Friday Night Lights, Season 3

Jesse Plemons and Tyra Collette in Friday Night LightsCertainly, there was a lot of Drama-with-a-capital-D in this episode; you could feel the writers revving up for the end of the season. (And, potentially, for the end of the show.)

In the past, I've also wished Joe were less two-dimensional, Emily. But I did believe him in this episode. Perhaps more than in any other episode. The tension ratchets up turn by turn, as he gets more and more incensed that J.D. just won't listen to him. Not only do you get a sense of how invested in J.D. he is; you see how difficult it is for him to register that J.D. is a distinct person with a soul of his own, rather than a mold into which Joe can pour all his notions of success. How could Joe have been a more interesting character? I think the writers should have given him more of a past. Nothing too cheesy or obvious, mind you—we don't want to find out that he would've been a pro player but for the last-minute knee injury, yada-yada-yada. But you can imagine a scene with Eric over whiskey that would've revealed a little more texture—that little something that saves a character from being a caricature.

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Though I confess: I thought it was funny when Joe called Madison a "plague" and said she was a "negative influence." She's certainly a negative influence on the show. With her drippy sexual come-ons and spoiled self-concern, she doesn't exude much charisma, and I get restless whenever she comes into view.

Otherwise, this episode had two remarkable set pieces. Maybe even three. The Alzheimer's scene you mentioned, Emily; the Landing Strip tea party/bridal party; and Tim Riggins trying to get Lyla out of bed.

The Alzheimer's scene was painful to watch. The woman who plays Matt's grandmother was excellent. In the to-do about the slippers, she let the panic and flat rage in her voice escalate both shockingly and subtly—a tall order. The writers also beautifully (or perhaps I mean poignantly) convey the confusion one feels in navigating the ethics of caretaking. What is the "right" thing to do? How do you keep an ill person safe in her own home when she is not even aware of how she can hurt herself? Answering these question drives a wedge between Matt and his mother, if only briefly, as it does for so many family members. Matt is so busy trying to be a parent to his grandmother, he doesn't know how to sit back and let his mother be his parent—as she, in fact, is.

Speaking of role reversal: It's saturnalia for good-girl Lyla and bad-boy Riggins. Partway through the episode, Lyla ties one on with Mindy and Tim's brother, drinking beer and playing video games like there's no tomorrow. In fact, the next morning, she doesn't want to get out of bed to go to school. Tim tries to get her out of bed but can't. He looks like an anxious dad for a moment—more sheep than wolf. (By the way, does Tim call Lyla "beer-wolf" when he tries to wake her? I couldn't hear the line.) Meanwhile, his brother is trying to register for a "leaf-blower" in a scene that was perhaps played for a slightly too broad comedy, as were moments of the bridal tea party. This was redeemed for me, at least, by the scene between Angela and Tyra you already mentioned, Emily. I watched it on a night I, like Tyra, was feeling a little mopey and low, and I teared up. (FNL makes me cry more reliably than chopping onions does.) What really seemed accurate was the way that Angela told Tyra that Tyra surprised her. "I have no idea what's going to happen to you," she tells Tyra, before consoling her that one day she would realize many of her dreams. I think Tyra is surprising, and that quality of unpredictability, of different possible selves within a larger whole, is what I like best about her character. I buy that Angela sees all this about Tyra and that she likes it, even if she is sometimes threatened by it, too, and less able to be supportive. This is not a case of like mother, like daughter.

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