[For those just tuning in: I first covered Friday Night Lights here at TV Club when it ran on DirecTV back in the fall. I'm rerunning those posts as it runs on NBC to a much larger audience. I'll be checking the comments regularly, as will FNL fans Scott Tobias and Noel Murray. A further wrinkle: My satellite crapped out on me shortly before the season finale so I'll be covering that as it airs on NBC. —Keith]
[Note 2: Everyone saw this, right? Yay! (Assuming it's true.) Though rumor has Minka Kelly already negotiating to be on another show. That's okay. Nothing against Kelly, but I like the idea that the core of the show—Coach, Mrs. Coach, Dillon as a character—can withstand the comings and goings of other characters.]
[Note 3: Did I underrate all these episodes the first time around? I kind of pride myself on being a harsh grader, but I'm fighting the temptation to go back and up all these grades a notch. It's a really good season overall, and it's about to get even better.]
So, men, huh? What are they good for? This week we had three break-ups and three attempts at reconciliations. One, Cash, deservedly got left in the dust (literally). Another, Billy, got taken back, almost assuredly undeservedly. The third, Tim, screws up royally and then works his way back into Lyla's good graces by becoming the first Riggins to go to college.
Actually "work" might be too strong a word for it. With a less persistent recruiter he probably would have been perfectly happy to let any college plans drift and found another way to get Lyla to take him back. Or would he? My sense is that Tim knows Lyla's the best thing in his life right now but this episode found him acting as self-destructive as we've ever seen him. If he didn't have people pulling for him, where would he be? He'd probably turn into Billy, and not all that slowly, but does he know that? (On the other hand, it did occur to me that his gift for binge drinking will give him a leg up on other college freshmen next year.)