Luke refuses to sit down when Coach asks him to because he knows the news isn't good. Coach finally tells Luke the truth that Luke has been a bit too drunk to fully comprehend: that TMU was never recruiting him, but rather just using him to get to Vince. A montage set to a sad song plays in my mind of Luke getting swaggering around at the dance, with the confidence of a recruited man, Luke walking across the field at TMU like he owned it. Sad face. Also: I am developing an unhealthy crush on Luke Cafferty. LIke to the extent of pausing the television to gaze a bit more at the contours of the back of his neck. Frustrated, Luke gets drunk in the middle of the day and drives on over to the Playgirl Ranch to see Becky. Becky isn't home, but Billy tells him he won't allow him to get back in his truck to drive around in that state. Instead, he invites him to come hang out in the backyard and drink some more. Can't beat 'em, join 'em! The empty swimming pool at the Playgirl Ranch has apparently disappeared and been replaced by a decorative toilet. Yep. They hang out back and Billy encourages Luke to reclaim his confidence by sounding some barbaric yawps into the air, which Luke wisely (er, Miller LIte-ly?) decides to do into the phone, on a message left for the TMU coach. This is probably not exactly the best advice an adult ever gave a kid, but at least nobody committed suicide while dramatically wearing a crown of thorns, huh, Mr. Keating???
Meanwhile, Becky is not as interested as I am in the incredible hotness of the back of Luke's neck, and okay, okay, they do have a sort of traumatic past together. Mindy, trying to distract Becky from thoughts of Tim Riggins -- and please do your best, Ms. Collette, because I really am not interested in Tim and Becky being together at the end of the series; I need to end with Tim Riggins, alone, shot from a low angle, surveying his land -- so Mindy really is trying to get Luke and Becky together, to the extent that she suggests they sleep together, using protection of course, and has no idea how wildly inappropriate she is being to the couple who have completely been there, done that, and also done a whole other thing in result of doing that.
Vince's past catches back up to him, as Kenard comes out of the woodwork, demanding the five thousand dollars he laid out to pay for Vince's mother's rehab in order to keep Vince involved in the car theft ring of last season. Jess naively suggests they go to the police or to Coach, but Vince tries to deal with the situation on his own. But the partial payment he makes to Kenard only enrages the guy further, who begins threatening Jess. Vince finds himself on Coach's doorstep one night, only to realize that, though there are many, many things a kid like himself gets from Coach, practical tips on how to manage a street thug are not really one of them. So he goes to his father instead, who, even though he knows that this will probably end up sending him back to jail, plays the hand he's dealt with (not "inspirational" father figure -- that's Coach -- but, rather "score-evening" father figure) and comes through for his son by beating the shit out of Kenard
Julie's short weekend away from all the drama at school comes to an end and so she does the only thing she can think of to lengthen it: crashes her car into one of those crazy brick mailbox things that are all over the Texas suburbs, claiming to her parents that a rogue dog made her "swerve." When that plan doesn't even work -- Tami quickly offers to drive her back to school so she doesn't miss any classes -- Julie finally comes clean and tells her mom what went down with the TA and his wife. Tami is shocked, but initially wants only to provide compassion to her humiliated daughter. Coach wants to beat the shit out of Head T.A. Derek Bishop ("How old is this guy anyway?" he asks incredulously). But when they both gradually realize that Julie purposefully crashed herself and her car into the mailbox, and that she kind of knowingly got into a relationship with a married man, and that now she is talking about leaving school and "traveling" for a few months, they realize that things with Julie are slightly more problematic than simple "compassion" will solve. Coach tries the old-fashioned way -- literally attempting to DRAG his daughter out to the car to force her to return to school. But that doesn't end up working so great. Coach is at a loss, retreating to Gracie Bell's bedside, clearly longing for a time when his child was physically exhausting but slightly less emotionally complex.
