MiniCap: Friday Night Lights

My sentiments exactly, except replace COACH with FNL!

As we near the highly anticipated series finale of FNL, the drama gets ramped up as storylines are steered towards conclusion.  It’s hitting home that FNL will officially be over soon.  Matt Saracen is now on Off the Map (or was, since it’s been cancelled), Luke Cafferty is on the Chicago Code, Hastings Ruckle is in that 9 Lives show over on ABC Family, and Texas Forever and Coach and Julie Taylor are showing up in movies.  Emmy nominations are announced soon.  Please, NATAS, I beg you…. NOMINATE THIS SHOW FOR OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES!

This week’s episode starts with Coach Father Figure meeting with Shane State Dude, getting the official job offer that includes a recruitment budget, full control over the football program, and a three year contract with a two-year option.  Not to mention a big house with a beautiful in-ground pool.  The offer is clearly too good to ignore, but there’s no time to consider it privately.  The media picks up the rumors that Coach is leaving, and Booster Dick starts a crusade with Principal Downtrodden to convince Coach to stay put.  At East Dillon’s fall sports banquet, he arranges a tribute to Coach to show him how deeply he’s impacting the community and the kids he’s coaching.

While Coach’s prospects look bright and promising, Blind Side Lite’s are imploding.  Deadbeat Dad gets the call from Okla. Tech that they’ve made an offer to the other quarterback they were considering, leaving Blind Side Lite on the outside looking in.  Wasn’t that what TMU did to Hayseed Hottie?  My, how the tables have turned, huh?  Slapped across the face by the harsh hand of reality, Blind Side Lite realizes that Coach was right, and he goes to make amends to Coach, promising to earn his job back as QB1.  Deadbeat Dad, despite his son’s request to cool it on the meetings, presses forward with other meetings.  Blind Side Lite walks out on him, and when he tries to play the concerned father card, Not Sandra Bullock finally steps out of the wings, laying the smackdown on Deadbeat Dad, saying that Blind Side Lite needs a father, not a damn agent!  AMEN!

Small Town Loser prepares for Texas Forever’s upcoming parole hearing.  Their lawyer suggests he line up a bunch of character witnesses to help sway the parole board in their favor.  With Coach and Booster Dick on board, he stresses over what he’s gonna say, worried that he’s gonna let his brother down.  Despite the necessity of his testimony, Texas Forever doesn’t want Small Town Loser to speak on his behalf.  At the hearing, he stumbles through his speech, followed much more eloquently and passionately by Coach Father Figure and Booster Dick.  Small Town Loser is afraid that he’s only letting his brother down again, but in the end, Texas Forever is awarded parole and comes home to rejoin the Riggins family, complete with T&T Girl.  Drama will no doubt ensue.

In other news, Principal Downtrodden sends Tami-Joe Clark to a conference where she’ll participate on a panel about college admissions.  While there, she passionately speaks about working more to meet kids’ needs as opposed to focusing on standardized test scores, clearly impressing a college admissions officer she knew from her days as principal.  Tinker, showing Maribel the Pig at a fair, wins 2^nd place and $75 prize money.  T&T Girl grows closer to Hayseed Hottie, engaging in serious discussion about a possible future together.  And Hayseed Hottie seeks advice from Tami-Joe Clark about his future, which looks more and more like it will NOT include football.

In a rousing conclusion to the episode, Blind Side Lite mans up, showing up at Coach’s home before leaving for the first playoff game to promise complete loyalty to Coach if he chooses to stay at East Dillon.  And Coach, speaking to a reporter at the send-off pep rally, announces his intention to stay in Dillion as coach of the Red Storm!