Coach Taylor returns home to find his poor little wife taking out the garbage by herself. Heaven forfend! He tries to wrassle it away from her and it falls over. They have a terse conversation about Tim Riggins' schooling versus his football career. Coach subtly tries to convince her to pass him anyway, just for the next couple games. But Tami stands her ground, she won't let these boys grow up "ignorant, mean, and dumb" just because they've been led to believe that football is more important. Coach stammers a little more but can't really argue because she's absolutely right, and is luckily interrupted by a Very Important Phone Call. The assistant coach over at UT wants to know if he's interested in being the quarterback coach for next season. Huzzah! The Taylors rejoice with mirth and merriment.
Landry catches up with Riggins to find out that he has not in fact read the damn book. Dude, it's Of Mice and Men. You could bang that thing out in like, an hour. Shit, rent the movie if reading so exceeds your IQ capacity. Landry jokingly offers to read it to him out loud. Cut to the weight room, where Landry is in fact reading it to him out loud. And let me tell you something, Levar Burton he's not.
Take a look, it's in a book, it's Reading Rainbow!
Matt returns home from school to greet his father, who's up on a ladder cleaning out the gutters. But oh ho, there's no time for small talk, since Grandma is currently attempting to burn the house down. They both run inside to find the poor woman surrounded by smoke and crying, so Dad helpfully screams and demands to know what the hell is wrong with her. Matt soothingly calms her down and racks up several more Grandchild of the Year Awards, while Evil Father storms out of the house. Presumably to go kill a litter of puppies.
From there we cut to some sort of social worker, who tells the Saracens that Medicare will not cover a live-in nurse without a definitive diagnosis of Alzheimer's. Matt's all for that, but his father wants to put her in a home, however that won't work either because she is Matt's legal guardian. Finally the social worker comes up with a perfect, if not obvious plan - Daddy comes home for good and everyone's happy. Well, metaphorically speaking. In actuality it would be miserable. Dad immediately vetoes this plan and despite Matt's desperate protests won't listen to another word and storms out yet again. Presumably to burn down an orphanage.
Landry and Tim are sitting up in the bleachers as Landry rattles off the last few sentences of the book. See? He read it to him in what appears to be one day. Tim is quite possibly the laziest student in Texas. Moving on to the oral report, Landry explains how to do a plot summary and how he has to connect the themes in the book to his own life. Tim continues to blow him off and poor Landry is dumbfounded as to how this kid can't even complete a single thought and maybe even struggles with basic motor skills. He goes on to paint the picture of two best friends whose dreams get crushed, hoping that Tim will pick up the connection, but Tim chooses to ignore him and continues to sulk. Landry understandably storms off. Presumably to rebuild an orphanage.
Tami answers her door to find a sweaty Jason looking for Coach, who happens to be at a meeting. She invites him inside anyway and asks him if he's been thinking about coming back to school anytime soon, which I've been wondering about myself. He just doesn't want to get back into the vicious drama of high school at the moment, which I suppose is pretty understandable. They have a little heart-to-heart about Lyla, about how he wishes he could just hate her and forget about it, but he loves her and he just can't do it. Tami the Wise Buddha suggests that there's no weakness in forgiveness.
"See now this here lampshade is made from real human skin! How bout that!"
Matt's getting ready for the big football dinner, and Evil Dad drops the bomb that Aunt Peg in Oklahoma is willing to take him in and that he's found a home for Arsonist Grandma. Matt gets pretty upset at this and again, storms out. These Saracens need to work on resolving their issues. Or perhaps get themselves a Situation Room.
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Comments (12)
Thanks for the recap. I love this show. Matt Saracen is the cutest character on TV right now.
1 of 12 | Posted by sluggerbun
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Posted on January 7, 2007 12:49 PM
Great recap! I really think this is just about the best show on television right now. I'm with you on Matt's jerky Dad... just go away!
2 of 12 | Posted by midwestliberal
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Posted on January 7, 2007 4:23 PM
I am in love with Matt after this episode!! I am so worried, though! About this show, I mean! Crap -- I'm gonna get into it like Conviction and then NBC is gonna break my heart again. : (
Thanks for the recap!
3 of 12 | Posted by dainsey
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Posted on January 7, 2007 8:35 PM
awesome recap for an awesome show...
If we all agree this is the best show on TV right now, we just have to convince every one we know to watch. The plot is not that difficult to pick up on... And who would not get addicted to this writing and these kids???
And while MAtt's dad was a jerk, did anyone else think he looked alot like Matt will look in 15 years?
4 of 12 | Posted by dent
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Posted on January 8, 2007 5:31 AM
Hello!