Opening church montage. The Caffertys are at their Bible Church. The Taylors at their mainline Protestant church (Buddy, Sr. is a reader while Buddy, Jr. is a pew snoozer). Vince and family and Jess are at the rollicking African American church. Luke and his parents talk TMU out front after church. Luke asks his dad not to mention it to anyone else, but his parents steamroll him and ask him to fix his tie so he can go get a picture with the pastor. "The football star," his father calls him. Luke's shoulders bend just a bit more under the weight. Cut over to the Taylors -- who, by the way, cut a bunch of nice figures in their church clothes. Buddy tells Tami that Eric is on the cover of the Texas High School Football Magazine, and not only that but has been deemed "Kingmaker" by that very same rag. I'm wondering about the subscription lists to that magazine -- what percentage fanatics, what percentage pedophiles do you think? Tami is surprised and Eric demurs at the sound of all this hullabaloo. Buddy turns his attention to Julie only to quickly squick everyone out by suggesting that Julie and Buddy, Jr. make a "good-lookin' couple" together, which: NO. Vince plays with Jess's brothers while Vince's mom and dad talk to Jess's aunt. Jess's aunt talks about how hard it's been on the boys with their father gone on his apparently epic barbeque journey. Ornette mumbles something about boys needing their daddies, and Vince's mom practically melts. Jess's aunt invites them all over for dinner and pie and they all wax gustatory about pie for a minute. Mmmm, pie. Vince's dad is looking entirely too upstanding, so we know some shit is going to go down soon. Vince and Jess spar lovingly as they say goodbye for the day.
Over at the Playgirl Ranch, Billy watches football when the phone rings. The connection is bad or something and Billy goes and takes the call in another room, while Becky begs like a puppy to talk to Tim. Billy assures Tim that he's been making the payments on the land Tim bought, and then asks if he got the money he sent over the other day. Prisoners can receive money? The connection cuts out (or Tim hangs up on his brother) and Billy sighs. Doesn't feel too good to make your brother the fall guy for your weird schemes.
Vince leaves his house only to run into Kenard, the bad guy from last season who sucked Vince into the car theft ring, ensured Vince's loyalty by paying for Vince's mom's rehab, and then vowing retribution when Vince refused to go kill a guy with him. Okay, caught up? So, there he is, grabbing Vince, laughing, making fun of Vince and his attempts to be a "new man." He tells Vince that he owes him five thousand dollars, then describes how he "put two holes in that son of a bitch's guts, watched him die." He threatens that he doesn't know what will happen if Vince doesn't get him the money in two days.
Over in the land of familial love and protection, Coach Taylor fusses around wiping dirt specks off of Julie's car as she sits in it preparing to leave to go back to school. He leans in and kisses her, and she drives off. We go with her as she drives, her face looking somewhat bereft as she comes to a stop, gazes straight at a brick-encased mailbox in front of her and then accelerates her car straight into it, setting off the airbags and alarm. She gets out of the car and sits on the curb, head in hands.
Credits. Morning at the Taylor's. Julie and Gracie sit at the breakfast bar while Tami putzes in the kitchen. Julie tells her mom that she doesn't need to bring Julie back to school, she can wait until the car is fixed to go back. She swears she isn't missing anything at school. Not missing anything other than the Queen of the Haaaarpies shrieking at Julie rather than leaving her shit-for-brains husband Head T.A. Derek Bishop. What Julie wasn't counting on is that her mom is PSYCHED to drive her back to school because that means at least a few hours with her daughter which MUST mean at least 15 minutes of communication with the girl, right? Coach comes in and dads around about mechanics and estimates. Julie quietly apologizes about the car, and how "the dog just ran out in the middle of the road," and both parents rush to reassure her that it is more than alright, they are just happy that she wasn't hurt, accidents happen. And, they don't realize it, but they are doing the best thing they can do: take their daughter at her word, so that hopefully (as long as she is not psychotic) she feels even more guilty about the whole thing.
