Friday Night Lights - Episode 120 - Mud Bowl

Rain, rain, go away, the Dillon Panthers want to play! Oh, what the hell...rain, rain, stay all night, come on, Panthers, fight, fight, fight!

"OUR DILLON PANTHERS ARE GOING TO STATE!" – There, I've answered tonight's biggest question right off the bat: The Panthers beat the Brant Vikings 14-8 at "The Mud Bowl" (aka "The Cow Patty Bowl"), and next they'll meet West Cambria, and its quarterback, our old friend Voodoo Tatum, for the title game and a chance at the state championship. But the journey's as much pleasure as the destination, so settle in and I'll tell you all about it.

"IT'S ABOUT PLAYING FOOTBALL, MINUS THE CRAP" -- When a toxic spill caused by a train derailment renders Herrmann Field unplayable, Coach T turns his lemons into lemonade by taking the opportunity to remind himself, his boys, and the entire town of Dillon what football's all about. It's the 'Texas Forever' version of 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' – Forget the rampant commercialism and remember the baby Jesus the love of the game. He declines an offer of a stadium that would have effectively eliminated the home-field advantage for Dillon, to Buddy Garrity's chagrin (Buddy liked the fancy schmancy box seats and all the wide open spaces where he could have slapped his logo), and instead puts the boys to Tom-Sawyer-like work turning a cow pasture into a makeshift football field. And can I just say that I could have gone my whole life without ever seeing Buddy Garrity pee in a pasture? *shudder* Tami's not too sure about the plan, but the cows seem amenable, and she comes around eventually, saying with her wonderful bawdy laugh, "You know Buddy Garrity's head's gonna explode! I love it!" Coach T takes the team to the hardware store and sets them to work pulling supplies. When Smash protests that he'd wanted to sleep in, Tim, who's in an awfully good mood these days, says, "Let's just embrace the suck for once, all right?" and Smash surrenders.

Meanwhile, 'Coach Street' sacrifices his Oprah time to help Matt work on making his feet quicker (which, if you'll recall, Grandma's been hounding him about for the entire season), building on the beer-fueled, vaguely Brokebackesque night at the field with Smash and Tim. When the Viking coach protests the whole field-with-cows-still-pooping-in-it thing, Coach T says, "It's a football game. What you need is a football field, twenty-two kids and a pigskin." The Viking coach rebuts with, "My boys could kick your boys' butts in an ice skating rink wearing nothing but socks if they had to." Okay, now that's a game I'd scalp tickets to see. "Butch up, Sally," the Viking coach says, "cuz you've got a game." Butch this, coach. Tami sells tickets (helped by Grandma Saracen, so I hope she counts the night's receipts a couple of times), the Panther faithful sell popcorn and drinks, they've got open seating, and, as Slammin' Sammy says, it's a home game in the truest sense of the word. It's fun to watch the Brant coach eat his words when the skies open, the flooding rain starts, the cow patties and pasture turn to a muddy mess and the Panthers open up a can of whupass on the Vikings. Everybody's wet, everybody's muddy, and Matty Saracen himself, who's been coached by Jason on the sidelines, runs in the scoring touchdown. We get a beautiful, rain-drenched montage of all our favorite townsfolk as they celebrate the win, which makes me downright giddy. I just love them all SO. MUCH.

"ARE YOU SLEEPING OVER AGAIN TONIGHT?" – Out of the mouths of babes, and for once I'm not talking about Taylor Kitsch. Oh! But I do have to start out talking about Taylor Kitsch, since the producers gave me a present tonight. I don't see the bowl of peeled grapes anywhere, but a bare-chested Tim wakes slowly in Jackie's bed and makes sweet, half-proud, half-chagrined, adorable faces in her direction while high-definition Kitschnipple makes several appearances in a supporting role. *rewind* *play* Yup. Yup. Yup. *rewind* *play* *PAUSE* What? There's more to talk about? Oh, fine. Moving right along (Bye, Kitschnipple! Hope we see you again soon!)... Now that Tim has had his wicked way with the next-door-neighbor, I guess we're going to have to change her status from MILF to MIF, and start calling her Miffie. And let's hope, for her sake, that he just turned eighteen; otherwise, Texas frowns on her being more than three years' his senior. Was bedding the Bo-sitter a smart choice on her part? Or his, for that matter? Probably not. Did it make me squeal like a 13-year-old seeing Sanjaya sing live anyway? Oh, yes, it did. Tim's smitten, for sure. After the derailment and subsequent closing of schools, Tim picks Bo up and brings him to Miffie at work. She doesn't think it's a great idea for them to be seen together outside the confines of her big, soft bed, which puzzles him a little. A co-worker hilariously says to Tim, "I hear those Viking boys really bring the wood." Tim assures him he's got it covered. HA! No shit! My Ever-Patient Mister says, "The Dillon boys bring the wood." Hee. Especially #33! Just ask Miffie! Then Tim offers to cook her dinner, y'all. Be still my heart! Billy figures out what's going on later, asking, "That boy call you 'Daddy' yet?, then says, "I might not have a Ph.D. in stupid like you do, but I'm gonna tell you right now that this is going to end badly." Aw, don't pee in Tim's Wheaties, Billy! There's plenty of time for soul-destroying angst later! After the game, Bo comes up to Tim and asks him if he's sleeping over again that night, proving he's smart as well as often annoying and occasionally cute. Tim distracts him from the question, but I think Billy might have been on to something, if only because Bo can't ever keep his dang mouth shut for one minute, so my guess is it'll be all over Dillon soon that #33's banging the bank teller.

