Friday Night Lights

Previously on Friday Night Lights, Tyra (Adrianne Palicki) broke up with Landry (Jesse Plemons) after the resolution of their accidental murder, Smash (Gaius Charles) accepted a scholarship with TMU but then got suspended for three games for fighting, Matt (Zach Gilford) fell in love with the hot Latina nurse, but was heartbroken when she decided to go back to Guatemala.

Matt has nothing left to live for on tonight's Friday Night Lights. With Carlotta gone, he has to be the sole care-giver for his Grandma again. Not only that, but his old jalopy breaks down on his way to school. He's not a happy camper. At school, he mouths off in his art class, calling his teacher a bitch. He even cuts his Spanish class and football practice.

The next day, Matt skips school again to go window shopping for a crotch rocket. Ooh, he's a bad boy now! Riggs (Taylor Kitsch) happens by and invites him out to have beer in the middle of the day. Matt gladly accepts because he wants to mold himself in Riggs' image. We soon find out that they are at the bar because Riggs is stalking Lyla (Minka Kelly) and Matt Czuchry who have lunch there every week. After making a fool out of himself, Riggs drags Matt's drunk ass to football practice, which leads to wacky drunk football hijinx. Coach (Kyle Chandler) turns a blind eye to his intoxication and instead pulls out the scary, low voice telling him to get it together. By the way, Coach still refers to Landry as Lance. Yay, continuity!

Tyra has become a regular installation at the Taylor household, having dinner there and bonding with Tami (Connie Britton) over volleyball. Tyra asks for Tami's help in sussing out her feelings toward Landry, now that the brainy chick Jean is in the picture. (Jean had done the equivalent of marking Landry as her territory to Tyra earlier that day in school.) Eric notices that Julie (Aimee Teegarden) is even more sullen than usual and suspects that she might be jealous of Tami's new relationship with Tyra and the volleyball team.

Tami scores another volleyball victory, courtesy of Tyra's spiking prowess and invites the team to celebrate over at the Taylor manse. Julie comes home pissed off. Tami thinks it's because she's jealous, but it's really because Tami was supposed to take her to the DMV for her drivers' test. She partially redeems herself by convincing the DMV employee to let Julie take the test even though he was about to close up shop for the day.

Brainy chick Jean is pretty awesome and suggests watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 shorts on YouTube with Landry all weekend. Landry boy-talks to Saracen about his new potential special lady friend, but Saracen is so depressed that he can't listen to Landry's gushing anymore and walks away, leaving Landry to debate with Smash on the relative romantic merits of The Wrath of Khan versus Jaws. Ha!

Riggs takes Matt to the Landing Strip for some lemon drops and lap dances to cheer him up a bit. But in the middle of his first-ever lap dance, Matt gets a call from the hospital. His grandmother hit her head getting out of bed. His lap dancer gives him a ride to the hospital, and Eric shows up later to bring them home. Grandma Saracen shows that she's pretty perceptive, despite her senility, because she tells Coach that her grandson needs his help. Eric wrestles Matt into the shower and turns on the water, but Matt doesn't want to hear any of father-figure coach talk. Matt cries out that everyone leaves him: Eric left him for a better job, Julie left him for a better guy (although I'm not sure the Swede was better in any sense of the word), and Carlotta left him for Guatemala. Well, it is difficult competing with an entire country, Matt. Oh Matt! You make me cry! Can you be more vulnerable and appealing?

After asking her mother and Tami for boy advice, Tyra finally makes up her mind regarding Landry. She interrupts his date with Jean to tell him that she likes him and wants to give them a shot. But Landry turns her down because he's on a date with someone who isn't ashamed to be seen with him. Oh snap, Tyra! But after some soul-searching, he realizes that he has to dump the brainy chick for the hot girl. Landry plants a wet one on Tyra right before his game. I'm torn on this one, people. As much as Tyra rocks, I feel that I have to stand up for cool, brainy chicks with glasses. It seems to me that he's thinking with his penis and not his brain, and I'm not sure he made the right decision at all.

Smash has more bad news besides his three-game suspension. TMU is revoking their scholarship because they think he has questionable character, “the mark of death,” according to Smash. He goes home and gets rid of all of his TMU stuff. Mama Smash is awesome when she finds out about it, enveloping her son in her ample bosom instead of saying “I told you so.” The episode of the Friday Night Lights ends in the locker room with Smash wishing the team luck on their game. Saracen stands up for Smash and asks Coach to let him play tonight. However, Smash knows that he can't play. Instead, he rouses the troops for what I hope will be a Panther victory. All the players rush out onto the field as Smash stays alone in the locker room, crumpling up onto the bench with wrenching sobs.


-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of NBC)