I had to stop reading before I finished the first page to sign in and comment on how funny this recap is! Love it! I wasn't sure that I wanted to read a recap on this show. I love FNL and watched all of my recorded epi's for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I watched all of them in 2 days! Hee hee I love this show. But, I was aprehensive about the depressingness possibility of this recap. Not so! Funny funny funny, thank you!!!
5 of 12 | Posted by sweetleaf
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Posted on January 8, 2007 7:16 AM
Matt's jerk dad has to go! Hopefully back to Iraq and they'll never mention him again! Lyla and Jason getting back together didn't surprise me... I think she was sorry for cheating on Jason, and she really loves the guy. This show rocks, I hope it doesn't get the ax!! Great recap as usual!
6 of 12 | Posted by Jojobear
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Posted on January 8, 2007 8:41 AM
I got hooked on this show a couple of weeks ago (I watched all the episodes online while at work). It it is an okay show. If you think Tim is hot, check the actor out in The Covenant. Damn.
The fact that this show is about football but does not actually show that much football is nice. It shows the story that a lot of football shows miss.
7 of 12 | Posted by carol
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Posted on January 8, 2007 10:10 AM
Thanks for the great recap! I continue to thoroughly enjoy your screenshot captions.
I hope they're going to make Matt's dad more three-dimensional. I can see why a character like him would be distant from his son and not able to deal with the stress of his mother's Alzheimer's, so hopefully the writers will bring that out instead of making him out to be Pure Evil.
I don't like Jason and Lyla together. Her chirpy can-do attitude about his paralysis gets more annoying every time she spouts her "we can do this together!" platitudes. I'd much rather watch something develop with Lyla and Tim---and Jason find someone new who can actually handle being with a disabled person.
Landry is the best. Every time he comes on the screen I know something quotable is about to happen.
I'm really loving this show and these characters. NBC, please don't cancel it!
8 of 12 | Posted by gatsby
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Posted on January 8, 2007 8:29 PM
Thanks for another stellar recap Screampillar. I just got to watch the ep last night, and there has yet to be a really subpar episode yet. I'm heartened to see a little more activity in the comments. Maybe we can break into the double digits . . . woo hoo! It would be a shame if this show doesn't survive. Hopefully NBC will have the faith to stick with it for another season and maybe it will pick up some viewers in summer reruns. I don't get why this show isn't a hit. Great writing, appeal for adults and teens, and MILF/wondermom Connie Britton to boot!
I'm a little more sympathetic to Matt's father's character. The guy has two weeks home and probably just wants some quiet and he's bombarded with hassles, which he probably has trouble dealing with due to a combo of PTSD and guilt about leaving his son to deal with more than he can, or should have to, handle.
Additionally, most soldiers who serve in combat or dangerous deployments think of their fellow soldiers in their unit as family, and with his belief in what's he's doing in Iraq, and his sense of duty and loyalty to them I'm sure it is unthinkable to Matt's father to "pussy out" of his deployment and leave his comrades to fend for themselves.
The last scene where Matt's dad is shown displaying some tenderness toward grandma makes it look like they will be developing his character further.
It wouldn't surprise me if we end up seeing Matt moving in with the Taylors when dad goes back to Iraq and grandma goes into the home, which would make for some great drama having the feared boyfriend living under Coach's own roof.
9 of 12 | Posted by JasonR
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Posted on January 9, 2007 8:11 AM
I think Matt's dad would be a more three-dimensional character if only they got an actor who could emote more than the same semi-blank, semi-indifferent face than the guy they chose. The writing of his character isn't terrible -- I think it does speak to what JasonR refers to above. The damn guy just can act to save his life, and it's killing the character.
In any case, I dig FNL, but I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that it'll be wiped off the schedule either at the end of this season or the beginning of the next one. I mean, look at the number of people who comment -- it's like a fractional percentage of the Real World Denver's postings, and come on, that show sucks (although, yes, I watch it religiously as well, so who am I to judge).
10 of 12 | Posted by dubbledubs
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Posted on January 9, 2007 10:12 AM
Dubbledubs, I'll give you that. It's either bad acting or bad direction. The actor was obviously chosen more on his physical resemblance to the actor who plays Matt than for his acting chops, or he's playing the Saracen deadpan thing a little too hard. I'll give him another episode before I pass judgment.
11 of 12 | Posted by JasonR
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Posted on January 9, 2007 12:59 PM
I love this show, but I don't think it will survive. Especially since it will soon be up against American Idol. They should move it to a different time following a better show to keep it alive.
12 of 12 | Posted by trixie12
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Posted on January 9, 2007 1:14 PM