Friday Night Lights: Who Do You Think You Are? (Episode 212)

Hi! Fill-in recapist for Ran here, y’all. So, what did you think of this week’s episode? I didn’t run right in here and bang out a recap like I usually do when recapping this show. I had to think about whether I really liked it as much as I thought I did. Then I had to go read a couple of reactions from friends and it seems to be mutually agreed that a lot of what happened this week should have occurred earlier in the season.

I didn’t feel awkward with any of it, by any means! And it was actually good to get out of the murder investigation/confession story and back into every day Dillon life.

This week’s A game goes to Tami and Eric. Tami’s struggling with separation anxiety when she tries to leave Gracie Belle at daycare for the first time since Shelly’s departure (and gee, I hope she didn’t let the door hit her in the ass on the way out). I think I literally Awww’d when Tami hurriedly skipped out on the daycare personnel, gripping Gracie tightly and talking to her like it was a totally mutual decision on their part to leave. Eric is really understanding, but Julie is a little less sympathetic on day two when Tami pushes Gracie through the halls of the school. “Did you wimp out again?”

By day three of the non-daycare plan, Eric and his assistant coach are watching a replay tape, with intermittent commenting about Tami’s inability to leave Gracie with anyone else. I love how Eric can start out so clueless sometimes and then this little light bulb goes off in his head and suddenly he’s uber-sensitive husband/father/coach with the answers to the universe. Yeah, this wasn’t really one of those times, but he did buy a clue when the other coach actually had the nerve to say out loud that he wouldn’t LET his wife work with a baby. I love Eric’s reaction of, “When you say it out loud, that sounds stupid and ignorant.”

And how many of us have had the non-fight over dinner scene that follows that night? The Taylor family, all sitting around the table, with so much passive-aggressive defensiveness floating around you can cut it with a knife. Eric seems to be trying, but you can’t really reason with a woman suffering from separation anxiety with her baby.

To Tami’s credit, later on when they’re having a glass of wine on the patio, she admits that she can’t do it all, like she thought she could. It’s been seventeen years, after all, since she’s had to raise a baby. And I’m pretty sure she wasn’t working then. I couldn’t have loved Eric more when he emphatically tells her she is not going to quit the job she loves, they’ll just deal with Gracie in daycare and if she grows up needing therapy, well, she’s got her mamma the councilor.

Speaking of Mammas: Smash-Mamma just never catches a break. This week, Noelle has invited Smash, his sisters and mom over for family dinner. When the younger kids go off to play with the Wii, Noelle’s parents drop the bombshell. They’re not comfortable with Noelle and Smash dating, being they’re in small town Dillon and all. But, they’re not prejudiced, you understand. To everyone’s surprise, Smash-Mamma agrees she’d be happier if they weren’t dating, too.

Needless to say, this goes over like a lead balloon, but Smash is suspiciously acquiescing to her wishes when we next see him taking his little sister to the movies. I felt pretty dumb when we see that it’s just an excuse for him to meet Noelle without their parents knowing. I mean, how many times did I do that in high school? I don’t even remember! A lot!

The both seem oblivious to the strange, and often dirty looks being cast their way by other movie patrons. Then it gets ugly when Smash and Noelle sit a row ahead of little sister, cuddling and kissing, and some white boys behind her start an obnoxious and insulting dialog with her. Of course, it has to end with Smash getting a punch in and that pretty much the end of that night out.

It seems they’ve all mutually agreed not to talk about it to the parents, but things sure are quiet at the breakfast table the next morning.

You can pick your nose and you can pick your friends…  It’s lesson learning week for Santiago. It starts out when one of his old homes from juvie shows up on his way to school one morning and wants to go riding. Santiago’s resistance to his old ways is total proof he’s changed so much since Lyla Garrity picked him up that day.

