. He says it's boring stealing cars without Vince. Vince says that he wishes he could, but he's got to study some plays. You know how it goes. Calvin tries another tack: tempting Vince to come out to the courts for some hoopin'. But Vince says he can't do that, either -- you know, practice. Calvin mutters that he guesses Coach comes first. Vince swears that "it ain't like that" but Calvin just gives him a few sighing "Alrights" and goes out the door.
Tim is inside getting nattered at some more by Becky. She's giving him job interview advice. Oh, sweet Lord. She says he needs to have a presence! Walk tall! Sit with his shoulders pulled back, like there's a beam of energy coming out of his chest! Everything like such as! She forces him to get up and try for himself, and Tim obeys, because he's about as confused when it comes to daddy/boyfriend issues as Becky is. He walks tall, sits down, and hands his resume over to Becky. Becky wonders "What kind of situation are you looking for," which is kind of endearingly old-fashioned language to use. My husband and his little brother used to "play" work, and when they did they used the word "hypodontic" a lot -- because it was a word that sounded grown-up and business-y to them. Kind of like "situation" does for Becky. Tim answers that he's looking for a situation where "I can achieve something, be proud of it, and do it start to finish, on my own." Tim Riggins! Spokesman for the Little Guy! Becky wonders if Tim wants to know what she thinks (oh come now, Becky, why bother asking first? We all know you'll tell us anyway): "I think you're a strong person, and an honest worker, and you can grow up to be whatever you want to be, Tim Riggins." Oh, for the love of dialogue, people!
Luckily we are saved from more of Becky's groaners by Luke Cafferty knocking at the door. Tim says it's probably for Becky, and she jumps up to get the door, but Luke asks for Tim. Ouch! Tim walks outside -- "Fours!" -- and asks what's up. Luke tells him that he got hurt real bad at the farm, everything he's doing in practice makes him feel like his leg is getting ripped off, and he's gone through three weeks of meds in one. Tim tells him what to do: "Dr. Kooney. Mental note this." When Luke sees him, he has to tell the doctor how great he was at TMU, and then answer four questions in the following way: "No. No. Yes. No." Luke shakes his hand and goes off in search of his Texas destiny in the form of an oxycodone addiction.
Landry and Jess are in the front of his car, but all her brothers are in the back, for some reason. Landry's doing some high-quality dorky imaginative play (pronouncing the "w" in "sword") and the brothers are eating it up. Jess tells them it's bedtime and sends them inside. Before they leave, though, they leave some food for thought: "Aren't you going to kiss?" one asks, while another declares "Vince is gonna kick your butt!" They run off and Landry is left with this total shit-eating grin on his face, "What'd they say about Vince?" Jess doesn't answer, so Landry leans over to kiss her but gets the dreaded diversion to the cheek kiss! She gets out of the car, leaving Landry with his shark-on-a-stick toy which is the least sexual thing I've seen in a long time, no matter that it's Thursday.
Back in Boston, Tami and Julie navigate the busy streets looking for a vegetarian restaurant. Julie just wants to go back and order room service. Tami insists dinner out will be fun. And, P.S. Julie, you're a vegetarian who is regularly made to eat at Ray's B-B-Q restaurant back home! But Julie insists on moping. Her mom stops her and says that she knows she's sad about Matt, but they're here, and this is a great opportunity! Okay, even though I'm on Tami's side, this much brightness can get grating, especially when so out-of-place in fucking dreary Boston. Tami wants Julie to see the bigger picture. Julie doesn't know what that big picture is, and Tami says it's about her life, getting into the school of her dreams. "You mean the school of your dreams," Julie retorts. Tami gets short and tells Julie to stop acting like Tami is masterminding her applications; Julie has always wanted to go to a great school. Julie snarks that she's so sorry that she's not giving a command performance. Tami has reached her wit's end and she tells Julie that she can either show up to these interviews and be her best self, or she can blow it because of a break-up. Which she will regret for the rest of her life. Julie wonders what she wants from her, and Tami makes the mistake of thinking her poor, emotionally exhausted daughter is a grown-up: "I want you to pull it together, hun! Try harder!" Julie looks as if she's been slapped in the face, because she doesn't realize how many times in her life she is going to be completely bereft but still have to keep her shit together for the sake of her career, her family. Teenagers think that being bereft is a sacred state, and I guess that is actually really sweet of them. Julie turns on her heel and walks away from Tami.
Commercials. Julie is in her interview, having obviously pulled herself together. She talks about reading all of Capote's short stories and how amazing she thinks it is that he and Harper Lee were best friends, that two amazing artists found each other in such a small town. Oh my God, just like Matt and Julie did! Sniff! The interviewer thinks this is pleasant enough conversation, because her heart is wizened by urban living and she can no longer be moved by anything. She asks if there's anything else Julie wants to say, and Julie pauses for a minute before pulling out the big guns: making East Coast urban-types realize how completely small and insignificant their experience of life is. She says that when she started high school, all she could think of was getting out of Dillon. Every book was like a rung on a ladder to escape a town that was all about high-school football. But now that she's close to leaving, she's starting to appreciate that she was shaped by her town. "I have a different viewpoint than every other person." She's surprised by how happy she is to be from where she is. Go, Julie Taylor! Seriously, suck it New York, LA, Boston (not Chicago: because everyone knows Chicago is the best city in the whole country, kind of like Dillon with an opera).