Vince counts money while Jess runs through potential solutions to the problem: ask his dad to talk to Kenard ("they used to run together")? No, Vince doesn't want his dad, who is on parole, to end up back in jail. Talk to Coach? No. That would require way too much explaining. Meanwhile, Vince has been popping around his apartment grabbing money from the closet and such. Jess wonders if he's ever heard of a bank. He wisely notes that banks aren't always open when you need them to be.
Coach is in his office, on the phone with the mechanic. Luke comes in and tells Coach that Vince told him about getting recruited by TMU, as well as that Coach instructed Vince to keep that info away from Luke. "Is that true?" Coach rubs his tired face and says that it is true. He asks Luke to sit down, the kid refuses. Luke asks him to tell him straight what's going on. Coach leans back in his chair and does as requested: "They don't want you, they want Vince. They knew you were friends, they went through you to get to him." Luke pshaws and says he's pretty sure that they want both of them. Aw, sweet boy. Coach apologizes and says that he should have been looking out for Luke better. The realization starts to wash over Luke's face. Coach tells him that he's a hell of an athlete and will have a lot more opportunities. Luke leaves his office.
Out on the field, the coaches confer while the team sits in the bleachers. Crowley wonders if Coach isn't going to suspend somebody, but Coach points out that they've all done even stupider things before. Billy laughs, "Took a dump in a mailbox once." Coach glares at him from behind his sunglasses and Billy mutters, "Sorry, Coach, I didn't even know you, it was your first season." So, this happened when Billy was fully OUT of high school? Good work, fella. Traub gets all excited for Coach to "rip 'em a new one" and then shouts "Here he comes" as Coach walks over toward the team. Coach starts to address them, all stern-like, when all the kids in the bleachers hold up copies of Texas High School Football magazine on cue. They giggle, but Coach barely pauses: "Put 'em down." He goes on to scold them for permanently branding themselves with -- "What the hell was it? A salad fork?" "Coathanger, Mr. Kingmaker, sir" Hastings calls out. Coach tells them that it is every coach's dream to see their team act like fools. And then sends them out onto the field to run until they can't run any more. Coach asks Vince to hang back a minute. He asks Vince why he said anything to Luke. Coach is pissed, "I simply asked him to keep your mouth shut." Vince stutters for a while until he realizes all he can say is "I'm sorry" and then heads off to run.
Tami and Julie are at the Alamo Freeze for a pre-road trip ice cream fix. Tami says that she's trying not to be pushy, but she's dying to hear about school from Julie. Julie stares out the window and snarks about how her classes are all "just whatever." Tami asks her "Boys" and Julie basically just grunts. Tami knows this is getting rough and she quietly asks her daughter what's going on. Julie asks if she tells her something, will she promise not to freak out. Tami, shot in close-up, obviously crosses her fingers under the table and just says "Mmm hmmm." Julie explains: she had been messing around with this TA, who is married, but supposedly separated, but not as separated as she thought, and his wife "is crazy and came to my dorm and physically assaulted me in front of everyone." Tami, meanwhile is KEEPING HER SHIT TOGETHER. Slow clap for this lady, once again. She asks, "Did she hurt you, honey?" and Julie says no, it's just that she slapped her in front of everyone. "I can't go back there, and I don't know what to do." Close-up on Tami Taylor, also not really knowing what to do.
Cut to Eric, talking quietly, "With her teacher?!" Tami clarifies, "Her T.A." (She gets the difference). Eric starts obsessing about how old this guy is. Tami says that she was in shock, and didn't get all the details. She asks him to sit down, but he says he doesn't want to. He says he's about to go up there and kick this guy's ass. And wouldn't we all love to see that. He wants to know what the hell this guy is thinking, running around with a student. His voice raises, and we cut to Julie, in her room, overhearing her parents' loose-endedness. Eric switches to being pissed at Julie -- "her MARRIED T.A.?" and Tami begs him to have compassion. "Our daughter is humiliated. She is destroyed right now." Eric sits to her, and then tells his wife that she has to realize that Julie wrecked that car on purpose. Tami refuses to believe this, but Eric has his parental goggles on right. Tami insists that she wouldn't do that. Shot of the two of them sitting on the edge of their bed, realizing that neither version of Julie here is the right Julie.
