Friday Night Lights recap

Dear James, Daniel and Emily,

(First an aside, today when I dropped off the boys at school, I let Emily walk to Daniels classroom as I have been doing lately. And when she rounded the corner a group of girls was walking to their classroom and they all just stopped and collectively let loose and "awww how cute!". This isn't the first time it's happened, but it never ceases to amaze me and I thought I would comment on it.)

Another excellent episode this week. We saw poor Saracen get relegated to the bench, with all that entails. We saw the 4 stooges (Riggins brothers plus Street and Herc) figure out how to buy a house so they could flip it. We saw the Taylor's have to deal with the teenage tattoo. And last we saw the continuing struggles of Tyra, as she gets swept away by Cash.

I think we all saw the Saracen benching coming. It was bittersweet as it came after he scored the winning touchdown. And he handled it about as well you would expect him to handle it: sullen withdrawn anger, attempts to quit, but realizes that he can't really do that. I still like to think that there will be redemption for Matt at some point, that his new found relationship with his estranged mom will help him through this until he comes off the bench to save the day. But you never know, this show isn't always that predictable.

Street is back for his half of the season. And we see him scrambling to bring in some money so he can be a good father to his son. The travails of how he gets the money and the joy of working with the Riggins boys and Herc injects some serious comedy into the show. And you see what a magnetic personality Street has, why he was such a dynamic leader on the field etc. Unfortunately that magnetism doesn't translate to romance for him as it is clear that his girlfriend is done trying to just scrape by as a waitress and is running home to her parents.

The trauma of Julie's tattoo once again showed off the strengths of the show: Tami & Eric. Their response, both initially, and after consideration, are just so dead on. And the final change of heart shows a strength of character and faith in their own parenting skills, that you just want to give them a great big pat on the back. Because in the end it is just a tattoo to Julie, not a gateway to trouble.

Which leads to the Tyra saga. We see poor Landry torturing himself over a lost friendship and relationship. We see Tyra falling back to her troubled wild ways. And we see how easy it is for Cash to lure her back to those ways. The bottom line for Tyra is her romantic streak. She dreams of leaving her circumstances behind, and still believes that some heroic figure can do that for her, rather than working hard to do it herself. We can only hope that the inevitable crash is softer for her this time around.