Dream on Texas Ladies

Friday Night Lights is back. I mean, obviously it was back last week but it was like a shadow if it's former self during that episode. Last night it was really back. The editing, the cinematography, the story, the writing, the music...everything.

So let's take a look at what's goin' down in Dillon shall we?

• Tyra decided to run for Student Body President to help her get in to college because she didn't want to end up like her drunken slut mother or stupid stripper sister. In an attempt to win the election she took the advice of said mother and sister and used sluttiness and hobaggery to influence the voters. Apparently the school is predominantly male because she won. I don't understand this direction they took Tyra in, I don't get why Landry didn't try to talk her out of it and I am really disappointed by her shock over Tami's reaction.


• Speaking of shock - did Tami really think she was going to win Battle Jumbotron? I mean, fighting Buddy and the boosters on football funds? That's the example they use in the dictionary to describe "losing battle" isn't it? Anyway, Eric is trying to have her back but he finally had to tell her what she's gotten herself into since she doesn't seem to understand it for herself. When the dust settles on this, I have a strong feeling that Dillon will have a Jumbotron and Tami will have a different job.


• Meanwhile, Buddy is a busy guy these days - most of his time is spent giving Tami angina but in his off hours from that project, he's trying to break Lyla and Tim up. Our Buddy is none too bright is he? Like Tim's bad-boy behavior, seriously hot body, gorgeous face and recently professed devotion to her aren't enough of a reason for Lyla to want to date him, now her dad is against it? Buddy might as well book the reception hall for the wedding now! But whatever, his efforts aren't without some success because this is Tim Riggins we're talking about here, he's beautiful but he isn't all that bright. So Lyla drags him to dinner with DW Moffett and his wife, Janine Turner (awesome!) at a fancy restaurant. On his way in, Buddy puts a little fatherly smack-down on Timmy and causes him to become very nervous, and therefore stupider, at dinner. He then orders squab and asks that it be prepared "rare" which, seriously, you'd think the health code would prevent the restaurant from filling that order but whatever.


• The dinner debacle leads to a fight between Lyla and Tim about how she wants to change him (she agrees but only insofar as she wants to make sure he's a person who doesn't order raw pigeon) and then we're treated to a very charming scene at the Riggins manse between Tyra and Tim and then later those two plus Lyla, Mindy and Billy. Taylor Kitsch nailed the delivery of two unbelievably funny lines that aren't funny at all on paper - "I ate pigeon tonight, Tyra" and "they're over there. It was hot." You probably had to be there but trust me, they were both hilarious.


• Coach Taylor is bound and determined to get Smash a spot on a college team somewhere which he might actually do if Smash will stop being a chicken about re-injuring the knee. Anyway, Coach gets Riggins to help which is just awesome. Does anyone else remember when Smash and Riggins used to be mortal enemies? How great is the slow, subtle friendship that they developed over these last three years? Anyway, Smash is being a baby so Coach and Tim get the rest of the team to help and actually scrimmage with him which turns the whole thing around. Just in time too, because Coach got him a walk-on tryout at A&M in two weeks. The joy in the Williams household at that news was absolutely beautiful.


• Finally, in my favorite storyline of the night (season?), Grandma Saracen's dementia is reaching a point where she needs someone else to make her medical decisions for her. Matt tries to do that but he can't without being her legal guardian. Unfortunately, that's tough to become when technically she's HIS legal guardian. So he drops in for a visit with his deadbeat mother (who appears to be living pretty well in her cute little house with nice things and fresh flowers while her son lives in a shack with his poor ailing grandma - bitch!), gets her to sign some papers and just like that becomes emancipated so that he can now be Grandma's guardian and force her to take her meds. Sounds like a downer of a storyline right? Well it is but one of the things that makes FNL so freaking awesome is that they don't play up the downer stuff for cheap sniffles. Instead, they're throwing this together with a possible rekindling of the Matt/Julie relationship. The two of them had two really cute, flirty, sweet scenes this week and I can't WAIT until they get back together!