Commercials. Tami walks into Julie's room and sits on her bed. Tami tells her that she and Eric will always love her no matter what, and then asks Julie point blank: did you really swerve the car to avoid hitting a dog? Julie, to her miniscule credit, comes clean and says no, that it was a stupid, stupid decision and she'll pay for the damage. Tami interrupts and says that this isn't about the money, this is about the choices that Julie is making. Julie robot-responds in therapy speak about how her choices have not been the best, and then launches into a wonderfully teen-y spiel about how she jumped into this whole "college" thing too soon and maybe she should go to Europe and travel some instead. Tami interrupts again and tells her "Honey, honey, NO. You are not running away from anything. You are an adult right now. You need to think about your choices and take responsibility for them." Julie is clearly looking for the kind of adulthood that allows for guiltless sordid affairs, pretentious embrace of "travel," and bad choices. Julie, get yourself up here to NYC!
Speaking of bad choices... Mindy and Becky are at the Cowgirl Stripper shop. Becky is complaining about how she didn't even get to talk to Tim for even ten minutes. Mindy reminds her that he's in prison, not a dorm. Mindy suggests that Becky focus her energy elsewhere. "You know. Relieve some tension. With someone." Becky continues to look blank until Mindy hisses, "Sexxxx." Heeee. Mindy grins like a maniacal stripper and suggests that Becky go for that cute cowboy Luke. How convenient! Becky just tells Mindy that she already has "been there" and it didn't turn out so great. Mindy asks if they dated and Becky is like "Not exactly." She fails to explain how they participated in a ratings-bating abortion plot together. Anyway, Mindy says Becky should have a boyfriend... or twelve. Becky holds up a purple bedazzled swimsuit for Mindy, who awesomely declares, "No. Rhinestones make me look trashy."
Lions football field. Luke gets flattened on the field and Billy shouts at him. Luke snarks something about "The Kingmaker" that either goes over Billy's head or Billy chooses to ignore. Over to the side, Crowley asks Coach what they should do to get the kids reenergized. But Coach is sapped himself and he asks Crowley to -- gasp! -- finish up practice for him. The kids watch him go like a bunch of puppies in a pet store window.
At home, Julie makes herself a grilled cheese sandwich as Coach comes home from practice. Without mincing words, Coach asks, "Did you know he was married and had a wife?" And, yeah, Julie totally fudged that part a bit in telling her parents what went down. Sure, stupid Head T.A. Derek Bishop talked a lot about how he and his wife don't love each other anymore, but there's no reason for us to believe that Julie really understood them to be separated. On the other hand: go eat a bee Head T.A. Derek Bishop. Putting 18 year olds in this position. And on the third hand, LEAVE HIM PROFESSOR LADY! Okay, so as Julie just responds to her father's question with guilty silence, he hangs his head in pain.
Vince hands Kenard and envelope full of money, which only enrages him further because it isn't the full amount. Kenard starts giving him the business but Vince reverts a tiny bit, just like Kenard said he would. Vince slams him up against the wall and tells him that he has a lot of people watching his back. He'll get him the rest of the money soon.
Coach stands on the back patio staring blankly into space. Tami comes out and asks what he's doing and he says "Just finishing up with some things." Heh. Tami tells him that he's hiding and she doesn't blame him, it's pretty strange in the house right now. Coach wonders what they know about this guy and Tami says that all they know is that since she's running away from him, it doesn't seem much like true love. Coach rubs his head, disbelieving that their daughter slept with another woman's husband. Tami says it's like Julie doesn't even understand her own actions right now. Coach suggests "a good kick in the ass" and Tami quietly says that's probably what she does need. Coach-- his hair incredulous and heartbroken-- stage whispers that he doesn't know that girl but Tami doesn't let him indulge in histrionics. She says that they do know her, it's their daughter, and she needs her parents. Long shot of the Taylors standing on their small little patio, their completely unassuming ranch house behind them, begging viewers to understand the serious stories going on inside every single one of these silent facades every day.
