Laboring. What an understatement as the title of this ep, when everyone is working and struggling. It's the second-to-last episode of season 4 ... and hits more emotional highs and lows than ever before. And some brilliant work by the cast, particularly Taylor Kitsch.
Rowr! There's lots of canine and claw-flashing around the big game next week between the Lions and Panthers. The Panthers staff is using a magnifying glass to inspect the Lions' crappy field, and they have a point about a huge pothole being dangerous. Coach Taylor vows that the field will be fixed for the game, and gets his slave labor team to put down sod. Since the Lions can't practice, Landry gets the brilliant idea to sneak onto Hermann Field and seed it with toothpicks so the Panthers can't practice either. The shot of them all hunched over in the dark on that beautiful field that elicits so many fond (and harsh) memories of our boys with the Panthers is pretty rich. It's sheer labor, but also for the Panthers, who take two hours to remove them.
Tami's getting evil threatening calls and confrontational protests from anti-abortionists about supposedly advising Becky to terminate her pregnancy, and worse, she's made the cover of the newspaper in a piece saying parents are calling for her dismissal. The superintendent, still on Team Tami, visits her at night to hand her a statement they've prepared for her to read, basically saying it's the only way to keep her job.
Julie is pushing to go to a Habitat orientation in New Orleans, which is one month and "just" $3000. Tami laughs in her face and says no, no, no, now go clean the stove. LOL. Julie's been given a pretty lame storyline here, although it shows her trying to redirect her energy after Matt left her, but it's interesting to see her move from the core drama in the house as the weepy teen to the periphery-- worried about both her parents' situations and their relationship.
Eric's car is defaced by Panthers fans, but even in the face of this hostility, he kisses Julie, asking her go easy on her mom this week. One of the side effects is that Julie cooks dinner -- she's a vegetarian -- and Eric asks, "Where's the meat?" Heh. Gracie continues to grow into alien baby, watching patiently as her parents talk all serious at dinner, but not before another threat call, to which Eric says, "Go to hell." The next one he answers causes him to basically destroy the phone. They're barely holding it together. I mean, if they crack, what will everyone else do?
Tim is at the Rig working on a car, and who should trot up to him but Skeeter, with Becky in tow. Sweet to see Tim baby-talk Skeets, letting him jump up on a customer's seat. Becky says she brought HIS dog, and that her mom hates the dog even more now because it reminds her of Tim. "I'll take that as a compliment," Tim drawls, and Becky agrees, casting her moonie eyes at him. He picks up a snowglobe, seemingly with a little school bus in it, as Becky says she didn't take him for a snowglobe kind of guy. "My mom gave me that one," he says, as we collectively GAH and grab a tissue. Is that the first time he's mentioned his mom, ever? Maybe once before? Will that issue be addressed? Hmmm. Phone rings (wait, he bought 25 acres and he still does not have a cell phone?), and...
Mindy goes into labor (finally)! Billy's running around like a nut, in his teeny briefs, calling Tim, managing to put on pants as Mindy runs to the car. Tim -- beaming irrepressibly -- leaves the shop with Skeeter as Becky watches adoringly. Tim's waiting in the hospital parking lot, feeding the pup treats. Billy rushes out in an OR gown, practically foaming at the mouth, angry because they kicked him out of the delivery room. "How many of those have you had," Tim asks, pointing to the energy drink he's guzzling. "Five!," he shouts, as Tim says, "You're cut off," handing him a water. (This is the first time I recall Tim drinking anything but beer or milk.) Hours later (38, by Tim's account), they're in the waiting room, Tim drumming his head with cigar tubes, and Billy decides to charge into the delivery room, looking a bit chagrined at actually finally being there.
It's another Riggins boy! Steven Hannibal Riggins. And Tim looks seriously touched, realizing the value of life and love. But it also raises questions about his own childhood, when he was a baby, and how his parents made so many bad decisions. He and Billy stare at little Stevie in his crib at home. "How do you get away with just sleepin' like that?" Tim marvels, offering to take care of the shop that day so Billy can just be a dad. He peeks back at Billy, cooing at the baby, with an amazing warm glow.
Cut to some seriously bad stuff with Vince, at Calvin's wake. His thug friend in his Lincoln interrupts Vince talking to Jess; he wants to retaliate for the murder. Now it's not just money for Vince, but vengeance, so he agrees, getting rapidly sucked back into the juvie life. He and Jess are re-bonding, apparent when sweet Landry shows up at her house with a bike (they met when he hit her bike). It's almost like she doesn't recognize him, her head is in such a different place. Well Landry is nothing if not a fish out of water.
Coach suspects Lance's behind the toothpick caper, though no one will rat him out (team -- bonded!), so at practice he says the team will run jimmy jam sprints until Lance can kick a 40 yarder. Clearly this is not happening right away, so Jess makes him a mix tape of crowd noise, one of the old training tricks she has stored, and kisses him in front of his teammates. Vince takes Landry aside to tell him to make Jess happy, she deserves the best. Jess learns of this -- a sign Vince thinks he may not return -- and goes to Vince just as he's packin' his heat to go whack the murderer, trying to stop him. But as he and the thug are driving there, Vince bails, but not before the guy takes a shot at him, missing. When he gets home, Jess is sitting in the same spot as when he left, huddled by his front door. She really does care. They hug and cry.
The Lions' field is in pretty good shape, until some fat-tired pickups do donuts on it, ruining it. The Panthers deny any team involvement, and there's no neutral site available on such short notice. (Hey, what about the old mud bowl field?) So it will be played on Hermann Field. But Eric had his greatest triumphs there, so here's hoping his karma still holds.
Back to Tim, and a scene that really felt too much like the one in Toilet Bowl, when he takes Becky to his land -- there's a "sold" sign on it -- and they stroll down to a pond. "I think I've figured it out," Tim beams, sunlit. "Owning this land, Billy's son, the shop... I'm happy," he says, as if it's the first time he's ever said it, and it may well be. And Becky can't help herself. "Tim, I love you." Um, awkwerd. And he says, "We can't do this," and walks away. I expected more pathos from him here, but I guess he knows he only fostered her obsession when he kissed her that time.
Despite that rebuff, Uncle Tim's happier than ever, working in the shop, beer in hand, rock on the radio. He does an awesome air guitar riff, dropping to the floor in a very graceful hinge, sheer contentment on his flashing-light-lit face. Wait... cops. "You Tim Riggins, 33? The football star?," cop says. "Used to be." Ouch. Later, Billy joins him in the slammer, apologizing to Tim, face wrenched in anguish. Both boys finally have their dreams firmly in their grasp, only to get locked up.
Next week... Lions vs. Panthers! Tim and Billy are out of jail, but Billy is threatening to "leave Dodge," since they're not gonna bother chasing them across state lines. Big tears and hugs later on between the bros. Matt's back in town, talking to a bitter Julie.
Questions... Truly... where is Tyra, a new aunt? Couldn't they have at least mentioned her absence? I mean, she's only supposed to be at UT, right? Will Tim/Billy do time? Will they take Tim's land away if he's convicted?
(Image courtesy of NBC)