"IT BEATS THE HELL OUT OF MAKING RICE KRISPIE TREATS" – After commiserating over their sucky Panther boyfriends, Lyla and Crazy Wavy bond the way men have done for centuries -- shooting shit that can't shoot back. Lyla finds it empowering enough that she sasses Jason later for feeling sorry for himself, which in turn helps him kick his own ass enough to get off the couch and stand up for himself...so to speak...more on that in a little bit. Smash has a little talk with Lyla about Waverly's "condition," and Lyla takes it upon herself to suggest that Waverly talk to Mrs. Coach. Oooh, Miss Waverly doesn't like it one bit that Smash told Lyla about her, but Smash does that thing he does, when he does exactly the right thing, like he did in 'Wind Sprints,' when he started the "Clear eyes full hearts can't lose" chant in the rain (which, by the way, echoes nicely in this episode...ohhhh, how I love my show!). He tells her that he doesn't know what to do. That she's sick, and won't take her meds, and now she's endangering herself and others. He suggests she talk to his mom, which she hates, and she yells at him some more, but Smash is adamant: "Baby, I don't think you're okay," he says. "And you can stay mad at me if you want to, but it's not going to change my mind about anything I just said." Oh, Smash. Waverly turns away, sobbing her heart out in full view of anyone in the diner, and Smash walks over and embraces her from behind, holding her to him, burying his face against her while I cry and cry and cry. *sniff* After the game, we see Waverly talking to Smashmama, so I dry my tears and give Smash bonus points, yet again, for saying what needed to be said. Well done, Smash.

"WE'RE NOT HERE TO WIN THE LOTTERY" – After Lyla throws a bunch of angry words and a glass of water in Jason's face, telling him if he wants things to change, he'll have to change them, he mans up a little, telling the scrum of lawyers at the settlement meeting that he only wants enough money to cover the debt his parents have racked up to date and save their house from foreclosure. He asks his mom to have a little faith in him, and tells her he's going to be fine. The lawyers agree that it's an acceptable resolution, and Coach T gets back to the game of football, speechless in the face of his former QB's courage and heart. It's a nice moment. Hell, it's a BEAUTIFUL moment.

"I JUST REALLY THINK YOU NEED THE 'A' TEAM ON THIS' – Landry "happens" upon Trouble at the library and works it and works it and WORKS it, wearing a 'Dillon Panthers Debate Team' t-shirt that I'd love to get my hands on and carrying a copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves. *draws hearts* After using the argument that he taught Tim Riggins to read about a day and a half, he finally gets Trouble to agree to let him tutor her in math. After a successful tutoring session at the diner (Fran's Hamburgers! The diner has a name!), Trouble asks if he'll help again on Friday night, saying, "It's a date" when he agrees. Though Matt correctly defines her phrasing as a colloquialism (and don't think that wasn't a multi-syllabic turn-on), Landry will not be swayed from his suiterous path. "I'm really just about tired of being a supporting actor and about ready to be a leading man," he says. He decides to declare himself to her, which just. Oh, Landry. Fate intervenes (and my heart starts beating faster in a really unpleasant way just thinking about recapping what comes next) and Landry's car won't start, making him late for the date. Trouble waits for him at the diner and talks casually with a guy a little bit, but leaves when it's apparent that Landry's not coming. And then from nowhere, out of the blue, OH MY GOD, this guy from the diner ATTACKS TROUBLE and HITS HER and FORCES her into her truck and tries to RAPE HER. They intercut this scene with scenes from the football game, and I had to fast forward through the all-important, crucial state semi-final game to make sure he wasn't going to really do this awful, horrible, unbelievable thing to her. I went back and watched the game later, because this was way more important. When you make a show that feels this REAL, when something like this happens, it feels...well, REAL. Devastating. Heart-breaking. I think Trouble and I are going to be working through this for awhile. Trouble has the presence of mind and the will to fight the goddamn bastard off, first burning him in the eye with a cigarette lighter, then slamming his hand repeatedly in the truck door until he runs off into the rain like the cowardly asshole he is. Shouldn't be too hard to find him again, huh? She did a number on him, and the only thing that would have made it better is if it hadn't ever happened in the first place, or if she'd torn off his penis with her fingernails. Landry arrives as she's trying to pick up her scattered books in the rain, and realizes within seconds that something terrible has happened. She launches herself into his arms, and it's every dream come true for him...except, of course, it's not. Landry takes her back in the diner, and after sitting a little apart, moves over and takes her hand, and she leans on his shoulder while he hugs her. Oh, Trouble! Oh, Landry! *hugs them both*

"YOU EVER THINK ABOUT COACHING?" – This really belongs up there in the game coverage, but I needed something to cheer me up after the Trouble storyline, so here we go. After the game, Coach T comes up to Jason and says Matt was like a different QB out there tonight, giving Jason some of the credit. Then he asks Jason if he's ever considered coaching, and WHAM, Jason's smile lights up the whole county. Of course, Coach T is still mulling over the TMU offer, so it's all incredibly bittersweet. It's a good, solid Friday Night Lights moment, and it comes at the perfect time, when we're still off-kilter from the comparison between Trouble being attacked and the scene of Julie and Matt falling into the post-game mud and exchanging kisses as she says, "I'll always love you, no matter what happens." Dark and light, dread and anticipation, fear and love all meld together in one pulsing, muddy, rapturous scene. *sigh*

We've only got two more episodes to go in the best season ever in the history of television. And yes, I'm completely objective.

Stay tuned.