Commercials. Morning at the Taylors. Coach is in Man Plan mode. "Here's what we're gonna do" he declares. The car will get fixed, he'll pay, Julie will pay him back, when that car arrives this afternoon, she's getting in it and going back to school. Julie just sort of quietly says "K" and Coach leaves for the day.
Vince, Hastings, Luke, Tinker, and another kid are in the bleachers talking shop. Vince is going over some plays with Hastings; Luke translates, but as far as I'm concerned might as well be translating Swahili into Icelandic. Vince nods as Luke instructs Hastings and then jokes that he just did alright, maybe he should be QB1. Luke isn't joking, and says that, yeah, maybe he should, that way he'd have TMU all over his ass. Vince doesn't get the hostility, he points out that Luke is the one that brought HIM to TMU. Luke lashes out about Vince stealing his scholarship, then stands up and takes his brown lunch bag and Doritos with him. Good to see he isn't so mad as to forget about his Doritos!
Jess takes out the trash out back of her father's barbecue joint and finds Kenard there being creepy. He manhandles her a little bit, tells her that Vince needs to get him his money, and then lowtalks some threats about how easy it would be for a barbecue joint to go up in flames, easy to explain with all the grease and everything there. She gets out of his grasp and runs away.
Billy sits on the couch watching tape of Tim play football, with Coach voiceover about Tim's fortitude for extra tears. Luke comes up to the screen door yelling for Becky so Billy wipes his tears away and goes over to him. Luke stumbles around a bit asking to talk to Becky when Billy realizes that Luke is drunk. Luke heads to his truck and some deep instinct inside Billy tells him that he probably shouldn't let this happen. So he tells the kid he's not driving like this, puts an arm around him, and guides him back to the house.
Jess tells Vince what just happened with Kenard. Vince is disturbed that Kenard put his hands on Jess; Jess begs to call the cops but Vince says they can't do it. He says he's going to handle it and I guess we're all supposed to feel the weight of his manly desire to protect his own and face his demons but, eh.
Backstage at The Landing Strip. Which is officially my favorite new place! Becky has Stevie in her lap when Mindy comes in on her heels and unloads all the ones she just got onto the vanity. The Landing Strip is the quaintest strip club there ever was. Mindy tells her son that he is not going to be one of those boys that comes here, but when Becky asks what kind of boys they are, Mindy admits, "All of em." Becky is gazing hardcore at the pile of dollar bills on the vanity, because apparently that $25 speaks to her of Tim Riggins somehow. Mindy thanks her for coming in to look after the baby while she earns some extra money for Billy.
Meanwhile, Billy is hard at work... being a wonderfully goofy influence on Luke. They are out back of the Playgirl Ranch -- where the empty inground pool has disappeared -- hitting burning coals with golf clubs. Okay. Also: drinking. Both of them. A lot. Billy asks Luke what the big deal about TMU is, anyway, and Luke reminds him about the scholarship. Then Billy reminds him about playing football because you love it. "You gotta go back to that place, where this game used to be fun." Then Billy walks over to the toilet sitting in the backyard (?) and climbs up on it and shouts. "It's a war cry, mofo" Billy explains and then tells Luke he needs to let one out. Luke lurches out of his seat while Billy lurches down to sit on the toilet. But before Luke can get all barbaric yawp-y, he gets out his phone to call "Ass-Face TMU Coach." Billy thinks this is a great idea, and further suggests that Luke ask said coach to "eat the corn out of my turd." Luke, through all the beer and whiskey, realizes that's not the best idea. But he calls anyway and when it comes time to leave a message he overenunciates like Sloth in The Goonies, "Hey Coach, Hey Mr. TMU" and then shouts that even if coach doesn't think he's good enough, he's got heart. He screams his war cry into the phone and Billy joins in, and we all applaud for this rather mental sort of DIY mentoring.
