I know it seems like it, but I swear, I do not cry at every episode of Friday Night Lights, just every episode this month. I would have been find last night if Amy Teegarden weren't so heartbreakingly perfect as a stricken teenager...and if the writing and tertiary characters weren't so great.
So Matt has flown the coop and Julie is understandably upset which has Tami worried and walking on egg shells. In an attempt to distract herself from her sadness, she's throwing herself (and Landry) into every club in school. She seems to be doing ok, if a little manic, until she finds out that Matt has called his mom and Grandma but hasn't called her. Shelby tries to comfort our Jules but I know teenage girls - I was a teenage girl - and there really isn't anything you can say to take the sting out of that. A short time later, in the middle of the Academic Smackdown meet, Julie is answering a literary question that I don't off-hand recall but had something to do with "wandering" and not going back home when she breaks down in tears (I was not far behind). Landry and Jess tell her she can leave and they'll cover for her so she heads backstage into the waiting and loving arms of her awesome mom.
Speaking of her mom - Tami has helped propel West Dillon High to become a Blue Ribbon winner for academic excellence. Glenn then uses that as an excuse to get the whole faculty drunk in celebration and finally make his move on Tami when he drunkenly kisses her. She handles it like the class act she is, of course. The next day at school she sweetly tells him that they just need to put it behind them and make sure it doesn't happen again even as he's making a massive fool of himself shouting about how he's so awful for "mouth raping" her. It sounds tragic (and it was) but it was also really funny.
Landry's been wrestling with his crush on Jess for a while now and when Julie forces him onto the Academic Smackdown team with Jess, he realizes that he needs to figure his love life out in a right hurry. He tries to have the talk with Tyra but she stands him up and dodges his call. So he leaves her a message that rambles on and on in that adorable Landry way until he realizes that he's got his answer already and confirms their breakup to her voicemail. He then asks Jess out in a ridiculously cute way that she can not possibly resist. I freaking LOVE Landry!
Coach is still dealing with the realities of having a juvenile delinquent for a star player. After he makes Vince the quarterback, the principal and police arrive to search his locker for a gun. Eric comes right out and asks him if he has one and Vince denies it. Then Vince's mom shows up to thank Coach for believing in him and giving him a chance no one else would give him. That's when Coach, who knows damn well that Vince has a gun, shows up at Vince's home to tell him that he needs to be a man and do the right thing - not just to stay on the team and out of trouble, but to improve his life and take care of his mother. The good advice doesn't penetrate immediately, but Coach's awesomeness is like Novocaine, if you give it a few minutes, it kicks in but good! That evening Vince shows up to the Taylor residence and without comment turns his gun over to Eric.
In other Lions news, Luke is kept from school when his dad makes him stay home to help replace the fence around their ranch to keep people from stealing their cows. Coach won't let him practice if he misses school and because coach can be a total crank-pot when he's stressing about two or three things at a time (overdue bills, Vince, Julie), he does not offer good advice to Luke but rather just tells him to stay up all effing night if he has to but he can not miss school. Caught between a rock and hard place Luke does indeed start staying up and attempting to replace the fence in the wee hours. So he's sleeping on the table at lunch when his most completely awesome teammate, Tink, asks him what's going on. Luke tells him the story and Tink suggests (as I had wished Coach would) that the team come over and help get the fence up in a jiffy. He then offers to ask the team for their help himself. Later that day at the ranch Tink shows up, alone because the rest of the team are busy at the Riggins baby shower/strip-a-thon. Tink works his awesome butt off helping Luke and his dad get the fence up and both papa Luke and I are immediately taken with Tink. Sniff! Then, with the fence fixed and things back to normal around the ranch, Luke gets injured by a pen full of crazy cattle. Poor Luke.
Mindy has gone into premature labor and put Billy in a bit of a financial bind with medical bills so the strippers offer to throw the previously mentioned baby shower/strip-a-thon to help raise money to pay the bills. That awful kid with the cornrows (who henceforth I shall call Cornrow, FYI) makes Billy an offer he's too stupid to refuse (we'll find out in the next episode that the offer is to turn Riggins Rigs into a chop shop). Meanwhile, Tim meets Becky's dad and knows right off that the guy is a shit because he's got a lot of experience with shitty fathers. That assessment is confirmed when Tim overhears him on the phone and calls him out on having another family in Seattle that Becky knows nothing about. Shitty Dad orders Tim to keep that to himself and then buys Becky a dog. Becky's mom gets pissed and gives the dog away and then Tim tells Becky the truth about her dad. That prompts the dad to throw down with Tim in the mud and I guess the dad is not aware that Tim is built like a fucking God because anyone who's ever seen him without his shirt on would know he could kick some middle-aged ass. Which he does. After Shitty Dad hits the bricks with a big cold shoulder from Becky, Tim goes and gets her dog back. It's sweet and adorable and so nice to see this other, protective, nurturing side of Tim. Swoon.
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