haha, cabo IS a sandy place! well put.

i too liked the use of "baby grace," but it's now been hilariously ruined for me. thank you.

Fabulous recap!

I became very worried about Tammy bringing scandal to her family (maybe getting fired) by threatening that geek-haired man in front of the students. Small town, all that.
Maybe I was over-reacting.
Tim looked way too good in a few scenes this epi, and the blob on the staircase blinded me tooand scared me to death!!

I am very upset with Landry for not going to his father before turning himself in, at least warning him,I mean, WTF?
Funny that Tammy ( Tami?)hasn't told Coach about geek-hair.I do not see boiling grease in thier future, but I do see Santiago as Julies next love intrest!
The Taylors will probably find some dirt on geek-hair,he's fired, Julie's humbled and grateful, end storyline.

Thanks for the recap...I read it last night, but I was too tired to respond.
I can't remember all the specifics, so I'll mention the things at the top of my head...
I missed Buddy and Santiago last night, but I'm still not missing Jason. Once again, I didn't even think about him until your recap.

Poor Riggins. Some of the scenes between him and the naked guy were funny, but then the meth lab scenes became creepy. I'm hoping that storyline is done.
His apologies to the players were pretty good.
I'll watch him anyday though.

Tami and coach having problems is a downer, but realistic. No couple is perfect, even these two.

As far as Julie and the teacher go, I think it's possible that storyline could be over. Noah will probably stick around, but he'll continue to blow Julie off to keep from getting in trouble. This will, of course, continue to put a strain on Julie and Tami's relationship. That's my feeling anyway.

I enjoyed the Landry/Lyla interaction. I'm not a big fan of Lyla, but that's the way to insert her into the episodes.

Tyra and Landry...well, now Tyra is starting to piss me off with the way she's allowing Landry to do all of her dirty work. That's a bummer because I really enjoy those two being together.

Matt asking Smash for dating advice after the whole "Cabo-in-his-pants" fiasco was funny, but I miss the days of him going to Landry for advice. That was good stuff!
And what the heck? Last year, he was too nervous to put his arm around Julie, but suddenly, he's ripping the clothes off Carlotta? I'm pretty sure he's still a virgin (or at least until this past week), so where did all of this sudden confidence come from?

One more thing...Since we're knee deep in it anyway, I can't wait to see how this Landry/murder case wraps up. I think that, eventually, it'll be found to be a case of self-defense, but not before Landry goes through some trying times.

That's all I have. Thanks again for the recap.

Sweetleaf,

You mentioned that you'd like to see a Santiago/Julie pairing, but how about Julie/Riggins? lol Just consider Coach and Tami's reaction to THAT one!

I keep hoping they ship Julie off to boarding school because she's the most annoying character ever. And she can take pedophile-enabling Aunt Shelly with her.

And "Baby Grace" IS a name given to a missing child. Recently a box with a dead toddler washed up in Galveston and until they were able to identify who she was, they called her "Baby Grace."

Great recap! Your picture captions in particular were hilarious. I do think it's weird that the best friends Matt and Landry have barely been in a scene together since Landry joined the team.

While I agree it will ultimately be determined that the killing was not a crime, the dumping of the body most certainly was. Whether it would be considered some sort of misdemeanor improper disposal of a body or a more serious felony of interfering with a police investigation, I don't know. That would probably depend on how badly they would want to throw the book at a Dillon Panther and son of a cop for killing a serial rapist, which is probably not very much.

What is virtually certain though, is that Landry's father will at a minimum lose his job and will likely be prosecuted for his actions in destroying evidence.

Good to see Riggins getting a glimpse of his potential future hanging out with the doughy meth lab guy and deciding to prostrate himself in front of the team to make amends.

I'm going to be so bummed if we're left hanging becase of the writers' strike and don't get a proper end to the season.

I thought this epi was pretty good. Not a huge fan of Matt/Carlotta, but my hubby explained to me that these things may happen. They are more comfortable with each other, and they are living together. She isn't his mother, or a family member, and in such close quarters...

Anyways, I loved Tami and the teacher... I thought her reaction was appropriate. He wasn't doing anything illegal, but from we could see he was treating Julie differently, eating lunch with her, loaning her books etc. It would be different if the book came from a classroom library, but not that it was from his own personal collection.

I have to side with Coach on the Tami/Glen thing though. She is right that she does need friends and such, BUT I think that line was crossed when she went out with Glen separate from the group. Although Tami would never think of Glen in that way, it still showed that instead of coming home and being with Coach, she preferred to be with Glen. That is why Coach felt marginalized. Whether or not the actions merited the feelings is one thing, but his feelings need to recognized as valid. Even if she wasn't doing anything wrong, he felt uncomfortable with it, and as a result, she should recognize that as valid

Great recap! I can't really agree about Matt and Carlotta, though. Noah never touched Julie, he just shared books and thoughts with her. Carlotta, on the other hand, got touchy with Matt and then jumped into bed with him. She may not be his teacher, but under the circumstances she is still acting really unprofessionally. I think she's the freaking pedophile, not Noah. I also don't find their "connection" believable. They just don't have much chemistry. That should have been a steamy scene, but instead it just turned me off and sort of bored me.