Vince walks up to the Taylors' house, bites his nails, goes up to the door, and then ultimately realizes that this is not a problem he can bring to Coach. Cut to his father's house, where Ornette tells his son that he was right to come to him. Ornette sighs that they don't have enough time to raise the money, but quickly assures his son that he did the right thing, getting the money to send his mother to rehab. Ornette gets up and bitches to himself about Kenard, former little corner kid, who now has a gun, a little rep, and now thinks he should record a rap album. Kids these days. "You smoke?" Ornette asks his son and Vince says no. "That's good, it's a nasty habit." Ornette tells his son that he's going to take care of it. Vince tells him that he doesn't want him messing up his parole, and his dad spins a yarn about how he's going to call in some favors and raise the money to pay Kenard off. But we all know that's not what he's going to do. And I guess here, Vince's big "I'll take care of it" with Jess pays off a bit. Because here is a man who really is going to take care of it, but there isn't really going to be anything admirable about it. Ornette lights his cigarette -- he can't stop the nasty habits he has, but he hopes he can stop passing them on to his son -- and tells Vince that it's taken care of.
Commercials. Luke wakes up with a headache, takes one look at the TMU poster on his wall, tears it off, brings it into the bathroom, throws it in the toilet and pisses on it. Now that's heart!!!
At the Taylors, it hasn't quite escalated yet, but Julie tells her mom that she's not going back to school. Coach comes in and declares that the car is packed, and all the while Julie prattles on about how she isn't going and she needs to figure out her plan and maybe a different college? Community college? Texas Tech? Tami tells her "No, no" and Coach leans in with an affectionate kiss on the top of her head, puts his arm around her and starts leading her toward the door. But as they head into the hallway, Julie starts shrieking and grabbing onto the walls and refusing to go and then Tami in the background is shouting "ERIC!!!" and Julie breaks free and her father yells in a voice that, swear to God we have not ever heard him use with Julie, is frightening in that very dad sort of way, "GET IN THE CAR." But Julie has slammed the door to her room, and Coach paces around the living room in front of Tami, his hair completely and totally appalled at his daughter, at himself, at the whole damn situation. And damn if, while watching Coach pace around, you don't feel in your very bones both the desire to PHYSICALLY MAKE someone do what you want them to do and the shame of how wrong it is to do it that way.
Lions locker room. The kids warm up and jitter quietly. The coaches talk quietly together. Coach Spivey notes that he's never seen Eric leave practice before, let alone be late to a game. Crowley says that if Coach said he'll be there, he'll be there.
Back at the Taylor's, Tami tells Coach that he's got a game to go to. He just keeps standing and staring, his hair a series of ????
Back in the locker room, Billy mutters that they've got just 10 minutes to kick-off, they have to do something. So Crowley tells him to "take 'em out." Billy is nervous. And let's just take a minute to remember that precious "inspirational" talk Billy gave the players on his first day coaching. Because he's about to shut all our snickering up. He starts by acknowledging that he's not Coach, but this is just what they get. Then he raises his volume, about how this is THEIR house, and the guys in the other locker room are coming there ready to have a party in THEIR house, and he says that they're not going to let them. They're going to go out there and play LION FOOTBALL -- the boys shout -- and they'll leave it all on the field tonight. Billy doesn't realize it, but Coach has appeared behind him. "So you cinch up your laces, and make sure that helmet's on good and tight, and you hurt the first son of a bitch you see tonight." The boys all shout and Billy turns around to see Coach, who tells him "Good job." He quietly tells his players that he apologizes for being late, and now let's go play some football. Cut to them marching out onto the field, led by a hatless Coach -- and it can't just be me, but his hair is just FEELING TOO MUCH today to be silenced by a hat. Coach's hair is tired but full of faith, that his boys will play well, that he will learn from what just happened and become a better father, that Julie will come back to him. He turns to his players and asks them to listen to the crowd. "This is it, right here, right now. Who you are on that field is who you're gonna be for the rest of your life. Let's go show 'em some pride."