Tim, donning a suit for the second time this week, gets ushered out of Sears by an employee who has nothing but good things to say about Tim's resumé. Tim makes sure to point out that his resume is up-to-date, you know has the State Championship on there and everything. Aww! Tim thinks that he could really have a sense of achievement working at Sears, and the guy says that he thinks Tim would be a good fit. Tim breaks into a wide smile, shakes his hand, but then hears the dreaded, "So we'll be in touch," which even Tim Riggins knows means "You'll never hear from us again."
Julie finds Tami waiting for her on a balcony that runs the length of the building, overlooking downtown Boston. Tami just says "So?" and Julie wonders if that's Tami asking her how it went. Tami doesn't push and just says Julie can tell her whatever she wants. But Julie's feeling high right now and she tells Tami that it went great, she went in there and totally kicked ass! Tami squeals and they hug. Tami tells her that she would be proud of her no matter what and wants to clear up some things about this being Tami's "dream school": "You see? I got my dream. I went to a good school, I got the degree I wanted, I met your dad, and I had you. You're my dream, baby. I got what I wanted, I got it all." Tami Taylor, speaking life's truth once again. Tami reminds Julie that their plane isn't 'til later that night; they could get a hot fudge sundae or coffee or something. But Julie has just one request: "Can we just go home?"
Luke sits in the den of shady Dr. Kooney. "Are you allergic to any medication" "NO." "Use alcohol?" "NO." "Ever try any over-the-counter medications?" "YES." "Do anything for the pain?" "NO." Tim Riggins came through for a young man in need of opiates. Throw in a little TMU reference and Luke leaves with a prescription.
Tim and Becky go visit "his" land in some incredibly spectacular golden Texas light. She tells him that it's beautiful, Tim tells her that he didn't want the Sears job anyways. Tim points out where the house will go -- on that ridge over there -- and he wants one of those decks, that goes all the way around. She fills in for him: "A wrap-around." He tells her that he's walked the property a few times and it goes way way beyond the tree line you can see. He turns to her and thanks her for helping him with the whole job process. Both of them have amazing-looking skin in this light. Becky leans in to kiss Tim, and he reciprocates for far too long before clearing his throat, causing Becky to pull away and apologize. She sort of nuzzles him and he stands there as the sun goes down, letting her arms stay around him. Tim Riggins! Do we like Becky? NO. Do we think you guys are good together? NO. Do we think you should run from her? YES. Are you going to disappoint us? NO NO NO!
Commercials. Game night. Buddy Garrity is in the spruced up Lions "stadium" announcer's box, broadcasting the game on El Fuego! It's raining, people are standing around wearing helmets with plungers stuck to the top. We're at the Toilet Bowl, y'all. Game starts, lots of mud, slipping, sliding, and the Lions are looking good! Vince runs the ball for a touchdown, which excites Calvin in the stands. More football (this isn't the most inspired game editing I've ever seen). At one point, Vince cocks back and lets a ball fly waaay down the field... to no one. Not a great pass, but shows that the kid's got an arm. At halftime, Lions are up 7, Landry gets sent on the field to punt a long field goal ("Just kick the damn thing" Coach replies to Landry's whining about how long it is) and gets it through the posts. Lions go into halftime with a 7-17 lead.
While kids are being kids on the field, Tim takes another step away from that world. He busts into Riggins Rigs while Billy's in there chopping up a car. Billy makes fun of his suit, but when Tim asks how much money they're talking about, Billy half-assedly tries to say that he doesn't want Tim involved. Tim presses: "How much?" and Billy tells him that he'll make more money in two months than he will in two years. "Two months?" Tim clarifies, and Billy nods. And there we go.
Back at the game, the Lions are losing ground. They give up a touchdown, and the Lions are down now, 21-17. Everyone on the sidelines is soaked and cheering, urging them on. Singer-songwriter on the soundtrack. On the possession, Luke makes a nice run, but gets tackled and stays down for a while. Coach looks on with concern and calls a precious time-out to call Luke over. He asks if the kid is all right, and Luke lies and says he is. Coach sends him back out, no time-outs left. Buddy waxes poetic about Coach Taylor's powers of inspiration, and on the field, Luke runs it like a freaking wounded warrior into the endzone. Lions win! Lions win! Classic FNL-style montage. High fives all around! Boys slipping and sliding around in the mud! Hugs! Smiles! Outside the stadium, Jess talks to some girlfriends, makes eyes at Vince, but when Landry comes out, she goes to him. Cut over to Billy and Tim in the shop taking a car apart, Tim looking conflicted. Cut to black.
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