I think Tami went way overboard in her accusations, too. She threatened to have him beat up, which is not cool. The Taylors don't own the school. Also, I almost laughed when she called "Garp" a salacious book. She came across as a small-town bully in that scene. I thought Julie was within her rights to react that way. Also, yes, Aimee was fantastic,

I thought Tami had a right to be concerned (though Garp is hardly salacious), that Noah might not know that his behavior could be considered inappropriate (one of my male friends is a teacher and he's SO CAREFUL around his teenage female students), and that Julie's reaction was that of a teenage girl. Tami is entitled to express her opinion, but she should have at least closed the door or seen him in her own office.

I like Julie. C'mon, have you ever known a 16-year-old who WASN'T a brat at times?

About Matt/Carlotta: no, there's not a lot of chemistry. That's not what this is about. The way I see it is this: most of Matt's adolescence has been spent as the primary caregiver for his grandmother. Suddenly, last year, he's thrown into the role of QB1--an adjustment all its own. And now, here is this pretty woman who is taking care of his grandma, and in a sense, taking care of him as well. I'm not saying it's right, but I think that's what's going on.

Love love love this show. My only complaint: I WANT MORE FOOTBALL! (And I grew up hating football, so that's saying a lot.)

I like Julie, actually. She is one of my favorites. Her brattiness in the first few episodes was annoying, but she's better now. I like the fact that she always sees and expresses how screwed up the football culture is. She sees the sexism, the small-mindedness, and so forth, but at the end of the day she can cheer for the people she loves.

I loved the fact that she put that anti-Rally Girl rant in her article. So typical of a smart, opinionated teenager to overstate it like that. But she's right....it's disgusting. These girls baking cookies and doing sexual favors for the guys? It's degrading, backward and harmful to the girls' self-esteem.

Jason R -

Just for you...FNL has 7 episodes left to air. I believe they were already finished filming when the strike started.

I'm not sure exactly how much info I can put on here, so I'll say this...if you do a google search for "episodes left," and then choose the first link (I believe it has the word "community" in the link)...anyway, click that, and the most recent list is on there for several shows. It was updated today.

As a man, and a former jock in a similar small town, I can tell you that Glen would have already been handed his ass by coach (in a quiet, private verbal kind of way). From reading the papers, I guess there are still young teachers who can't keep their ego - or zipper - in check, and Noah seems to be one. Even if he isn't admitting it, he is headed for trouble. And that starts with T, and... (I predict he will get "involved" with some other girl - maybe horseface - and Julie and her mom will do some mending afterwards.)

I expect Lyla to step up to the plate and help "Lance". Would not be surprised if the whole PD does not rally to protect the kids and pop. This is Texas; and panther territory.

The Blob was ultra-creepy. I was afraid he was going to drug and rape Tim Riggins. Tim got off easy, seems to me.

I really enjoyed Smack's humiliation.

Outstanding recap, as always. And lots of great comments, too. Thanks!

As a teacher myself, an English one at that, it isn't inappropriate to take books from your personal collection and share them with a student. However, Julie is a minor and if her parent objects to the reading material, that's it bottom line. Not to mention, that his interaction even if it is innocent, you should be well aware of the student's interaction with you. It seems pretty obvious that Julie is flirting a bit and Noah just needed to set up guidelines, so it was nice to see Tami in action.

I imagine that Landry and Matt aren't interacting because they have so much going on in their own lives. I mean last season Landry was there just to listen to Matt, now there's Tyra and a murder on top of that.

I hate the Matt storyline, far more than the murder and Tami's sister which I loathe too (Come on how long is her visit going to be). I saw the actress on One Tree Hill and it just killed it for me, the accent just sounds fake now, even if it is genuine.

Great recap, the screen caps had me cracking up.

Thanks ThisShowRocks! Just knowing we've got a couple more months of FNL no matter what made my day.

Best show on TV.

Thanks, bentley1101. It's been awhile since I was in HS, so I have no idea that that was 'okay' or normal. I was never close with my English teacher, but I was with my band teacher. However, we were never in the room alone together. There was always other people, and we always talked about "band" things.

I was hoping that Noah would have been a teacher to Julie like the "substitute" in My So Called Life. He really inspired Angela, and then we learned he had his own issues. However, I don't mind the change.

I do like that Noah doesn't seem to understand what he is doing wrong, which I think can be typical of teachers. Where is the line? In English you are talking about life, and how life is represented in literature. That can bring up some intense personal conversations.

My hubby had a great idea for a storyline for FNL. Hazing. In such an intense town, there has to be some hazing with the Panthers. I would love to see a "new up and coming player" make varsity and be hazed, and then quit the team and be ostracized. That could bring up questions about what is "normal hazing", what lines can or cannot be crossed, etc.