However, his friends’ teasing and encouragement after football practice temporarily blinds his common sense and Santiago hangs out with them in front of the apartment he shares with Buddy. And it seems Santiago isn’t the only one who’s changed and grown recently. When Buddy gets home, he goes out of his way to let Santiago know that his place is Santiago’s, as well, and he should invite his friends over.

While Buddy mulls over just how much he’s going to trust a bunch of punks in his apartment with all his souvenirs and the things that mean something to him, I’m left wondering just how badly this is going to end for both him and Santiago. In the end, Buddy wants Santiago to know that it’s his home too and that he trusts him, so he puts his signed baseball, football, and his grandfather’s antique gold watch in a bell jar all back up on the mantel just in time for Santiago’s old crew to show up, along with 50 of their closest friends. It’s a disaster waiting to happen. All the clichéd bad party scenes rolled into one -- cigarettes on the floor, spilled drinks, fist fights – and the whole time, Santiago looks like he’s going to choke. He’s really concerned about what’s going on and it must have been an immense relief when everyone finally left. Except for the part he discovers that the gold watch has been stolen.

Santiago takes off for his friends’ place because he knows exactly who took it. For a minute, I was afraid they were going to convince him he wasn’t good enough for the deal he’s swung with Buddy and that Buddy wouldn’t have anything to do with him if he wasn’t a football player. But, once more, common sense prevails and Santiago forcibly takes the watch back and goes home, where Buddy is looking around his apartment in horror. It’s a very well written scene and damn if they’re not making me really care about Buddy Garrity, St. Satan, once again.

Lyla Garrity, Radio Talk Show Host. Yes, Lyla is co-hosting a Christian radio talk show in the mornings and after school and I’m reminded again just how amazingly innocent she can be. She gets some real-life calls from kids in school concerned about sex or praying in front of their peers, etc., but when Tim prank-calls her at the station, amidst the hysterical laughter of Herc in the background, she really lets him have it after the show. And wow, what with the “now you see Jason, now you don’t” scene? However, he does put in an appearance long enough to chastise Tim about how he’s treating a girl he supposedly likes.

When faced with Lyla’s ire, Tim looks honestly chagrined and when she tells him to think about why he does the things he does, I can tell that Tim Riggins has rarely, if ever, thought about the whys or wherefores of his life. Between this and his amazingly mature actions with Coach Taylor and Julie and just the whole homeless period of his life, I think Tim’s had an eye-opening year.

Lyla’s male talk show co-host is a non-entity as far as I’m concerned, but I could see why they had to throw him in the mix. We now know that Lyla may be a Christian, but she’s still not virginal, and Tim is angsting big-time over her. When Tim stops and buys flowers to take to her at the station as an apology for his crude and embarrassing behavior, he gets an eye full of her kissing radio boy. And doesn’t he just look good enough to eat doing the soul-wrenching angst walk down the hallway, back to his truck. Yes, Tim Riggins hurts so prettily, I can’t imagine how Lyla could ever choose Goody Two-Shoes over him.

Speaking of sad and lonely. Probably the most jarring scenes for me this week were the ones with Matt and Carlotta. Then there was the conversation with Landry, where he finds out Matt’s been doing ‘the maid’. *eye roll*  Is this like the first time this season we’ve seen these supposedly best-friends alone together? If not, it’s close to it. And now Matt’s going to pour his heart out to Landry and tell him he’s fallen in love with his grandma’s nurse and she’s leaving to go back to Guatemala?  Just a little bit of neck trauma there.  

And yes, Carlotta is heading south to be responsible because her family needs her. I have very mixed feelings about her, and have had them about the whole relationship with Matt, probably because I want Julie to pull her head out of her ass, but I can’t say I’m that sad to see Carlotta leave. However, not before she takes Matt with her to a Quinceañera party and we have to hope she gave him a very thorough goodbye.

Looks like you get one more shot, Jules. Don’t blow it.

I’m sure y’all will be happy to see Ran again next week. But thanks for letting me play with that Riggins boy again! ?