Showing a different kind of pride, and a different sort of "who you are for the rest of your life" is Ornette, who has conveniently arranged to meet Kenard out back of the football game. He nervily tells Kenard that he doesn't have the money. Kenard gets mouthy, about his boy and about "that high yellow bitch he knocking off" and then shows Ornette the gun he's got on his side. Ornette just keeps calmly smoking his cigarette. That is, until he stops being calm, cocks back and punches Kenard hard. Kenard goes down, Ornette grabs his gun and tells him that he's been in prison a long time, "Think I'm scared of you?" Ornette kicks and kicks and then spits on him. He kneels down and puts the gun to his head. "You ever mess with me and mine again, I'm gonna put you down." Kenard, spitting blood, tells Ornette that they're straight now. The crowd cheers in the background, for a different type of male violence.
Commercials. The Lions have won the game, and are celebrating at Buddy's bar. "5-0 Baby!" Buddy crows. He hands the ball to the MVP of the night, Luke Cafferty, who apparently found some heart out on the field tonight. Billy calls Luke over and tells the smiling kid that he's taking credit for everything he did tonight. Throwing an arm around Luke, Billy tells him that he's taking him under his wing. Luke: "Coach, you smell, man." Billy: "Breathe it in, little bird!" Across the room, Mindy tells Becky that her "hotty farm boy" keeps looking at her. Becky tells Mindy that Luke's great and everything, but he's not... Mindy fills in the blank, "Tim Riggins?" and then drops some knowledge on Becky. "Baby girl, you are not Tim Riggins' girlfriend" and then goes on to further tell Becky that Tim says a lot of pretty things to every pretty girl he sees, and when he gets out of prison, he's not going to be with her. Becky's "Yeah" doesn't convince Mindy much, so she goes over to grab Luke from Billy, drag him over to Becky and proceed to make some of the most horrifying comments a girl could make to a couple of youngsters who found out the hard way that condoms are a kid's best friend. She tells them that she doesn't know what's going on with them, but they're both hot and they both need to get laid, so she's going back over to her husband and they can just stay there and "screw like bunnies" but be safe and use protection and "all that mommy talk." Unfortunately, as science has proven, bunnies don't have good access to birth control or family planning resources, so they probably aren't the best models for teenagers. Also? "Mommy talk?" Whose mommy, exactly?! As she leaves, Becky looks mortified and Luke swears to her that he didn't ask Mindy to say any of that.
Over at Jess's aunt's house, Vince approaches his dad, all serious like. But Ornette is all smiles and third-piece-of-pie eating. Because beating the shit out of someone really works up your appetite. Vince wants to talk about "the situation" but Ornette tells him it's all taken care of. He refuses to elaborate to Vince, just tells him to not worry about anything. "Just play football, do what you do." They go in to sit down with the rest of the family at the table, where they all smile and joke and love until one of the little kids asks what jail was like. Jess's aunt apologizes, but Ornette rises to the question, "Jail sucks, you don't ever want to go there. And you're sad all the time. Cuz you're missing all the people that you love." He reaches out to Vince and Regina.
Tami is asleep on the couch when Coach comes in. He walks into Gracie's room and sits down on her bed, looking at his little girl, clearly hating for the moment the fact that kids grow up and become their own terrible selves. Julie appears on the doorway behind him and quietly tells him that she didn't mean to disappoint him. He doesn't turn to look at her, his mouth tight, and he's having a bad moment, one of those moments when all the excitement of watching your child grow vanishes and all you are left with is this terrible knowledge that no matter what you do, they always end up just leaving you.