Landry

Unlike 'Happy Days' or 'Fame' or 'Welcome Back, Kotter,' kids today do not remain in high school for life on television any more. No, today, the actors and their characters are chewed up and spit out in real time, just like life. That means we have to accept that 'Friday Night Lights'' Landry is leaving the show, and with that, Jesse Plemons is off the NBC show. Well, not totally. He'll be out of East Dillon High School, but still living in Dillon, Texas.

Executive producer Jason Katims says that Jesse will be on 'Friday Night Lights' for the fifth and final season, but not a regular. It'll be part-time, which isn't the worst situation. However, with his status as recurring and Taylor Kitsch as Tim definitely gone -- along with Zach Gilford as Matt and Scott Porter as Jason and Gaius Charles as Smash before them -- they're definitely breaking up that old Panther team from the first couple of seasons.

Sigh ... is it too soon to hope for a Dillion Panther Championship team reunion in the next decade?

(S04E12) Facing the Lions, Coach Taylor said the word of the week was focus. He was wrong. The word of the week was choice. Everybody seemed to be facing impossible choices.

Bigger than right or wrong, yes or no, play or don't play. In this penultimate episode of 'Friday Night Lights,' the problems were everywhere, but solutions -- unfortunately -- were hard to come by. More on the big game, toothpicks, apologies and Habitat for Humanities after the jump.

(S04E10) There were some major developments in this episode of Friday Night Lights, especially among the younger set. And if you think life is just peachy keen for kids in high school, they aren't the ones attending East Dillon High. If you prefer the lighter, sweeter side of Friday Night Lights, this wasn't your night. Sadness was at every turn, none moreso that Becky and Vince and their very tough decisions.

(S04E07) Friday Night Lights is a show that's as much about subtle touches as it is about bone-crunching hits on the football field. This episode was all about pain, but not just the kind that requires a doctor's touch. Julie felt it, as did Landry, Becky, Vince and Tim in their own ways.

For a change of pace, Tami wasn't getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop, and for Coach Taylor, things were looking up even though the sheriff was snooping around the locker of one of his players. And if you're wondering what happened after Matt left Dillon last week, read on.