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Friday Night Lights: Blinders
(S01E15) The previews for this episode gave away the main part of the story. Really though, it's something that has been coming all along. It just took fifteen episodes to get to it. They did a nice job pointing to that with the scene between Riggins and Smash at the diner. If you remember, when we first met these two in the pilot, another reporter tried to play up the racial angle between them. From there, it was clear that at some point it would be an issue to be dealt with. Waiting this long to do it was a good idea. It's a heavy episode, and it carries more even weight after having 14 hours of background to help get us invested in these characters.
Using Coach Mac as the catalyst was another nice bit of writing. Had this been an issue between Smash and Riggins, it wouldn't have had the impact on the town that we ended up seeing. The scene with the reporter that set everything in motion was well done. She certainly led Mac down a path, but it's no excuse. He said what he said, and his refusal to accept his mistake only made it worse. Right up to, and including, his altercation with Smash.
The various reactions to Mac's comments were well done. From the talk-radio callers that were embellishing the story, making it grow and change like a game of telephone to the football players who were looking to just sweep it all under the rug and not rock the boat. Most specifically, Smash. His initial reaction was what I would have expected from him. Thinking about what is best for Smash and Smash playing football first, everything else second. Because, as he told Waverly, he's just getting his swagger back. His change of heart made for great drama. And I thought they set it up well with the run-in with Mac and the bank meeting with Mrs. Williams. I'll be interested to see what the fallout from the walkout is.
You had to feel for Tami in all of this too. She's trying so hard to do the right thing, but it just isn't working. The scene she had with Eric after her dialog meeting went south was great. The two of them are so good together. That's why the Taylor's are my favorite part of the show. Bringing Connie Britton over from the movie was the best decision they made for this show.
And if all that wasn't enough, they had to deal with the rebel Julie this week as well. It's nice that we are getting to see that out of her. I suppose those perfect kids that never make mistakes or do dumb things are out there somewhere, but they are few and far between. A couple bumps in the road just make Julie more believable. Plus it had the bonus of giving us Eric's reaction when he found out his darling daughter was QB1. His sudden excitement and their impromptu practice was very cute.
Which brings us to the annual Dillon powderpuff game. It was a nice bit of levity in the middle of an otherwise very dramatic episode. Both the practice and the game were fun. The highlight for me was Landry as the referee staring down Coach Taylor and going on about his line. He also had a great exchange with Saracen earlier in the episode when out of the blue he said, "I was reading up on pheromones last night. I really think they work." It's nice to have the dynamic duo back together.
Garnering less attention this week, but still important, were the developments for Street and Tyra. I think we all saw the shenanigans with Tyra's mother and Buddy Garrity coming. What I didn't expect was Street saying coming back to school was a mistake. I thought we would see him struggle with it, and we did somewhat with the biology class. But I expected more of an overcoming obstacles angle. It's something we might get yet.
Oh yeah, and the Panthers won their first playoff game. Interesting how little attention that got within the episode. So now we wait and see what happens with their next game. Will Smash and the rest of the players that walked off be back? I think so. Will Coach Mac be back with them. I'm less sure of that.
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