Forgive me for butting in front of you, Hanna, but I wanted to rebut Emily on a minor point. I couldn’t disagree with you more, Emily, about Kathleen Griffith, the actress who plays Luke’s mother. Remember that shot of her face as she tells Luke she loves him and to say his prayers? It was utterly transporting, as though she was lit from within by pure energy. She burns with love and religious mania, in equal measure. It’s a tribute to her performance that she is not merely a cartoon fundamentalist, but an anguished mother gripped by true feeling. She is wrong, and she hurts her son and my beloved Mrs. Coach, but she is not cardboard.
And while I am praising FNL’s minor characters, how about a brief Pledge of Allegiance to Dillon School Superintendent and Weasel in Chief Paul Dunley? Given any opportunity to backstab, betray, or obfuscate, Dunley will seize it. Whether it’s redistricting, library-gutting, scoreboard-building, booster-tonguebathing, or Tami-bludgeoning, Dunley undertakes it with a thin-lipped smile and a shiv in his sock. He is one of my favorite FNL characters, and I suspect one of the most true to life.
Also, is Matt really still drawing hands? And do you think Eric and Tami are drinking too much?
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